Hi! It’s been like two years! I know! I’m not great at this!
PREFACE
One thing Garcia was often quoted as saying is that he learned "real music" from Merl Saunders, i.e. the nuts and bolts of how jazz and the pop standards of the Great American Songbook work (i.e. material beyond American folk traditions like the blues, folk, bluegrass, etc.). One such song, My Funny Valentine, looms large in the Garcia/Saunders lore. Saunders said it was one of the first songs that he taught Garcia (Greenfield, Dark Star), and that it was the first song Garcia wanted to relearn during the recovery from his diabetic coma in 1986 (Jackson, Garcia: An American Life). At the gig Saunders played on the day Garcia died, he told the story once again and played the song. It must have meant a lot to both men. But in hindsight it does seem like an odd tune to be so central to the story: for one thing, it’s not a song that Garcia seems to have actually played very often - there are only 17 known versions - and it's not one of those little melodies that kept popping up in his warm-ups, noodlings, or stream-of-conscious improvisations (like, say, Freedom Jazz Dance). Yet My Funny Valentine seems to hold a special place as a cornerstone of the two men’s musical relationship.
(sidenote: the other jazz standard from this early period is Georgia On My Mind, which also warrants investigation, so hopefully that will be coming eventually. Garcia/Saunders went on to play several more jazz tunes, of course. But given Saunders’ musical influence, it is interesting that from a significant piece of their time together, 1970-1973, these were the only two standards they played that we know of)
With that in mind, I listened sequentially to the 15 performances that are currently available, and I made a little listening guide re: how they structured each one: when they soloed over the form of the song (i.e. jazz), when they jammed out on just the vamp (like jazz musicians, but also like the Dead and every other rock band that jammed), when they got spacey/noisy/atonal/what-have-you, and what all that might reveal about the master plan. I don’t know how much consensus there is among more musically educated listeners about how much Garcia really internalized post-swing era jazz language - and I am not an informed-enough musician to offer a technical critique of how well Garcia plays jazz - but mapping this out seems like a good place to start. Also, y’know, it’s fun.
THE SONG ITSELF (AND A QUICK CENTENNIAL SHOUTOUT TO JOHN COLTRANE)
Like many standards of the era, My Funny Valentine was written for a Broadway musical in the 1930’s, and was later adapted by jazz musicians as fertile source material to improvise on. Thousands of musicians have played it, hundreds have recorded it, but it is still primarily associated with its first major exponent, Chet Baker, who recorded it first as an instrumental feature in 1952 with the Gerry Mulligan Quartet, and then in 1954 as a vocal feature for himself, and then as his trademark song for the rest of his life. Miles Davis is the other primary association (see Plosin), with definitive versions recorded in 1956 and 1964 (which titled an album). For the majority of the mid/late 20th century general public, however, Frank Sinatra’s 1954 recording is probably the gold standard. Thanks to Ted Gioia's excellent book The Jazz Standards (2012) for confirming this overview. And because I cannot resist, a bonus tip of the cap to another one of my favs, Bill Evans’ & Jim Hall’s uncharacteristically upbeat duet.
Most versions are played as a ballad in 4/4 taken at a dead-slow tempo, sometimes so slow that it may feel difficult to count along. The song's structure is AABC – I don’t want to get too into the weeds with this, but if you’re not familiar with this terminology, AABC refers to the different segments of the My Funny Valentine’s melody: there are eight measures over a certain set of chords (the ‘A’ section), then another eight measures with different lyrics over the same set of chords (the ‘A’ section again), then eight measures over a new set of chords (the ‘B’ section, or the bridge), and then eight measures over still more new chords that wraps up the melody of the song (the ‘C’ section). This matters because improvisers will use this structure as a roadmap through their solo. And that matters if you’re listening because, if you understand this, even to a small degree, you can hear the solo as having a shape and form, rather than as an arbitrary-seeming stream of notes. The soloist will improvise over the same chord progression as the A, A, B, and C sections, then they will either end their solo, or continue soloing by starting over again and improvising on the same AABC structure of chords.
