Jake Wolf, drummer for Sages and Spirits and other notable bands, joined Doug Gertner on KGNU to preview the band’s special performance at Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom in Denver, celebrating the venue’s 22nd anniversary. Jake shared insights about Sages and Spirits, and shared that during the performance, he will be presented with a rare “beam” instrument from the Grateful Guitars Foundation. (Interview date: 1/22/2025)
Doug Gertner: I’m joined in the KGNU Denver studio right now by Jake Wolf, a member of Rocky Mountain Grateful Dead Revue, Pickin’ on the Dead, and for our purposes today, one of two drummers in the band, Sages and Spirits, who will play tomorrow and Friday at Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom in Denver, right there on Welton Street, in celebration of the venue’s 22nd anniversary. The band will include three members of the renowned Darkstar Orchestra, along with the amazing Melvin Seals on Hammond B3 organ, the great John Kadlicek, in my opinion, the best of all the folks who’ve taken Jerry’s legacy Forward and on dual drum kits Jay Lane, check his resume and my guest today, Jake Wolf will preview that show and a special presentation that’ll happen during that show. But first I want to welcome Jake to KGNU.
Jake Wolf: It’s really good to be here, man. I enjoy being down in Denver. It’s nice to get out of the hills, get out and get warm.
Doug Gertner: Get out of the ice box. That is the Vail Valley these days. No doubt. Big show tomorrow and Friday, and we’re going to give away tickets to that in a bit just a packed lineup of great players in this tribute to the Grateful Dead and celebrating 22 years of Cervantes in Denver, but can you talk about your band, Sages and Spirits, and those special guests and maybe pull back the curtain a little bit, what might happen on stage tomorrow and Friday?
Jake Wolf: I don’t know if there’s much of a curtain to get pulled back. I think in the Grateful Dead world, everything is transparent, which is refreshing.
Doug Gertner: We should know what to expect.
Jake Wolf: Nobody knows what to expect and that’s what you expect. Last year, it was a couple of years ago Baracco had said to me, “man. I haven’t gone on to a stage without a set list in 20 years” and that’s what happens.
Doug Gertner: And that’s what Sages and Spirits does. Let’s name check a little more there. Rob Baracco, a keyboardist in Sages and Spirits played with members of the Grateful Dead over the years and he was in The Dead when I saw that band, he and Jeff Tremente dual keyboards in the band.
Jake Wolf: Just like we have Melvin on organ. And Barracco will be on keys.
Doug Gertner: All right. Yeah. Great guy. I met him one time. He was a ringer. I was speaking at a Grateful Dead, Jewish Deadheads retreat. I was giving my talk. Who were the Grateful Dead? And why are they always following Jews around? And there was a house band that came to this camp near St. Louis. And they jammed all night. And Rob was the ringer there.
Jake Wolf: Did you go to that camp?
Doug Gertner: I didn’t go to the camp. I went to the camp out for the Grateful Dead. It was a Jewish Deadhead retreat and I was like the featured speaker because I have this whole theory about why there are so many Jewish Deadheads. I’m guessing you and me.
Jake Wolf: I don’t know if there’s an answer to that question either.
Doug Gertner: We’ll talk then about those special guests. Three members of DSO, Dark Star Orchestra, who are Boulder favorites. And I’ll tell you one of my favorite DSO shows was on Red Rocks on 7/8/18. Which was the anniversary of 7/8/78, so in July of 2018, and Donna Jean actually came out and sang a tune with Dark Star, but you’ve got who from that band? Rob Eaton, for starters. And he’s the weird guitar.
Jake Wolf: Absolutely. And does a phenomenal job. He just landed, by the way, folks. Eaton is back in Colorado.
Doug Gertner: Welcome back, Rob. And then who else from that band?
Jake Wolf: Skip Vangelis is on the bass. And is, in my opinion, take it for what it’s worth. I’m a little biased because I’m in this band, but. Skip is the best representation of the way Phil Lesh approached playing the bass that I feel.
Doug Gertner: That’s high praise because we just lost Phil obviously this past year and his bass playing. For one thing, he added extra strings to his bass, which most bass players look at and say, holy, I’m not even going there. But then just his background as we recalled when we lost. him in avant garde and classical music. So we’ve got Skip on bass, Rob on guitar.
