gansjam1



On Friday, September 29 Grateful Dead Hour radio host David Gans, visiting Paris with his wife Rita & an entire posse of Northern California friends, joined several members of the Parisian band Deadicace for a jam session. When David first phoned the day before, I mentioned that Marti & I had a bunch of French friends here who played Grateful Dead music. He said he'd be thrilled to meet them. So I got on the horn & within a couple of hours we had organized a gathering at Christine & Bill Giles' apartment on the Quai Malaquais. Back home in California David writes songs & performs both as a solo artist & with his band Broken Angels. I brought along the Gurian acoustic guitar I inherited from my late brother Peter for David to play.



David Gans.


Eric Cougrand, along with Deadicace bandmates Jean-Michel Laugier, Bill Giles & Christophe Rossi, jammed for several hours with Gans. We gathered a quorum: the Deadicace musicians; Philipe (Mister Dark Star) Sicard; Michel (the brick carrier); Christophe's little boy Antony; Christine, Chloe & Louis (Bill's family); Marti & me. Later on David's wife Rita, along with traveling companions Gretchen, Dan & Doug, came by for a while as well.


Bill Giles & Jean-Michel Laugier do a keyboard check.
Michel Ravinet & Eric Cougrand are in the back.


The instrumentation was the following:

David -- acoustic guitar
Bill -- keyboards
Jean-Michel -- keyboards
Eric -- electric bass
Christophe -- brushes on album cover

Tunes in the jam that I remember (in no particular order):

"Ripple"/"Scarlet">"Fire"/"Sugaree"/"Friend of the Devil"/"Hey Pocky Way"/"Mississippi Half Step"/"Stella Blue"/"Peggy-O"/"Sugar Magnolia"/"Terrapin Station"/"Light the Way" (the Jerry Garcia tribute song that Bill & I wrote), plus several fine David Gans originals, like the one about going down to Eugene to see the Grateful Dead.



What key are we in?



Eric & Jean-Michel.



Antony sat in for his dad on brushes.



Is this man flashing an illegal smile?



Antony hanging out with the gals -- Chloe & Marti.






Philipe Sicard looks on as Eric & Jean-Michel get into the groove.



Louis expresses his sentiments on the occasion . . .



. . . but Marti & Michel prove to be a slightly more attentive audience.






That night in Paris.




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Email: phildemetrion@yahoo.com