11/5/74: a tale of two Jerrys

Jerry Moore, courtesy of Relix.

Continuing my Paul Humphrey streak, I very much enjoyed returning to this outstanding tape made by the great Jerry Moore, who taped several shows from this short Garcia/Saunders east coast tour, including all three of the Bottom Line early shows.  No late shows!  Can't blame a guy who's gotta get up and go to work in the morning, but still.  Oh woe.

I find the set to be enjoyable, but mixed overall -- the good stuff is really outstanding, but they're not totally consistent.  They come pumping out of the gate, but the delivery seems to dip a little bit in the middle of the set, with a draggy tempo for Second That Emotion and good-but-not-very-inspired performances of Leave Your Hat On and He Ain't Give You None.  But this was their first night on the road and mostly they're pretty cookin'.  They stumble a bit with getting together at the start of Mystery Train, but then they do indeed get it together.  Favela is fast, so fast that it feels like Jerry is only just staying on top of it.  To my ears, he fares much better on La-La, but both are pretty heavy performances. 

Taper legend Harvey Lubar shared the following story about this night (here)

As some of you might know, Jerry Moore and I were real close when we were in college together but drifted apart afterwards.  Nothing major, just life.  So, here's a quick story: Jerry and I went to the Bottom Line on 11/5/74 to see the early show.  The tables were perpendicular to the stage and we had the first two seats on each side of the table, right by the center of the stage.  When Garcia came out, I mentioned to Jerry that Garcia was starting to gray.  Jerry looked at him (his ankles were 3 feet away from us) and nodded in agreement.  We had never been so close to him before.  Jerry then took his mics out and actually put them on the stage for a few seconds while rearranging his bag.  Garcia stared at Jerry with total disbelief (his eyes actually widened) but he didn't say a word.  Then the show began.  Another great recording by Mr. Moore.

It is indeed an excellent aud tape, but what is particularly delightful is the chatter between, I presume,  Moore, Lubar, and maybe another buddy or two.  Thanks to the particular terroir of this tape, we are in a unique position (to paraphrase myself) of listening to Jerry Moore and Harvey Lubar listen to Jerry Garcia, and they are loving it.  This new drummer, whoever he is, is blowing their minds.  They are telling each other all about it.  For example, after a great That's a Touch:

"That drummer is really good."
"He's great!"
"Martin is nice."
"Yeah, he fits in."
"The drummer is really nice on the little rolls there."

after Favela:

"Musically, this is the best I've heard them."
"The drummer is gooood."
"He's really good." 
"He's damn good."
"Did you see, him and Garcia--"
"--right, that's what I was just going to say, he obviously knows(?) him a hell of a lot."
[calling out] "Who's the drummer!?" "what's his name?"
[deadpans] "Mickey Hart."
"He was, like, checking it with him -- it was incredible... [inaudible] ...It's really strange, but it was definitely happening." 
"That must be different for Garcia, for sure -- it's a different style of playing entirely."

 After La-La:

"This is definitely better than the last time they were here." (ahem)

And I would have to agree.  After Mystery Train, one of them declares, "phenomenal!" and Moore stops the tape.  But they weren't done yet.  The tape cuts back in:

"I don't believe that wasn't their last number!"
"What is it, quarter after two?"  [this has got to be sarcastic, right? This is definitely the early show]

and they power through a hot Money Honey to end the early show, unusually long at almost two hours!  A nice final touch is that Moore lets it roll for another minute, capturing the Bottom Line announcer cheerfully asking everyone to clear out for the next set and being greeted by Moore, Lubar, and a chorus of New Yorkers expressing how they feel about that.

10/27/74: stay golden, Jerry

courtesy gdsets

I had never closely listened to this because of the aud tape quality, but I was feeling intrepid and it paid off.  This is currently the earliest Garcia/Saunders recording with Paul Humphrey.  Some thoughts:

• Humphrey's first gig with the band was evidently at the tiny Chateau Liberté club on 10/11.  The next night, Garcia/Saunders was at the Berkeley Community Theater, apparently being fronted by Maria Muldaur (JGMF).  At a rare outdoor show in Santa Barbara on the 13th, Muldaur joined them again (JGMF).  gdsets also lists a Keystone Berkeley gig on 10/15 (the night before the Dead's final pre-hiatus stand at Winterland!? hmm), and then this three-night run at the Golden Bear in Huntington Beach, just south of LA and presumably not far from Humphrey's home base (gdsets lists five nights?).  Okay.  In between all this, the Grateful Dead machine played their final five shows for the foreseeable future.  Everyone at the time must have been reeling at the potential consequences of a Grateful Dead-less world, but Garcia's work schedule was not disrupted in any way.

• The sound quality of this tape is not great, but at least it sounds like our taper was right up front, maybe even with his mics set up onstage.  The vocals are very low (another stage mic tape giveaway), but the instrumental balance is good.  But it's overloaded and a couple generations down the line.  Grit your teeth and adjust.

