To hear the fully produced piece - including some great Jerry Garcia tunes with Melvin Seals' excellent playing - hit the blue "listen" button above.
Melvin Seals says he plays the keys like Muhammed Ali boxed.
“He would sit there and let you wear yourself out, you know, and beat on him, and then when you're tired, he comes out and, bam, bam, bam, it's all over,” he told WAMC.
At 72, he describes himself as seasoned, capable of waiting for his moment to deliver just the right lick.
“A lot of young guys play hard, they play a lot of notes, they're all over them, their energy, and I just sit back and wait for my little solo, and just give them a little, do what I do," said Seals. "I think sometimes they miss the mark of trying to overplay. I don't overplay. I kind of give it what I think it needs, and that's it.”
Over his long career, Seals’ 14 years with the Jerry Garcia Band have made him an icon to the jam band scene that lived on past Garcia’s death in 1995. He’s kept the JGB songbook alive through his own iteration of the band for decades, making him one of the most direct connections to the much-mythologized Grateful Dead singer and guitarist still regularly taking to the stage.
“Oh, I never really thought about that," said Seals. "I don't think about those things, and I really never really thought about where I'm at and who I'm at and how people see me- I just do the best I can and try to be the best that I possibly can be.”
Seals says that he brings the same ethos to any ensemble he finds himself a part of.
“I’ve played a lot of different types of music, and I've listened to a lot of great music, and great organists, great pianists, and learned it's like putting a puzzle together," he explained. "You can't force a piece that won't fit. You have to put the right piece in there.”
Decades into his career, Seals has found a brand-new puzzle to solve: translating Garcia’s tunes for orchestras around the United States. The Jerry Garcia Symphonic Celebration comes through Berkshire County on June 30th, and will pair the Boston Pops and conductor Keith Lockhart with Seals and other musicians deeply steeped in the Dead like Tom Hamilton of Joe Russo’s Almost Dead and Grahame Lesh – the son of founding Grateful Dead member Phil Lesh. It will also see him reunite with fellow JGB alum Jacklyn LaBranch.
“It’s absolutely amazing," said Seals. "First off, I love the orchestra, I love the symphony. I sit home and emulate those sounds on synthesizers and keyboards that can play strings and cellos and stuff, and I sit and just visualize myself in a setting that I am now sitting in. And so I'm just sitting in awe, just hearing this, I'm on stage, and I'm a part of it. It's absolutely amazing to hear those arrangements around Garcia’s material.”
The project is giving Seals a welcome challenge as he adapts the free-flowing jam band style to a more buttoned-down setting - though he has some experience in that, too.
SEALS: Before I even got with Jerry and some of the other people, I've done quite a few Broadway shows, which, Broadway shows are somewhat the same thing- On cue every night, certain things happen, and you have to be there. So, I’m very familiar with that, and so the orchestra is a lot like on cue. You're not just open and jamming whatever comes to your mind, you have to kind of tame it down.
WAMC: When can we expect Melvin Seals the Musical to hit Broadway?
SEALS: [laughing] Well, I'm trying my best to get an album out first. Let me get an album out first. Then come the musical. [laughing more]
Part of Seals’ longevity in a musical world infamous for excess, debauchery, and early deaths comes from his embrace of the simple things.
A family man who loves fishing, his message to younger musicians eyeing a long career is straightforward.
“I first tell them, stay off the drugs," said Seals. "It's hard to tell a person that, but don't get involved with the things that can take you down- Too much alcohol, too much of anything that is a substance that's not good for you. When you're young, you can kind of handle it to a certain extent. When you get older, it has torn your body down. I would say, stay clean, man. Love life, love being on stage and seeing the smiles on people's face, and embrace that. Don't get bored out there and need something to help you buy time, if you know what I mean.”
Seals says he’s excited about the future, dead set on staying nimble, playing fresh, and keeping his audience surprised.
“I don't want people to know my show, to know my style, to know me," he told WAMC. "I’m constantly throwing curves in there. They're like, oh my god, did you hear what he just did? I'm all about that.”
