Le Front Street Sheiks -> Reconstruction

"whaddya think, John, is that a flatted 5th or a raised 4th?"

 

Some inchoate notes on Jerry and jazz circa mid 1978:

Thanks to JGMF, we now have some public documentation of a very brief but very interesting moment in the JGB story, a brief side trip into a parallel universe where Garcia, Kahn, and Godchaux were a jazz piano combo.

JGMF once quoted (edit: here) an interview with John Kahn from 1987 where he casually mentioned the eyebrow-raising fact that, since 4/5 of the JGB lived near each other, they would regularly get together at the Godchauxs' house (mostly without Ron Tutt) and just play:

"We'd go through everything. We had Dylan songbooks and we'd do stuff like play everything from Blonde on Blonde. Then we'd do all sorts of Beatles songs. It was great. Most of it never even got past that room.
"We were real close for a while. We had this trip where we'd call ourselves the Front Street Sheiks and we'd play dumb piano jazz and stuff like that. We did some recording down at the rehearsal place [Front Street in San Rafael] right after they got their 24-track, just to see if the machine worked. We'd be down there every night of the week playing these old songs like "All the Things You Are," "Night in Tunisia," things like that." (Golden Road, Winter 1987, 29-30)

Tantalizing!  Both Kahn and Godchaux had jazz backgrounds, and Garcia of course had dabbled in jazz a bit under the guidance of Merl Saunders.  But now thanks to information that has been shared at the wonderful new Jerrybase site (seriously: it is wonderful), the picture comes slightly more into focus with four documented sessions at Club Front in June 1978 as either "Le Trio Clube" or the "Front Street Sheiks."

 

Repertoire

6/13/78: My Funny Valentine, Satin Doll, Georgia On My Mind

6/14/78: Satin Doll, Georgia On My Mind

6/26/78: Instrumental, Satin Doll

6/27/78: Don't Blame Me

The "repertoire" is made up of some pretty old and conservative standards; Kahn mentioned using songbooks and it's possible that one of them owned a copy of The Real Book (a popular grey market 'fakebook' of common practice jazz tunes). Garcia was already comfortable with "My Funny Valentine" and "Georgia On My Mind" from the Garcia/Saunders days.  "Satin Doll" (Ellington) and "Don't Blame Me" (a 1930's showtune recorded by dozens of singers and instrumentalists) are things that Godchaux would have likely played many times in his pre-Dead life as a cocktail bar pianist. Although Donna Godchaux is not mentioned in the Jerrybase info, Kahn did mention "Keith and Donna were always together, so Donna sang with us, too" and all of these songs were standards for vocalists as well as jazz instrumentalists.  Kahn also mentioned "A Night in Tunisia" and "All the Things You Are," both bebop-era warhorses. That instrumental could be anything. A few months later the JGB played Miles Davis' "So What" live, seemingly out of the blue, but perhaps that was in the mix here as well.

Timeline

Corry and Joe have done the heavy lifting with the late 1978 timeline as it relates to Reconstruction, when a lot was happening on both the GD and JGB fronts. It is worth familiarizing yourself with:
http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2012/11/reconstructing-reconstruction-january.html
http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2014/11/risky-reconstruction.html

But for my own purposes, I will reiterate a bit from their posts:

• Garcia, Kahn, and Godchaux are messing around with jazz standards sometime in June 78 (and possibly earlier?).
• The gear at Front Street is upgraded from a 16-track to a 24-track machine in June 78 (presumably for the Dead to record Shakedown Street there) and GKG take advantage of this to hang out and lay down some of these jazz tunes.
• The Dead then get busy for most of August (recording Shakedown Street, with Kahn pitching in on overdubs and mixing duties) and September (going to Egypt, then canceling shows in London to return home and finish the album).
• Garcia sits in with Merl Saunders' band for a one-off benefit gig at a Haight/Ashbury club on 10/3/78.  afaik, this is mostly still a mystery.  The band's style is fairly similar to Reconstruction (no horns, though), but the setlist includes a somewhat stylistic outlier: "So What."
• The Keith & Donna JGB play their last known gig on 11/3/78 and, for the first known time, play "So What."
• The Dead are on tour in November, Garcia is hospitalized with bronchitis, shows are postponed, and the Dead are back on the road intermittently from mid-December through January.
• Reconstruction debuts with Garcia on 1/30/79, after a week of rehearsal during a break in the Dead's touring schedule.
  