• Quality notwithstanding, I found the most of the music here surprisingly hot.  That's a Touch I Like and Roadrunner, tunes that I usually enjoy without taking much notice of, are both really bangin', with Humphrey's powerful beat nearly levitating the whole band.  Favela is another bananas crazy version, flying along really quickly, but incredibly energetic and intense.  Expressway, like one on the 31st, feels draggier to me, with Humphrey perhaps overcompensating a bit (and Fierro deserves every "more cowbell!" joke that you care to make at his expense).  It Ain't No Use is mislabeled in the text file as It's Too Late: besides plowing a deep groove, also take note of Garcia's nice Roy Buchanan-esque volume knob bends on the intro.  Mystery Train is slamming.  Wow!  This band smokes.

• No big surprise that Maria Muldaur joins in again tonight, playing blue light chanteuse on Gee Baby Ain't I Good to You, an old chestnut that was recorded by loads of folks -- notably, in this case, also by her then-husband Geoff Muldaur on his album Having a Wonderful Time.  The story of both of the Muldaurs' connection to Garcia in early 74 is worth parsing out, although not here -- but his album seems to have been made in Garcia's/Saunders' orbit (and with the latter's participation) around the time of Garcia's Compliments earlier in the year, and Geoff Muldaur was on stage with the band at least once, possibly twice.  Also, the text file here mysteriously notes "Ringo on drums," but I am not hearing any audible evidence that anyone else is playing besides Humphrey.  If there is, then there is no way in the world that it's that Ringo.

• Aud tape fun: the taper's pals provide a nice distraction during the downtime in between songs, but Garcia's voice (off mic) comes through in spots as well.  Before Favela: "how do we start this? ... G minor?" (cue stoned chuckles).  Before Mystery Train (track 8, @1:05) it sounds like one of the pals says something in a mock southern accent about Mississppi Moon, to which Jerry responds something that I can't make out.  In the chatter after Expressway, another pal reasons, "guess they have new songs to worry about."  Yes indeed.

10/31/74: they don't know what my love is

courtesy gdsets

Another quickie: I like this show a lot and come back it to fairly regularly, if not all that often.  Again, trying to avoid a big project (I caught myself about to make a Paul Humphrey Top 10, for goodness sake), so just a few things:

• Paul Humphrey on the drums.  Good gracious me.  I am a big fan of Paul Humphrey.  The JGMF/Lost Live Dead axis has pinned down the specifics of his tenure with Garcia (I still contend that he is absolutely not on Pure Jerry 9/1/74 despite being credited), but my guess is that most deadheads unfortunately still associated him only with Lawrence Welk.  He did do some time on the Lawrence Welk show (everyone's gotta make a living), but he was also a session man par excellence and is one of the great funk drummers of his era: Exhibit A.   Dunno the circumstances of how exactly he was hired for Garcia/Saunders -- I believe it was Saunders who brought him in, and I presume it was for the sake of their east coast tour -- but he laid it down real funky for about seven weeks and then went on his way.  There is a lot of really, really great music in those seven weeks.

• The sbd tape is decent, but not outstanding quality.  The drums seems to be mixed a bit loud, and I believe that the very fizzy/phasey sound of the cymbals indicates too much noise reduction?  At any rate, it's still Paul Humphrey on drums.   

• John Kahn also sounds like he is in particularly good form tonight.  Go John!

• Interesting to see Osiris as one of the opening bands (good luck googling for info about a band called "Promised Land" in any way connected with Garcia).  Thanks to Corry, we know that Osiris happened to feature Pigpen's little brother Kevin McKernan on vocals, and that Garcia had taken a paternal interest in helping them with gear and exposure.  Lots of info here (and much more in the comments).

• The music!  Oh, the music.  Humphrey only had a couple of gigs under his belt at this point, and, while he never overplays, he was definitely a busy drummer.  To be honest, it didn't always work 100% of the time, but it sure works to everyone's advantage tonight: The Harder They Come, to my ears, didn't really find it's groove until later in Garcia's solo career, and the tempo here is a little sluggish at first, but jeez, Humphrey is killing it under those solos.  Expressway also feels a little leaden to me, but then watch out: everything after that is plenty fired up.  The groove in You Can Leave Your Hat On is borderline obscene; some serious voodoo soul stew happening in here.  Freedom Jazz Dance is outrageous.  Humphrey does get a little slap-happy towards the end of the set (the tape sound and the mix, to be fair, is doing him no favors), but the energy is way up there and it sounds like everyone is having a ball.  Tight and loose in all the right ways.

