1/30/91: rashers and sausages

 

courtesy Jerrybase.  Any bets where Jerry was on his night off?

1/30/91 at the Warfield has a really good Don't Let Go.  Not one for the all-timer list, but it's longer than usual (just under 21 minutes) and Garcia sounds like he's inspired and flying high: he soars over the usual main jam, then leans into the spacey second jam that lasts around 3 1/2 minutes.  But then, rather than bring it back to the Don't Let Go rhythm and final verse, he does something that as far as I know is unique to this lone version: at approx 17:15, Garcia starts firing off this brisk melodic theme that reminds me of an Irish jig (actually, as I learned, it's a double jig; see below).  Quickly, David Kemper picks up on what's happening and Melvin Seals lays down some rich chords below him, and they blast off on this unexpected digression for about a minute and a half.  Garcia takes a neat left turn out of this and gets them back into Don't Let Go without batting an eye.  Any Irish music fans care to weigh in on this one?

Thanks to this helpful primer, I now know that

To tell whether a tune you're listening to is a jig or a reel, let your foot tap along with the music at a natural pace, then see how many fast notes you count between each tap. If you can count to 3, it's a jig. If you can count to 4, it's a reel. [...] There are actually several different Irish rhythms which have the term "jig" in their name...when people say "jig," they generally mean a double jig. Double jigs have three notes per beat, and every other beat is a downbeat. Try saying "rashers and sausages" three times fast. That's a double jig rhythm.

(and after Don't Let Go ends, someone next to the taper says, "sounds like he was going into the Other One," which makes sense: the Other One's rhythm is also a 3-against-2 polyrhythm.  For a good time, try saying "rashers and sausages" along with the Other One beat and see what happens.)

So what the heck just happened?  I don't think Garcia is "teasing" any particular tune.  My hunch is that he's just playing in a style that came to mind, and Kemper and Seals were quick enough to hop on and let Garcia ride with it for a minute.  My first thought was that this might have been something he had been playing with David Grisman, but it doesn't match any specific tune that I know of.  They do something kind of similar on the bridge of Grateful Dawg, and Handsome Cabin Boy would have this same rhythmic feel if it was played twice as fast.  But my guess is they were just doodling around with some old Irish tunes during one of their sessions -- or, more likely, a rehearsal for their debut public performance, which would happen 72 hours later on the same stage.

Any ideas, folks?

3/30/76: the first Don't Let Go meets Sugar Magnolia

4/1/76 by Jim Anderson

3/30/76 at the Calderone Concert Hall in Hempstead, NY is a show that probably doesn't get much airtime in our age of digital abundance: the aud tape of the early show is rough quality and the late show is even worse.  It's a little surprising that there is only one recording of a NYC-area Garcia show out there, but it's what we've got for now.  If the reward for braving a poor 76 JGB aud tape is something you need to be convinced of, then I direct you to this Don't Let Go, currently the earliest known performance.  Warning up front: there's a big ol' cut of death that truncates this one mid-jam (judging from later versions from this tour, they still had a while to go).  Blarg.

So why bother?  Because this version is the only time I've heard Garcia do this unusual thing: the jam, like all of them, begins with him grinding around the A blues scale, but at around 7 minutes, he shifts gears into A mixolydian.  For you non-modal types, that's a different scale that he used more frequently in more 'major' sounding jams.  There is plenty of stuff online about the modes and approaches that Garcia tended to favor in his improvisations, and I am not the person to go into depth about it.  But what struck me -- and what may strike you, even if you don't play or usually think about this stuff -- is how Garcia's decision changes the color and direction of the jam, giving it a flavor that sounds a lot like Sugar Magnolia, of all things.  Keith Godchaux picks up on it and, though I wouldn't quite label it a "Sugar Magnolia jam," it does sound like they are both thinking along those same lines.

Later Don't Let Go's made that modal shift a standard thing: versions from the 80's-90's start in the blues scale (or pentatonic, I guess) and then usually shift gears into a "jazzier" jam with Garcia centering on a different mode (paging any more experienced musicians here).  But he never did it like he does here, as far as I know.  All other 1976-78 versions that I know of either stick to that blues feel straight through, or jump ship at some point for freer spacey playing.  Which makes this debut version unique in my book.

The rest of the show is cool, too, if you're inclined to listen through the aud tape realities.  After Midnight has a hot jam, Who Was John is a good time as always, and there is some beautiful Keith/Jerry counterpoint (a 76 hallmark) happening in Sitting in Limbo.  If you're eying the text file suspiciously, fear not: Knockin' is not really 24 minutes, just a glitched file with some cuts and repeated sections (although the climax is excellent).  Plus, this is probably the best they ever pulled off the Stones' Moonlight Mile, with Tutt and Kahn thundering away before a nice vocal climax.  All in all: worth it for all you 76 JGB lovers.  All 11 of you.