Garcia/Saunders used the same structure and chord progressions as all the classic versions, but made two distinctive changes in their arrangement. They performed it not as a slow ballad in 4/4, but in a loping 6/8 time at a more moderate tempo. I don't know offhand of anyone else who played it this way (there are hundreds of recordings, so who knows), but the idea seems clearly indebted to John Coltrane’s performance of My Favorite Things. I won't say it completely changes the song, but it makes a big difference: it gives it a very definite groove, whereas the original ballad reading is usually slow enough to nearly levitate. Garcia/Saunders’ version also added a brief introduction to the song, a short vamp (the jazzy term for alternating between two chords, rather than playing over a set sequence of chords). Coltrane’s approach was to play the melody of My Favorite Things more or less as written by the original composers, and then to solo over a two-chord vamp, which he had also used to introduce the song. Unlike soloing over a set structure of chord progressions, Coltrane would solo over the much-simpler vamp for as long as he felt like. This approach was hugely influential on the Dead and countless other musicians. (Happy 100th birthday to John Coltrane, btw!) As it turned out, Garcia/Saunders took both approaches to playing My Funny Valentine: the big thing I learned from this project is that Garcia, Saunders, and (later) Fierro had it both ways: they would solo over the AABC progression of the song itself, and then would discard the changes and improvise over the extended vamp to their heart’s content (The System used the same approach, but Garcia did this a lot in non-jazz songs like Deal, Tangled Up in Blue, Mississippi Half-Step, and many others: play some solos over the song’s chord progression, then open up at the end for a longer jam on one or two chords).
15 PERFORMANCES AT A GLANCE
Just to be clear, soloing "over the form" and "over the changes" means the same thing: the soloist is playing over the chords changes to the melody of My Funny Valentine. A “chorus” in jazz lingo is one full cycle of the AABC chord progression (so playing for two choruses would be soloing over AABC, then AABC again). The “head” is jazz lingo for the melody of the song (played at the beginning, and usually again at the end). The "vamp" is the back-and-forth two-chord groove that briefly begins the song, and then is returned to when they abandon the changes after the first round of solos. Sometimes they stay close to the two-chord figure they play in the intro, sometimes they play the chromatic descending bassline of the first four bars of the tune’s melody, sometimes some considerable variation or combination of similar ideas, and sometimes cutting loose for more open waters. Some of these get so loose that all rhythmic and clearly harmonic playing intentionally goes out the window, which I am calling "Space."
I am not generally analyzing or commenting on the quality of Jerry's solos over the changes: generally speaking, he sounds comfortable but not exactly fluent, which I am sure he would be the first to admit. In almost all of these, the excitement is generated in the open-ended jam, which was more of Jerry's comfort zone.
7/5/73 The Lion's Share, San Anselmo, CA - from Garcia Live Vol. 6
The earliest known performance is a bit of a mess, due in part to the guest trumpet player. He comes in hot right at the start, soloing over the intro vamp for almost two minutes, until Merl Saunders pointedly begins playing the melody of the song with the accompanying changes - but the trumpet keeps playing over this. Garcia is quietly comping away until 3:13 when he assertively butts in and begins his own solo by clearly playing the beginning of the melody (which he never fully plays). But the trumpet is still playing over this, finally simmering down as Garcia goes on to solo for one chorus over the form. Saunders takes a turn (one chorus), Garcia takes another turn (one chorus), and the trumpet returns during Garcia's solo - then the trumpet gets a “proper” solo chorus (sounding, ironically, less assured than before). Then there's another full chorus of uncertain "who's soloing?" float time: Saunders plays a bit of the melody to keep them all on track, but no one really picks up the ball for the rest of the chorus. Then Garcia takes another solo chorus to himself, and then at 13 min they set sail off into open waters, discarding the changes and staying on the intro vamp. This now feels more "jammy," especially given that the trumpeter and Garcia are playing with (or across) each other for most of it. By 16:30, the energy has peaked and is cooling down -- Saunders unusually doodles around on his ARP synthesizer briefly, and at 17:20 there's kind of a bass solo before everyone comes back in for a big dramatic ending, but without returning to the head.
