The Jerry Garcia Band was a San Francisco Bay Area

San Francisco Bay Area

The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...

 rock band led by Jerry Garcia

Jerry Garcia

Jerome John "Jerry" Garcia was an American musician best known for his lead guitar work, singing and songwriting with the band the Grateful Dead...

 of the Grateful Dead

Grateful Dead

The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...

. Garcia founded the band in 1975; it remained the most important of his various side-projects until his death in 1995. The band toured and recorded sporadically throughout its twenty-year existence, generally, but not always during breaks in the Grateful Dead's schedule.

History

Over the years, the lineup of the Jerry Garcia Band changed a number of times. The one constant member besides Garcia himself was bassist

Bass guitar

The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

 John Kahn

John Kahn

John Kahn was an American rock bass player. For a period of about twenty five years Kahn was Jerry Garcia's principal collaborator outside of the Grateful Dead.-Biography:...

. Melvin Seals

Melvin Seals

Melvin Seals is an American musician, best known as a long time member of the Jerry Garcia Band.-Early life and career:...

 had the next longest tenure, serving as keyboardist

Keyboard instrument

A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...

 from 1980 onward. Seals became band leader following Garcia's death and changed the band's name to JGB

JGB (band)

JGB is an American rock band led by Melvin Seals, who plays electric organ. Its mission is to continue the musical legacy of the Jerry Garcia Band, of which Seals was a long time member.-History:...

.

Jerry Garcia's musical interests were famously varied, and this was reflected in the diverse music played by his band. Like the Grateful Dead, the Jerry Garcia Band played rock music

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 that was influenced by blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

, folk

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

, country

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

, and jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

. The band also played rhythm and blues

Rhythm and blues

Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...

 and reggae

Reggae

Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...

 songs, and rock versions of American roots music

American folk music

American folk music is a musical term that encompasses numerous genres, many of which are known as traditional music or roots music. Roots music is a broad category of music including bluegrass, country music, gospel, old time music, jug bands, Appalachian folk, blues, Cajun and Native American...

. Jerry Garcia notably covered many songs by Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...

 with the Jerry Garcia Band. Like the Dead, the Jerry Garcia Band emphasized musical improvisation

Musical improvisation

Musical improvisation is the creative activity of immediate musical composition, which combines performance with communication of emotions and instrumental technique as well as spontaneous response to other musicians...

, and helped create what is now known as jam band

Jam band

-Ambiguity:By the late 1990s use of the term jam band also became ambiguous. An editorial at jamband.com suggested that any band of which a primary band such as Phish has done a cover of be included as jam band. The example was including New York post-punk band Talking Heads after Phish performed...

 music.

During Garcia's lifetime, the Jerry Garcia Band released one studio album, Cats Under the Stars

Cats Under the Stars

Cats Under the Stars, released in 1978, is the first and only studio release under the name Jerry Garcia Band and Garcia's first album on the Arista label.Garcia, in the years before his death in 1995, considered this album to be his favorite....

, and one live album, Jerry Garcia Band

Jerry Garcia Band (album)

Jerry Garcia Band is the second album, and first live album, by the Jerry Garcia Band. It was recorded in the spring of 1990 at The Warfield in San Francisco.-Disc One:#"The Way You Do the Things You Do" – 8:08...

. Several more live albums were released posthumously.

Albums

• Cats Under the Stars
  Cats Under the Stars
  Cats Under the Stars, released in 1978, is the first and only studio release under the name Jerry Garcia Band and Garcia's first album on the Arista label.Garcia, in the years before his death in 1995, considered this album to be his favorite....
  
  – 1978
• Jerry Garcia Band
  Jerry Garcia Band (album)
  Jerry Garcia Band is the second album, and first live album, by the Jerry Garcia Band. It was recorded in the spring of 1990 at The Warfield in San Francisco.-Disc One:#"The Way You Do the Things You Do" – 8:08...
  
  – 1991
• How Sweet It Is – 1997
• Don't Let Go
  Don't Let Go (album)
  Don't Let Go is the third live album by the Jerry Garcia Band. It was recorded on May 21, 1976 at the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco, with a bonus track recorded on September 11 in 1976 at the Keystone in Berkeley....
  
  – 2001
• Shining Star – 2001
• After Midnight: Kean College, 2/28/80
  After Midnight: Kean College, 2/28/80
  - Jerry Garcia Band :* Jerry Garcia — guitar, vocals* John Kahn — bass* Ozzie Ahlers — keyboards* Johnny d'Foncesca — drums- Production :* Original producer — Jerry Garcia* Release producer — Christopher Sabec, Peter McQuaid, Hale Milgrim...
  
  – 2004
• Let It Rock: The Jerry Garcia Collection, Vol. 2
  Let It Rock: The Jerry Garcia Collection, Vol. 2
  Let It Rock: The Jerry Garcia Collection, Vol. 2 is an album by the Jerry Garcia Band. It was recorded live at the Keystone in Berkeley, California, on November 17 and 18, 1975. It was released by Rhino Records as a two-disc CD on November 10, 2009....
  
