CD Review

In less than a few short years, the estate of one Jerry Garcia, at least in the vault material department, has upped its commercial status from sleeping giant to roaring juggernaut. Soon, it will be necessary for less-than-well-heeled Jerry freaks to start discriminating how they open their wallets for this stuff, but for now … the hits continue. This latest, four-disc collection – full, uncut recordings of a legitimately magical pair of warm September nights just north of Washington D.C., might be the best all around release yet.

A quick glance at the date tells even a casual JGB and Grateful Dead fan most of what he or she needs to know. For a short time in the late 1980s, before its own decline - parallel (and far less laboriously) to the Grateful Dead’s own in the early 1990s - the Jerry Garcia Band transcended its own glorious casualness and became an A-level exploratory outfit. Garcia himself is in fine form, fully recovered from his 1986 diabetic coma and ongoing personal issues, while clearly fueled, both creatively and inspirationally by the Dead’s then-just-wrapped summer 1989 tour, which was possibly the best in the band’s final eight or nine years.

By this time, the cover tunes and roots standards that basically made the JGB catalogue what it was, were second nature to the band, whose classic lineup of keyboardist Melvin Seals, longtime bassist John Kahn, drummer David Kemper, vocalists Gloria Jones and Jackie LaBranch had settled into a comfortable pocket. With that level of chemistry, they were able to balance being a backing band to Garcia’s own flights, but interact and flesh out all the nuances of the music just the same. This is the closest the JGB ever came to being a tried-and-true ensemble, instead of just imaginative garnish for Jerry, and the comfort zone on display here is still relaxed, casual and off-the-cuff enough so as not be taken with painful seriousness. It is demanding a higher legitimate band designation, that is as warm and inviting as a Memorial Day cookout.

The music itself isn’t entirely indulgence free, but it crackles, and is lively through each of the four sets and two nights. The reggae and deep New Orleans R&B (Peter Tosh’s “Stop That Train,” Jimmy Cliff’s “The Harder They Come,” Allen Toussaint’s “Get Out of My Life Woman” and “I’ll Take a Melody”) is bouncy and chewable, and the Dylan, Van Morrison and bluegrass/Americana standards, (most notably Dan Penn’s “Like a Road Leading Home” on Disc 1 and the Gillespie/Smith classic “Lucky Old Sun” on Disc 2 ) emanate with an energetic aura and unbridled glee.

Things are kept moving, with no real stagnating moments (save for a flabby stretch of interplay in the middle of Dylan’s “Simple Twist of Fate” and some limp, less-than-memorable flexing on “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”), and therein lies the main reason to pick this release up: you can play all the 28 tracks, all the way through, with only one repeat over the two nights (Bruce Cockburn’s “Waiting for a Miracle”), and not feel belabored by long stretches of indulgence, underdevelopment or meandering slowness. If other JGB releases have more moments of individual, isolated fireworks, as Jerry’s playing is a bit less intense (though hardly subdued), throughout this pair, this one is consistent as hell as a listenable document. Right when you arrive at such gems as the deeply felt “Mission in the Rain” or the second night bounce through Los Lobos’ “Evangeline” and the 18-plus minute “Don’t Let Go” finale, you’ll feel wholly nourished instead of merely satisfied.

For more information, please visit purejerry.com.