Merl Saunders
Merl Saunders, (February 14, 1934 – October 24, 2008) was an
American multi-
genre musician who played
piano and
keyboards, favoring the
Hammond B-3 console organ.
Born in
San Mateo, California, Saunders attended
Polytechnic High School. In his first bands that played in San Francisco during high school was singer
Johnny Mathis.[SUP]
[1][/SUP] He served in the Air Force from 1953 to 1957. He worked as musical director of the
Billy Williams Revue and served in a similar capacity in
Oscar Brown Jr.'s off-Broadway show,
Big Time Buck White.
He gained notice in the 1970s when he began collaborating with
Jerry Garcia, with whom he had begun playing in 1971 at a small Fillmore Street nightclub called the Matrix.[SUP]
[1][/SUP] He sat in with the
Grateful Dead, and co-founded the
Saunders/Garcia Band which produced three albums, and which became
The Legion of Mary with the addition of
Martin Fierro (sax) in 1974. It disbanded the following year, but he and Garcia continued to collaborate in the band
Reconstruction during 1979, collaborating with
Ed Neumeister (Trombone),
Gaylord Birch (drums) and
John Kahn (Bass).
He led his own band as Merl Saunders and Friends, playing live dates with Garcia, as well as
Mike Bloomfield,
David Grisman,
Michael Hinton,
Tom Fogerty,
Vassar Clements,
Kenneth Nash,
John Kahn and
Sheila E.. He also collaborated with Grateful Dead percussionist Mickey Hart in the band High Noon.
Merl Saunders took the lead in reintroducing Jerry Garcia to his guitar after Jerry suffered a diabetic coma in the summer of 1986.
More here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merl_Saunders