Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders Band Members, 1971-75

Live At Keystone, Fantasy Records, 1974, credited to Merl Saunders/Jerry Garcia/John Kahn/Bill Vitt

What is a rock band? This may seem like a simple question, and perhaps it is, but if you have a serious interest in rock music the problem is subtler than it appears. Prior to The Beatles, rock groups were just entertainers, essentially "High Concept" marketing vehicles, although such a term would not have been used at the time. Did anyone really know who was in The Coasters? Even if they did, would it have mattered if different people sang the parts? In that respect, early rock groups were like The Ice Capades: what was presented was more important than the actual participants. The Beatles changed all that.

The Beatles were fully self-contained: they wrote, they played, they sang, one for all, and all for one. The Beatles effect was just as powerful on musicians as it was on fans. Folk musicians like Roger McGuinn or Jerry Garcia saw A Hard Day's Night and decided more or less in the movie theater that being in a rock group was where it's at. The Byrds, the Grateful Dead and a thousand other groups would follow. Yet who were "The Beatles?"

There had been pre-Beatles groups like The Quarrymen, and the very first version of the Beatles featured bassist Stuart Sutcliffe and drummer Pete Best. Sutcliffe died, and Best was fired, and once Ringo Starr joined they were the "real" Beatles. Did that mean the six shows that The Beatles played in early 1964 with substitute drummer Jimmy Nicol when Ringo was very ill were not "real" Beatles shows? Clearly not. So what is a rock group?

Rock's first and best prosopographer, Pete Frame, inventor and author of The Rock Family Trees series, has gone the farthest in codifying our views of rock groups. In general, most rock fans--and me-- feel that a "group" is equal to more than the sum of its individual parts. Something magical happens when a certain set of musicians play together in the studio or on stage. As a concession to reality, most fans implicitly feel that there are core members of groups, and perhaps some peripheral members can change without affecting the group. However, when a key member leaves or joins, the group evolves. Frame addresses the problem by dividing bands into periods: The Byrds #1, The Byrds #2, and so on. Rock fans implicitly accepted this. Some went further, and started blogs.

Almost all Grateful Dead fans, for example, consider the version of the Grateful Dead that recorded Blues For Allah in 1975 and toured "different" than the lineup that preceded it, even though the only change was the return of Mickey Hart on drums. By the same token, the few shows in early 1979 when Donna Godcahaux was not present did not constitute enough of a break with the group zeitgeist to make those performances "non-Grateful Dead."

How, then, to consider the recording and performing history of the Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders collaboration? I have gone to great lengths to detail the personnel of the Jerry Garcia Band, the New Riders of The Purple Sage, Old And In The Way, Bobby and The Midnites and several other groups. While it's necessary to account for the occasional substitute drummer of fiddler, by and large the Pete Frame superstructure works very well. Rock groups have "periods," and they change when personnel changes, as all the current members see the new members as a chance to re-think and re-work their approach to their own music. However, after much struggling, no such configurative history works for Garcia and Saunders. There is no meaningful Garcia and Saunders #1, nor #2, and in fact the whole Frame concept that my historical analysis is generally based on does a disservice to Garcia and Saunders.

Pete Frame's Rock Family Trees is profoundly appropriate to rock groups, but not to all music. The Garcia-Saunders group was best understood as a jazz group, and only makes sense in that context. As it happens, the Garcia-Saunders group was a jazz band that played rock music, but they still had a jazz approach and configuration, particularly from a financial and professional perspective. This post will look at the history of band members in the various Garcia-Saunders collaborations from 1971 through 1975, and in so doing will explain how the very conception of the group was opposite to rock groups such as The Jerry Garcia Band which would soon follow it.

An ad for Miles Davis' appearance at San Francisco's Both/And Club for the week of April 11-17, 1967 (from the April 13, 1967 San Francisco Chronicle)

What Is  A Jazz Group?
In the 1950s and 60s, the concept of a jazz group or "combo" was very different than that of a sixties rock group. Over time, the jazz and rock conceptions have merged for a variety of commercial reasons, but when Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders started playing together in the early 1970s, they would still have been working off a 60s conception of jazz groups. Merl would have been a member of such groups, and Jerry would have been a fan and consumer, but their concept would have been the same.

Jazz musicians are generally profoundly talented. You could inadvertently spill ink on music paper, and the Miles Davis Quintet could make it sound great. Since jazz musicians are so talented, they can rarely find a platform for all of them to use all their ideas at once. What evolved from the 1950s onward was the idea that each jazz live or studio session had a leader and sidemen, and the music evolved from that. The leader picked the band, defined the concept and picked the tunes, and the members played accordingly. Of course, much of the music was improvised, but the improvisation was subsumed under the leader's plans. For example, many Blue Note Records albums from the 1960s have the same players, but the records sound different based on the leader. If Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock played on a Tony Williams album, they followed Williams' ideas; if Williams and Hancock were on a session for Shorter, they followed his ideas. And yet, all of them were in Miles Davis's great quintet at the time, where they followed Miles' directions.

By the same token, if you saw Miles Davis at a jazz club in the late 60s, you expected to see a group led by Miles, playing his music. If you were lucky, and probably in New York, you might get to see the "Great Quintet" with Shorter, Williams, Hancock and bassist Ron Carter. If you were in San Francisco, you might see a sextet lineup with both Shorter and Joe Henderson on saxophones, but with Albert Stinson on bass, as Ron Carter rarely toured. A "jazz group" meant that the leader or leaders defined the music, and the best available players played it. It was still Miles Davis, and it was still jazz. Garcia and Saunders were built on the Miles Davis model, not that of The Beatles.

Garcia/Saunders History
I have dealt with the genesis of the Garcia/Saunders partnership at length, and will only briefly recap it here. Drummer Bill Vitt and organist Howard Wales were responsible for hosting Monday night jams at The Matrix in early 1970. Over time, Jerry Garcia and John Kahn became regulars with them. Wales had some hesitation about the popularity associated with playing with Jerry Garcia, and after some brief flirtations with Vince Guaraldi, Kahn brought Merl Saunders into the jams at The Matrix. Initially, Garcia, Saunders, Kahn and Vitt only played at The Matrix, but starting in 1971 they started to play out a little more. Since Garcia was a rock musician, they were considered a "rock group", but really they weren't. In fact, Garcia and Saunders' partnership was built on a jazz concept, whatever music they happened to be playing.

By early 1971, the Garcia-Saunders group had started to play somewhat regularly. Mostly they played The Matrix, until it closed, and then they mostly played The Keystone Korner. In the tradition of jazz groups, they had a core membership, but there seems to be evidence that it was fluid. In general, ias long as Garcia and Saunders were present, it was "The Garcia-Saunders Group." John Kahn was usually the bassist, and Bill Vitt was usually the drummer. In jazz terminology, Kahn and Vitt were the "first call" rhythm section, meaning they got the first phone call, as they were the preferred choices. However, if one of them was booked, someone else got the call, and it was still the Garcia-Saunders band. From what limited evidence we have, Bill Kreutzmann played drums on a number of occasions. There were probably substitutions on bass as well, when John Kahn was booked. This would have been standard operating procedure for a jazz group: Garcia and Saunders were the leaders who defined the music, Kahn and Vitt got the first call, and others filled in when required.

A Keystone Korner flyer for October 1971--should we read anything into the fact that John Kahn is not named on the flyer?

Garcia-Saunders 1971-1973
When thinking about "Garcia and Saunders" as a rock band, it's important to note that the group did not even have a name. "The Grateful Dead" may have been known informally as "The Dead" or occasionally by some 'substitute' name like "Jerry Garcia And Friends," but The Grateful Dead was a very real entity. They toured and recorded as The Grateful Dead, and a concert or album booked or sold as The Grateful Dead explicitly implied a certain repertoire and personnel. To some extent, the identity associated with their own name is what distinguishes a rock group from other musical aggregations.

When Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders played a nightclub or concert in the early 1970s, they could be booked any old way: "Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders," 'Garcia and Saunders," "The Garcia-Saunders Band" and so on. The implication was clear in any case: Garcia and Saunders would lead the band playing their unique jazz/rock hybrid, and other players would join them as available. Indeed, some interviews from this period refer to the Garcia-Saunders band as "The Group." Bill Vitt and John Kahn were generally seen as the 'other' members, but great care was taken to never define them as a rock band. As far as I know, whatever money was made was split between the individuals who played. A few bucks may have been passed on to Ramrod or other crew, but in general the musicians split the take evenly.

By the end of 1971, rhythm guitarist Tom Fogerty was playing at least some gigs with Garcia and Saunders, but he was more of a 'participant' than a 'member,' just as the others were. By the end of 1972, Garcia and Saunders seemed to have been experimenting with adding additional players to the group. Sarah Fulcher sang with the group from late 1972 until late 1973, but she didn't play every show. Guitarist George Tickner played several shows in Spring 1973. Will Scarlett occasionally played harmonica, and Martin Fierro played tenor sax one day in 1973 (July 19). At other times, different players would join the group for a song or two, often on an apparently casual basis, possibly simply because a band member had invited them on stage. All this was typical for a jazz group, but not a rock group.