(yes, we know the name of the trumpeter, but I’d just as soon leave it out since I’m not being particularly complimentary here)
7/8/73 Record Plant, Sausalito, CA - shnid 157862
I assume this “Live from the Record Plant” radio broadcast was to help promote the release of the Fire Up lp? But I am not entirely clear on this, since I thought the album had been released several months earlier, although maybe this radio gig was also to promote the 7/19 Great American Music Hall show, which was the album release party? Anyway. Unlike the preceding Lion's Share performance, this one is played as tight as they ever did it, and I imagine that Garcia was looking to Saunders to keep this one squarely on the tracks. Garcia cleanly plays the head, Saunders solos first (this is the only time he goes first in any of these). Each of them takes a single chorus at a time: Saunders, Garcia, Saunders again, Garcia again. Then at 7:41 you can hear Garcia call out "no changes" (to John Kahn, I suspect) and Saunders solos again, but this time over the vamp. So there you go: that was clearly an arrangement choice, not just them losing the form (which, to be honest, I had assumed was sometimes the case). Saunders solos for exactly a minute, Garcia picks it up and runs with it for another minute; at around 10 minutes they begin a fairly abrupt slow-down and stop. Again, there’s no return to the head; I wonder if someone flashed them a signal to wrap it up? 11ish minutes in total.
7/10/73 Keystone - from Complete Keystone set
One would think that a radio broadcast and then recording for a live album probably probably inspired a bit of extra rehearsal? It sure sounds like. They jump on this one, taking it at a notably faster tempo than before. Garcia solos for one chorus, Saunders for two, then Garcia comes back on the vamp. This solo comes to a clean, distinct end with Garcia returning to the vamp itself (i.e. the chords/rhythm he plays in the intro). Saunders solos, again ending in a very clear-cut way, and Garcia picks it up again. Even though there's more of an open-ended form to these improvisations, they don't feel all that "jammy," comparatively: each solo has an arc to it that rises, falls, and has a clear end point where the baton is passed. It's worth pointing out that Garcia is in freaking beast mode here: he sounds fully comfortable with this, and with some clear guardrails and nothing in his way, he just opens up and blazes. His second turn over the vamp goes for longer and gets looser, and eventually the groove begins to collapse; then at 15 minutes Garcia begins the intro vamp again and sets up the return to the head: this time Saunders plays the song's melody, not Garcia, and at 18:05 they are done. Phew! That was crisp, clean, and very energetic. Why didn't they choose it for the album? Well...
7/11/73 Keystone - from Complete Keystone set
…this one, chosen for the original Live at Keystone LP, is actually pretty different. For one thing, it’s a notably more laid back performance. It has the same format at first: Garcia plays the head, solos for one chorus, Saunders solos for two, Garcia solos over the vamp, Saunders solos over the vamp, Garcia solos again. But this time the transition between the vamp solos are less clearly defined, and by the time Garcia takes the lead from Saunders around 11 minutes, things are getting pretty loose. At 12 min, the steady groove has been abandoned and, for the first time, they're getting into more "space" territory. But at 13:46, Garcia returns to the intro/vamp, noodles over it for a bit, and then brings back the head/melody. The bass and drums are still pretty loose, but they return to the form/changes, then jam out on the outro vamp for a little bit and wrap it up at 17:55. Given how hot the previous night’s version was, it’s interesting that they went with this one: the looser approach and the collapse into (semi-)Space is maybe what they wanted to represent? But it's pretty cool that back-to-back versions are so different!