 

So what?

Kahn described Reconstruction as a project he put together in Dec 1978 to play more jazz and to be able to gig when Garcia was on the road with the Dead, but also to potentially include Garcia when he wasn't: "I wasn't really planning on Jerry being in the band originally, and then when he was in the band it sort of changed everything from what the plan was" (Jackson, Garcia, 306).  It must have been an appealing fit for Garcia, who for the first time in eight years had no side-band of his own: the timing was good, the environment was appealing (a no-commitment, no-hassle gig), and the both concept and the material were fresh and challenging.  As the narrative has it, Garcia rose to the occasion for nine months in a final flash of inspired glory, but GD politics pulled him away, and Reconstruction's breakup symbolically marks an end to Garcia really pushing himself musically and settling into a more complacent rut for most of the next decade (see also: heroin; Garcia had moved in Rock Scully in this same period).

Is that narrative this changed by the fact that Garcia was actually "playing jazz" of his own accord six months before Reconstruction began?  It might be, it might not.  Given that Kahn seemed to suggest a lot of Garcia's material (starting with Compliments in 1974), it would make sense that he nudged Garcia this time as well.  Maybe it was just for laughs -- or maybe the idea of a JGB that incorporated jazz tunes (as Garcia/Saunders and Legion of Mary had done) was a viable option in their minds in mid-1978?

Also: I feel like "Russian Lullaby" is always left out of these discussions of Garcia engaging with jazz, but it's a jazz tune by pretty much any metric, and he played it regularly before, during, and after this period.

Also: This "Front Street Shieks" era of jazz is very different from the stripe of jazz that Reconstruction played -- I have more to say at some point re: Reconstruction as a jazz band -- which was different, for that matter, from "So What," and from the slightly earlier 20's-era swing Garcia played in the Great American Music/String Band in 1974 (see here).   And heck, also from some of the other jazz tunes played by the Legion of Mary.  That's a wider range of jazz music than I had expected and may warrant a separate post.

Also: One thing that did also come to mind was a story that drummer David Kemper told about working with Bob Dylan.  Dylan would assemble his band to rehearse for a tour and they would spend days playing in a certain style and carefully learning material that Dylan didn't seem to intend for performance.  Garcia and Kahn playing old jazz chestnuts doesn't seem to quite fit that model, but I don't know.

Or, of course, it's possible that all this timing is a coincidence and that we shouldn't make too much of these few "jazz sessions" in the bigger scheme of things.  But, for now, please to add refutations, corrections, additions, speculations, etc.

10/29/73: contrasting modes and keys

10/27/73, dead.net

I had a fine time revisiting 10/29/73 at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis, MO this past week.  An investigation into what exactly was going on in a particularly thrilling passage in the Other One exhausted my limited resources, and I had to call in reinforcements.

"Energetic" is always relative when it comes to certain eras of the Dead, but this first set feels a little more energetic than was typical for this period.  A Cold Rain & Snow opener is always a plus, and the whole initial run of songs feels to me like it has that extra something.  Don't Ease Me In, of all things, feels like the moment when the sparks catch.  Garcia is crackling on Mexicali, and Keith Godchaux sounds divine on Rhodes in Black-Throated Wind and on Steinway in The Race Is On.  The corker is a unusually placed Eyes of the World in the end-of-first-set-jam spot where Weather Report Suite or Playin' usually sat.  It's taken at a brisker tempo than most, and they hit it with a full tank of gas, taking every tight turn with precision.

