Afternoon listening...

I got the tube amp warmed up, headed down to Twist & Shout and bought myself an original pressing of the 1973 release from Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders, "Live at Keystone." The album was cut during a jam session at The Keystone in Berkeley California in late January 1973. Garcia is of course the frontman of the legendary Grateful Dead. Saunders name is less well known but his resume is very impressive with gigs with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis and B.B. King - among others.

The album is simply a tour-de-force. Just Garcia, Merl, longtime Jerry Garcia Band bassist John Jahn and drummer Bill Vitt. The quartet moves adeptly from genre to genre giving each reading a thick funky '70s vibe. The album opens with the Saunders penned instrumental "Finders Keepers, Loser Weepers." "Finders" is a straight-ahead funky number with sparse flourishes from Garcia while Kahn and Vitt lock in the pocket. The band moves to Dylan's acerbic and bitter "Positively 4th Street" which has a darker mood musically than the original. That mood better fits the tone of the lyrics, the groove nearly as thick as the lyrical sarcasm.

Side 1 closes with Jimmy Cliff's reggae anthem "The Harder they Come." In 1973 reggae was still new to the American music scene with the movie "The Harder they Come" debuting in February of that year, Bob Marley and the Wailers releasing their 1st album together that year ("Catch a Fire") and Marley and the band embarking on their 1st ever U.S. tour as well. The title track to the movie soundtrack was to go on to become one of the most famous non-Marley reggae songs ever. The rendition here is again heavy on the groove while Garcia's still young and sweet voice adeptly carries the earnest tone of the songs lyrics.

The 2nd side is less interesting to me but the music is much more diverse than the 70's groove driven side 1. It opens with a relatively straight-ahead rock version of Dylan's "It Takes a Lot to Laugh..." that drags on a bit. After Dylan fades out the band gets into a fusion influenced jazzy improv that is simply labeled "Space", it's actually pretty entertaining. It reminds me more than a little of some of the jazzier music that the Grateful Dead would begin doing in 1973, specifically "Playing in the Band" for any Deadheads who may be reading. From there we are treated to a straight ahead blues, Roger McGuinn's "It's No Use", with Saunders starting out on the acoustic piano and Jerry bending notes like he's an old African-American delta blues-man playing in some Mississippi juke joint instead of a 30 year old Hispanic hippie jamming out in the Freak Capitol of the World - Berkeley California. Jerry and Merl really lock in during the jam portion with both pushing each other to take the straight-ahead blues jam to that next level. At several point we hear Saunders sustaining a chord on the Hammond Organ with one hand while the other bangs out a solo on the piano. The crescendos come in waves with each peaking just that much higher than the previous one. Kahn begins to lay into the turns while Garcia and Saunders battle on, undeterred by the rhythm section.

Side 3 opens with a swinging version of the 50's rocker "That's All Right (Mama)" that has Kahn and Vitt sounding like they were right there in Sun Studios with Elvis when he recorded it. Garcia's solo is lightning fast with the notes just flying off the fret board and Saunders comping along nicely on the Hammond. The band then goes further back in time with an extended version of the show tune turned jazz standard, "My Funny Valentine." The effort is well-executed but not particularly enlightening, the earlier jazz "Space" jam being more interesting to my ears. It is interesting though to hear how nicely the rhythm section handles these wide swings in genre. The track continues for over 18 minutes,

The final side of this 2 record album opens with the band putting their mark on Lightnin' Hopkins "Someday Baby". Saunders is immediately on the clav with Kahn and Vitt simply grooving out. There's no other way to describe the pocket that they are holding open for Jerry and Merl. The band stomps around for over 10 minutes, the music as thick and heavy as 4 guys can possibly be. The transition from the first round of solos back to the verses is tight with everyone in perfect sync as the turns come, no lagging by anyone whatsoever. The 2nd go around sees the band up the intensity a bit as they kick back into the jam. As they go through the jam Garcia winds them up tighter and tighter before passing off to Saunders for even more tension building. Kahn is throwing in flourishes on the electric bass before we're set gently back down.

The album closes out with the highly emotive "Like a Road." Why Garcia touched so many like so few have is a question for which there is no one answer but I believe that his singing on ballads like these deserves to be near the top of any list. His voice and guitar playing here are as good as any "Morning Dew" or "Stella Blue" that the Grateful Dead every performed. Jerry's voice carries the day here and his solo is so utterly Garcia - emotional and delicate but powerfully slow. What's interesting to note is that this is the first known performance of the song by Garcia and Jerry would perform this song for the rest of his life, the last performance coming in April 1995 at the last ever Jerry Garica Band show.

It's a truly classic album that has been re-released (as 2 separate CDs actually) and re-mastered. Hearing it though as it was meant to be heard, on analog and broken into 4 sides one really gets a sense for how timeless this album is. Each side is unique, showcasing the musicians vast vocabulary. Each take is well performed, there's nary a missed note or a blown change. The song selection is superb and the engineering top shelf. If you haven't listened to this one lately go take it down off of your shelf, get into your comfy chair and enjoy it.