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JERRY GARCIA AND MERL SAUNDERS
San Franciso 1971 [no label, 2CD]
Live at the Matrix, San Francisco, CA; 1971. Fairly to very good soundboard. Source tape sounds a bit worn down; slight hiss.
Keyboardist Merl Saunders (1934-2008) gained notice in the 1970s when he began collaborating with Jerry Garcia, with whom he had begun playing in 1971 at a small Fillmore Street nightclub called the Matrix. He sat in with the Grateful Dead, and co-founded the Saunders/Garcia Band which produced three albums. - wikipedia
Thanks to Will Boswell for the source; Matt Smith for the transfer; and to amellowsoul (Tom Shyman) for sharing the tracks at Dime.
amellowsoul noted:
Here is a wonderful gem. Simply amazing. Jer and Merl just jamming away, with no vocals, much less even songs. I would figure this to be one of the first times, if not the first itself, these guys played together. Getting a sense and feel for each other’s playing. Needless to say, the hand in glove was instant, and very magical. This is the very birth of Jerry’s solo bands as well. All in all, have a J rolled, and free time to kick back for this ‘journey’ of masterminds. Merl was a great friend. I wish he was still here to play this to him and hear what he would say about it… Although it is more “jazz” or “west coast”, I’m putting it in “rock” for more to see. All thanks to Matt Smith for the transfer and sharing of this! His work is always A+ to me.
Matt Smith noted:
It’s clearly a Matrix tape and you can tell from the separation of the instruments and it has the same type of mix of all other Matrix reels I’ve done. Since Garcia would show up at the ‘Thursday night Jam’ numerous times, this could be from late 1970 but since Merle is here it’s most likely early, mid ‘71. There is static in the left channel but goes away and the overall dynamics are fantastic. It’s like you’re sitting right in front of them! As an aside, Kafer’s reels were destroyed in his parent’s attic so Will’s stuff is most likely the best and cleanest surviving analog copies.
Lineage:
SBD MR > R > R > CD > EAC > WAV (shntool confirms no sbes) > FLAC
SBD MR (Peter Abrams) > R (Peter Kafer) > R (Will Boswell) > CD
Transferred by Matt Smith: MR@7 1/2 ips > R@7 1/2 ips > R@ 7 1/2 ips > Apogee Mini ME 24/96 > Apogee Mini DAC (monitoring) > Wavelab 5.0 (dithered to 20/44) > CD
Click on the highlighted tracks to download the MP3s (224 kbps). As far as we can ascertain, these tracks have never been officially released on CD.
Please Do Not Hammer The Links. Due to the size of some of the files, please be very patient when downloading the tracks. It could be that the server was very busy. The tracks should still be around. Please try again later. Kindly email us at mybigo@bigozine.com if you encounter persistent problems downloading the files.
Disc 1
Track 101. Save Mother Earth Jam/Funk Space Jam 13:29 (22.7MB)
Track 102. Save Mother Earth Jam continued (reel splice at 2:37) 14:40 (24.7MB)
Track 103. Jam 15:23 (25.8MB)
44 mins
Disc 2 -:2
Track 201. Jam 1 (drop out at 5:23) 8:49 (14.8MB)
Track 202. Jam 2 - Part A 13:52 (23.3MB)
Track 203. Jam 2 - Part B 10:12 (17.2MB)
Track 204. Jam 3 (cuts at 4:42) 5:42 (9.6MB)
39 mins
Note: Jam 2 has been arbitrarily split for easier access.
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