Bwahahaha: I picked up this today while record shopping (basically for free):
Grey vinyl! Good lord. I also see that Bill Graham (the mystery 13th eye on the album cover) didn't get his own skeleton doppelganger.
The sleeve is a bit of an elaborate affair for a 45 and folds out as a poster:
The other side has the portrait shots of everyone from In the Dark plus tourdates for the all the nascent Touchheads (the single was released in June).
And, of course, "My Brother Esau" on the flipside, which was left off the original album.
Biggest takeaway: skeleton Jerry looks like Dr. Zaius' stunt double.
This show had been languishing on my harddrive forever, and I finally gave it a close listen and enjoyed it quite a bit. The occasion for the show and tape was a benefit performance by Babatunde Olatunji and his group Drums of Passion, with guest stars Jerry Garcia, Carlos Santana, and Mickey Hart. Honestly, I can't say much about the music itself, but I've never seen much comment about this and most setlist information out there seems to be incorrect, so I figured I'd post a little something about it.
ticket pic courtesy Thomas Patrick
I won’t go much into Olatunji’s career here: the short version is that he was a pivotal figure in bringing African rhythm and culture to western awareness in the 1950’s, peaking with his landmark and extremely popular album Drums of Passion, released in 1960. By the 1970’s, though, his career was in serious decline and was effectively on the skids until Mickey Hart approached him after a San Francisco club performance in 1985 with an offer to produce new recordings and, later, an invitation for him to open for the Dead on New Year’s Eve. Those recordings, made in January 1986, yielded two albums: Dance to the Beat of My Drum (on the local San Francisco label Blue Heron, later reissued by Rykodisc as Drums of Passion: The Beat) was squarely aimed at a crossover comeback and prominently featured Santana’s guitar; the other, belatedly released in 1989 as Drums of Passion: The Invocation (also on Rykodisc), featured only his core drum ensemble. Olatunji, who had prefigured the demand for “world music” by 25 years, was back in the public eye and had Mickey Hart and the Dead to thank for it.
On Feb 15, 1987, Olatunji’s group of percussionists and dancers played a benefit in Petaluma, CA for the local World Music in Schools foundation, augmented by Garcia, Santana, Hart, and bassist Bobby Vega. Hart appears to have orchestrated the whole thing, and the 90 minute PBS special about the show (at youtube) credits the Dead’s crew with holding down most of the technical aspects. Hamza el-Din opened the night with a beautiful 20 minute solo performance, then Olatunji’s group played for nearly two hours. I presume Garcia must have rehearsed some for this, especially since he was the only one of the guests not involved with the 1986 recordings. Although he and Santana clearly aren’t central to the music, they both fit in well and Garcia sounds comfortable and quite good when the spotlight falls on him. Presumably in deference to him or (more likely) to the fans who were there because of him, the group plays "Fire On the Mountain," which comes off well enough — but for my money, Garcia’s best moment of the night is the solo he rips on “The Beat of My Drum” (d1t08). Not bad, Jer! He looks plenty happy in the video but, hey, playing on a stage packed full of master African drummers is probably harder than it looks. The night belongs to Olatunji, of course, and the bulk of the show is heavy African percussion, which suits me just fine.
Santana, Garcia, and (I think) Sikiru Adepoju. pic by Jay Blakesberg
From a Garcia-centric perspective, this appearance marks a start to his post-coma period of increased health and a much greater level of engagement with the musical world around him. He returned to making appearances on friends’ studio projects (starting, probably around the time of this show, with the Neville Brothers), returned to his bluegrass roots with the JGAB, and showed more of a willingness to put himself in unfamiliar contexts, not least being his guest appearance with Ornette Coleman in 1988. It was the start of the final golden phase of his career, and it’s neat that this one-off appearance with one of the most famous African musicians of the 20th century helped kick it off. Maybe there are some comments to be made about Garcia's position in relation to the African musical diaspora, but right now it feels like a stretch and I'm tired.