  – 2009

Pure Jerry releases by the Jerry Garcia Band

• Theatre 1839, July 29 & 30, 1977
  Theatre 1839, July 29 & 30, 1977
  Theatre 1839, July 29 & 30, 1977 is the first release in the Pure Jerry series of live recordings by Jerry Garcia and his various solo bands. As the title suggests, it was recorded on July 29 and July 30, 1977, at the Theatre 1839 in San Francisco...
  
  – 2004
• Lunt-Fontanne, New York City, October 31, 1987 – 2004
• Lunt-Fontanne, New York City, The Best of the Rest, October 15–30, 1987 – 2004
• Merriweather Post Pavilion, September 1 & 2, 1989 – 2005
• Warner Theatre, March 18, 1978 – 2005
• Coliseum, Hampton, VA, November 9, 1991 (with Bruce Hornsby
  Bruce Hornsby
  Bruce Randall Hornsby is an American singer, pianist, accordion player, and songwriter. Known for the spontaneity and creativity of his live performances, Hornsby draws frequently from classical, jazz, bluegrass, folk, Motown, rock, blues, and jam band musical traditions with his songwriting and...
  
  ) – 2006
• Bay Area, 1978 – 2009

Personnel

Following are the lineups for the Jerry Garcia Band's live performances.

August 5, 1975 – December 31, 1975	Jerry Garcia – guitar, vocals John Kahn – bass Nicky Hopkins – piano, vocals Ron Tutt – drums
January 9, 1976 – January 10, 1976	Jerry Garcia – guitar, vocals John Kahn – bass James Booker – piano, vocals Ron Tutt – drums
January 26, 1976 – August 12, 1977	Jerry Garcia – guitar, vocals John Kahn – bass Keith Godchaux – piano Donna Godchaux – vocals Ron Tutt – drums
November 15, 1977 – November 3, 1978	Jerry Garcia – guitar, vocals John Kahn – bass Keith Godchaux – piano Donna Godchaux – vocals Maria Muldaur – vocals Buzz Buchanan – drums
October 7, 1979 – March 27, 1980	Jerry Garcia – guitar, vocals John Kahn – bass Ozzie Allers – keyboards, vocals Johnny de Foncesca – drums
July 18, 1980 – November 16, 1980	Jerry Garcia – guitar, vocals John Kahn – bass Ozzie Ahlers – keyboards, vocals Greg Errico – drums
December 20, 1980 – June 1, 1981	Jerry Garcia – guitar, vocals John Kahn – bass Melvin Seals – organ Jimmy Warren – electric piano, clavinet Daoud Shaw – drums
June 25, 1981 – November 19, 1981	Jerry Garcia – guitar, vocals John Kahn – bass Melvin Seals – organ Jimmy Warren – electric piano, clavinet Daoud Shaw – drums Essra Mohawk – vocals Liz Stires – vocals
December 17, 1981 – September 7, 1982	Jerry Garcia – guitar, vocals John Kahn – bass Melvin Seals – organ Jimmy Warren – electric piano, clavinet Bill Kreutzmann – drums Essra Mohawk – vocals Liz Stires – vocals
October 13, 1982 – October 24, 1982	Jerry Garcia – guitar, vocals John Kahn – bass Melvin Seals – organ Greg Errico – drums
October 28, 1982 – June 5, 1983	Jerry Garcia – guitar, vocals John Kahn – bass Melvin Seals – organ Greg Errico – drums Jaclyn LaBranch – vocals DeeDee Dickerson – vocals
July 20, 1983 – August 28, 1984	Jerry Garcia – guitar, vocals John Kahn – bass Melvin Seals – organ David Kemper – drums Jaclyn LaBranch – vocals DeeDee Dickerson – vocals
September 15, 1984 – September 28, 1985	Jerry Garcia – guitar, vocals John Kahn – bass Melvin Seals – organ David Kemper – drums Jaclyn LaBranch – vocals Gloria Jones – vocals
October 7, 1985 – February 2, 1986	Jerry Garcia – guitar, vocals John Kahn – bass Melvin Seals – organ Gaylord Birch – drums Jaclyn LaBranch – vocals Gloria Jones – vocals
February 21, 1986 – November 19, 1993	Jerry Garcia – guitar, vocals John Kahn – bass Melvin Seals – organ David Kemper – drums Jaclyn LaBranch – vocals Gloria Jones – vocals
April 4, 1994 – April 23, 1995	Jerry Garcia – guitar, vocals John Kahn – bass Melvin Seals – organ Donny Baldwin – drums Jaclyn LaBranch – vocals Gloria Jones – vocals

External links

• Jerry Garcia official website
• Grateful Dead official website
• JGB official website