Granted, I have an unnatural favoritism for Miles Davis, and it's always exotic to hear seemingly 'one time' performances, but despite being very late for the train, I could not believe that during what was probably the last performance of that lineup there was a fantastic, extended performance of a difficult song completely outside of the regular performing repertoire of the Jerry Garcia Band. It was worth my time, then, to at least check it out.Īlthough I do not normally make blanket statements about tapes, I have to say that the Keystone Palo Alto 'So What' from November 3, 1978, is my single favorite performance by the Keith and Donna version of the Jerry Garcia Band.

A reliable Commenter said that the Nov 3 'So What' was supposedly one of Garcia's favorite JGB performances, making the demise of that lineup even stranger. I did look at the setlist, however, and was astonished to see that 'So What' was over 17 minutes long. I had dimly known that the band performed Miles Davis's classic 'So What,' but I had vaguely assumed that this was just a fin de siecle quote, like 'Teddy Bear's Picnic' or the like. When I was researching the final days of Keith and Donna with the Dead, however, I had to focus on their last date with the JGB, and looked more closely at the Novemshow. Over the years, I have not been a huge fan of the late '78 Garcia Band tapes, and thus had not paid too much attention to them.

Perhaps Garcia was figuring that with Brent on the horizon, the end was near anyway. According to fuzzy rumor, Garcia became unhappy with Keith in the Garcia Band at the end of 1978 over some non-musical issue, and did not schedule any more performances. The Dead had been unhappy with Keith and Donna for some time, particularly Keith's playing, but in typical Dead fashion the band never discussed it.

We already know that Jerry Garcia had heard Brent Mydland play with Bob Weir the week before, and Garcia and Weir were contemplating replacing Keith and Donna with Brent in the Grateful Dead. The Jerry Site shows the November 4 date as questionable (the source was Dennis McNally's list, and he too had a question mark), so the last confirmed date for the Garcia Band with Keith and Donna was Saturday, November 3. The last performance of the Keith and Donna iteration of the Jerry Garcia Band was at the Keystone Palo Alto on either November 3 or 4, 1978.

Jerry garcia band songs