From a jazz perspective, the Garcia-Saunders aggregation looked like this from 1971-1973:

Jerry Garcia-lead guitar, vocals
Merl Saunders-organ, keyboards
John Kahn-bass
sub: Marty David or others-bass
Bill Vitt-drums
sub: Bill Kreutzmann-drums
plus: Tom Fogerty-guitar (1971-72)
       Armando Peraza-congas (Spring 1972)
       George Tickner-guitar (Spring 1973)
       Sarah Fulcher-vocals (Dec 1972-Oct 73)
      Will Scarlett-harmonica (1973)
      Martin Fierro-tenor sax (July 19 1973)
and occasional guests on trumpet or other instruments for a number or two

Of course, given the limited number of tapes and reviews in our possession, there may be a wider number of subs than we may know about now. I would note that of the relatively few surviving Garcia/Saunders tape from this era, Bill Kreutzmann drums on a lot of them. No one really has any idea if Vitt played most of the shows, or only half of them, or what. At the time, besides being a session musician, Vitt was also a member of The Sons Of Champlin, so he may have had a lot of conflicts. Kreutzmann, of course, would not have been working if Garcia had a gig, so he would have been readily available.

John Kahn also had a parallel career in the early 1970s. Besides working as a session man in San Francisco and Los Angeles, Kahn performed regularly, if intermittently, with Brewer And Shipley, in the studio, on TV and on tour. So the occasional Garcia/Saunders show without Kahn (such as January 19, 1973, with Marty David on bass) were most likely conflicts with Brewer And Shipley. I think Kahn played more consistently with Garcia/Saunders than Vitt did, but truthfully we don't know for certain how many of those shows he actually missed.

The important point to consider here, however, is to dispense with the idea that the Garcia/Saunders aggregation had "members" in the sense of The Byrds or even the Jerry Garcia Band. If Armando Peraza was present, he was in the band; if he wasn't, he wasn't. In neither case was he exactly a "member." in the sense that Chris Hillman had been a member of the Byrds. Certainly, John Kahn and Bill Vitt were the first call players, and they were members in the sense that Ron Carter and Tony Williams had been members of the Miles Davis Quintet from 1964 to 1968. Albert Stinson and a few others played bass for the Quintet many times, but Ron Carter was no less a "member" for not making every show. Garcia and Saunders' music only required Garcia, Saunders and a rhythm section. Kahn and Vitt were the first and best rhythm section, but the music was played in any case.

As I have discussed at length, Jerry Garcia's first independent contract after he and the Grateful Dead left Warner Brothers was an agreement to make an album on Fantasy Records, the early 1974 album Live At Keystone. Tellingly, the artists on the record were not "Garcia and Saunders" but "Garcia, Saunders, Kahn and Vitt." This was a very jazz conception for a rock album, and I think a telling one. JGMF has marshaled some solid evidence that the quartet was experimenting with other players in early 1973, such as Sarah Fulcher and George Tickner, in consideration of future recording, but they seem to have gone with the core quartet. Garcia and Saunders were playing rock, if improvised rock, but their musical and financial conception of their band was that of a jazz group, not a rock band.

An obscure flyer for the Garcia/Saunders show at USF Gym on Halloween 1974. They are billed as Jerry Garcia, Merl Saunders and Friends. Opening act is Osiris, featuring Kevin McKernan.

Garcia And Saunders 1974-75
Bill Vitt stopped playing with Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders by the end of 1973. As usual, no reason or explanation was ever given. According to my theory, it's likely rather than that he "quit the band" or "was fired," he just stopped getting calls. The Garcia-Saunders aggregation had started to become more successful, thanks to the Dead's growing popularity and the attention that came with the Live At Keystone album. As a result, they were less able to always act like a casual jazz group who played the same few Bay Area nightclubs over and over.

'Membership' in the Garcia-Saunders aggregation for 1974-75 appears from the outside to be a very confusing story. I have made sense of it by dividing the known performances into three separate configurations, all of which overlapped with each other. You'll have to temporarily bear with some of my naming conventions until I explain them fully. The three concurrent configurations were

• "Garcia-Saunders"
• "Merl Saunders and Friends" and
• Legion Of Mary

After Bill Vitt 'left' the Garcia-Saunders group, or at least stopped getting phone calls, the band played their shows with Bill Kreutzmann on drums. Meanwhile, during the Winter of 1974, John Kahn, Merl Saunders and finally Jerry Garcia were recording Garcia's second solo album in Southern California, which is how drummer Ron Tutt came into their orbit. After what appeared to be a live dry run with Ron Tutt at the tiny Inn Of The Beginning in Cotati, Tutt did not play with Garcia and Saunders until December 1974.

In the meantime, Bill Kreutzmann played Garcia/Saunders shows at smaller auditoriums and weekends at the Keystone Berkeley. Late in the Summer, the great Paul Humphrey played drums for some gigs--it's hard to pin down the exact date--and by the time the Grateful Dead had gone on touring hiatus, Humphrey was the regular drummer for Garcia/Saunders. Humphreys played the notable Bay Area shows and the out-of-town shows throughout most of 1974. At some point, tenor saxophonist Martin Fierro became a regular part of the band as well.

By the end of 1974, Ron Tutt had joined Garcia/Saunders. Although there seems to have been a bit of confusion on the part of promoters, the name Legion Of Mary appears at the end of 1974. From December 1974 through July 1975, the lineup of Garcia/Saunders/Fierro/Kahn/Tutt was known as Legion Of Mary. What is confusing, however, was that if a show was booked with a different drummer, then it was billed as "Garcia-Saunders." A good example was June 8, 1975, at El Camino Park in Palo Alto. Someone other than Ron Tutt, an African-American (possibly Paul Humphrey), played drums, and the show was booked as Garcia-Saunders

It is not a relevant point here if a show was billed as "Garcia/Saunders Band," "Jerry Garcia And Merl Saunders" or some other slight variation. Both Legion Of Mary and Garcia/Saunders played more or less the same material. Legion Of Mary was conceived like a real rock group, like The Byrds, with a fixed membership; Garcia/Saunders had some fluidity, like a jazz group.

However, the real confusion with Garcia and Saunders performing lineups in 1974 and '75 has to do with what I am artificially naming here as "Merl Saunders And Friends." From mid-1974 until Summer '75, although the Grateful Dead made two studio albums and Garcia started working on the Grateful Dead movie, relatively speaking Garcia had more time on his hands than he had at any other time in the decade. After 1974, the Dead simply stopped performing; and even before that, Garcia only had one working band. Jerry was Jerry--if he had a free night and a guitar, he was going to play.

Garcia's access points to pickup shows was Merl Saunders. Garcia had long since passed the time when he could simply "drop in" and jam with someone without a hullabaloo, and in any case it was clear that Garcia didn't consider playing a ragged version of "Hideaway" with some strangers to be a fulfilling evening. Independent of Garcia/Saunders shows, however, Merl Saunders was a working musician with his own career. On his own, Merl was much jazzier, in the tradition of organ groups, and played with a rotating cast of players. Saunders played a lot of shows with just Martin Fierro on sax and a rotating cast of drummers, and his son Tony Saunders on bass when he was available. If Garcia was free--remember, the Dead weren't touring for much of this period--Garcia dropped in to play as well.

The reason we have any history at all of Garcia from places like The Sand Dunes, a tiny joint near Ocean Beach (at 3599 Taraval in San Francisco), or The Generosity, or The Inn Of The Beginning, another distant watering hole, was plainly that Saunders had booked the gig for his own band, and Garcia managed to make the show. Of course, Merl, the club owner and even Jerry were all hoping that any and every Merl gig featured a guest appearance by Garcia, but Merl was playing the show regardless. It seems clear to me that in some cases Garcia could give enough advance warning that the club owner--much to his delight--could actually advertise Garcia's presence. In other cases, Garcia seems to have just dropped by.

The important thing about club bookings is that they have to be scheduled 30 to 60 days in advance. A large club or an Auditorium wasn't going to book Saunders without Garcia, but a smaller place had to be open most nights anyway. Saunders had a regular Monday night gig in 1974 at The Sand Dunes, for example. My guess is that there were usually about 50 people there, although maybe various people came and went and the total head count was larger. At least once Garcia seems to have dropped in. The night's music was mostly instrumental jams, much looser and freewheeling than the rock-focused sound of the Garcia/Saunders band.

Tony Saunders usually played bass for his dad's gigs, although not always--Merl could play the bass with his foot pedals if needed. Various drummers sat in: E.W. Wainwright, Bob Steeler, Gaylord Birch and probably others, too. A variety of other musicians seemed to have dropped in, in the jazz tradition. Everybody wanted Jerry to show up, but even if he didn't, Merl was going to play anyway. The "Merl Saunders And Friends" shows, however they were variously billed, was a final year where Garcia could find a free night and sit in with a willing but talented band of friendly players and just lay it down, opportunities that all but disappeared after the Summer of 1975.

