Merl Saunders Rainforest Band 1990 10 24 Great American Music Hall, San Francisco (Set 1)

Set I
01 Expressway to Your Heart
02 High Heel Sneakers
03 Blues from the Rainforest
04 Sunrise Over Haleakla
05 Funky System
06 Blue Hill Ocean Dance
07 Sugaree (cuts off)
Merl Saunders Rainforest Band (Audio Only)
Great American Music Hall, San Francisco (Set 1)
October 24, 1990
Realistic 33-1056A mic / Sony TC-D5M (Maxell MX C-100 w/Dolby B) (Recorded by Nathan Wirth)
Transfer : Nakamichi BX-300 / Sony PCM-M10 (24/48) (Transferred by Wes Meyette)
Merl Saunders - keyboards, vocals (passed Oct. 24, 2008 age 74)
Tony Saunders - bass
Steve Kimock - guitar
Sammy Figueroa - percussion
Christopher Parker - drums
Ray Chew - keyboards
The Rainforest Band began in 1990 with the Grammy Award-nominated album Blues From the Rainforest, a collaboration between jazz keyboardist Merl Saunders, percussionist Muruga Booker, and Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia, with Shakti Booker (vocals), Eddie Moore (percussion), Melvin Seals (sound effects) and Bill Thompson (drum & sampled sound midi-technician). This fusion of world music and jazz was an early hit in a genre which became a category for the Grammys that same year. The music itself was written by Saunders and Booker, and Garcia added tracks both with electric guitar and MIDI-guitar mimicking flute, and sampled sounds from the Amazonian rainforest were incorporated into the music throughout.
Although the album was billed as a Merl Saunders album, in the tour that followed the group was billed as The Rainforest Band, and the album is generally regarded as the first release of the band. For the next ten years they played with an ever-changing line-up of musicians, many from the Grateful Dead family of musicians. They were a favorite Earth Day act; one of their albums was called Save the Planet So We’ll Have Someplace to Boogie, and a familiar chant at performances was “Every Day is Earth Day”.
One of the exciting aspects of this recording was the guest appearance of Maria Muldaur, that was a nice surprise getting to hear her voice singing on track 13. Along with guest musician Steve Kindler for the end of the show.
Thanks again to Nathan for recording and sharing.