Jerry Garcia Band

While Jerry Garcia earned his greatest recognition as the frontman of the Grateful Dead, his artistic reach extended far beyond that single affiliation. To countless listeners he came to personify the independent creative energy that defined the 1960s. An accomplished guitarist, songwriter, and an underappreciated singer, Garcia pursued music with genuine passion, taking part in many endeavors outside the Grateful Dead throughout his career.

The project that reached the widest audience was the Jerry Garcia Band, assembled in 1975. It issued just one studio recording, the 1978 album Cats Under the Stars. The group maintained a steady schedule of concerts through the 1980s and 1990s, captured on the 1990 live release also titled Jerry Garcia Band. Personnel changed frequently, yet bassist John Kahn and keyboardist Melvin Seals remained the most consistent members. Following Garcia’s death in 1995, the ensemble—renamed JGB—kept performing on the road, first under Kahn’s brief leadership until his own passing in 1996 and afterward under Seals’s direction. In the years since, a steady stream of previously unreleased live recordings from the Jerry Garcia Band has continued to appear.