JERRY GARCIA BAND- “STAYS HONEST”

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JERRY GARCIA BAND-

“STAYS HONEST”

BY JOHN WISNIEWSKI

THE POST STANDARD

SYRACUSE, NEW YORK

FEBRUARY 20, 1980

Singer/songwriter/guitarist Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead, the most

enduring and best-loved of the San Francisco bands that came into prominence during the psychedelic music era of the late-1960s, is currently touring the, East Coast with a band of friends to raise money for the screen rights to novelist Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s “The Sirens of Titan.”

It was evident from the Garcia Band’s standing-room-only performance Tuesday night at the nearly 3,000 seat Syracuse Area Landmark Theatre that Garcia has no intentions of making the tour a simply take-the-money-and-run proposition. No matter what the motives for the tour are, they have not taken away from the integrity of the music.

This edition of the Jerry Garcia Band includes drummer Johnny D’Fronesca, keyboards player Ozzie Ahlers and bassist John Kahn — as fine a non-Dead lineup as Garcia has ever assembled. The four piece band exhibited very appealing jazz tendencies that made for some refreshing re-workings of old Garcia/Dead favorites.

“Sugaree,” the night’s opener, for instance, was an impressive showcase for Ahlers’ knockout electric-piano work and Garcia’s trademark guitar lines – lines that build into beautifully slithery and elastic melodies.

Without a doubt, the musicianship was at the forefront. While Garcia is an able vocalist, he has never been a great one. He will probably always be remembered more for his playing than his singing.

The night was full of moments of inspired improvisation by Ahlers and Garcia, who seemed at their best when playing off of each other.

Kahn’s bass work was in the same solid and-economically tasteful style for which he has become noted. And D’Fronesca’s drums left nothing to complain about. It was a night of competent and spirited musicianship that created a lot of good feeling — something for which, it seems, Garcia can always be counted on.

JERRY GARCIA BAND DISCOGRAPHY:

1971 Hooteroll? (w/ Howard Wales)

1972 Garcia

1973 Live at Keystone (w/ Merl Saunders)

1974 Compliments

1976 Reflections

1978 Cats Under the Stars

1982 Run for the Roses

1988 Almost Acoustic (Live)

1991 Jerry Garcia Band (Live)

1991 Garcia Grisman

1993 Not For Kids Only (w/ Grisman)

1996 Shady Grove (w/ Grisman)

1997 How Sweet it is (Live)

1998 So What (w/ Grisman)

2001 Dont Let Go (Live)

2001 Shining Star (Live)

2004 After Midnight (Live 1980)

2005 Garcia Plays Dylan (Live)

2009 Let it Rock (Live 1975)

CLICK ON THE LINKS BELOW TO SEE GRATEFUL DEAD AND JERRY GARCIA PHOTOS AND ARTWORK:

GRATEFUL DEAD 12-27-77

and

JERRY GARCIA BAND 10-27-78

and

GRATEFUL DEAD ARTWORK

and

PURCHASE GRATEFUL DEAD CD’S AND DVD’S