Jake Wolf: The Phil seat for me, cause I am a little younger and my first Grateful Dead show was in July of 1989 and I was taken kicking and screaming, wearing a jean jacket with the Metallica patches and love that stuff, and my parents were like, take him to a Dead show.
Doug Gertner: Heavy metal Jake.
Jake Wolf: Had my cousin take me in. And I remember the first couple of things was, number one: What was that smell? And then number two was what in the world is that bass player doing? I grew up in a pretty musical family. So when I was looking at the way he was approaching things and then the drummers, I was blown away.So yeah. So that was a very special role right away.
Doug Gertner: You knew it right away. What age were you at that point?
Jake Wolf: 13.
Doug Gertner: So that was basically your initiation. That was your bar mitzvah, man. Let’s go into the Dead show. See, you’ll have to read my essay. It really milks that stuff. Listen, you’re one of the two drummers along with Jay Lane and folks will know him. He played with a Primus. He spent time with Bob Weir and RatDog, Further, Wolf Bros, Dead and Company. Is it fair to ask me then, are you the Billy or the Mickey drummer?
Jake Wolf: Oh I’m more along the Mickey lines for this setup, for sure. But the two drummers, it’s a lot like, cat chasing its tail and maybe he’s a little bit more Mickey in some ways that I’m a little bit more Billy in some ways. So I think that each direction we go outside of the predetermined role that you have to play. We fill for each other and it’s a pleasure to play with him. Like it really is. It’s next level for me.
Doug Gertner: Yeah, you’re a Colorado based musician, music educator. You play out a lot, but this guy is all he does is tour in various outfits. So here you are on stage with him. I’m talking to Jake Wolf, Coloradan like us listeners along the front range here except he’s Vail Valley based and we’re gonna hear a little bit more about what’s happening up his way. But as we’re mentioning Jake and Jay Lane are holding down the drum seats. For those who aren’t as conversant, the drummers in the Grateful Dead were the original drummer, Bill Kreutzman, who was known for his, just his groove, his pocket drumming, a jazz drummer almost and then Mickey Hart who brought the world of percussion and many rhythms and really was with the band from ‘67 to ‘71 and then from ‘74 again until ‘95. And Mickey figures into our discussion in a minute. But even though we’ve established you’re a drummer I mentioned that you brought a guitar with you today and I’m wondering if we can hear a tune from you because you agreed to do it. And then if you want to explain yourself as a music educator and why you can play everything, and then that’s going to foreshadow what we talk about after your song, which is the special presentation that’s happening tomorrow. And we’ll also be sure to give away. pair of tickets. Sages and Spirits celebrates Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom’s 22nd anniversary tomorrow. That’s Thursday and Friday. And we’ll have a pair of tickets to tomorrow night’s show at the end of our time today. But Jake, how about picking up that guitar and at least treating us to a bit of my live music here.
Jake Wolf: Okay, so I was, here I am, the drummer, in this band that’s about to sing you a song on guitar, and none of that will be happening this weekend, so you can be thankful for that. I was trying to figure out what to do, and Garth passed away yesterday, so I was thinking “do I do a band song?” But I don’t know any band songs. So then I was thinking, we also lost Phil recently. How about a Dylan song that Phil does, right? Because Dylan had some band members and it’s the song that Grateful Dead did. It goes a little like this.
[Jake Wolf plays Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues]
Jake Wolf: I gave you the abridged version there. Spare your listeners.
Doug Gertner: The radio interview version of Just Tom Thumb’s Blues. That’s Jake Wolf, one of the two drummers in the band, Sages and Spirits. And at Jake’s request, will go out on a tune by his band.
Jake Wolf: Oh yes, please. Let’s not let people think that’s what’s going to happen this weekend folks.
Doug Gertner: Covering the Grateful Dead, which is what’s going to happen.
Jake Wolf: I should just really back click into it. We had Skip on bass from DSO, Rob Baracco on keys, was in Phil and Friends in the Dead. John Kay, who was the founder of Dark Star Orchestra that went on to further and now is playing with Melvin and the JGB. He’s on the lead guitar. This is an amazing line. Obviously biased, but I sit there and I’m like, wow, this is really cool.