7/19/73 (not circulating)
Tape exists, but only a small fragment is circulating, so My Funny Valentine isn’t available. Martin Fierro played part of the show, but evidently did not play on this song.
9/6/73 Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ - shnid 136778
This show and a Hells Angels party the night before were the band's first out-of-town gigs, which were also (as far as we know?) the first time that Garcia played his Wolf guitar on stage. Bill Kreutzmann plays with the group for the first time (on tape) in a year and half, and Fierro is not present. The solos over the form go Garcia (one chorus) > Saunders (two) > Garcia (two!) and then right into Garcia soloing over the vamp. He sounds audibly relieved and takes off like a shot, which I find delightful and endearing. The transition to Saunders' solo over the vamp seems to throw Kreutzmann and Kahn for a second, and I suspect that they were still finding their hook up, but weren't fully there yet (I wonder if Kreutzmann had internalized by 1973 to follow Jerry where he was going, whereas Bill Vitt played like a more normal drummer, so Kahn had to reorient a bit?). Saunders solos, Garcia solos again, and now (12ish min in) things get a little looser/friskier/intense, and Kreutzmann almost kicks it over the edge, but Garcia opts to bring it back around to the head again. But! They play the full melody, Garcia solos over the outro vamp, Saunders takes a turn, they dart back and forth around each other, and then Garcia plays the entire head again! Great energy here, and he slows them down to a finish at 21:25. I also would like to mention that, at the very start of this, Saunders is playing his Fender Rhodes piano, but moves to organ quickly and stays there. Which is kind of a tease, given how cool it would have sounded if Saunders had soloed on it. But it was never to be.
10/2/73 Winterland - shnid 83809
Another unusual gig, a multi-act benefit (air quotes?) for the Hells Angels, with a few guests including Fierro and an additional trumpet player (still TBD, as far as I know). Kreutzmann is again at the drums. I also hear Kahn sounding a little busier than normal tonight. Garcia plays the head clearly (nothing from the horns), then solos for one chorus; the trumpet takes one, Fierro takes two, with Garcia joining him as he gets frothier; Saunders takes one chorus with nice unison lines from the horns behind him. At 10:20 Garcia takes off over the vamp, with Kahn again sounding like he’s bugging out here and the horns sounding very nice behind all this. Saunders take over, Garcia chimes in and kind of grabs the reins from him, getting edgier and more assertive, as the horns continue a relatively restrained unison line behind this. Cool! The energy stays within the bounds, but barely: Kahn and Merl sound like they're pushing the envelope here, Kahn especially. Intense energy in the final minutes of the vamp/jam, but nothing that gets into Spacier places. At 16ish min, Garcia brings it back down as Kahn seems to begin soloing - but Garcia plays the head, even as Kahn keeps playing his own thing. Not sure what’s got into either of them, but it works itself out, the horns continue their tasty support, and it wraps up at 18:25. The horns sound really good in this one! Very different from the more chaotic 7/5/73.
10/12/73 Keystone - shnid 150529
Bill Vitt is back on drums (his name is on the box), and no Fierro. To my ears, this is the mellowest, most "after hours" vibey version on tape. Very tasty, but very laid back. They vamp on the intro a little longer than usual, Garcia and Saunders each take a solo chorus after the melody, and then there's a full chorus of no one soloing, just the band playing the changes. Then Garcia picks it up again, soloing over the vamp; this gets a little sparse as it goes, then makes the handoff to Saunders. At 14 minutes, the group tumbles into spacier playing and by 15 min this is a pretty Grateful Dead-styled Space: mellow, but definitely out there. And they stay out there for about 3 1/2 minutes. This is the longest 'space' of any of these? At 18:35 Jerry swings back the intro vamp and plays the head, and then, unusually, Saunders takes another solo chorus over the form, ending with a big dramatic swell. They finish at 23:33, the longest one so far. Very nice indeed.
