The guitarist was the lead player in an improbably successful death and resurrection show. The pianist had been heard by millions who had not heard of him. Marilyn Monroe used to babysit the bass player. The drummer played with Elvis. In November 1975 these four musicians played to around five hundred people in a Berkeley beer hall.
The pianist was the renowned English session musician Nicky Hopkins. He had played with The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and many other famous performers of the 1960’s and early 1970’s. This short book explains how and why came to be playing in a bar band with guitarist Jerry Garcia, ringleader of The Grateful Dead and a figurehead of the psychedelic counterculture. Both had performed to audiences of thousands at Woodstock and in arenas and stadia.
Hopkins’ tenure in the first incarnation of the Jerry Garcia Band lasted less than four months and accounts of that brief musical collaboration have been fragmentary. That such a short partnership has been a footnote in their respective biographies is perhaps unsurprising given that they both had very prolific careers. By drawing together various references the convergence of these singular talents is examined.
The book then considers the timeless nature of the music that was made by collective improvisation on those evenings in November 1975. The focus for that discussion is a recording of the band in performance which is of exceptional quality. That will be of particular interest to those interested in the career of Nicky Hopkins. Recordings of Jerry Garcia playing improvisational music in live performance are a commonplace. In Hopkins’ case they are a rarity. His principal legacy is the hundreds of studio recordings that he made. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest session musicians and sidemen in rock and pop. The book seeks to explain why he should be recognised as a musician of consummate skill in a largely improvised live performance.
By reference to the repertoire performed by that band observations are made on The Blues, both as the basis for such improvisation and as the rootstock from which increasingly hybrid musical genres developed during the twentieth century. Distinctions are made between the ‘jam session’ and the ‘jam band’ and the talents of musicians engaged in collective improvisation are discussed. In this instance the players had the ability to spontaneously introduce musical influences from a diverse range of musical genres. In so doing they were able to connect Chuck Berry with Jimmy Cliff, John Coltrane with Conway Twitty and more.
The book concludes by considering the reasons why Hopkins parted company with the Jerry Garcia Band on New Year’s Eve 1975. Nicky Hopkins was in very poor shape physically and mentally in 1975. It is argued that intuitive musical improvisation of this standard is an exceptional artistic achievement. To make such an outstanding contribution in live performance whilst in such condition evidences a particular type of genius.
The book can be previewed as an online publication at;
The book can be previewed as an online publication at;
Robert Croydon
September 2019
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