''The Pizza Tapes'' is an album by Jerry Garcia ( acoustic guitar,

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

), David Grisman ( mandolin), and

Tony Rice David Anthony Rice (June 8, 1951 – December 25, 2020), known professionally as Tony Rice, was an American guitarist and bluegrass musician. He was an influential acoustic guitar player in bluegrass, progressive bluegrass, newgrass and a ...

(acoustic guitar). It was recorded at Grisman's studio on two evenings in 1993, and features unrehearsed performances of

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Fo ...

and bluegrass songs. It was released on the Acoustic Disc label on April 25, 2000.

History

The long-standing musical relationship between Garcia and Grisman began with Grisman's mandolin work on select tracks on the '' American Beauty'' album as well as a collaboration with

Peter Rowan Peter Rowan (born July 4, 1942) is an American bluegrass musician and composer. Rowan plays guitar and mandolin, yodels and sings. Biography Rowan was born in Wayland, Massachusetts to a musical family. From an early age, he had an interest ...

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 ...

, and

Vassar Clements Vassar Carlton Clements (April 25, 1928 – August 16, 2005) was an American jazz, swing, and bluegrass fiddler. Clements has been dubbed the Father of Hillbilly Jazz, an improvisational style that blends and borrows from swing, hot jazz, and ...

in the bluegrass band

Old & In the Way Old & In the Way was a bluegrass group formed in 1973. It was composed of Peter Rowan (guitar, vocals), Vassar Clements (fiddle), Jerry Garcia (banjo, vocals), David Grisman (mandolin, vocals), and John Kahn (string bass). When the group was fo ...

. Rice's work with Grisman on their joint album '' Tone Poems'' would earn him a place in these historic recordings with Garcia. In February 1993, Grisman was playing with Rice and invited Garcia to his studio. Over the nights of February 4 and February 5, the trio recorded what would be known as ''The Pizza Tapes''. Garcia's copy was supposedly given to a

pizza delivery Pizza delivery is a service in which a pizzeria or pizza chain Delivery (commerce), delivers a pizza to a customer. An order is typically made either by telephone, or over the internet, in which the customer can request pizza type and size, a ...

person (as an unorthodox and really groovy tip) and, not long after, Grisman heard a song on the radio in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. Fans started bringing tapes to Grateful Dead shows for autographs, and shortly after, the band confiscated a box of bootleg CDs of the session. Grisman said, " ter several years of being pissed off (about their illegal release), I decided to bury the hatchet…and make these tapes available....” The tapes were released (seven years later), after the album with the songs in the order recorded, with a few mistakes, false starts, and some talking between musicians. ''The Pizza Tapes'' contains the only known version of Garcia performing "Amazing Grace", which was played only after Pam Rice, Tony Rice's wife, requested it. Rice gave credit to the late Garcia and wrote, "I wish there were words that would express my gratitude for being a part of it. Perhaps just knowing that Garcia might be smiling somewhere saying, 'Dawg can we hear that take again?' will suffice."liner notes, ''The Pizza Tapes'', Acoustic Disc, April 25, 2000 In 2010, Grisman's online label Acoustic Oasis released ''The Pizza Tapes: Extra Large Edition'' offering 170 minutes of music, including 16 previously unissued alternate takes in addition to the original master takes in their original sequence. In addition to new music, the expanded edition also features more of the personal repartee that characterized the initial release.

Track listing

#"Appetizer" – 0:13 #"

Man of Constant Sorrow "Man of Constant Sorrow" (also known as "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow") is a traditional American folk song first published by Dick Burnett, a partially blind fiddler from Kentucky. The song was originally titled "Farewell Song" in a songbook ...

" (traditional) – 5:06 #"Appetizer" – 0:29 #"Louis Collins" (

Mississippi John Hurt John Smith Hurt (March 8, 1893 – November 2, 1966), better known as Mississippi John Hurt, was an American country blues singer and guitarist. Raised in Avalon, Mississippi, Hurt taught himself to play the guitar around the age of nine. He w ...

) – 5:57 #"Shady Jam" (Jerry Garcia, David Grisman, Tony Rice) – 3:41 #" Shady Grove" (trad.) – 4:45 #"Always Late" (

Lefty Frizzell William Orville "Lefty" Frizzell (March 31, 1928 – July 19, 1975) was an American country music singer-songwriter and honky-tonk singer. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1982. Frizzell released many songs that charted ...

, Blackie Crawford) – 0:54 #"Guitar Space" (Garcia, Rice) / " Summertime" (

George Gershwin George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions ' ...

, Ira Gershwin, Dubose Heyward) – 8:41 #"Appetizer" – 0:26 #"

Long Black Veil "Long Black Veil" is a 1959 country ballad, written by Danny Dill and Marijohn Wilkin and originally recorded by Lefty Frizzell. It is told from the point of view of a man falsely accused of murder and executed. He refuses to provide an alibi, ...

" (

Danny Dill Horace Eldred "Danny" Dill (September 19, 1924 – October 23, 2008) was an American country music singer and songwriter. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1975. Biography Dill, born in Clarksburg, Tennessee, got h ...

Marijohn Wilkin Marijohn Wilkin ( Melson; July 14, 1920 – October 28, 2006) was an American songwriter, famous in country music for writing a number of hits. Wilkin won numerous awards over the years and was referred to as "The Den Mother of Music Row," a ...

) – 4:30 #"Rosa Lee McFall" (trad.) – 3:12 #"Appetizer" – 1:13 #"Drifting Too Far From The Shore" (Charles Moody) – 4:54 #"

Amazing Grace "Amazing Grace" is a Christian hymn published in 1779 with words written in 1772 by English Anglican clergyman and poet John Newton (1725–1807). It is an immensely popular hymn, particularly in the United States, where it is used for both ...

" (trad.) – 4:54 #"

Little Sadie "Little Sadie" is a 20th-century United States, American folk music, folk ballad written in Dorian mode. It is also known variously as "Bad Lee Brown", "Cocaine Blues", "Transfusion Blues", "East St. Louis Blues", "Late One Night", "Penitentiary B ...

" (trad.) – 3:13 #"

Knockin' on Heaven's Door "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, written for the soundtrack of the 1973 film '' Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid''. Released as a single two months after the film's premiere, it became a worldwide hit, ...

" (

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

) – 5:47 #"Space Jam" – 0:59 #" So What" (

Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of musi ...

) – 6:28 #"Appetizer" – 0:22 #"

House of the Rising Sun A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...

" (trad.) – 8:05

Personnel

* Jerry Garcia -

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

* David Grisman - mandolin *

- guitar

Production

*Producer – David Grisman *Executive producer – Craig Miller *Recording, mixing – David Dennison *Mastering – Paul Stubblebine *Production assistant – Rob Bleetstein *Photography – Pamela Rice, Dexter Johnson *Design, layout – D. Brent Hauseman *Liner notes – David Grisman,

Samples

References

External links

Jerry Garcia's official website

Acoustic Disc's official website

Acoustic Oasis's official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pizza Tapes David Grisman albums Jerry Garcia albums Tony Rice albums 2000 albums Folk albums by American artists Acoustic Disc albums Collaborative albums