11/3/73 Keystone - shnid 123279
Vitt's name is on the tape box, and this was apparently his last show with the group. One might think, given the insane energy of some of the earlier improv this night (the 40 min Expressway > jam > Merl's Tune extravagaganza), and given how long this performance is (the longest by far), that it would be the mothership version. But I do not find this as engaging as many others on this list. Nothing goes wrong and I wouldn't say they sound "tired," but they don't seem to be pushing for anything, either. Garcia (one chorus), Fierro (two) and Saunders (two) all solo over the changes, then Jerry sets off for a 4+ minute trip over the vamp. But the vamp doesn't change or develop all that much - I do hear some cool sustain/feedbacked trails from Garcia here and there, though - and Fierro keeps to himself until it's his turn to go for a few more minutes. Then Saunders, and still no one is pushing this much further than the vamp/groove. Even Kahn gets a little bit of the spotlight before Garcia trickles back in. Saunders seems game for some weirdness, but it doesn't catch fire, even as things finally collapse into arrhythmic spaciness. But this lasts only for a minute before Garcia takes them back into the head. The outro vamp gets an extended (maybe 2 1/2 minutes) workout with Garcia and Fierro starting to give off some smoke, and it ends at 29:04. "Well, it's closing time in Berkeley, everybody." It sounds, frankly, like they were all ready for it. Not a lot of interaction or pushing the limits in this one. Ah well.
11/5/73 Keystone - shnid 136640
Kreutzmann is now the primary drummer (his name isn’t written on the reels, but listen to Mystery Train: it’s him). I have not yet talked about sound quality, but now is the time to mention that so far all of these tapes sound beautiful, and this one in particular is an immaculate example of Betty Cantor-Jackson’s art. Garcia solos over the form (one), Fierro (two) gets a little squonky, Saunders (one) - again I am hearing that Kreutzmann and Kahn hadn’t quite sanded off all their rough edges yet - and Garcia trickles back in, now over the vamp. Fierro takes over at 11 min, but everyone now sounds like they’re ready to get into a weirder place; things settle briefly for Saunders to take over, but everyone is pulling in promisingly weird directions. At 13 minutes, it’s off into Space for real, with a nice little noisy peak before it collapses after a minute back into the vamp and head. Garcia is really ripping some fast runs in here that I love. They take two minutes to extend the outro vamp, make a nice pronounced ending, and end at 18:38. "See y'all later, thanks for coming out in the rain and all that." Garcia sounds spry and rarin' to go here. Very nice indeed. November 73!
1/17/74 Keystone - shnid 76474
Garcia plays the head, but is clearly out of tune and is getting it together as he goes. He starts to take the first solo, but backs off (still not in tune), so Fierro picks it up (two choruses) before Garcia budges back in, chomping at the bit now (one chorus). Saunders takes one chorus, but Garcia can’t help himself and joins in midway. Who’s soloing next? They shift to the vamp, with both Garcia and Saunders grooving upfront, Fierro joining into the mix tentatively. The vamp pulls apart and coheres and pulls apart again, fully collapsing near 16 min with some big Garcia fanning action and grinding to a near stop. This is definitely one of the more “interactive” and elastic jams so far. At 16:09 Garcia starts the intro vamp and Saunders begins to play the head, but no one else is making the changes with him, so he solos loosely for a couple minutes until Garcia rears back up. The two toss the ball back and forth (you can hear Fierro quoting Wayne Shorter’s Footprints in the background at 19:30), and the intensity ratchets up back to a second Space climax. They wrap it up, but keep noodling spacily, never returning to the melody. Done by 24:15. Yeeow. Garcia seems particularly inspired tonight and not afraid to throw his weight around, and this one seems as adventurous as it gets.
2/5/74 Great American Music Hall - shnid 32088
Feels like a slower tempo than later 74 versions, and also feels a little labored? I don't think it's the tape speed? The mix isn't great, either, since it’s a straight sbd feed, not a Bettyboard. Dedicated readers of this humble blog may also note that this is the show where I was convinced Fierro was playing two horns at once, but this most recent relisten has me doubting that conviction.