The June 1975 Keystone Berkeley calendar has billings for both Garcia/Saunders and The Legion of Mary (among many other interesting bookings)

Garcia & Saunders Band Lineups 1974-75

Garcia/Saunders, February-November 1974
Jerry Garcia-guitar, vocals
Merl Saunders-organ, keyboards, vocals
John Kahn-bass
Bill Kreutzmann-drums
then> Paul Humphrey-drums Aug-Nov '7
various subs>Paul Humphrey (Jun 8 '75) Gregg Errico (Jun 22 '75)
late 1974> Martin Fierro-tenor sax, flute

It's my current contention that Martin Fierro was a regular in Merl's band throughout 1974, but not necessarily in Garcia/Saunders. However, once it was clear that the Grateful Dead would be going on hiatus, I think Fierro became a "permanent" member of Garcia/Saunders and then Legion Of Mary. 

It remains uncertain exactly when Paul Humphrey first performed with Garcia and Saunders, but it appears to be August 11 or 12, 1974. It's also uncertain exactly when he became the regular drummer, and indeed when he was replaced by Ron Tutt. I can assure you that checking The Jerry Site won't help, since many of their sources were derived from me (via Deadbase IX) and I can vouch for my own mistakes there. The whole problem stemmed from a mistaken notion on my part that the drummers were "leaving" and "joining" the Garcia/Saunders "Band" as if they were members of The Byrds.

Merl Saunders & Friends with Jerry Garcia mid-74-Sunmer '75
Jerry Garcia-guitar
Martin Fierro-tenor sax
Merl Saunders-organ
Tony Saunders-bass (sometimes absent)
EW Wainwright, Bob Steeler, Gaylord Birch, others?-drums
various guest musicians on various instruments

By definition, Merl Saunders played numerous shows in this period with similar lineups, but without Garcia. For my purposes, it's not important how these shows were billed. The "Merl Saunders And Friends" period seems to have gone from late Summer 1974 through June 1975. I myself have not made the attempt to determine which shows might qualify as "And Friends" date. At this point, I am simply trying to assert and defend the proposition that Merl Saunders and Friends with Jerry Garcia was a different animal than Garcia and Saunders, even if they were sometimes billed the same way. There may have been more such appearances by Garcia than we initially realized.

Legion Of Mary December 1974-June 1975
Jerry Garcia-guitar, vocals
Martin Fierro-tenor sax, flute
Merl Saunders-organ, keyboards, vocals
John Kahn-bass
Ron Tutt-drums

Legion Of Mary began when Ron Tutt joined the group in December 1974. Any Garcia show that had the following lineup counted as a Legion Of Mary show. If Tutt wasn't present, the show was billed as Garcia/Saunders, not Legion Of Mary. For my purposes, it's moot if a few promoters called Legion Of Mary shows "Garcia-Saunders" shows. Tutt's arrival foretold the idea that Garcia's side band would be a regular, working rock band, with a name and a fixed membership.

Once again, I have not been been able to pin down Ron Tutt's first appearance with Garcia and Saunders in late 1974, and hence the beginning of Legion Of Mary. Ironically, Tutt's first appearance may still have been followed by dates with Paul Humphrey on drums, so that too clouds the trail. In a strange twist, the next-to-last show billed as Legion Of Mary, on June 22, 1975, featured Gregg Errico on drums, so by my system it would count as a Garcia/Saunders show, but you are free to make your own decision.

Aftermath
Garcia And Saunders, to the extent it was a "band," was institutionally a jazz band, even though they played rock. Certain players like John Kahn and Bill Vitt got the first phone call, but their absence on any given date was part of the professional life of the band. Both Garcia and Saunders put out solo albums from 1971 through 1974 featuring various players, and a live album was released with the core four of Garcia, Saunders, Kahn and Vitt. If you look at the careers of working jazz musicians during this period--Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson, anyone you like--that was what their recorded output was like. Different leaders made records using their various collaborators, and they shared credits on a live album.

When Garcia and Saunders stabilized in mid-1974 to become more like a rock band, first with Paul Humphrey and Martin Fierro, and finally with Ron Tutt, it foreshadowed the future Jerry Garcia Band. The Jerry Garcia Band had a fixed lineup at any given moment, and many of the members of the group stayed in the band for years. The practical realities of touring meant that there was the occasional substitute on bass or drums, but those were kept to a mere handful.

What was lost, ne'er to be seen again, was anything resembling Garcia's guest appearances with Merl Saunders' group. For almost a year, Garcia had enough time to drop in on Merl's little gigs, and just funk out on whatever jazz the band was playing. In some ways, this was a reflection of what Garcia apparently had enjoyed in the 1969-70 period at the Matrix, but that scene had disappeared with the Matrix itself. In some ways, the 1979 band Reconstruction may have been designed to provide an encore. John Kahn had alluded to the idea that Reconstruction would continue without Jerry, and indeed they played a few obscure gigs, but it ground to a halt. If Reconstruction had stood on their own, however, it might have provided a forum for Jerry to just drop in, without having to lead the band. It was not to be.

The last sign of a Garcia appearance with what I am calling "Merl Saunders And Friends" was at The Shady Grove in San Francisco, on October 2 and 3, 1978. The Shady Grove was a popular little musician's hangout, at 1538 Haight Street, between Ashbury and Clayton, that was under threat of closing. Merl played there regularly, and Garcia came out to play for one and possibly two nights, sitting in with Merl's band. A tape endures of October 3, and Garcia gets to jam away in some tiny joint, an opportunity that was already largely denied to him even by that date. The substantial legacy of Garcia and Saunders and Legion of Mary has left Garcia's final run at being one of the boys in the band largely obscured by clouds.

Grateful Dead Tour Itinerary December 1966

 

A promotional picture of Jerry Garcia for the December 23-24, 1966 Grateful Dead show at the Avalon Ballroom, published in the December 20, 1966 San Francisco Chronicle

I have been constructing tour itineraries for the Grateful Dead for brief periods of their history. There is so much information circulating on websites and blogs (including my own) that go beyond published lists on Deadlists and Dead.net that these posts make useful forums for discussing what is known and missing during each period. Rather than go in strictly chronological order, I am focusing on periods where recent research has been done by myself or others.  My principal focus here is on identifying which dates have Grateful Dead shows, which dates might have Grateful Dead shows, and which dates are in dispute or may be of interest (other entries in my Grateful Dead tour itinerary series can be seen here).

What follows is a list of known Grateful Dead performance dates for December, 1966. I am focused on which performances occurred when, rather than the performances themselves. For known performances, I have assumed that they are easy to assess on Deadlists, The Archive and elsewhere, and have made little comment.  I am not considering recording dates, interviews or Television and radio broadcast dates in this context.

My working assumption is that the Grateful Dead, while already an infamous  rock band by the end of 1966, were living hand to mouth and scrambling to find paying gigs. Most paying performances were on Friday and Saturday nights, so I am particularly interested  in Friday and Saturday nights where no Grateful Dead performances were scheduled or known.

Grateful Dead Tour Itinerary, December 1966

A listing for the Grateful Dead/Jerry Pond shows at The Matrix, from the Sunday San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner, November 27, 1966

November 28-December 1, 1966: The Matrix, San Francisco, CA: Grateful Dead/Jerry Pond
The Grateful Dead had played the tiny Matrix club in January of 1966, but they rapidly graduated to shows at the Fillmore and the Avalon. For some reason, the band played a Monday-to-Thursday run at the Matrix at the end of November. It's hard to say why. If the Dead were desperate for money (their normal state) and the Matrix was financially worth their while, why hadn't they played there more often? Yet the Matrix only seated 100 people and dancing was not allowed (really), so it couldn't have been too lucrative.

I have floated the idea that the Dead were interested in getting a live recording of themselves, perhaps as a sort of demo tape. I haven't convinced everyone, but at least it's worth noting that the Dead played different kinds of sets than they appear to have played at The Fillmore. The opener was local folksinger Jerry Pond. The Dead did not play the Matrix again, although Jerry Garcia played there many times in subsequent years.

A promotional photo of Jerry Garcia and Pigpen, for the Grateful Dead/Country Joe and The Fish concert at Pauley Ballroom on the UC Berkeley campus. Published in the San Francisco Chronicle, December 1, 1966

December 2, 1966: Pauley Ballroom, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA: Grateful Dead/Country Joe And The Fish
On Friday, December 2, the Grateful Dead headlined at the Pauley Ballroom in UC Berkeley with Berkeley heroes Country Joe and The Fish. Both bands were in the process of signing record contracts (the Dead with Warners and Joe and The Fish with Vanguard). Pauley Ballroom had a capacity of about 1000. It's unlikely the University allowed shows to go on past 11:00pm. This was probably the last live performance of Joe and The Fish with original drummer John Francis Gunning.

Saturday, December 3 is an open date on the Dead's calendar. If there is a rumor of a lost show, this seems a very likely date. Colleges and high schools were ending their terms, so there would have been a lot of activity, and perhaps the Dead played a dance or something. They were popular, but still broke, and could hardly turn down a paid booking.

