Ya know after seeing The Jerry Garcia Band all these years I never
knew the name of the drummer in his band. How many did he have?
Who was the best drummer for his band?
Who was the drummer on the double disc live CD?
What made one drummer better than the other for his band?
booie............
>Who was the best drummer for The Jerry Garcia Band?
>
Bill Kreutzmann.
What were the circumstances of his firings???
TOG
I believe he was fired by fax, both times. (seriously) Jerry and Bob
both had/have an affinity for no-confrontation firings.
I heard he had someone (Parrish?) tell Manasha that he was breaking up
with her so I guess the no confrontation thing was his modus operendi.
> I believe he was fired by fax, both times. (seriously) Jerry and Bob
> both had/have an affinity for no-confrontation firings.
In DDN Kemper said the JGB firing came through a phone call from
Parrish.
Pat Buzby
Chicago, IL
I guess I meant to ask what wuz the reason he wuz fired from both
bands? Did he suck as a drummer, not follow Jerry & Bob's
directions?...etc...etc.
TOF
In that DDN interview he said he didn't know why Jerry fired him, but
mentioned that he had the sense on the last tour he did (fall '93)
that Jerry might have gotten tired of him.
Pat Buzby
Chicago, IL
Kemper is an excellent musician. Something tells me he rubs people
the wrong way, because for his level of talent and given that he's an
L.A musician, I'm surprised he doesn't get more session work than he
does. But anyway, he can play a shuffle beat authoritatively when he
wants to (he didn't do this with JGB really), and that not an easy
thing to do for a drummer. He ain't no Levon of course.
-JC
> Who was the best drummer for The Jerry Garcia Band?
Ron Tutt, but he really shined during all those years with Elvis. What an
odd career, Jerry and Elvis.....
O
> Ron Tutt, but he really shined during all those years with Elvis. What an
> odd career, Jerry and Elvis.....
Not to mention Neil Diamond afterwards.
Pat Buzby
Chicago, IL
Interesting that he played with Kahn for 25 years but got tired of
Kemper (who I thought was great).
Kahn was his dealer, wasn't he??
TOG
Bingo!
--
~ Seth Jackson
MySpace URL - http://www.myspace.com/sethjacksonsong
Songwriting and Music Business Info: http://www.sethjackson.net
According to one Dead book or article I read somewhere, Garcia fired
Kreutzmann to bring in Ron Tutt in 1974/5. That must have been
interesting.
I suppose I'll track down one of the early 80's JGB shows with
Kreutzmann sometime.
Pat Buzby
Chicago, IL
You mean, "had Parrish call Kreutzmann to fire him" ?? ;-)
> FWIW, David Kemper is the only man to be fired from both the Jerry
> Garcia Band and Bob Dylan's band.
And, it gets weirder from there, as neither Jerry nor Dylan informed
Kemper that he'd been fired.
Or, so I seem to remember reading in an interview with Kemper.
Joe
Here's a link to that interview along with some of the highlights:
http://www.well.com/user/shmo/kemper.html
BS: How were the arrangements worked out? Were you told what to play?
Was anybody ?in charge??
DK: I was never told anything. and for a while it bothered me because
for a long time I felt the band never matured. I never felt we really
got it right. Never. Not in ten years. And I felt that if we?d
discussed some of these things maybe that would?ve helped. Instead,
we?d just get together and play and talk. Unfortunately, when we
talked, we would talk about everything but the music.
------------------------
BS: Do you have any idea how your name came up?
DK: Yeah, I found out later that John had called a producer in town
and asked, ?Who?s happening??, and the producer mentioned my name.
And I was working a lot. I was really busy. So John just called sight
unseen, or ?sound unheard? I should say, and invited me up to Front
Street, the place, you know. I met everybody, and we played and
everybody smiled and said ?We like it,? and they asked me what I
thought and I said I liked it. Though inside I thought to myself,
?This is the strangest bunch of people I?ve ever been around!?
-------------------------
BS: You mentioned before that you?d talk about everything but the
music at rehearsals. That?s intriguing. Describe those sessions.
DK: Well, I would fly up for rehearsals, get there, we?d talk for an
hour, then we?d plug in and play for ten minutes and Jerry would say,
?Oh, man, what a workout! Let?s take a break.? Then we would talk for
another hour!
---------------------
BS: You had said to me when we spoke previously that Jerry was both
the smartest and the dumbest man you?d ever met. What did you mean by
that?
DK: Well, here?s an example: See, Jerry was into snakes before I met
him, and for a while he was carrying around this bottle of snake
essence. One day, he wondered what it would taste like. So he drank
it, right from the bottle! Right away, he said it was the most
horrible thing he?d ever tasted and consequently he had the taste in
his mouth for, like, two months after. Well, you know, you?ve got to
realize if you?re going to drink essence of snake it?s going to taste
pretty terrible, and it?s not going to want to leave your mouth real
soon.
BS: What else?
DK: He?d send money to Gene Scott, you know the televangelist guy with
the white hair. I could never understand that attraction!
BS: Tell me more.
DK: Let?s see. Oh, here?s one. One day he took his car in for
servicing. and the mechanic called and asked Steve Parish to come in
and pick the car up immediately, that there was a problem. So Steve
Parish went down there and asked what the problem was. The mechanic
said, ?Look under the seat.? He looked under the seat and there was
money shoved under there, like major money. Now, for all our gigs in
the beginning we got paid cash, and there were, like, ten thousand
dollar checks, sums of that proportion, stuffed into his glove
compartment and in other spots in the car. He would just take the gig
money and shove it under his seat!
---------------------
BS: How were you informed of your termination?
DK: I got a call from Parish in January of ?94, saying, ?Well, here?s
that phone call you?ve been expecting for 10 years. Where do you want
us to send your drums?? I said, ?Well, Steve, why don?t you send them
here to my house.? And he said, ?Don?t you want them sent to your
cartage company?? And I said, ?No, have them sent here to the house.?
And he said, ?Oh, by the way, we have a new drummer already.? and I
said, ?Oh, OK..? And he said, ?Well, I don?t know what else to say but
?goodbye.?? And I said, ?Well, Steve, you know, you always had a way
with words.? And that was it. No explanation, nothing.
------------------------
BS: That?s a good question to conclude with here: What do you think
the audience wanted?
DK: That?s easy: the audience just wanted to be in a room with Jerry.
They didn?t care if they were hearing fast music or slow music; they
wanted to be in the same room with Jerry. That?s all I could see. And
it didn?t matter if it was good or bad or who he had on stage with
him. The crowd didn?t come to see me or John or Melvin. They came to
be in the same room with Jerry. It?s that simple. And I don?t blame
them. Being in the same room with Jerry was a pretty damn wonderful
place to be.
JimK
-------------------------