Garcia plays the head and very quickly the unison saxophones are audible behind him, playing some very clear lines that I’ve not heard Fierro play before. Garcia solos, flowing right out of the melody (nice!), then Fierro (two choruses) with nothing from the other sax at all; then Saunders, with Garcia pushing in to rejoin him midway through (this is becoming a habit? arguably not the best habit?). At 9:15 Fierro(?) solos again for one chorus – or maybe this is the second saxophone player, although to my ears the tone and style sounds just like Fierro – we hear a bit of the two horns at 11 minutes. Garcia moves to the vamp and solos again. Some unison stuff from the horns at 12ish minutes. Saunders come to the fore at 14 min; the periodic horn lines are becoming a little repetitive (to be fair, they’re too high in the mix) - but at 16:37 I am thinking this must be two separate horn players. Saunders goes for a few minutes; at 17:30 Garcia is back on top, things getting hairier and more intense, loosening up but never fully losing it; it comes to a near stop just shy of 19 minutes, the vamp restarts and Garcia plays the head. The outro of this is drawn-out and spacier/freeish; again the two horns here sound like separate players. Done at 22:47.
As a whole, this version is ill-served by the tape mix, but is a solid effort overall. With regards to the horns: ayee, I’m going back to revise my old post, I guess. Timestamps for the curious (fileset 32088): @16:37 and @21:23 are two instances where this sounds like two separate musicians. The sax solos begin at 3:52 and 9:15, but these both sound like Martin Fierro to me. Did he have a twin brother?
6/6/74 Keystone - shnid 6375
Young Tony Saunders on bass! I imagine Merl was a good teacher, and Tony most definitely has got a handle on the tune's form and is holding it down. As you may recall, this is a fantastic Louis Falanga stage mic tape. Garcia is heard calling the tune beforehand, but it sounds like he spaces out on the melody, and Fierro bails him out and plays the lead here. Unusual! Garcia actually plays very little during the head (maybe some tech issue?), but jumps in ready to go with the first solo (one chorus), then Saunders (one), Fierro (two), Garcia again (two), and then at 13:15 he continues off into the vamp. But then, unusually, at 15 minutes Garcia returns to the melody and the form. They finish and seem a little lost on the vamp, with Garcia and Fierro tentatively searching, before Saunders reasserts the changes clearly at 17:30. They vamp on the outro and end at 21:14. Well, then. This one has the least amount of open-ended jamming; maybe that was out of deference to Tony, who clearly knows the tune itself, but maybe wasn’t as comfortable opening up and trying new things on longer vamps? (maybe that’s not fair? He sounds great in these shows). Anyway: this sounds just great, but is the most “straightforward” version since the earliest ones.
7/2/74 The Bottom Line, New York, NY - shnid 112133
As I covered before, these NYC shows were tacked on to the Dead's northeast tour, in promotion of Garcia's Compliments album. Like 9/6/73, Fierro didn’t make the trip, so it's just the quartet with Kreutzmann. Our only recording is Jerry Moore’s aud tape, which is good for what it is, but a little bit of a wet blanket after so many pristine recordings. Nevertheless, this one is a smoker. Garcia solos (one chorus) and Saunders (two) and then off into the vamp. I am probably projecting, but some of that Dead June 74 energy is crackling in the wires here, and Garcia seems to be telegraphing that he's ready to take it outside fairly early on. But oh woe, there's a nasty tape cut as the intensity builds. The tape resumes in Saunders' first vamp solo, which starts weird around 14:55 and Garcia heads right for the deep end. The collapse of the groove is pretty exquisite and, despite a couple of retrenchments back to the vamp, things boil over by 17 min and enter full free Space territory. Yessiree. At 19:40 Garcia returns to the head, gets frothy over the extended outro vamp, and then he slow-walks them down to a landing at 23:17. It would be wonderful to unearth a sbd of this, given how assertive and energetic this one is. Like I said in my old review, this pairs very well with the Dead's jams from the month before, and it's a pity more heads don't know it.