Listing for the opening night of Grateful Dead's performances at the Fillmore on the weekend of December 9-11. Published in the San Francisco Chronicle, December 9, 1966

December 9-11, 1966: Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, CA: Grateful Dead/Tim Rose/Big Mama Thornton
The Grateful Dead were sole headliners at the Fillmore for the first time on the weekend of December 9-11. They had shared top booking a number of times, depending on how you want to define "top," but there's no question they were the principal attraction this weekend. Big Mama Thornton was just starting to get known to white hippies, but she wasn't a big draw. Tim Rose had had some modest hit singles, and was getting a little radio airplay, but he was no headliner. Thus, the Dead were topping the bill by themselves, another sign of their rising popularity.

I have speculated about these shows at length, mainly from the point of view that Tim Rose almost certainly performed his own very different arrangement of "Morning Dew." The Dead's version is so different that I doubt there was any musical influence from Rose, but I wouldn't be surprised if hearing Rose's version was an impetus for Garcia and the Dead to start playing their own arrangement publicly.

December 14, 1966: Gym, City College of Marin, San Rafael, CA: Grateful Dead
This largely unknown show was a Pep Rally/Dance for Marin's junior college. My eyewitness was (then future) Sons Of Champlin road manager Charlie Kelly. When you read the entire tale, you'll see why Kelly's memories of the entire week are very clear, and while the show may have been Thursday December 15, there's no question that Kelly's reactions are accurate (to tell the tale briefly: Kelly returned home from basic training to celebrate his 21st birthday by seeing his childhood friends The Sons Of Champlin play The Avalon, and then shipped out to Vietnam, so it wasn't a week he would forget).

If the Grateful Dead were playing a College of Marin Pep Rally the week after they headlined the Fillmore, there's a good chance they were playing a college dance on Saturday, December 3 (above). 

The listing for the Otis Redding/Grateful Dead concert at the Fillmore on December 20, 1966, from the San Francisco Chronicle of the same date

December 20, 1966: Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, CA: Otis Redding/Grateful Dead
Much has been in retrospect of Otis Redding's appearance at the Fillmore. Otis Redding headlined three nights at the end of 1966 (December 20-22), and although it was a midweek booking, since it was heading towards Christmas that may not have mattered as much. Bill Graham endlessly repeated the story that the Bay Area rock bands begged to open the show, and Janis Joplin demanded front row seats every night (I heard Graham himself tell this story at a lecture in 1976).  The story was generally told as a talisman to show either how much the rock musicians liked soul music, or how popular Otis Redding was in crossing over to a rock audience. Over the years, this story has been re-told many times, and sometimes it expands in the retelling.

The outlines of the story are basically correct. Otis Redding headlined three nights, and the Grateful Dead opened Tuesday (December 20) and Country Joe And The Fish opened Thursday (December 22). The middle night's opening slot was taken by the Oakland R&B group Johnny Talbot And De Thangs, who played both the local soul circuit and also on occasion at the Fillmore. I don't doubt that the Dead and Country Joe and The Fish were enthusiastic about opening for the great Otis Redding.

However, everyone seems to forget that the Fillmore Auditorium was in the heart of the largely African-American Fillmore district. Prior to Bill Graham, the Fillmore was an important stop on the R&B circuit, under the aegis of promoter Charles Sullivan, whose retirement opened the door for Graham to take over the lease. It's very likely that Redding had played the Fillmore before. In any case, while I don't doubt that there were a few open minded hippies in the audience, the fact is that most of Otis's audience was probably African American, and many of them would have lived right there in the Fillmore. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but I don't think Otis headlining the Fillmore signified anything more than that he was very popular and Graham knew a good booking when it came his way.

One implicit tip-off about the audience came from Graham's version of the story. If Janis was requesting front row seats every night, then there were seats, presumably folding chairs. The festival seating, light-show vibe was not in the cards for the no doubt well-dressed African American crowd. With all those caveats aside, it's still cool that the Grateful Dead were happy to open the show. They had just headlined the Fillmore 10 days earlier, yet they seemed to have been honored to have been on the bill, as were Country Joe And The Fish.

A poster for the Grateful Dead's appearance at the Continental Ballroom in Santa Clara on Wednesday, December 21, 196

December 21, 1966: Continental Ballroom, Santa Clara, CA: New Arrivals/Grateful Dead/Elgin Marble/Yellow Pages
The Continental Ballroom, at 1600 Martin Avenue in Santa Clara, not far from downtown San Jose, has a very intriguing and largely untold rock and roll history. The building was San Jose's main rock and roll palace from about 1965 to 1970, and lots of great bands played there. I don't know about the building's history or ownership (and not for lack of trying to find out), but in general it was not associated with a single promoter. Part of the legend of the Fillmore and the Avalon comes from their association with Bill Graham and Chet Helms, respectively, and both men were very good at memorializing their own achievements. That isn't to deny the importance of the Fillmore and the Avalon, but the Continental was an interesting place, too, but there was no major figure to tell the story.

The San Jose area had a thriving live rock scene from 1965 onwards. Initially, many of the popular groups were made up of local teenagers, like The Syndicate Of Sound, but there was a huge population of suburban kids with cars, and there was plenty of live rock. Some really good bands came out of San Jose as well, particularly the Chocolate Watch Band. However, San Francisco and Berkeley tended to look down on San Jose, and so the Watch Band and other San Jose groups never really got their due at the Fillmore (Graham's rivalry with CWB manager Ron Roupe didn't help). There were many great rock shows at The Continental with San Jose bands, and when the San Francisco bands got popular they played a lot of shows there as well.

Since the San Jose market was oriented towards teenagers, a show on December 21st was effectively a weekend, since it was the Wednesday before Christmas and almost all students would have been out of school. Note the Munsters theme on the poster--this show isn't really directed at a psychedelic crowd. At this point, the Grateful Dead would have merely been a name that San Jose kids would have seen in the paper. However, San Jose had the kind of market where teenagers just went out to have fun, and saw whoever was around. They may have been kind of surprised by the Dead, but in fact San Jose had some good bands, so the kids probably really liked it. The light show may not yet have been a typical thing at San Jose shows. Elgin Marble was a local San Jose band who were around for a few years, but I don't recognize The Yellow Pages.

A mention of the upcoming concerts at the Avalon Ballroom on December 23 and 24, 1966, featuring the Grateful Dead, Moby Grape and the Steve Miller Blues Band, from Ralph J. Gleason's column in the San Francisco Chronicle on December 23, 1966. Note the listing for the Smokey Grass Boys at The Jabberwock; the Smokey Grass Boys was a bluegrass band featuring David Grisman, Herb Pedersen and Rick Shubb

December 23-24, 1966: Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, CA: Grateful Dead/Moby Grape/Steve Miller Blues Band
With the Fillmore closed for Christmas, the Grateful Dead took the opportunity to headline on the weekend before Christmas (Christmas was on a Sunday). The San Francisco Chronicle published its second picture of Jerry Garcia in a month (above). One of the reasons that Garcia became such a figure long before the Dead's music itself became popular was that he seems to have received a lot of publicity of this sort, probably much to his own dismay.

This weekend's shows at the Avalon were more important in the histories of Moby Grape and the Steve Miller Band than for the Grateful Dead. Moby Grape had debuted the month before, after rehearsing at The Ark in Sausalito. Their manager Matthew Katz had put on a show at California Hall at the end of November, but he had no idea about underground promotion, and there were only a few dozen people present. Moby Grape immediately split with Katz--with whom they are still in litigation 46 years later--and guitarist Peter Lewis started booking the gigs. Lewis had gotten the Grape a few nights at the Matrix, and now they were on the bill at the Avalon. Moby Grape was a great band, and a great live band, and playing the Avalon meant that everyone was about to find that out. Lead guitarist Jerry Miller had been friendly with Garcia since the Warlocks days, when Miller (and drummer Don Stevenson) had been in a group called The Frantics.

Steve Miller had been based in Chicago, but he had scouted out the Bay Area in Fall 1965. He returned in his VW Microbus on October 15, 1966, stopping off at the Fillmore to jam with his friend Paul Butterfield. By Thanksgiving, he had imported some friends from Madison, WI and they started playing as The Steve Miller Blues Band. They weren't making any money, however, and Miller was still living in his van. Once Chet Helms offered the group $500 for this weekend at the Avalon, Miller was in town to stay.

December 25, 1966: Christmas Party, Big Brother house, Lagunitas, CA
In December, 1966, the Grateful Dead were living in an unused resort camp in Lagunitas, in the San Geronimo Valley. The Dead shared the camp with Quicksilver Messenger Service. Living "next door," a few miles away, in a rambling ranch house, were Big Brother And The Holding Company. For obscure reasons, Big Brother called their house "Argentina." On Christmas, Big Brother had a Christmas party, and invited their next door neighbors. Big Brother, Quicksilver and the Grateful Dead had an all day and all of the night Christmas party for all their friends and roommates, and apparently the jamming went on constantly.