The second set begins with a less remarkable stretch of music, though heads up for a white-hot Greatest Story and a spot-on Brokedown Palace before the main event.  Truckin' glides along with hints of the Other One, but they turn a corner around 8:30 and lands in a spacious "here comes Dark Star" kind of zone.  But then both Garcia and Weir take a break, leaving the rhythm section to explore for a bit.  Rather than one of those noodly Phil solos, however, the bass, piano, and drums explore a musically jazzy space for a few minutes, and when the guitarists return, the vibe is strong enough that they keep going in this direction for a little while longer.  I find this to be totally divine, psychedelic in the gentlest kind of way.  Kreutzmann solos, and then the Other One itself sticks pretty close to its usual path at first.  After the verse, it drops immediately into a long atonal Space that takes its time building up to the Tiger-ish peak. 

Then the second really interesting thing happens.  At around 15 minutes, Garcia seems to push everyone back into the Other One a little forcefully, but Godchaux decides to assert himself as well.  [Warning: music theory as described by an untrained musician ahead].  Garcia pulls them back into the Other One theme, zipping around (as he typically does) in the Dorian mode.  More or less, of course.  What's unusual here is that Godchaux decides to do something else: rather than follow and complement what Garcia is doing (i.e. playing pretty typical Other One stuff), Godchaux pushes in a different direction, playing in a very different mode.  What does that mean if you're not a musicologist?  It means that Godchaux is playing quite a bit that is further away from the usual Other One stuff that Garcia is playing, sounding a lot more "major," and although what they're doing is different enough to sound unusual, it's not so different that it sounds "wrong."  There certainly are other jams where Godchaux is at forefront, but I cannot think of another one where he is asserting his own contrasting harmonic ideas as strongly as he is here.  And it's not a fleeting moment: they keep this tension going for almost six minutes, until they finally get back in the same lane for the second verse. 

If you're an actual musician and are slapping your forehead at me, here's how my pal John explained it to me [Warning: music theory as described by an actual trained musician ahead]:

me: Talk to me about what Keith is playing relative to the key/mode Jerry is in.
JT: Major, then Phyrgian.  But Jerry’s in dorian.  It’s bi-modal at least, sometimes bi-tonal, but mainly in E.  At times Jerry was in E dorian, and Keith (et al.) were in E Ionian (major).
me: They’re playing in separate modes, but mainly in the same key?
JT: I’d say that’s fairly common that they did the bi-modal thing (combining both thirds and/or sevenths, for example, happened all the time and gives you Mixolydian and Dorian) ...but that this is an extremely outlier example; I can’t recall them playing in such widely contrasting modes before, and/or duking it out between them for so long.

And then John was nice enough to expand further:

For me, the most interesting harmonic stuff is in the first minute. At around 15:00, we emerge from the atonal space into an implied E Dorian (Jerry, playing TOO theme), but this conflicts with the E Ionian/Mixolydian and then Phrygian that Keith layers in. Jerry sounds like he jumps into Phrygian pretty quickly (15:20), and he remains there ca. 15:37 while Keith has shifted to A Ionian/Mixolydian. Phil goes there too, so for a while the band is in A while Jerry’s crunching along in a contrasting mode and key. At ca. 16:04, Keith begins planning (basically moving step-wise up or down; Debussy does this a lot in his piano music, and the technique was adopted by later pianists (I’m thinking of like My Favorite Things-era Tyner [hey now]) who wrote in fourths and who obscured conventional key centers). This recalls Phrygian and leads us by 16:10 to (what sounds like) Keith playing mostly in G and Jerry in E Aeolian/natural minor. By 16:30, everyone has recoalesced around E dorian and we have some “standard” TOO-type playing for a minute+.