Here’s the video. Head to 47:50 for some heat:
Charlie Miller’s transfer of Dan Healy’s sbd sounds excellent, but the tracklist (and some of the tracking) is off. They play all of the 1986 album material and I was able to get some other titles by googling, so here is the best I'm able to come up with:
d1t01 introductions
d1t02 ??? (Hamza el Din: oud + vocal)
d1t03 ??? (Hamza el Din: oud instrumental)
d1t04 ??? (Hamza el Din: oud + vocal)
d1t05 ??? (Hamza el Din: tar + vocal)
d1t06 intro parade/??? ; Akiwowo (acapella intro) ->
d1t07 Akiwowo *
d1t08 The Beat of My Drum *
d1t09 Loyin Loyin *
d1t10 Odun De
d2t01 Ife L'Oju L'Aiye * ->
d2t02 Ife L'Oju L'Aiye * (continued from d2t01)
d2t03 band intros, speaking
d2t04 Yambela
d2t05 Fire on the Mountain *
d2t06 ??? **
d2t07 Se Eni A Fe L'Amo - Kere Kere *
d2t08 Ilere *
notes:
Hamza el Din tracks are unaccompanied.
* with Jerry Garcia, Carlos Santana, Bobby Vega (bass), Mickey Hart (drum kit)
** d2t06 Olatunji introduces percussionist Kwaku Dadey, who sounds like a special guest.
Whenever I think of the Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band, the iconic Lunt-Fontaine run on Broadway is what comes up first: it’s central to every story about this short-lived group, it sports that wonderfully ridiculous Playbill pic, and the majority of posthumous releases are drawn from those shows. It’s a little ironic, since the original Almost Acoustic album from 1988 was actually recorded a month later, mostly at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles. Apparently there were union issues about recording the Broadway shows? At any rate, these Wiltern shows were the ones put down for posterity, and on this night in particular, Garcia rose to the occasion.
Anyone who likes Garcia probably likes any of these JGAB releases. I enjoy them all, but have paid almost no attention to any of the shows themselves, since they’re mostly so-so auds and, as far as I can tell, basically interchangeable. The electric sets have never appealed much to me, either. Garcia was climbing towards his late-era pinnacle, but while a lot of ’87 Dead has that extra “Jerry’s back!” edge, 87 JGB always feels more workmanlike, “more competent than interesting” (per jgmf). To be fair, though, he was juggling two completely different bands on the same night, a feat he hadn't seriously attempted since 1970 (plus, y'know, there was that whole coma thing).
Outside of the official releases, there’s not much sbd tape of this group, so this show stands out for that reason. The sbd recording is gorgeous, well balanced and rich (thank you, GEMS folks), but there’s also an excellent audience recording as well (thank you, Mike French), and for the electric set, I’d almost recommend it more. Take yer pick. But the music warrants the up-close attention that is afforded by the great recordings. The acoustic set is as tasty and sweet as any others, but not particularly remarkable save for a guest appearance by dobro player LeRoy Mack, who went way back with some of these fellas — he was in the Kentucky Colonels in the early 60’s with Garcia’s idols Scotty Stoneman and Clarence White. The electric set, however, seems like a cut above for this period, with Garcia in crushing form for the first few tunes, every note exactly in its right place and a little extra heft to everything. Cats is great, then he nails I Shall be Released, belts out a really fantastic Mission in the Rain, and leans hard into a wonderful Like a Road. I'm in heaven here. What a great four-song run! The music is pulled back into orbit and with a merely very good Harder They Come and Stoned Me, but he winds up once again with a big ol’ satisfying Deal and sends ‘em home with a quickie Evangeline encore (the norm for these acoustic/electric shows).
Not a life changing JGB show, but a very nice surprise and a fantastic listen, whichever way your pleasure tends. It’s one of those shows that sounds great from a distance, sounds great up close, and sounds great down between the cracks: the little well-timed smears of guitar feedback, the responsive subtleties of Kemper's drumming, the audible whoops and handclaps from Gloria and Jaclyn, and so on. Here’s one nice little detail for jgmf’s file on Garcia’s engagement with his audience — After the gospel weeper “Gone Home,” Garcia tells Mack that he sounds great, he steps back to futz around for a sec, then there’s a swell of applause and someone (Nelson?) chuckles, “well, that’s what they’re waiting for” (Garcia, one would think). Someone down front hollers “we love you, Jerry!” and Jerry replies with a rare quick “thank you” before they tear off into the next tune.
