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Martin Fierro | |
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![]() Fierro in August 2005 | |
Background information | |
Born | Mexico | January 18, 1942
Died | March 13, 2008 66) Marin County, California, U.S. | (aged
Genres | Rock, jam band, jazz rock |
Occupation(s) | Musician, songwriter, record producer |
Instrument(s) | Saxophone, flute |
Years active | 1960–2005 |
Martin Fierro (January 18, 1942 – March 13, 2008) was a saxophonist who played with the Sir Douglas Quintet, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jerry Garcia, and Zero. He is the father of actor David Fierro.
Fierro was born in Mexico in 1942, and grew up in El Paso, Texas. He pronounced his name Mar-TEEN. He taught himself how to play saxophone and as a teenager participated in rock bands.
Fierro concentrated on jazz in his early 20s. He toured Mexico with a band, then moved to San Francisco and joined Mother Earth, a blues rock group led by Tracy Nelson. He became a member of the rock band the Sir Douglas Quintet in 1968. He also played with Quicksilver Messenger Service and James Cotton. [1]
In 1971, Fierro played saxophone and flute on Hooteroll? , an instrumental, free-form album by guitarist Jerry Garcia and keyboard player Howard Wales. [2] Three years later he joined another project by Garcia known as Legion of Mary. Like Garcia's Grateful Dead, Legion of Mary combined rock and blues with long improvisation. [3] He appeared on the Dead's album Wake of the Flood in 1973 and toured with them that year. [4]
In 1984, Fierro joined the Bay Area Jam Band Zero alongside founding members Steve Kimock, Bobby Vega, John Cipollina, and Greg Anton. The band is generally regarded as one of the foundational examples that pioneered the jam band style of playing. His tenure with the band would garner praise and even more affirmation of his improvisational prowess. In later years he played with the jam bands the String Cheese Incident and the Dark Star Orchestra. He also played local San Francisco Bay Area gigs with his Martin Fierro Jazz Quartet.
He was diagnosed with cancer and died in Marin County, California, on March 13, 2008, at age 66. [1]
With James Cotton
With Mother Earth
With Shades Of Joy
With Sir Douglas Quintet
With Quicksilver Messenger Service
With Jerry Garcia
With Merl Saunders
With Zero
With Rory Gallagher
With the String Cheese Incident
Quicksilver Messenger Service is an American psychedelic rock band formed in 1965 in San Francisco. The band achieved wide popularity in the San Francisco Bay Area and, through their recordings, with psychedelic rock enthusiasts around the globe, and several of their albums ranked in the Top 30 of the Billboard Pop charts. They were part of the new wave of album-oriented bands, achieving renown and popularity despite a lack of success with their singles. Though not as commercially successful as contemporaries Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver was integral to the beginnings of their genre. With their jazz and classical influences and a strong folk background, the band attempted to create an individual, innovative sound. Music historian Colin Larkin wrote: "Of all the bands that came out of the San Francisco area during the late '60s, Quicksilver typified most of the style, attitude and sound of that era."
Steve Kimock is an American rock guitarist. He was a member of San Francisco Bay Area bands Zero and KVHW.
John Cipollina was a guitarist best known for his role as a founder and the lead guitarist of the prominent San Francisco rock band Quicksilver Messenger Service. After leaving Quicksilver he formed the band Copperhead, was a member of the San Francisco All Stars and later played with numerous other bands.
Howard Wales was an American keyboardist who worked in a wide variety of styles. He was a collaborator with Jerry Garcia in the early 1970s.
Merl Saunders was an American multi-genre musician who played piano and keyboards, favoring the Hammond B-3 console organ.
The Jerry Garcia Band was a San Francisco Bay Area rock band led by Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead. Garcia founded the band in 1975; it remained the most important of his various side projects until his death in 1995. The band regularly toured and recorded sporadically throughout its twenty-year existence, generally, but not always, during breaks in the Grateful Dead's schedule.
Legion of Mary was an American rock band, formed by Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead and his friend and musical collaborator Merl Saunders. The band existed from July 1974 to July 1975, and played about 60 live shows. Its members were Garcia, Saunders, John Kahn, Martin Fierro and Ron Tutt (drums). The previous lineup of the band, with Paul Humphrey on drums, is sometimes also referred to as Legion of Mary, but later research has shown that they did not use the Legion of Mary name.
Garcia Plays Dylan is an album composed of various live performances featuring Jerry Garcia playing covers of Bob Dylan songs. It is culled from performances from 1973–1995, and features Garcia playing with Grateful Dead, Legion of Mary, Jerry Garcia Band, and Garcia-Saunders. Garcia takes lead vocals on all tracks.
Legion of Mary: The Jerry Garcia Collection, Vol. 1 is an album by Legion of Mary, a jazz influenced rock band led by Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead. It was recorded live on various dates from December 1974 to July 1975, at the Keystone in Berkeley, California, the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, California, and the Paramount Theatre in Portland, Oregon. It was released on August 23, 2005.
Hooteroll? is a jazz-rock fusion album by Howard Wales and Jerry Garcia.
Road Trips Volume 2 Number 2 is a two-CD live album by the American rock band the Grateful Dead. The sixth in their "Road Trips" series of albums, it was the first to contain a complete concert—the February 14, 1968, show at the Carousel Ballroom in San Francisco, California. Bonus material on Disc 1, as well as the bonus disc offered to early purchasers, comes from the Grateful Dead and Quicksilver Messenger Service "Tour of the Great Pacific Northwest", immediately preceding the Carousel Ballroom show. The album was released on March 21, 2009.
Ace of Cups is an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1967 during the Summer of Love era. It has been described as one of the first all-female rock bands.
Michael David Hinton was an American guitarist, residing in the San Francisco Bay Area. During his career, he played with numerous bands, including Norton Buffalo and the Knockouts, High Noon, Merl Saunders & the Rainforest Band, to name a few. He appeared on several albums with the Rainforest Band and other Merl Saunders projects, including It's In The Air, Fiesta Amazonica, Still Having Fun, Merl Saunders With His Funky Friends - Live, and Still Groovin' .
Let It Rock: The Jerry Garcia Collection, Vol. 2 is an album by the Jerry Garcia Band. It was recorded live at the Keystone in Berkeley, California, on November 17 and 18, 1975. It was released by Rhino Records as a two-disc CD on November 10, 2009.
Pure Jerry: Keystone Berkeley, September 1, 1974 is a three-CD live album by the Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders Band. It contains the complete concert performed at the Keystone in Berkeley, California, on September 1, 1974. The fourth in the Pure Jerry series of archival concert albums, it was released on December 28, 2004.
Garcia Live Volume Three is a three-CD album by Legion of Mary, a band led by Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders. It was recorded live on December 14 and 15, 1974, at the Paramount Theatre in Portland, Oregon and the EMU Ballroom in Eugene, Oregon. It was released by ATO Records on October 15, 2013.
Garcia Live Volume Nine is a two-CD live album by Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders. It was recorded on August 11, 1974 at the Keystone in Berkeley, California. It was released on July 28, 2017.
Jerry Garcia was an American musician. A guitarist, singer, and songwriter, he became famous as a member of the rock band the Grateful Dead, from 1965 to 1995. When not touring or recording with the Dead, Garcia was often playing music in other bands and with other musicians.
Garcia Live Volume 15 is a two-CD live album by Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders. It was recorded on May 21, 1971 at the Keystone Korner in San Francisco. It contains the complete concert from that date except for the encore, which was "Deal". It was released on December 4, 2020.