Members of all three bands had begun 1966 as penniless folk musicians who were experimenting with electric music. They barely had any gigs, and had no realistic chance of succeeding in the music industry. By the end of the year, all three bands were popular local attractions who were making enough money to support themselves and their friends, and the music industry had come to them. The bands had made few, if any concessions to conventional business practices and they knew that their music was getting better every day. By all accounts, it was a happy, memorable party for everyone who attended, before it all went national during the so-called Summer Of Love in 1967.

Supposedly, one of the reasons that Jerry Garcia chose Forest Knolls in Lagunitas for his final rehab was that he though it was on the same site as the Dead's 1966 camp in Lagunitas. It wasn't far away, in fact, but it wasn't actually the same site. Here's to hoping that Jerry ended that final night jamming with Janis, Cippo and Pigpen anyway, just as he had 29 years earlier.

 A poster for the "Beaux Arts Ball" at Governors Hall in Sacramento on December 28, 1966

December 28, 1966: Governors Hall, Sacramento, CA: Grateful Dead/Quicksilver Messenger Service
There are a number of posters for this event. There is a poster with no groups mentioned that advertises the event at the College gym, and it appears that "The Beuax Arts Ball" was a presentation of a student group at Sacramento City College.  Two others that advertise the Dead and Quicskilver at Governors Hall at the Fairgounds do not seem to be directly school connected, although I cannot read all the writing. To my knowledge, this would have been the Dead's (and Quicksilver's) Sacramento debut.

In many colleges, certainly on the West Coast, an annual "Beaux Arts Ball" was a sort of campus wide arts festival, but it's a little odd that it was taking place when school would have been out of session. It may be that "Beaux Arts Ball" was a promotional title of sorts, and didn't really have any meaning beyond that. It doesn't quite explain the Sacramento City College poster, but that could be a parallel event, or a poster from another year. I have contacted Sacramento sources who may have attended this event, but they haven't recalled anything yet.

A poster for the Grateful Dead's headline appearance at the Santa Venetia Armory, near San Rafael, on December 29, 1966, with Moby Grape and The Morning Glory

December 29. 1966: Santa Venetia Armory, San Rafael, CA: Grateful Dead/Morning Glory/Moby Grape
Ralph and Al Pepe promoted dances in Marin County. They often used the Santa Venetia Armory. Although it was a separate town about 2 miles North of San Rafael, Santa Venetia is almost a separate district of San Rafael.  The Santa Venetia Armory, at 155 Madison, was the National Guard Armory, and apparently a regular site of “Teen” dances in the mid-60s.  It was used briefly for psychedelic rock concerts in 1966-67, before it was superseded by the Fillmore and the Avalon.

While typical Pepe dances had local bands who cranked out cover versions, they seemed to have recognized that the Fillmore bands were a little different. Almost all the Pepe posters are done in the same boxing style. The highlighted L-I-G-H-T-S  suggests that the music won't quite be the regular dance fare. It's important to recall, however, that the Fillmore and the Avalon were promoting themselves as dance halls, and most of the the audiences were young, so a dance wouldn't be an alien setting by any means for the Dead. In any case, if Pigpen was cranking it out, there would be plenty of dancing going on.

Moby Grape was playing their second booking with the Dead in a week. Morning Glory were a local Marin band who had sort of an Airplane sound. They weren't bad, actually, and released an OK album on Fontana a year later.

A picture of Marty Balin from the December 29, 1966 San Francisco Chronicle listing of the New Year's Eve concert at the Fillmore on December 30 and 31, featuring Jefferson Airplane, The Grateful Dead and Quicksilver Messenger Service

December 30-31: Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, CA: Jefferson Airplane/Grateful Dead/Quicksilver Messenger Service
The Grateful Dead played the first of their legendary New Year's Eve shows in 1966. The initial version featured Jefferson Airplane, the Dead and Quicksilver for a show that was advertised from 9pm to 9am. I wonder how many sets the Grateful Dead played, and who jammed with who? Of course, as I have discussed elsewhere, 60s shows like this were so epic that no one can remember a thing about them.

On New Year's Day, the Grateful Dead played with Big Brother at the Panhandle near Golden Gate Park. As a practical matter, assuming that the Dead played in the early afternoon, they must have gone straight from the Fillmore over to the Panhandle. Big Brother had also played a New Year's Eve show, at an obscure venue in Golden Gate Park called Kezar Pavilion. While Big Brother was not booked until 9am, since they and the Dead both lived in Lagunitas, neither of the bands would have made any effort to go home before playing in the afternoon.

The Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia in Santa Cruz County (Revised)

[this is a substantial revision of an earlier post]

On April 24, 2008, the Grateful Dead announced the gift of their archives to the University of California at Santa Cruz Special Collections Library. The archive includes all the non-musical material accumulated by the Dead over the years, from contracts to fan letters, and it will not only provide a major insight into an important California cultural phenomenon in the second half of the 20th century, it will end up being really helpful to the likes of me. Rotating displays of some of the material will apparently be regularly on display at McHenry Library at UCSC.

The Grateful Dead and UC Santa Cruz were always like minded entities, despite a lack of formal connection. Wikipedia summarizes the pre-history of UCSC by saying "the formal design process of the campus began in the late 1950s, culminating in the Long Range Development Plan of 1963." The same might be said of The Grateful Dead. Since the Dead and UCSC were both founded in 1965, they have both been devoted to different ways of doing things, whether dispensing with grades (which UCSC did not give until 1997) or refusing to play a song the same way twice. In honor of the Archive, this post will trace the limited appearances of The Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia and other Grateful Dead members in Santa Cruz County.

The City of Santa Cruz and its University are isolated from the rest of the Bay Area by mountains, cliffs and the Pacific Ocean. Thus it had remained economically isolated until the last few decades, and part of Santa Cruz's charm was its insularity. This meant, however, that major rock shows were few and far between.

The Grateful Dead in Santa Cruz County
The Grateful Dead were booked in Santa Cruz County twice, and they were definitely in Santa Cruz County at least twice, but whether they played twice remains obscure.

November 27, 1965 Ken Babbs Ranch, Soquel: Acid Test
There was an Acid Test at Ken Babbs' house in the Santa Cruz Mountains, written about in Tom Wolfe's book The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test. By all accounts, the Grateful Dead-who were still probably called The Warlocks, depending on who you believe--were there but did not perform, unless they did. So, to summarize, the Grateful Dead or The Warlocks were there and did or did not perform, probably.

(the poster for the Grateful Dead concert at Cabrillo College Stadium, Aptos, CA on September 2, 1967. Thanks to Ross for the scan. The show most likely did not take place)

September 2, 1967 Cabrillo College Football Field, Cabrillo Junior College, Aptos, CA
Benefit for SCA Santa Cruz
Grateful Dead/Canned Heat/The Leaves/Andrew Staples/Sons of Champlain (sic)/New Delhi River Band/Second Coming/New Breed/BFD Blues Band/Gross Exaggeration/Yajahla/Tingle Guild/People/Jaguars/Art Collection/Morning Glory/Ben Frank’s Electric Band/New Frontier/Chocolate Watch Band/The Other Side/E-Types/Mourning Reign/Imperial Mange Remedy/Omens/Ragged Staff/Talon Wedge & Others.

This two-day Festival (Saturday and Sunday September 2-3) over Labor Day weekend, with music from 3-12 pm each day, is widely known because the poster for it appeared in Paul Grushkin's book The Art Of Rock. The "beneficiary", SCA Santa Cruz, is now unknown to me, but the wording suggests that this was a campus sponsored event (which had to be not-for-profit). The bands listed above were spread out over the two days. The Dead would have been booked to play on Saturday September 2, as they had another gig (at Rio Nido Dance Hall) on September 3. The Dead, Canned Heat,  and San Jose's own Chocolate Watch Band were the big names. The other booked acts were an interesting mixture of mostly South Bay bands, including David Nelson and The New Delhi River Band.

However, intriguing as all this sounded, I looked into it at some length and I don't believe the event ever took place. I talked to a number of old South Bay types, none of whom recalled it. While it's impossible to prove a negative, one member of a band booked at the event (the E-Types) did not recall it either, and he played Cabrillo many times back in the day, so I think this is one of those events that was planned but never happened. 

Cabrillo College (at 6500 Soquel Drive in Aptos) was just 9.1 driving miles from the UCSC Campus Entrance, and Cabrillo is definitely in the UCSC zone, but I have a feeling that this event was planned and then scuttled by whatever powers-that-be were able to do so. More's the pity. Anyone with additional information is encouraged to Comment or email me.

September 24, 1983 Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds, Watsonville, CA: Grateful Dead
During this period, the Grateful Dead and Bill Graham Presents were experimenting with different venues around California. While the site was pleasant, and the afternoon weather was great as always, the facility lacked the parking to manage thousands of Deadheads arriving at once, and the venue was somewhat overwhelmed, in the genial pleasant way that Deadheads used to do such things. Still, the band played well, and that's what matters. Nonetheless, I do not recall this venue being used for a major act again, I think mainly due to the parking situation.

The Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds in Watsonville (at 2601 East Lake Avenue) are about 21 miles from the entrance to the UCSC campus. As far as I know, this is as near as the Grateful Dead performed to UCSC, unless someone can make a clear-headed case for the Acid Test (good luck with that).

The Barn, Scotts Valley-no, sorry
Due to a 1999 article in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, there is a suggestion floating around the internet that the Grateful Dead played The Barn in Scotts Valley between 1966 and 1968. The Barn was Santa Cruz County's unique link to psychedelic culture, linked to the Pranksters and many other interesting people. Sad to say, fascinating as the history of The Barn actually is, the Grateful Dead never played there (for the record, the article says bands like the Dead, Quicksilver and Big Brother played there, but only the last two actually did).

Jerry Garcia and other Grateful Dead Members in Santa Cruz County
As Jerry Garcia increased his extra curricular activities outside of the Grateful Dead in the 1970s and 80s, he came to play Santa Cruz a few times. This coincided with the rise in Santa Cruz's population and economic profile, because of the University and its proximity to Silicon Valley. On a smaller scale, the same process occurred with other Grateful Dead members.

The Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium at 307 Church Street, as it appeared in 2011

October 5, 1973 Civic Auditorium, Santa Cruz: Old And In The Way/Ramblin' Jack Elliott/Bruce Frye
Old And In The Way was a bluegrass band in which Jerry Garcia played banjo and sang. It was not "his" band, but he was so much more famous than the other musicians that Old And In The Way are remembered as Jerry Garcia's bluegrass band. This show was one of their last, and the other band members were Peter Rowan, David Grisman, Vassar Clements and John Kahn.

An old list compiled by Dennis McNally had a projected show at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium on Friday, October 5. The band was also scheduled to play outdoors at Sonoma State College in Humboldt two days later (Oct 7). The Sonoma show was canceled, due to bad weather, but a show in San Francisco at The Boarding House was held the night after (October 8), and recorded for the band's groundbreaking 1975 album.  For various reasons the Civic show had dropped on and off various lists; I know the whole story, but its very wonky and boring to explain the whole thing, so I'm sparing everyone. However, you can now read the account of an eyewitness, who not only has a copy of the flyer,  but recalls that the show was broadcast on KUSP-fm .

The Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium at, 307 Church Street, is an excellent Art Deco style building that was completed in 1940. As Santa Cruz rose in importance, more and more performers started using the friendly little 2,000 capacity hall for warm up shows, or shows on off nights. Garcia played the venue several times in later years. The Civic is just 2.1  miles to the UCSC Campus Entrance, and that is as close as Garcia got to performing on the UCSC campus.

February 16, 1975 Margarita's, Santa Cruz: Kingfish
Margarita's was a new rock club in Santa Cruz, which was starting to show signs of growth from the University and the early impact of Silicon Valley. Margarita's was at 1685 Commercial Way, near Highway 1, where Soquel Drive turns into Soquel Avenue, near where Moe's Alley is today. Margarita's was about 5.7 miles from the entrance to UCSC. Bob Weir and Kingfish opened the club in a low-key fashion on a Sunday night. 

February 21, 1975 Margarita's, Santa Cruz: Good Ole Boys
This show had been a mystery for many years. David Nelson and Frank Wakefield had a bluegrass group, and Garcia produced their album (Pistol Packin Mama).  I learned about this date from Dennis McNally's list, but it seemed an oddity, and I doubted its provenance. However, a fellow blogger not only recalled Margarita's, he attended the show and describes it in some detail.

For this show, the Good Ole Boys were a quartet, with David Nelson on guitar, Frank Wakefield on mandolin, Garcia on banjo and Pat Campbell on bass. Garcia sang no lead vocals. There was a sparse crowd.  In 1975, while Garcia and the Dead were extremely popular in Santa Cruz, the city itself was still far enough from the Bay Area mainstream that Garcia could play a stealth gig without the club being swarmed.

March 7, 1975 Crown College Dining Commons, UCSC, Santa Cruz: Kingfish
I recently learned that the first performance of an active member of the Grateful Dead on the UCSC campus was Bob Weir and Kingfish performing at the Crown College Dining Commons on March 7, 1975. My source is a sure thing--he booked the show--and he promises to Reveal All, so I will link to the revelations when they appear.

A long lost poster for Keith & Donna & Friends at Kresge Town Hall, Kresge College, University of California at Santa Cruz, on May 11, 1975. (scan courtesy of JGBP; recconstruction thanks to JGMF)

May 11, 1975, Kresge Town Hall, UCSC, Santa Cruz: Keith and Donna and Friends/Eric Andersen
Another recent discovery was an early performance by Keith and Donna Godchaux's band at Kresge College a few months after Kingfish's appearance at Crown. This was an early lineup of the Keith and Donna band, with Tom Donlinger on drums instead of Bill Kreutzmann. Folk-rocker Eric Andersen was Bob Weir's neighbor, which is how he came to write some lyrics for "Weather Report."

I have written about the implications of this booking elsewhere. In any case, following on the Kingfish appearance, Keith and Donna were the other active members of the Dead to play on the UC Santa Cruz campus itself.

June 7, 1975 Margarita's, Santa Cruz, CA: Kingfish

An ad for Keith and Donna at Margarita's (h/t CryptDev)

June 20-21, 1975, Margarita's, Santa Cruz: Keith and Donna
Bill Kreutzmann had joined the Keith And Donna band by this time.

The poster for the Jerry Garcia Band shows at the Del Mar Theater in Santa Cruz on October 8, 1975

October 8, 1975 Del Mar Theatre, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia Band with Nicky Hopkins
The Del Mar Theatre is at 1124 Pacific Avenue. The theater opened on August 14, 1936. By the 1970s the theater was not in great shape, and the operators started filling out weekends with rock shows. Quite a few good shows were held there in the 1970s. The theater probably seated about 900.

This was one of the earliest shows by the newly organized Jerry Garcia Band, with the great pianist Nicky Hopkins joining stalwart bassist John Kahn and drummer Ron Tutt. Tutt also drummed for Elvis Presley, and the Garcia Band's touring schedule was limited to dates when Elvis Presley and The Grateful Dead were not performing. Due to the small size of the venue, the group played both early and late shows without an opening act.

The Jerry Garcia Band played the Del Mar Theatre twice more before it became a multiplex in 1978. The venue (still a movie theater, now refurbished), is 2.3 miles from the UCSC Campus Entrance.

The Del Mar Theater on 1124 Pacific Avenue in Santa Cruz, as it appeared in 2011

February 26, 1976 Del Mar Theatre, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia Band
Grateful Dead pianist Keith Godchaux had replaced Hopkins, and his wife Donna had joined as vocalist.

Spring 1976, New Riverside Szechuan Restuarant, Santa Cruz: Robert Hunter and Roadhog
The New Riverside, opened in the early 70s,  introduced Szechuan cuisine to Santa Cruz. It was on the site of the Riverside hotel at 600 Riverside Avenue. There were sometimes performances in the "Back Room," and an eyewitness recalls a three-set show by Robert Hunter and Roadhog, including Hunter dancing on a table.

(Santa Cruz artist Jim Phillips's poster for the Del Mar August 19, 1976 shows)

August 19, 1976 Del Mar Theater, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia Band
Link Wray apparently opened one of the Del Mar shows, but I'm not sure which one.

December 16-17, 1977 Crossroads Inn, Santa Cruz: Robert Hunter and Comfort
The Crossroads Inn was at the Old Sash Mill complex, the site of a long ago sawmill at 303 Potrero. The Old Sash Mill was at the intersection of Highway 9 and Highway 1 (River and Mission for you locals), hence the name 'Crossroads.' I don't know exactly when it opened or closed, but I do know that Neil Young's mystery band The Ducks played there during this period. To some extent, the Crossorads may have tried to pick up the slack caused by the disappearance of Margarita's as a venue.

I don't know which building in the Old Sash Mill the Crossroads may have been in. Anyone researching this critical issue is advised to stop in to the excellent Storrs Winery Tasting Room in the same complex. The Old Sash Mill is about 2.5 miles from the entrance to the UCSC campus.

Robert Hunter and the band Comfort were in the process of recording an album that was never released. They were an excellent live band with excellent original material, and its a shame the wide world never got a better look at them.

February 19, 1978 Civic Auditorium, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia Band/Robert Hunter and Comfort
Parts of this concert were recently released as part of the archival live cd Jerry Garcia Band: Bay Area 1978 on Grateful Dead Records.  Robert Hunter and Comfort opened the show.

The Catalyst, at 1011 Pacific Avenue in Santa Cruz, as it appeared in 2011

March 30-31, 1979 The Catalyst, Santa Cruz: Reconstruction
Reconstruction was Jerry Garcia's jazz-funk excursion with Merl Saunders. From 1979 onwards, Jerry Garcia regularly played a circuit of larger Bay Area nightclubs, and The Catalyst in Santa Cruz became a regular stop. The Catalyst had opened somewhat earlier, as a coffee shop in the St. George Hotel at 833 Front, but it didn't start booking rock bands until it moved down the street in late 1978 to a converted bowling alley. The Catalyst, at 1011 Pacific Avenue, was the site of many fine Garcia shows for the next decade.  The Catalyst is 2.3 miles from the UCSC Campus Entrance.

