Well-Matched: The Best of Merl Saunders & Jerry Garcia

by Merl Saunders

Overview

For five years in the early '70s Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders headed up a loose-knit club band in the San Francisco area (the group never had an official name) specializing in a graceful mix of jazz, R&B, blues, gospel, and light funk with hints of bop, fusion, and even reggae. Aside from the two-volume Live at Keystone (1973), most of the group's recorded output appeared on various Saunders releases on Fantasy Records, and this remarkably cohesive compilation picks key tracks from all of these, with roughly half of the set coming from the Keystone LPs. Garcia is in full flight here as a guitarist, with Saunders' soul-jazz organ giving things a wonderfully fluid feel, and the end result is a kind of laid-back West Coast jazz-rock that is very much the sum of its parts. Among the highlights in what is a very strong sequence are the nearly 12-minute version of "Mystery Train" that opens things here, the floating elegance of the instrumental "Merl's Tune," the fusion-feel "Welcome to the Basement" with a guest shot from the Tower of Power Horns, and an interesting take on Jimmy Cliff's "The Harder They Come," which was still a relatively unknown tune when this version was recorded in 1973. Jerry Garcia and Grateful Dead fans will no doubt appreciate all of this, but Well-Matched also functions as a kind of introduction to Saunders as well, whose good-natured and pop-inflected approach to soul-jazz deserves to be better known. ~ Steve Leggett

Product Details

Release Date:	05/23/2006
Label:	Fantasy
UPC:	0888072300194

Tracks

1. Mystery Train
2. Lonely Avenue
3. Merl's Tune
4. Positively 4th Street
5. After Midnight
6. Welcome to the Basement
7. That's Alright
8. Space
9. I Second That Emotion
10. The Harder They Come

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Merl Saunders   Primary Artist,Organ,Piano,Clavinet,Synthesizer
Jerry Garcia   Primary Artist,Guitar,Vocals
Bill Vitt   Primary Artist,Drums
John Kahn   Primary Artist,Guitar (Bass),Bass
Tom Fogerty   Guest Artist,Guitar (Rhythm)
Vassar Clements   Guest Artist,Violin
Eddie Moore   Drums,Musical Saw
David Grisman   Mandolin
Bob Drew   Sax (Alto)
Eccleston W. Wainwright, Jr.   Drums
Kenneth Nash   Percussion
Bill Kreutzmann   Drums

Technical Credits

David Gans   Compilation Producer
Joe Tarantino   Remastering
John Kahn   Composer,Producer
Jimmy Cliff   Composer
Jerry Garcia   Composer,Producer
Merl Saunders   Composer,Producer
Stuart Kremsky   Production Coordination
Junior Parker   Composer
Al Cleveland   Composer
Tom Fogerty   Producer
Stephen Hart   Mixing
Jimmy Rogers   Composer
Smokey Robinson   Composer
Sam Phillips   Composer
Bill Vitt   Composer,Producer
Annie Leibovitz   Cover Photo,Photography
Deb Sibony   Design
Phil Bray   Photography
Doc Pomus   Composer
Blair Jackson   Essay
Bob Dylan   Composer
J.J. Cale   Composer
Tony Lane   Photography
Linda Kalin   Design