By 18:02, Jerry’s playing a pedal point high E while Keith et al. seem to be in A below him. It’s just pretty.

One take away I had hearing this again: Jerry really remains locked into E Dorian then Phrygian then Dorian; even while the others are altering the modes and key centers around/under him, he doesn’t venture too far harmonically from where we end up landing on when the more conventional TOO-type jamming resumes

Or, if now you're just scratching your head, just take Dick Latvala's word for it:

On 10/29/73, there is a pretty long jam that is concerned with The Other One... the playing is spectacular.  The jam from the 10/29 show has simply outstanding jamming around the songs and the songs themselves are examples of the 'best versions' category, especially The Other One..."

a week in Jan 1979 (put on the snow tires)

There's been a lack of serious Dead listening 'round here lately, but this little project oddly pulled me out of a slump.  I am drawn to periods that are generally overlooked or underrated, both out of a desire to find some buried treasure and also, it must be said, out of a weirdly perverse attraction to the mundane.  The Jan-Feb 1979 tours have not gone down in the books as the band's best, and justifiably so.  And yet here I am, always on the lookout for an unearthed gold nugget.  You already know that this was the Godchauxs' final stand, and that several of these shows were makeups for Dec 1978 shows that were canceled because of Garcia's illness.  A week after their final blowout at Winterland, I am sure that none of them were too jazzed to be touring the northeast in January.  I was born in New Haven in January 1979 and have been told repeatedly by my family how horrible the snow was.  An online buddy Pig Street attended some of these shows and reports similar conditions.  Party on!

Spoiler: none of these shows are top-to-bottom great, but many of them have something worth hearing and revisiting.  Isn't finding those gems what it's all about?


1/5/79 - The Spectrum

The band's history at the Spectrum is notable, and this was their first two-night stand there, rescheduled from December and split over two weeks, presumably working around the hockey season.  It's a pretty run-of-the-mill show, captured on a solid if not amazing aud tape (all respect to the uncredited taper).  Two unfortunate tape cuts excise Jerry's climactic Sugaree solo and most of the Music Never Stopped jam.  Weir's slide solo in Sugaree sounds truly and unbelievably terrible.  An unexpected highlight is the last stretch of All Over Now, when Garcia and Lesh decide it's time to lift the roof for a few moments.  The second set jam begins with a somewhat sluggish Estimated, which perks up during an unusually colorful segue into a very long Eyes of the World: 16 1/2 minutes of legitimate jamming.  Nothing earthshaking happens, since Garcia sounds happy to take it at a mellow pace, but it's still a pleasant ride.  A loud, raucous Space (all hands on deck and making noise) sets up a more energetic post-Drumz: it sounds like they're having fun on Truckin', and then they attempt the first Nobody's Fault But Mine in a while -- it's a full band effort, not just Garcia playing the melody -- but Garcia's mic gives out and they're forced to make it an instrumental.  Black Peter sounds quite good, though Garcia seems to be making room for Weir's slide again (whyyyyy), and Around and JBG feel unusually goosed.  "Thank y'all, we're gonna see you in a week or two."  Not bad, but overall it's a so-so show.  At least the local reviews were good.

high times at MSG, by Bob Minkin.

1/7/79 - Madison Square Garden 

Another historical first, the band's maiden MSG shows (again rescheduled from December).  Boy howdy, do they sound glad to be there: the run blasts off with a truly titanic Jack Straw, with a jam for the ages.  Mama mia!  The rest of the set is wholly unremarkable, which feels almost cruel given that opening salvo.   There's a pretty nice Cassidy and Jack-a-Roe; Garcia sings "kicked my eye and blacked my dog" in Tennessee Jed, and delivers on a solid Passenger closer.  True to their we-always-blow-the-big-ones form, the second set is marred by PA problems: the opening Miracle has some sound issues, Shakedown feels perfunctory, and repeat Estimated > Eyes finally finds a groove but is also on the shorter side.  Space is an unexpected highlight, with a kind of "world music" vibe as Garcia improvises more melodically with Hart's marimba.  But Not Fade Away feels bloated and overlong to me, although there's an interesting bit where everyone is trading fours, and Black Peter (another repeat) is going well until the PA craps out again, never to fully recover.  Blah.  Hear this Jack Straw over and over, and maybe the Space.  Full disclosure: Bob Wagner's aud tape is solid, but boomy and a little unfocused, which may be tilting my general opinion here.


