Song:Senor (Tales Of Yankee Power)
Album:The Very Best Of Jerry Garcia
Of course Jerry Garcia was best known as the leader of The Grateful Dead. But Garcia and all the group members did various solo and side projects that you don't want to overlook. Garcia was a big jazz and bluegrass fan and he would do the kind of music that he couldn't really do with The Dead. And some fans believe that his later solo albums are better than The Grateful Dead albums of the same time period. And he usually worked with different musicians. This started when he started producing and playing pedal steel guitar with The New Riders Of The Purple Sage in the early 70s. He recorded jazz with keyboard player Merl Saunders and bluegrass with mandolin player David Grisman and the band Old And In The Way. He first started The Jerry Garcia Band in 1978. It was a rock band like The Grateful Dead but with different musicians. They started performing live in 1975 but didn't record until 1978. Bassist John Kahn was on all of Garcia's solo projects but he was never a member of The Grateful Dead. Keyboardist Melvin Seals joined in 1980 and the band continued to perform live but didn't record again until 1991. This version of Bob Dylan's Senor is from that album which was recorded live at the Warfield in San Francisco. Others on this album were drummer David Kemper from the Dutch group Focus along with singers Gloria Jones & Jackie LaBranch. The music is similar to The Grateful Dead but he does mostly covers. The best way to get into Garcia's solo recordings is to check out this 2CD comp from Rhino. Of course Jerry Garcia died of a heart attack on Aug. 9, 1995 at age 53. His music lives on with The Grateful Dead and his solo projects. Here's The Jerry Garcia Band performing Senor Dec. 13, 1991.
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