8/31/74 Keystone - shnid 8078
Another Falanga stage mic tape, not as sublime as 6/6 but still plenty nice. Solos are Garcia (one), Fierro (two), Saunders (one), and then Garcia over the vamp for about 3 minutes. For the first time in any of these(?), he hits his wahwah pedal, prompting Fierro to turn on his echoplex effect, as Saunders comes to the fore to solo. Fierro's electronic effects could be a little crudely overdone, but the echo sure works here, adding a nice spacey layer to this otherwise pretty tight groove - Kreutzmann is eating this up, and no one seems inclined to push too hard at the boundaries tonight. They just ride this one for the duration, but they all sound inspired and are certainly not cruising: Garcia gets hairy at times, but there’s no collective rocking of the boat. At 18:20 he very intentionally wraps it up and walks them back into the head, and they are done at 21:45. Nice! I will take the trade-off of intense spacier playing for the more gentle textural effects that Fierro provides here.
10/6/74 (not circulating)
Drummer Jim Nelson subbed this weekend with the group. The first set circulates, with a very stretched-out Valdez in the Country > jam > Freedom Jazz Dance - but not the second with My Funny Valentine. Someday, baby?
11/14/74 Paul's Mall, Boston, MA - shnid 135968
The final Garcia/Saunders run, the east coast tour with drummer Paul Humphrey. This is one known performance by this lineup, perhaps played in acknowledgement of being next door to a famous jazz club (Paul's Mall and the Jazz Workshop were two halves of the same venue). You can currently choose between two aud tapes, one exceptionally clear but with a chatty neighbor (135968), the other more muffled but free from distraction (16461). Garcia solos for one chorus, Fierro goes long with three - he has his Varitone effect on tonight and does get a little squonky, which does shush the chatters - then Saunders (two), then Garcia takes off on the vamp. Things loosen up, the three of them toss the ball around, and @14 min things are getting spacey. They stay in the zone for less than a minute before Garcia brings it back to ground level, and instead of the head they move right into People Make the World Go Round. This jam was great! I wish it was a lot longer! Humphrey sounds fantastic, not too dissimilar from Kreutzmann on a good day: he is flowing here and I'd say he was more of a natural jazz drummer and drives this a bit more than Kruetzmann usually did. It’s a real shame this tune was at the end of its tenure.
Coda: there is one more known studio version from 1978 Club Front “jazz” sessions, about which I have idle speculations. I have not heard this and I am not really counting it – I assume it's just Garcia and Keith Godchaux, and maybe Kahn. Hopefully they dug in rather than just giving it a passing glance, and, if so, it would be cool to hear how/if Garcia’s playing over the changes had changed since 1974 (also I can't help but notice that they also played Georgia On My Mind on the same day!?). But we will have to wait and see.
So: It’s probably overdoing it to say that My Funny Valentine represented a kind of ideal balance between what Garcia wanted to do (play “real jazz” over changes) and what Garcia gravitated towards (open jamming), but in the more exciting versions above, it does feel that way! Playing over changes like this ultimately wasn’t something Garcia seemed interested in really pursuing, but he also never put it aside altogether: Russian Lullaby is the one “jazz” song that Garcia never abandoned, so continued to spin out long jazz solos (albeit over his preferred languid tempo) until the end. But My Funny Valentine was big enough to allow both for Garcia’s musical aspirations and his musical comfort zone of plunging forward into the unknown with relatively few guidelines imposed by the material itself. I wish we had more of this: and what we have is wonderful.
A good note to end on is that Merl Saunders’ birthday was on Valentine's Day. That couldn't have been overlooked as they played this song. The lyric’s last line is "every day is Valentines Day."
