Days Between: Jerry Garcia Performing With Reconstruction

Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia was born on August 1, 1942 and died on August 9, 1995 at the age of 53. Each year, the “Days Between” Garcia’s birthday and the anniversary of his death mark a period of time to reflect on and celebrate the beloved musician’s life and career. This year, JamBase honors the Days Between by examining the evolution of the Jerry Garcia Band from its inception in 1975, through a final performance in 1995.

Following the final Jerry Garcia Band shows of the Godchaux era in November 1978, Garcia focused his attention on another project outside of JGB. Garcia was a member of the short-lived group called Reconstruction, about which JerryGarcia.com states:

“John Kahn formed Reconstruction in early 1979 around Jerry Garcia and a quartet of jazz players. It’s possible that the initial intention was not to include Garcia as a permanent member. However, by the time they started to perform in January 1979, Jerry was in. This limited performances to when the Grateful Dead were off the road.”

According to Jerrybase.com, Reconstruction performed 60 times between January 30, 1979 and September 29, 1979. The band primarily gigged around San Francisco’s Bay Area, but did play three shows in April 1979 at Rainbow Music Hall in Denver.

The band’s lineup consisted of Garcia, Jerry Garcia Band bassist John Kahn, saxophonist Ron Stallings, trombonist Ed Neumeister and drummer Gaylord Birch. Reconstruction’s lineup was also notable for its inclusion of keyboardist Merl Saunders, who had previously regularly played with Garcia in various formations, including the short-lived, pre-JGB group, Legion Of Mary.

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Reconstruction’s repertoire was different from that of the Jerry Garcia Band and Garcia’s pre-JGB work with Saunders. The group debuted covers of songs by the likes of Nina Simone, McCoy Tyner, Stevie Wonder, Bill Withers, Gino Vannelli, Jimmy Cliff, Mark Levine, Deadric Malone and more, including The Beatles’ “Dear Prudence.” Reconstruction also played several Saunders originals like “Welcome To The Basement” and “Soul Roach.”

“The approach was to play jazz and rock together but still be danceable,” Saunders told author Blair Jackson in his 2000 biography, Garcia: An American Life. “It was a great band for a while. Jerry liked that it gave him a totally new structure to work with, with these great horn players and a different set of tunes. These were really excellent musicians. And because they came from outside the Grateful Dead world, they related to Jerry as just another player, not a ‘star.’”

March 7, 1979 – San Rafael

In August and September 1979, likely due to commitments with the Grateful Dead, Garcia was unable to perform with Reconstruction at a few of their dates. Those concerts featured Saunders, Kahn, Stallings, Neumeister, Birch and guitarist Carl Lockett or Jerry Miller. Kahn spoke to Blair about Reconstruction, telling the author:

“Reconstruction was going to be a band that would do more jazz, explore that avenue on a deeper level than the old Merl and Jerry thing. It was supposed to be a thing where if Jerry was going to play in the band, which he ended up doing, we could still do work when he was out of town with the Grateful Dead. That was the point. In which case we’d have another guitar player.
It was supposed to be something I could do when Jerry was away with the Grateful Dead, which seemed to be more and more of the time.

“I actually did it a few times—I did some gigs with Jerry Miller of Moby Grape. He was a really good guy and a great player. I wasn’t really planning on Jerry being in the band originally, and then when he was in the band it sort of changed everything from what the plan was. Then, when he left for Grateful Dead tours, we were never able to really get anywhere because everyone expected to see Jerry in there.

“But it was fun for a while; we had some nice gigs. It was fun making Jerry play those real difficult songs. The horn players used to make fun of Jerry and me for being late or taking drugs or whatever—the same old stuff—and then I’d listen to tapes and we were the only ones who could play the songs right!”

Bay Area-based “Rev.” Ron Stallings played saxophone on Mike Bloomfield’s 1969 album, It’s Not Killing Me, which featured Kahn on bass. Stallings also worked on albums by Tom Fogerty, Elvin Bishop, Jesse Colin Young, Otis Rush and others prior to being recruited by Kahn to play in Reconstruction. Stallings contributed to Garcia’s 1982 solo album, Run For The Roses and in 1994 became a member of Huey Lewis & The News. Stallings died in 2022 at the age of 62 from cancer.

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A Bay Area native, trombonist Ed Neumeister as a teen performed with the likes of Chuck Berry, Bobby Rydell and Chubby Checker. He later joined the house band at the Circle Star Theater, where he shared the stage with such legends as Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan and Aretha Franklin. In 2012, Neumeister spoke to Paste Magazine about his stint in Reconstruction.

“I think they rehearsed once or twice and they decided they would get another horn player, so Stallings recommended me, and actually, Ron [Stallings] called me. He said, ‘Yeah, we’ve got a gig on Saturday and we’re rehearsing Thursday. It’s just a door gig.’ I had no idea to be honest the following that Jerry had. I showed up for that first gig and there were wall-to-wall people. It was at Keystone Berkley.”

Neumeister followed his time in Reconstruction by working on several film scores, Inception and The Dark Knight. He later moved to New York City where he became a professor of music at the New School and the City College of New York, among other institutions.

San Francisco-native Gaylord Birch was the drummer for The Pointer Sisters in the early-1970s. Along with his contributions to Reconstruction, Birch also played drums with Santana, Charles Brown, Graham Central Station and others. Birch appeared on Merl Saunders’ self-titled 1974 album, which also featured Kahn. Birch also contributed to Saunders’ 1992 album, Mel Saunders & Friends, which featured Garcia, Kahn and dozens of other musicians. Birch died from cancer in 1996 at age 50.

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[Many thanks to JerryGarcia.com, JerryBase.com and Lost Live Dead for statistical data, personnel information, setlists and other resources.]

Source: JamBase.com