Legion of Mary was an American rock

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...

 band, formed 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...

 and his friend and musical collaborator Merl Saunders

Merl Saunders

Merl Saunders, was an American multi-genre musician who played piano and keyboards, favoring the Hammond B-3 console organ.-Biography:...

. The band lasted from July 12, 1974 to July 5, 1975. Its members included Garcia (guitar and vocals), Saunders (keyboards), 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:...

 (bass guitar), Martin Fierro

Martin Fierro (saxophonist)

Martin Fierro was a tenor saxophonist who played in the jazz, freeform rock, and avant-garde traditions. Fierro played with the Sir Douglas Quintet, Legion of Mary / Jerry Garcia, James Cotton, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Loudon Wainwright III, Queen Ida, Jazz Is Dead, The String Cheese...

 (saxophone and flute) and Paul Humphrey

Paul Humphrey

Paul Nelson Humphrey is an American jazz and funk/R+B drummer.He worked as a session drummer in the 1960s for jazz artists such as Wes Montgomery, Les McCann, Kai Winding, Charles Mingus, Lee Konitz, Blue Mitchell and Gene Ammons.As a bandleader, he recorded under the name Paul Humphrey and the...

 (drums). Ronnie Tutt replaced Humphrey as the band's drummer in February 1975.

In their concerts, Legion of Mary played rock music that had an eclectic mix of influences, including 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...

, funk

Funk

Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...

, 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...

, rock and roll

Rock and roll

Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...

, and especially 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...

. Performances included extended improvisation solos, which Garcia made famous with his role in the Grateful Dead. Their only official recording was released on Rhino Records in August 2005, under the name Legion of Mary: The Jerry Garcia Collection, Vol. 1; it is a two-disc set of live material.