11/14/74: Garcia/Sanders, Boston

Happy Memorial Day!  It’s always a good day for some Garcia/Saunders, but the vibe feels especially right today.  So: our heroes check in on the last night of a 3-day stretch at the small Paul’s Mall club in Boston.  I asked a friend who had lived there in the 70’s what the place was like and the first thing he said was, “it had really low ceilings.”  Photos show that, indeed, the ceilings were pretty low.  Here’s the best pic I can find of the stage (from a great Jimmy McGriff/Groove Holmes record):

The Paul's Mall stage.  Watch your head!

courtesy Music Museum of New England

The Jazz Workshop, from what I understand, was essentially the same club, a different room right next door and under the same management.  I remember reading somewhere that Miles Davis always opted to play on the Paul’s Mall side rather than the Jazz Workshop in the 1970’s.  I also appreciate that saxophonist Joe Farrell (formerly of Return to Forever) was playing opposite G&S that week — nice! 

courtesy JGMF

From the sounds of this early show, Garcia & Saunders may have been better off playing next door, too.  The set is unusually heavy on their jazz material: four instrumentals (five if you count the People Make the World Go Round coda) and one Merl tune, plus two Jerry rockers.  The band comes flying out of the gate: Favela is played a little faster than usual, and Let it Rock blows by nearly too fast for Jerry to sing.  There’s a woman near the taper who calls it and seems super-psyched to hear it, though.  Then they ease back into a thick, swampy groove for Merl’s Problems and the show starts really clicking.  This is the kind of stuff that Paul Humphrey did the best with them: Kahn locks in, and everyone else takes their shoes off and gets soulful.  Yes yes yes.  They choogle through Mystery Train, with a mystery female singer adding a little bit to the end: it sounds like someone from the crowd, and they wrap it up pretty quickly after she gets her 15 seconds.  My Funny Valentine is a relatively succinct 14 minute version and sounds excellent (sax-haters be warned, though, that Martin gets a little squonky here) with a small space-out > PMTWGR tacked on the end that's always lovely.  The Meters’ great Just Kissed My Baby is a tune that G&S never seemed to quite get on top of (why didn’t Merl sing the lyrics? it would have been ideal for his voice), but this one simmers over a low flame and I’m loving Martin’s stanky electric effects.  Valdez in the Country sounds about as good as it got, everyone cruising along in the groove, and Garcia sounds dialed in here with a particularly tasty solo.  He could sometimes take a back seat to Saunders and Fierro on the jazz material, but tonight he sounds right on top of it.  A great set, and a very good aud recording by Jimmy Warburton is out there for your listening pleasure — a little muffled, but pretty ideal under the circumstances and nothing you won’t get used to.

The late show is less jazz-heavy with more emphasis on the rock/R&B side of the band.  This recording (from a different master) is also rougher on the ears, another reason why I tend to favor the early show.  They’re playing just as well, but the material is a bit more standard: the one extended “jazz” piece is Wonderin’ Why, great and expansive as always.  Garcia’s more staple vocal tunes (That’s a Touch, Mystery Train, How Sweet It Is, Second That Emotion) are all well done, but not quite where my head is right now.  They wrap it up with Favela again, again taken at the same breakneck tempo as earlier and played just as well.  Not as necessary as the early show, overall, but another fine document of a fine band.

Ultimately, I think this group's most representative recording is the excellent 11/28/74 Bettyboard, though 11/27 and 10/31/74 are also favorites.  I agree with JGMF that this 11/14 early show may be the best set of their east coast tour, and 11/16 is also an excellent performance as well.

JGMF has some written some notes about the night before, 11/13:
http://jgmf.blogspot.com/2012/12/ln-jg1974-11-13jgmslateaud.html

and lightintoashes has posted some contemporary reviews:
http://deadsources.blogspot.com/2012/12/november-12-1974-garcia-plays-boston.html

RIP Wilton Felder

RIP to Wilton Felder (Sept 27), who was a great saxophonist and a monster bass player.  How monstrous?

(and that’s Paul Humphrey on drums)

To name a few more: Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get It On (Paul Humphrey again!) and I Want You, Joni Mitchell (Court and Spark, Hissing of Summer Lawns), John Cale (Paris 1919), 70’s soft-rock staples like “Piano Man” and “Summer Breeze”, and a personal guilty pleasure fav of mine, Michael Franks’ The Art of Tea.  He’s on Grant Green’s wonderful Live at the Lighthouse, another funky jazz record that’s near to my heart.

But his main gig was playing tenor sax with the (Jazz) Crusaders.  I’ve heard that Felder wouldn’t play sax with anyone else, saving himself solely for the group’s sound — and they definitely had a sound, soulful and funky, that never endeared them to the jazz cognoscenti despite recording a load of successful albums.  I guess you'd call them underrated these days, but I’ve never heard a bad record of theirs (although, to be honest, I’m not crossing the 1974 line).  Scratch is a stone classic with at least one tune that may be of interest to JGBheads circa 1979-1980.  I contend that the Crusaders’ sound (and instrumentation) was a key influence on Kahn and Saunders as they created Reconstruction.  Phil Lesh was about as far from Wilton Felder as bass players got, but I'd bet you anything he was one of Kahn's favorites.