Doug Gertner: And Jake’s, was sitting behind my drums, watching them. Yeah. I caught Melvin and John and JGB at Levitt Pavilion last summer. And, I’ve seen everybody who’s come after the Dead and everybody has their choice of who they’re following. And the ones that I want to see the most are going to be Melvin and John and JGB. I’m excited for this show. It’s tomorrow and Friday. So January 23rd and 24th. At Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom in Denver, Sages and Spirits joined by three members of the DSO, the Dark Star Orchestra, as we mentioned, Rob Eaton, Rob Baracco, Skip Vangelis and then Melvin Seals, John Kadlicek, Jay Lane, and my guest today, Jake Wolf. And this is on the occasion of Cervantes 22nd anniversary.
Jake Wolf: And I can give you the elevator story of what goes on here. If you put up on a chalkboard, a Grateful Dead setlist from 1988, something like that. And then you, right next to it, you put over a Garcia Band setlist from like 1988. And what’s going on here is that you have this influx. The Garcia Band tunes get played with a Mickey and a Bobby and the Dead tunes get played with a Melvin. And this interlocking of just. My God, sheer talent guys.
Doug Gertner: We’re talking about the talent and then an alchemy that doesn’t normally happen because we’re melding two bands. When Jerry wasn’t touring with the Dead, he was out with his own band, the Jerry Garcia Band, now JGB, which was Melvin. And any backup singers, I would love that when Jerry would come out with a couple of ladies on those 20 feet from Star.
Jake Wolf: If you’re listening carefully. And Barocco is just great. But his voicings are great, not just the ones that are coming out his throat. So if you listen to some of the Garcia Band stuff that’s on the Sages and Spirits site that Barocco is on. You can hear Barocco doing the girls’ parts on the piano. I don’t know if this is a fun fact. When those, when the ladies’ parts were written, they were written by Melvin. Jerry told Melvin, this is yours, write these parts. It’s cool to hear Baracko leave Melvin his space and combine the voices of the ladies.
Doug Gertner: Lovely. I can’t wait and it’s, I’m guessing some of our listeners are going to be competing for the tickets, but you can get more information about the band in question at sages and spirits. com and information and tickets for the show at cervantesmasterpiece.com. We will let go of a pair of tickets but here’s what I want to do to set the scene, our bed music that folks are healing the beam. Yes it’s, this is the Grateful Dead from March 29th, 1990 at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York. And folks know it best as the first time that Branford Marcellus showed up and was supposed to come on and just play birdsong with the band and hung out for the rest of the show. They played a dark star so that, because they knew he would love to just go where that goes and he became a good friend of the band. So I remember seeing him several times subsequently. But it’s also, we’re listening to drums and space as it’s known in the set list.
Jake Wolf: Oh, with Brantford. That’s cool.
Doug Gertner: Yes. Yes. But also, it’s one of the best examples of Mickey Hart playing an instrument that he either created or revived based on the Pythagorean theorem. It’s called the beam and if I understand correctly, you, Jake Wolf, are gonna receive a gift of a beam from the Grateful Guitar Foundation at this event, so please tell.
Jake Wolf: I’m speechless, which is rare. This is a huge honor. There’s about 50 of these instruments on the planet. I was told by Eric who makes them beam them up. You can check this stuff out. Now this, the history of the beam, there has been some discussion on, but my understanding is that, and again, take it with a grain of salt. I could be wrong. The first appearance of the beam was in the mid 70s in the Apocalypse Now soundtrack. Wait, he’s pointing. Doug’s on to something here. And that evolved into the Grateful Dead’s world. There it is. Okay he’s got the vinyl. I don’t know how many grams it is, but he’s got the vinyl.
Doug Gertner: It’s the original pressing of the Apocalypse Now sessions. The Rhythm Devils play river music. And it’s the likes of Mickey Hart, and Ayrto Moriarty, and Phil Lesh, and Flora Parim, and John Cutler, and others. Mickey, And Billy doing the music.
Jake Wolf: I’m just gonna look at the back of this. So Aerto and Flora ended up also in Planet Drum, which got, I’m pretty sure, got a Grammy in Mickey’s involvement with the Smithsonian in the ‘80s. And I’m checking out the back cover of this to see if there is actually a picture of the original beam, and I’m not seeing it, but I’m sure it’s somewhere online, so it evolved in the Grateful Dead world and I was at this, fast forward to now, I was at the Sphere in Vegas and my seat was shaking from that thing because they have these little subwoofers in the seat and so Mickey has it’s like beamzilla my beam’s great. All these beams are awesome. But Mickey’s is, Mickey’s super beam.
