Melvin Seals (born 1953 in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

) is an American musician, best known as a longtime member of the

Jerry Garcia Band 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 tour ...

Early life and career

Melvin Seals began playing piano at age eight and began his musical adventure playing

gospel music Gospel music is a traditional genre of Christian music, and a cornerstone of Christian media. The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of gospel music varies according to culture and social context. Gospel music is com ...

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 Charles Edward Daniels (October 28, 1936 – July 6, 2020) was an American singer, musician, and songwriter. His music fused rock, country, blues and jazz, pioneering Southern rock. He was best known for his number-one country hit "The Dev ...

Elvin Bishop Elvin Richard Bishop (born October 21, 1942) is an American blues and rock music singer, guitarist, bandleader, and songwriter. An original member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a membe ...

and

Chuck Berry Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the " Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and developed rhythm and blues into th ...

Projects

In 1980 Melvin Seals joined the

and remained a member until

Jerry Garcia Jerome John Garcia (August 1, 1942 – August 9, 1995) was an American musician best known for being the principal songwriter, lead guitarist, and a vocalist with the rock band Grateful Dead, which he co-founded and which came to prominence ...

's death in 1995. He had the third-longest tenure in the band next to Garcia and bassist

John Kahn John Kahn (June 13, 1947 – May 30, 1996) was an American electric and acoustic bassist. From 1970 to 1995, Kahn was Jerry Garcia's principal musical collaborator outside of the Grateful Dead. Biography John Kahn was born in Memphis, Tennessee ...

, 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. Other projects Seals has been involved in include The Mix with guitarist

John Kadlecik John Kadlecik (born June 28, 1969 in Council Bluffs, Iowa) is an American guitarist. He was a founding member as the lead guitarist for the Grateful Dead tribute band, Dark Star Orchestra, in 1997. From 2009 to 2014 he performed with original De ...

and bassist Kevin Rosen and Steve Kimock's Crazy Engine with

Steve Kimock Steve Kimock (born October 5, 1955) is an American rock guitarist. He was a member of San Francisco Bay Area bands Zero and KVHW. His tone and some of his playing approach has been compared to Jerry Garcia, who was a friend of his, and he has ...

. The original idea for the project was to perform original material. On July 30, 2004, Seals was the first Jerry Garcia Band member to headline an outdoor music and camping festival named in honor of

, called Grateful Garcia Gathering. Melvin Seals and JGB members that year included Stu Allen and

. Jerry Garcia Band drummer David Kemper joined Melvin Seals & JGB in 2007. To date, other musicians/friends of Jerry's have included Donna Jean,

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, Mike Lawson,

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to name a few musicians. In 2005 Seals released his first solo CD entitled ''Melting Pot''. Seals played two concerts with

Phil Lesh & Friends Phil Lesh and Friends is an American rock band formed and led by Phil Lesh, former bassist of the Grateful Dead. Phil & Friends is not a traditional group in that several different lineups of musicians have played under the name, including gr ...

at the Capitol Theatre in

Port Chester, New York Port Chester is a administrative divisions of New York#Village, village in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and the largest part of the town of Rye (town), New York, Rye in Westchester County, New York, Westchester County by populat ...

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. In 2017 Seals toured with

Oteil Burbridge Oteil Burbridge is an American multi-instrumentalist, specializing on the bass guitar, trained in playing jazz and classical music from an early age. He has achieved fame primarily on bass guitar during the resurgence of the Allman Brothers Band ...

on his Oteil & Friends tour, which extended into early 2018.https://oteilburbridge.com/

Discography

*''Raisin' Hell'' –

– 1977 *'' Run for the Roses'' –

– 1982 *''

'' –

– 1991 *'' How Sweet It Is'' – Jerry Garcia Band – 1997 *''Welcome to Our World'' – JGB – 1998 *'' Shining Star'' – Jerry Garcia Band – 2001 *'' Pure Jerry: Lunt-Fontanne, New York City, October 31, 1987'' – Jerry Garcia Band – 2004 *'' Pure Jerry: Lunt-Fontanne, New York City, The Best of the Rest, October 15–30, 1987'' – Jerry Garcia Band – 2004 *'' Pure Jerry: Merriweather Post Pavilion, September 1 & 2, 1989'' – Jerry Garcia Band – 2005 *''Live at Shoreline 9/1/90, DVD'' – Jerry Garcia Band – 2005 *''Melting Pot'' – Melvin Seals – 2005 *'' Pure Jerry: Coliseum, Hampton, VA, November 9, 1991'' – Jerry Garcia Band – 2006 *''Keepers of the Flame'' – JGB – 2006 *'' Garcia Live Volume Two'' – Jerry Garcia Band – 2013 *'' Fall 1989: The Long Island Sound'' – Jerry Garcia Band – 2013 *'' On Broadway: Act One – October 28th, 1987'' – Jerry Garcia Band – 2015 *'' Garcia Live Volume Eight'' – Jerry Garcia Band – 2017 *'' Garcia Live Volume 10'' – Jerry Garcia Band – 2018 *''

Electric on the Eel ''Electric on the Eel'' is a live album by the Jerry Garcia Band. It contains three complete concerts on six CDs. The shows were recorded on August 29, 1987, June 10, 1989, and August 10, 1991 at French's Camp in Piercy, California, near the Ee ...

'' – Jerry Garcia Band – 2019 *'' Garcia Live Volume 11'' – Jerry Garcia Band – 2019 *'' Garcia Live Volume 13'' – Jerry Garcia Band – 2020 *'' Garcia Live Volume 16'' – Jerry Garcia Band – 2021 *'' Garcia Live Volume 19'' – Jerry Garcia Band – 2022

References

External links

Melvin Seals Official WebsiteJGB Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Seals, Melvin 1953 births Living people American rock keyboardists Jerry Garcia Band members JGB (band) members Rainforest Band members