From February 1971 to July 1975, Merl Saunders and Jerry Garcia often played live shows together when the Grateful Dead were not on tour.

On Allmusic, Lindsay Planer wrote, "... let the music speak for itself as Live at Keystone is chocked with inspired covers, each respectively extended and collectively improvised by co-instrumental leads Jerry Garcia (guitar/vocals) and Merl Saunders (organ) with Bill Vitt (drums) and John Kahn (bass). This was an ad-hoc configuration, as opposed to the organized touring unit that Garcia developed as the Jerry Garcia Band. From December of 1970 until the spring of 1974 — prior to the combo evolving into the Legion of Mary — the guitarist could often be found performing sporadically in and around San Francisco between engagements with the Grateful Dead. The quartet ably fuse rock with jazz in their spacy unfettered jams. These emerge from an eclectic composite of R&B and blues to seminal rock oldies and even popular standards." Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.