Doug Gertner: Mickey to this day, with Dead and Company, plays one of the original, like all in beams. And you’re gonna get one of these. And if I understand it, you have a music school in the Vail Valley? A school of rock. And are kids going to get to play this?
Jake Wolf: So there’s actually, big shout out to the Grateful Guitar Foundation. They’re the benefactors who are supplying this. Nate Bidner is a Denver guy and he has a lot of really cool instruments at his place. And I have a beam up there. I have Nate’s beam up there and it’s a black and gold and has the Trans Am logo on it. And I believe they named that one. The trans beam. I don’t know I call it smoky in the beam because it’s I love smoking the bandit, but so I’ve been playing around it. Yes, and kids have been playing on it adults and playing on it. I’ve also gone as far as done some light research on how the vibrations could be healing to some. I had a good friend that was carrying a child. She was almost done having a little discomfort. I read up on it. You know keep it under 94 decibels, five minutes and all safety, you know was considered here for the child and she said it made her feel a lot better. So there’s sound healing involved, too.
Doug Gertner: Oh yeah and you know, if she’s not found this or if you haven’t found this for her when we were pregnant, Mickey put out an album called music to be born by where he had sampled, I think his son Tarot while in utero and played to the, his drum beats to the heartbeat of the child. And no wonder my kid came out, all things music.
Jake Wolf: DEid you play that while he was being born?
Doug Gertner: Yes, starting while we were pregnant and right on through.
Jake Wolf: What I understood from that, and I could be wrong, was that he recorded the 45 minute period where the son was born and used the heartbeat as the BP, as the metronome.For the music that came around it.
Doug Gertner: Yes. But we digress back to the beam. So this is happening, this presentation, the Grateful Guitars Foundation is giving the beam to Jake, the drummer from Vail for the Wolf Music Academy and other purposes. And if you’d like to be in the house for this show, including the presentation of the beam to the Wolf Music Academy and just be the third caller when we start the music.
Jake Wolf: We’re going to do the song. I would say when you hear my last name in the song, call
Doug Gertner: Oh yes. I saw Where the Wolf Has Slept by The Silver Scribe. Yeah. We’re playing Jake’s band Sages and Spirits and a version of Cassidy coming up in just a second. Hey, let me cue that up. Give them a rehash of what we’re talking about or give them your invitation on behalf of the band. And let me cue this up.
Jake Wolf: Denver, Hey, how you doing Denver? So I know we all know that there’s a lot of things that are going on this week in Denver and. I was told once by the original guitarist in Shakedown Street, which I was in some 20 years ago, never say whoa in the middle of a horse race, right? And that’s an apropos saying for Denver. We know you have a lot to do, and we hope we didn’t give you too much, but at the same time we did. We know Billy’s in town. We’re pumped for him. And we’re going to be warming him up on Thursday night and then playing alongside him on Friday. And there’s enough for everyone to do. We also know that the tickets were pretty scarce last year right around showtime. So make sure you get those tickets if you guys want to get in there. It’s going to be a great experience. You don’t know what you’re going to expect. I’m super honored to be receiving. I think it’s the first beam gift The Grateful Guitars Foundation is giving. It’s a serial number. JW, my initials, GGF 0 0 3, I believe.
Doug Gertner: Very exciting. So again, the show’s tomorrow mand Friday, Thursday and Friday, January 23rd and 24th at Cervantes in Denver, it’s Sages and Spirits, and they’re joined by three members of the Dark Star Orchestra.Melvin Seals is there in the band, Johnny K., Jay Lane, and my guest today, Jake Wolf. CervantesMasterpiece.com or SagesandSpirits.com, two places to learn, but we’re giving away a pair of tickets as soon as I queue up. And play the Sages and Spirits version of the Bob Weir Grateful Dead tune Cassidy.If you would like to be Jake Wolf’s guest. Yeah. Jake Wolf’s guest at the Sages. Thursday, tomorrow night at Cervantes parting words or introduction to this song or anything else we need to say,
Jake Wolf: I would just say to everyone, focus on the moment and be as positive as you can in the moment and celebrate that positivity with the people around you and hope that it’s contagious and enjoy yourself in the spirit of whatever makes you move.
Doug Gertner: Jake Wolf, thanks for joining us today on KGNU. Congrats on your new toy and thank you for hooking up a listener with two guest passes for tomorrow, Thursday, January 24th at Cervantes, Sages and Spirits with special guests again.