Jerry Garcia played Santa Cruz 13 more times. For complete notes, see The Jerry Site.

May 27, 1979 The Catalyst, Santa Cruz: Reconstruction
February 7, 1980 The Catalyst, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia Band
January 18, 1981 The Catalyst, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia Band
January 29, 1981 The Catalyst, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia Band
April 21, 1981 The Catalyst, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia Band
June 25, 1981 Civic Auditorium, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia Band with Phil Lesh
February 2-3, 1982 The Catalyst, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia Band
October 13, 1982 The Catalyst, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia Band
January 18, 1983 The Catalyst, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia Band
March 5, 1983 Civic Auditorium, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia Band
October 16, 1985 The Catalyst, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia and John Kahn (early and late shows)
February 24, 1987 Civic Auditorium, Santa Cruz: Jerry Garcia Band

Appendix: Other Performances
September 18, 1980 The Catalyst, Santa Cruz: Bobby And The Midnites
Bob Weir and Bobby and The Midnites made their Bay Area debut at the Catalyst on September 18, 1980. I have written about that run of shows elsewhere, as well as about the history of Bobby And The Midnites. Bobby And The Midnites also played the Catalyst on August 10, 1983 and August 11, 1984.

May 20, 1983 Dining Commons, Porter College, UCSC: The Dinosaurs
From 1982 through 1984, Robert Hunter was a member of The Dinosaurs. Other members of the band were John Cipollina (ex-Quicksilver), Barry "The Fish" Melton, Peter Albin (ex- and future Big Brother) and Spencer Dryden (ex-Airplane, ex-NRPS). Without trying, the group sounded like an old San Francisco psychedelic band, because that was who they were. Hunter was with the group when they played the Dining Commons at Porter College (College V for old-time Banana Slugs) on the UCSC Campus. There may have been a poster for this event. (Hunter and The Dinosaurs also played three shows at The Catalyst: Oct 14 '83, Feb 4 '84 and May 26 '84).

Jefferson Airplane Footnote
The Jefferson Airplane don't have an archive, to my knowledge, and it wouldn't be as interesting as the Grateful Dead's in any case. Nonetheless, just in case, the Jefferson Airplane played the UCSC "Spring Thing" dance two years in a row: first at the Cocoanut Grove on May 14, 1966, and then on May 11, 1967 at the  Cowell-Stevenson dining hall, right before a show at the Civic.


View Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia in Santa Cruz in a larger map

January 9-10, 1976: Sophie's, Palo Alto, CA: The Jerry Garcia Band with James Booker

James Booker's 1976 album Junco Partner, released on producer Joe Boyd's Hannibal label

Diligent scholars of Jerry Garcia know that Jerry Garcia, John Kahn and Ron Tutt played two shows at Sophie's in Palo Alto with keyboardist James Booker on January 9 and 10, 1976. Tapes endure of both shows, along with rehearsal at Club Front two days earlier. The music on the tapes is ragged, and James Booker is fairly obscure, so most Deadheads have paid little attention to the shows. However, I have reflected for some time on the fact that the two Palo Alto shows with Booker were between Nicky Hopkins' departure from the Jerry Garcia Band and the beginning of Keith and Donna Godchaux's tenure with the band. Having heard and learned a little more about James Booker, I now think the brief experiment with Booker was a critical turning point in Garcia's solo career.

Booker was a certifiable musical genius, one of the few keyboard players who could transcend the great Nicky Hopkins, and so he would have seemed to be an ideal replacement. Yet after a brief fling with Booker, Garcia and Kahn took the prudent road with the talented but safe Keith Godchaux on piano, and the path for the Garcia Band was set for the next two decades. The reasons were probably as much commercial as musical, but the two shows with James Booker illustrate the ways in which Jerry Garcia's professional priorities had evolved by 1976.

The Jerry Garcia Band with Nicky Hopkins, 1975
The Grateful Dead had stopped touring in October of 1974, and Jerry Garcia immediately stepped up his performances with Merl Saunders. By the end of 1974, Garcia and Saunders were performing under the name Legion Of Mary, along with John Kahn, drummer Ron Tutt and saxophonist Martin Fierro. This appears to have been no casual arrangement--whenever Tutt was not available, and a different drummer sat in, the ensemble used the name 'Garcia-Saunders,' not Legion Of Mary. Nonetheless, by the middle of 1975, Garcia seemed to have wanted to move in a different direction, and stopped playing with Merl Saunders and Martin Fierro.

Garcia, Kahn and Tutt formed a band with legendary rock pianist Nicky Hopkins. Hopkins, due to ill health, had largely played sessions in London during the 60s rather than tour, and as a result had recorded with The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Kinks and numerous others. By the end of the 60s, Hopkins had set out on the road with the Jeff Beck Group, later touring with Quicksilver Messenger Service and The Rolling Stones as well. Music aside, one of the attractions of playing with Jerry Garcia for Hopkins and Tutt was that it would never be a full-time job, leaving them free for studio work and other touring opportunities (Tutt was Elvis's drummer).

By the middle of 1975, although the Grateful Dead were recording an album, they no longer had any income from touring. Furthermore, Garcia was driving the train on the Grateful Dead Movie, and that was an expensive project. Thus while Garcia was always anxious to perform live, he had a specific reason to maximize his concert revenue. Naming his group The Jerry Garcia Band was in contrast to his historic practices, but it seemed to be a prudent financial move. No doubt professionals like Kahn, Tutt and Hopkins recognized that naming the group after Garcia was a sound fiscal decision. Apparently, corporate papers exist which have the quartet as partners in the Jerry Garcia Band, an indicator that the band name was no casual choice.

The Jerry Garcia Band with Nicky Hopkins, as they were billed, played what I believe to be a fairly lucrative Eastern and Midwestern tour in the Fall of 1975. As a sign of Garcia's seriousness, he broke from previous practices, and performed a few of his own well-known numbers (like "Friend Of The Devil" and "Sugaree") to anchor the shows for the more casual fans. Hopkins piano was a distinct change from the funky organ of Merl Saunders, and Hopkins allowed Garcia to introduce a wider variety of American musical styles, including classic 50s and 60s R&B, rock and New Orleans tunes.

However, as we all know, despite Hopkins' musical fluency, he was simply not equipped for the hard touring that Garcia, Kahn and Tutt were comfortable with. By the end of the year, the perpetually unstable Hopkins was erratic on stage, due to problems with various substances and his own poor health. Although the Garcia Band played out their scheduled dates with Hopkins through New Year's Eve, it is plain in retrospect that they must have been planning to replace Hopkins for some time. Hopkins had a lucrative session career, so if anything he would have actually made more money after being pushed aside. In any case, after a New Year's Eve show at Keystone Berkeley on December 31, 1975, Hopkins was out of the Jerry Garcia Band. It appears that his projected replacement was James Booker.

Who Was James Booker?
New Orleans is a city of music, and as such it is a city of legendary piano players. The list is long and stellar: Jelly Roll Morton, Professor Longhair, Fats Domino and Mac Rebennack (Dr. John) are just a few of the greater names amongst New Orleans pianists. James Booker (1939-1982), obscure though he is, ranks just as highly in the pantheon of New Orleans pianists as those names, at least amongst experts and his fellow musicians. His "career" is so strange that its a sign of his amazing talent that he is even known at all.

Booker was classically schooled in piano, played organ in the church, loved jazz and honky tonked at night, so even as a teenager he could play all styles brilliantly. He made his recording debut in 1954, at age 15, with a few singles. The music industry was very different in the 1950s, particularly in New Orleans. Records were just marketing devices to get musicians on the road, and the musicians themselves made little from recording, even if their record companies did. The young but prodigiously talented Booker became known as a player who could play in anybody's style, as well or better than the originals. Thus Booker recorded the piano parts for many classic sides by the likes of Fats Domino, Huey "Piano" Smith and Lloyd Price, while those musicians were touring. Booker's role was well-known amongst New Orleans musicians, but of course obscure to the general public.

Thus many classic New Orleans players were best known for records on which James Booker had played. That isn't to say that the likes of Domino, Smith, Price and others didn't invent their own styles, which they certainly did. It's just that Booker was so talented he could embrace and enlarge any other pianist's work, and so in many ways Booker embodied the New Orleans rock and roll era. In the early 60s, Booker started to tour a little bit, including some steady touring with Roy Hamilton, most famous for the hit "Don't Let Go." However, various problems got the better of Booker, and he ended up in the notorious Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, Louisiana.

You know the lyrics to "Viola Lee Blues," when Jerry, Phil and Bob sing "some got six months/some got one solid year"? When James Booker does his 'theme song' "Junco Partner," about Angola Prison, and sings "six months ain't no sentence/one year ain't no time," it's a different thing entirely. Booker did time in Angola, and he knew those guys "doing 99." Booker got out of Angola in 1970, much the worse for wear, and music had moved away from New Orleans. Booker struggled along, mostly living with his mother and having various brushes with the law. He had become an underground legend amongst musicians and record collectors, but most thought he was still in jail or dead.

