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Melvin Seals | |
|---|---|
 Seals in concert in 2005 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | September 27, 1953 |
| Origin | San Francisco, California, U.S. |
| Genres | Rock, jam, jazz |
| Occupation | Musician |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals, piano, organ |
| Years active | 1970s-present |
| Website | melvinseals.com/ |
Melvin Seals (born 1953 in San Francisco, California) [1] is an American musician, best known as a longtime member of the Jerry Garcia Band.
Melvin Seals began playing piano at age eight and began his musical adventure playing gospel music for his local church. Over the next years he joined a few different bands in San Francisco and became good at playing other keyboards, particularly the electric organ, which he would play for the majority of his musical career. He went on to record and perform with artists such as Charlie Daniels, Elvin Bishop and Chuck Berry. [2]
In 1980 Melvin Seals joined the Jerry Garcia Band and remained a member until Jerry Garcia's death in 1995. [3] He had the third-longest tenure in the band next to Garcia and bassist John Kahn, who had been members for the band's entire history. After Garcia and Kahn's deaths in 1995 and 1996 respectively, Seals formed JGB which he performs with to this day. JGB aims to continue the Jerry Garcia Band’s legacy beyond the loss of some of its key members. [4]
Other projects Seals has been involved in include The Mix with guitarist John Kadlecik and bassist Kevin Rosen [5] and Steve Kimock's Crazy Engine with Steve Kimock. The original idea for the project was to perform original material. [6]
On July 30, 2004, Seals was the first Jerry Garcia Band member to headline an outdoor music and camping festival named in honor of Jerry Garcia, called Grateful Garcia Gathering. Melvin Seals and JGB members that year included Stu Allen and John Kadlecik. Jerry Garcia Band drummer David Kemper joined Melvin Seals & JGB in 2007. To date, other musicians/friends of Jerry's have included Donna Jean, Mookie Siegel, Pete Sears, G. E. Smith, Barry Sless, Mark Karan, Mike Lawson, Dave Hebert Brian Lesh to name a few musicians.
In 2005 Seals released his first solo CD entitled Melting Pot. [7]
Seals played two concerts with Phil Lesh & Friends at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York on May 28 and 29, 2016. This marked Seals' first collaboration with Phil Lesh & Friends. Seals had previously only played with Lesh at two Jerry Garcia Band concerts in the 1980s when Lesh sat in for their regular bassist John Kahn. [8]
In 2017 Seals toured with Oteil Burbridge on his Oteil & Friends tour, which extended into early 2018. [9]
Phil Lesh and Friends was an American rock band formed and led by Phil Lesh, former bassist of the Grateful Dead.
Robert Hall Weir is an American musician and songwriter best known as a founding member of the Grateful Dead. After the group disbanded in 1995, Weir performed with The Other Ones, later known as The Dead, together with other former members of the Grateful Dead. Weir also founded and played in several other bands during and after his career with the Grateful Dead, including Kingfish, the Bob Weir Band, Bobby and the Midnites, Scaring the Children, RatDog, and Furthur, which he co-led with former Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh. In 2015, Weir, along with former Grateful Dead members Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann, joined with Grammy-winning singer/guitarist John Mayer, bassist Oteil Burbridge, and keyboardist Jeff Chimenti to form the band Dead & Company.
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Donna Jean Thatcher Godchaux-MacKay is an American singer best known as a member of the rock band the Grateful Dead from 1972 to 1979. In addition to the Dead, she performed with the Jerry Garcia Band and the short-lived Heart of Gold Band, all alongside her first husband, Keith Godchaux. She formed the Donna Jean Godchaux Band in 2006.
Almost Acoustic is a live album by the Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band. Held in high esteem by fans for superb sound quality and fine musical selection, it contains songs that were recorded from late November to early December 1987 at the Warfield Theatre in San Francisco and the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles. It was released on December 6, 1988.
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Pure Jerry: Lunt-Fontanne, New York City, The Best of the Rest, October 15–30, 1987 is a three-CD live album by Jerry Garcia. It features performances by both the Jerry Garcia Band and the Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band. It contains selections from a series of 18 concerts performed at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in New York City in October 1987. The third in the Pure Jerry series of archival concert albums, it was released in November 2004.
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