1/8/79 - Madison Square Garden 

The first set is great!  Good selection, great energy: a very fine Half Step > Franklin's kicks off with a satisfying peak to the Half Step jam and a nice transition.  Everything has the extra edge, and even the more obvious flubs sound more like over-enthusiasm than carelessness.  Lazy > Supplication, another good combo, closes things out.  Promising start!  As much as I really want to love this second set, however, I am just not feeling it.  On paper it's great, and Charlie Miller has repeatedly said that this is one of his particular favorites.  So your mileage, obviously, may vary.  Scarlet > Fire features an unusually prominent Donna "solo" in the transition jam, more forward than her other occasional moments of glossolalia -- you go ahead, Donna! -- and Jerry bumbleebeing his way through the rest of it.  Hmm.  He steps it up for FOTM with one well-crafted solo after another, but the rest of the band sounds like they're plodding along.  Maybe it's just me?  This S>F certainly has its proponents (e.g. here), so perhaps you all will like it more than I do.  Nothing much moves me either in Terrapin or Playing, and they skip Space altogether tonight for some noodling right into the Other One, which doesn't feel like it fully comes together before the vocals.  Wharf Rat, at least, is a powerhouse.  It's interesting that all three of these shows so far have had an energy bump after the Drums, but haven't quite delivered the goods beforehand.

MSG, by Bob Minkin.

1/10/79 - Nassau Coliseum

And another historical moment: the Dead return to Nassau, which they had sworn off in 1973 after heavy police presence and arrests.  A few good pulls were made, but Keith Gatto's aud tapes of both nights are spectacular, which I admit may contribute to my higher opinion of these shows.  The first set mostly lopes along without much spark (the B-grade song selection is partially to blame), but ends well with quality versions of Passenger and Loser before a hot Music Never Stopped finale that burns through both jams to a big finish.  Shakedown is a much better performance than MSG's (prompting Phil to crack, "you know it well!" to all the Long Islanders), but then a workmanlike Miracle > Bertha > Good Lovin' seems like they are settling in for another unremarkable 2nd set jam.  But oh no: a full blown Dark Star.  How?  Why?  Huh?  Remember that they had brought this back ten days earlier for the closing of Winterland blowout (and would play a shorter one again 10 days later), but this one takes the full ride for over 18 minutes, complete with a nice climax in the second half.  imho this vies with the 1984 Greek Theater encore for the best of the "lost years" Dark Stars, and what a nice surprise it is.  Space, thankfully, is another full-blown skronk-fest (crazier than 1/5) with another big climax, dropping off into a decent but unremarkable Wharf Rat.  They have one more ace to play: St. Stephen, another reprise from Winterland (and the last one they would play until 1983), a pretty on-point and fired up version.  Thank you, boys!  Dark Star through the end of the show is well worth hearing.

1/11/79 - Nassau Coliseum
(a rare sbd also circulates, though the aud is the better bet)

