Melvin Seals
Encyclopedia
Melvin Seals is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 musician, best known as a long time member of the Jerry Garcia Band
Jerry Garcia Band
The Jerry Garcia Band was a San Francisco Bay Area rock band led by Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead. Garcia founded the band in 1975; it remained the most important of his various side-projects until his death in 1995...

.

Early life and career

Melvin Seals began playing piano at age eight and began his musical adventure playing gospel music
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....

 for his local church. Over the next years he joined a few different bands in San Francisco and became good at playing other keyboards, particularly the electric organ, which he would play for the majority of his musical career. He went on to record and perform with artists such as Charlie Daniels
Charlie Daniels
Charles Edward "Charlie" Daniels is an American musician known for his contributions to country and southern rock music. He is known primarily for his number one country hit "The Devil Went Down to Georgia", and multiple other songs he has performed and written. Daniels has been active as a singer...

, Elvin Bishop
Elvin Bishop
Elvin Bishop is an American blues and rock and roll musician and guitarist.-Career:Bishop was born in Glendale, California, and grew up on a farm near Elliott, Iowa. His family moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, when he was ten years old...

 and Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" , "Roll Over Beethoven" , "Rock and Roll Music" and "Johnny B...

.

Projects

In 1980 Melvin Seals joined the Jerry Garcia Band
Jerry Garcia Band
The Jerry Garcia Band was a San Francisco Bay Area rock band led by Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead. Garcia founded the band in 1975; it remained the most important of his various side-projects until his death in 1995...

 and remained a member until 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...

's untimely death in 1995. He had the third-longest tenure in the band next to Garcia and bassist 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:...

, who had been members for the band's entire history. After Garcia and Kahn's deaths in 1995 and 1996 respectively, Seals formed 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:...

 which he performs with to this day. JGB is essentially the Jerry Garcia band without Jerry and aims to continue the group's legacy.

Other projects Seals has been involved in include The Mix with guitarist John Kadlecik
John Kadlecik
John Kadlecik is an American guitarist best known for his ability to closely replicate the guitar and vocal parts of the late Jerry Garcia. He came to prominence as the lead guitarist for the Grateful Dead tribute band, Dark Star Orchestra, in 1997 and currently performs with original Dead members...

 and Steve Kimock's Crazy Engine with Steve Kimock
Steve Kimock
-External links:** at the Internet Archive's live music archive* at the Internet Archive's live music archive* at Internet Archive's live music archive*, San Francisco, April 3, 1999*, Unofficial Fan Forum...

.

On July 30, 2004,Melvin Seals was the first Jerry Garcia Band member to headline an outdoor music and camping festival named in honor of 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...

, called Grateful Garcia Gathering. Melvin Seals and JGB members that year included Stu Allen and John Kadlecik
John Kadlecik
John Kadlecik is an American guitarist best known for his ability to closely replicate the guitar and vocal parts of the late Jerry Garcia. He came to prominence as the lead guitarist for the Grateful Dead tribute band, Dark Star Orchestra, in 1997 and currently performs with original Dead members...

. Jerry Garcia Band drummer David Kemper joined Melvin Seals & JGB in 2007. To date, other musicians/friends of Jerry's have included Donna Jean, Mookie Siegel, Pete Sears
Pete Sears
Peter 'Pete' Sears is an English rock musician. In a career spanning more than four decades he has been a member of many bands and has moved through a variety of musical genres, from early R&B, psychedelic improvisational rock of the 1960s, folk, country music, arena rock in the 1970s, and blues...

, G.E. Smith, Barry Sless
Barry Sless
Barry Sless is an American musician from Baltimore, Maryland. He is skilled at both traditional six-string guitar and the pedal steel guitar.-Performances with:*David Nelson Band*Phil and Friends*Moonalice*Kingfish*Great American Taxi*Rowan Brothers...

, to name a few musicians.

In 2005 Seals released his first solo CD titled Melting Pot.

External links

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