Jerry Garcia & Merl Saunders – Live at Keystone (2-LP Vinyl)
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Liner Notes
Keystone Berkeley was Garcia's laboratory between Dead runs, a place where he could stretch out without setlist expectations or arena-sized pressure. His partnership with Merl Saunders ran deeper than any single session, rooted in years of Tuesday night residencies and a shared love of soul, jazz, and the blues that never quite fit inside the Dead's framework. What you hear here is that rare thing: a band playing purely for the love of it.
The classic first meeting of Merl Saunders and Jerry Garcia on record, Live at Keystone was recorded live at the Keystone in Berkeley, California on July 10 and 11, 1973 — during the fertile period when Garcia could often be found playing small Bay Area clubs between Grateful Dead tours. Reissued on 180-gram 2-LP vinyl by Fantasy Records in 2012, the album captures Saunders on keyboards, Garcia on guitar and vocals, John Kahn on bass, and Bill Vitt on drums — with David Grisman adding mandolin to Bob Dylan's "Positively 4th Street."
The repertoire is a genre-spanning joy: Dylan covers, blues standards, Jimmy Cliff's "The Harder They Come," the jazz standard "My Funny Valentine," and extended improvisations that beautifully capture the chemistry of this ad-hoc configuration. Recorded by Grateful Dead associates Betty Cantor and Rex Jackson, and originally produced by all four band members.
Tracklist
Side A
Side B
Side C
Side D
UPC: 025218790215
Label: Fantasy
Release Date: 9.25.12
Format: LP Vinyl