I wasn't expecting much from this more pedestrian looking setlist, but surprise surprise, the first set felt pretty solid.  A big ol' Sugaree opener boasts a great final jam (and less egregiously bad Bob slide), and there's also a nice Cassidy and a solid-if-not-amazing Jack Straw > Deal finisher, both with some slippery spots but an all-around good feeling.  The second set opens with a very long, jammy Miracle, by far the longest (10+ minutes) of this period, with a nice, easy, quasi-Truckin' shuffle.  The band goofs around wishing happy birthday to everyone ("the Birthday Brothers & Sisters Band!") before setting sail into the best Estimated so far (though check out Jerry pulling the e-brake hard in the bridge solo) with a lovely, nearly composed transition into He's Gone.  They groove on a long Truckin' tease before Drums, then noodle around for bit before Truckin' proper.  They give this one another good reading and make their way roundabout to the Other One, with a great transition to the intro and a short but very punchy jam, and finally a very slow but steady Stella Blue with an extra long outro solo -- not a true stunner, but a worthwhile trip -- before wrapping up the night a fine Casey Jones encore that I hope was a little parting fuck you to the Nassau police.  Start to finish, this may be the most consistent second set of these six shows, though nothing jumps out enough to make it one for the books.  A worthwhile specimen, nevertheless.


1/12/79 - The Spectrum

Back at the Spectrum for night 2, with Eddie Claridge's and Jim Wise's sweet, up-close FOB as the only circulating recording.  The first set is mostly pretty ho-hum (the opening Jack Straw doesn't hold a candle to the MSG version), but things settle into place with a nice Peggy-O, and a great one-two punch of Passenger and Deal.  The energy spills over into a nice Samson, though Garcia's voice isn't in good enough shape for Roses.  Yikes.  Dancing in the Streets had become far less common than it had been in spring '78, and while it seemed like the band's interest in stretching this one out had been waning, this one pulls a rabbit out of its hat: after a brisk, tight jam, they bring it back around and then wander off into a looser groove; it's nice them exploring an unexpected direction at this stage in the game.  Garcia manages to tie it back into the Dancin' reprise, they wrap up the tune, and then Garcia sets off again as everyone else takes a break.  Hart eases off, and the next few minutes are just Garcia and Kreutzmann playfully sparring with each other -- nothing like John Coltrane/Elvin Jones intensity, but it's pretty cool to hear these two having a rare 'alone together' moment.  Hart returns for a low-key Drums, which ushers in a Not Fade Away that (after another grimacey slide solo) is elevated by Garcia powering through the rest of the band's laconic groove with a stronger attack.  A bonus GDTRFB and Sugar Magnolia (no ballad) keep the energy and good vibes up high.  It's worth hearing this Dancin>jam, and worth sticking around for the rest of it if you're not in a rush.

1/12/79? by unknown

Takeaways
None of these six shows is a powerhouse from start to finish.  With the exception of 1/8/79, all of these first sets are pretty skipable, barring a couple highlights.  The first two shows are generally pretty low-gear and low priority.  I keep hoping that 1/8/79's second set will turn my crank someday, but it hasn't happened yet.  Things get genuinely engaging for me with the second set of 1/10 Nassau, 1/11 maintains the energy for an all-around generally solid show, and 1/12 delivers with an overlooked strong second set jam.  But I'm not feeling inspired to keep going, so this symmetrical six-show run will suffice.   fwiw, the second set from 1/15/79 in Springfield is probably the best single set of this final winter 79 period (though, again, the first set was mostly a snoozer, iirc).  2/3/79 Indianapolis is another real diamond in the rough, and I presume most folks know the final Keith & Donna show on 2/17/79 has some very spirited (if messy) playing and a host of setlist surprises.

The "problem" with these shows has less to do with any obvious flaws and more of a kind of settled but indifferent professionalism (well, professionalism by the Dead's standards).  "We used to play for acid, now we play for Clive," perhaps.  Jerry's and Donna's voices sound pretty blown out more often than not, Keith never sounds too engaged in any of it (though the tone of the electric piano he was playing isn't doing him any favors), and everyone else just kind of plays on through.  As much as history has firmly attributed this to the Godchauxs, it sounds to me more like a cloud had settled on the band in late 78 that didn't fully clear until Brent Mydland was fully settled in a year later. 

1/9/79: Keith is not amused (Bob Minkin)