Booker began to surface in the early 70s.  With some of his problems under control, Booker started to play some sessions and gigs, and musicians absolutely raved about him. In late 1975, legendary producer Joe Boyd (of Fairport Convention fame) heard him at a session and asked if he knew "Junco Partner." Booker's ad hoc performance was so impressive that Boyd and his engineer signed him on the spot, and Booker recorded his first album in February 1976. It was Booker's first true album, as far as I know, and his first recording under his own name in about 15 years. The Junco Partner album was released on Boyd's Hannibal label late in 1976, and it's a remarkable record. Booker plays piano, organ and sings, he puts out so much music that he needs no other band members.

How Booker actually ended up playing with Jerry Garcia is anyone's guess, but I think Ron Tutt was the likely culprit. Booker was playing sessions of various sorts in the South, and Tutt was well connected in Memphis and Dallas, so he must have heard the legends from other musicians, since Boyd had not yet recorded the album. Booker had apparently recorded in Los Angeles with Dr. John's band in Los Angeles in 1973, and Tutt may have heard about that. Hopkins had been a brilliant musician who could improvise across a broad palette of American piano styles, but Booker was a guy who had helped invent those styles. Since the Jerry Garcia Band didn't rehearse much and was not really a full time engagement, the attraction of an underground legend must have been too much to resist. Since Booker's rehearsal was on January 7, 1976, and he must have had to fly out to California, his arrival had to have been planned well  before the last show with Hopkins.

The Hayward Daily Review listing for Sophie's in Palo Alto, on 260 S. Calfornia Avenue, from Dec 26, 1975. The Garcia Brothers were a local blues/rock band, and featured neither Tiff nor Jerry

Sophie's, 260 S. California Avenue, Palo Alto, CA
Sophie's was a former Purity Supermarket in Palo Alto's "old" downtown. Prior to Stanford University, California Avenue was the main street of the town of Mayfield, notorious for its saloons. When Leland Stanford purchased the land for the University, he offered to let Mayfield become the 'college town' on the condition it close its saloons. The town refused, and Stanford and his partner Timothy Hopkins purchased a large tract of land just North of Mayfield, and the saloon-less town of Palo Alto was born in 1892. When Prohibition came, Mayfield had little choice but to merge with Palo Alto, but there was always a little bit of rivalry between the two parts of town.

In 1975, there were still no bars in downtown Palo Alto--the ghost of Leland Stanford would have been proud--so it's not surprising that the new club was in the former Mayfield area. Sophie's opened in late 1975. I have never found out who owned or operated the club. In 1975, Palo Alto was still just a college town suburb, well-to-do perhaps, but not wealthy. Silicon Valley had begun sprouting, but while the seeds of Apple Computer and the like were forming, at the time neither Palo Alto nor the South Bay was exceptionally expensive. As a result, Sophie's was used by Jerry Garcia and others as a club where he could try out a new band lineup quietly. The first booked gig with Hopkins was scheduled at Sophie's (September 18, 1975), though I'm not certain it was played.

In any case, The Jerry Garcia Band played a few shows at Sophie's in 1975 and '76, and then it was sold to Freddie Herrera and Bobby Corona, and it became The Keystone Palo Alto. The reign of Keystone Palo Alto (1977-86) was during the period when Palo Alto and Silicon Valley were booming. Entertainment in the South Bay started to become big business, and Palo Alto was harder to use for trying out new bands. The Catalyst in Santa Cruz, further South, took over the role of the out-of-town club that had been filled by Sophie's. In early 1976, however, Garcia could try out a new band lineup very discreetly. I do not know how the January 9-10 shows were booked, whether they were billed as the Jerry Garcia Band with James Booker, or James Booker with Jerry Garcia and Friends, or anything else. I know of no reviews of the shows nor eyewitness accounts, but fortunately we do have tapes of the rehearsal and both shows, and they are very revealing.

The Jerry Garcia Band with James Booker, January 9-10, 1976
Although extremely ragged, the Garcia/Booker shows are fascinating in light of the period of transition that they established for the Garcia Band. It goes without saying that the band was under-rehearsed, but Garcia himself  would probably not have seen that as a negative. More interestingly, Booker and Garcia share the lead vocal duties equally. Had this lineup been an ongoing proposition, it would have been a real band, regardless of Jerry Garcia's name on the marquee. While there are a couple of Garcia standards, his songs seem to be chosen to capitalize on Booker's musical strengths. Songs like "Tore Up Over You," "All By Myself" and "Let It Rock" seem well chosen for a band with a New Orleans piano legend.

The problem with Booker and the Garcia Band, ironically enough, is that Booker simply dominates the sound. Booker's left hand is so powerful that there is hardly room for Kahn, and his right hand is golden, so Garcia has a difficult time finding space to play. Booker had probably been playing by himself for so long that he had stopped leaving room for other musicians, but it's very rare that a piano player can simply step all over both Jerry Garcia and John Kahn. Now, granted, the music is very ragged, but the sound simply comes pouring out of Booker's piano. Booker plays fine organ, too, although in a style very far from Merl Saunders. On organ, Booker sounds like Art Neville of the Funky Meters. This isn't surprising, since Booker had ghosted for Neville on many of his early 60s singles while Art was on the road.

Fascinating as the sound of Booker and the Garcia might have been, however, there's no way to get around the fact that the ensemble doesn't work. Garcia ends up backing up James Booker on most numbers, and Booker kind of dominates Garcia even when Garcia is leading the song. According to Joe Boyd's liner notes for Junco Partner, while Booker was a very nice man, he was extremely erratic and hard to work with, and after the Hopkins experience, I think Garcia and Kahn decided that they had had enough of geniuses. Thus it seems that Garcia, Kahn and Tutt had toyed with replacing the legendary Nicky Hopkins with an even greater legend, who might arguably have been a better player, but Booker's instability would have been trying and financially unsound. Thus, after the quiet Sophie's gigs, Keith and Donna Godchaux joined the Jerry Garcia Band, debuting at the Keystone Berkeley on January 26, 1976.

Aftermath
James Booker recorded his Junco Partner album with Joe Boyd in February of 1976. It was released in November of that year. It's a remarkable album, because Booker simply does not need a band, even a great one. Booker made one more album, and was on a few recordings, but he couldn't get past his many problems and he died in 1982. However, thanks to Boyd, Booker's legend rose to the surface and there is recorded evidence of his talent, so his legacy was resurrected, as it should be. However, almost all accounts of Booker's history leave out the flirtation with Garcia. I wouldn't be surprised if the well-connected Boyd had had a hand in connecting Booker with Garcia as well, but it's a peculiar episode in Garcia's history that deserves greater reflection.

Garcia and Kahn turned to Keith and Donna Godchaux. I can recall being in the dorms in Berkeley back in Jnauary 1976, when the Jerry Garcia Band was booked at Keystone Berkeley, and my friends with fake IDs attended the show. The shows were barely advertised, and in fact I think we only knew about them from seeing it on the marquee. We knew nothing about the Booker shows, and there was never any mention of the Garcia Band in the press, so until Keith and Donna walked on stage with Garcia, they had no idea who was going to fill the keyboard chair. Although the 1976-78 Jerry Garcia Band made some fine music, many Deadheads, myself included, found it frustrating that Keith Godchaux was the piano player for both the Dead and the JGB. He could handle both chairs, but it meant that Garcia's range of musical canvases was going to be shrunk.

I think Garcia wanted stability in the Jerry Garcia Band, and stability that made economic sense as well. Garcia and Kahn had tried genius twice, with Hopkins and Booker, and they seemed to have given in to reality and chosen reliability. As a fan, I wished even at the time that he had chosen a reliable pro who wasn't in the Dead, just for variety--Mark Naftalin, Bill Payne and Larry Knechtel all come to mind--but Garcia needed an easier road in order to keep all his many balls safely in the air. It's telling also that Keith could play in a very jazzy style, as he had the previous year when Garcia sat in with Keith and Donna, playing 20 minute jazz songs and the like. Now, Keith and Donna were playing in a more New Orleans/Honky Tonk style that had been laid out by Hopkins and Booker, which Godchaux handled reliably.

One other overlooked attraction of the Godchauxs to Garcia was actually Donna Godchaux. We tend to dismiss her, it being a boys club and all, but in fact from 1976 onwards Garcia had female vocalists in the band the majority of the time. Donna's vocals added a lot to the sound of the Garcia Band, allowing Jerry to take on certain numbers that wouldn't have worked as well with him as the sole vocalist. So it may be that Garcia was looking to get Donna into the band as much as Keith, but in any case after two strikes at genius, Garcia seemed interested in swinging at a safer pitch. The two-date James Booker experiment remains as a curiously forgotten fork in the Jerry Garcia Band, a final ride down the Genius Highway before a U-Turn back towards more conventional territory.