Rancho Nicasio, San Rafael: March 7, 1979 KPFA Broadcast

Foldout digipak. Rancho Nicasio, San Rafael, March 7, 1979, KPFA Broadcast 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,” John Kahn recalled. “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 work when he was out of town with the Grateful Dead, which seemed to be more and more of the time. That was the point. In which case we’d have another guitar player. 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 [Garcia] being in the band originally, and then when he was in the band it sort of changed everything from what the plan was.” From a “side trips” perspective, Reconstruction provided Jerry Garcia with some greater musical challenges than many solo jaunts that had preceded or followed. Forty-one years on down the line, the uniquely quirky, irresistibly funky stylings remain confounding. “Garcia never gave the aura of superiority in any kind of way even though he was the one drawing the crowd. There was no doubt about that…there was no ego involved. None of that superstar, whatever comes with being a superstar. I only noticed it when we showed up to the gigs. Jerry was just one of the cast. That’s what he wanted to be.”- Ed Neumeister Jerry Garcia,guitar, vocals / Gaylord Birch,drums / John Kahn,bass / Merl Saunders, keyboards / Ron Stallings,saxophone, vocals / Ed Neumeister, trombone