Back in 1993, when famous Marin County bluegrass/jazz/retro mandolinist David Grisman was recording his TONE POEMS, a series of duets with famous acoustic guitar flatpicker Tony Rice, performed on a variety of antique instruments, the two of them packed up their axes one afternoon and went over to Jerry Garcia’s house.
The three spent several hours shooting the shit, trying to remember the chord changes to a variety of old-timey tunes, and jamming together in Jerry’s home studio, with the recording equipment running.
At one point, Jerry ordered a pizza. When the delivery kid came, Jerry asked him to come in while he went to look for some cash. The kid saw the cassettes lying on the counter and, according to myth, helped himself to them when no one was looking.
Somehow, Grisman got the tapes back a year or so ago, and today the CD of The Pizza Tapes should be hitting the record stores. The material ranges from old folk-tunes like “Shady Grove” to Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” to Miles Davis’s “So What.”
I’m relating this as a charming little urban (or suburban) legend, and because I’m a big Grisman/Rice/Garcia fan, and this is the only time these three made music together, and maybe some of the other MPSIMers will be interested.
Uke
