Martin Fierro

There are a number of things that can provoke strong, divided opinions amongst Deadheads. And the contributions of Martin Fierro, the great saxophonist from the West Texas town of El Paso, and trumpeter Joe Ellis during the 1973 fall East Coast tour are definitely one of them. But whether you love the presence of the horns during these shows or not, they represent part of the relentless spirit of experimentation that always characterized the Dead. And in 1973, with Pigpen’s passing and the end of their Warner Brothers contract, the Dead seemed to be branching out and trying new things at a feverish pace. Seastones with Ned Lagin, the early Wall of Sound, and Grateful Dead Records were just a few of the many other developments, along with Wake of the Flood, during this period.

Just a month earlier in August ’73, the Dead recorded Wake of the Flood at Record Plant in Sausalito, bringing Martin Fierro and his sax, along with a host of other musicians, into the studio to add to the sound. And on the fall 1973 tour, the Doug Sahm Band, which included Fierro, opened for the Grateful Dead. Whether it was the plan from the beginning to have Fierro play with the Dead every night or the situation just evolved naturally is not entirely clear. Circumstances, namely that Joe Ellis does not appear to join Fierro and the Dead the first night, seems to suggest it might be the latter. Regardless, on September 11, 1973, on the campus of William and Mary, Fierro came on stage with his tenor saxophone in the second set for Let Me Sing Your Blues Away and the full Weather Report Suite.

Fierro again played on the same two tunes the next night at William and Mary, an impromptu show, only announced from the stage by Bobby the night before. And Fierro continued joining the Dead over the rest of the tour, for a total of eight shows. Fierro never stayed for more than a few songs, and he mainly sat in on the two aforementioned tunes and Eyes of the World – also from Wake of the Flood – along with Truckin’, Sugar Mags, Casey Jones, and One More Saturday Night.

While Fierro would go on to join Jerry in Legion of Mary, he never played with the Dead again. Fierro himself said that had a lot to do with Deadheads’ reactions to his presence, explaining “the fans didn’t like the horns, so the Dead finally said ‘Fuck it!’” I can appreciate some of the criticism of Fierro’s playing. On Truckin’ and Sugar Mags in particular, Fierro seems to squawk along during the vocals only to soar when jamming later in the tunes. It may be that Fierro, playing a sax, suffered through some of the same issues that plagued Donna at times, namely being unable to hear himself in the mix.

On other songs, though, especially those from Wake of the Flood, Fierro’s contributions are utterly transcendent. For instance, on that first night in Williamsburg, Fierro launches a lovely solo around the 4:20 mark in Let It Grow. Or check out the magic he cooks up 15 minutes into Eyes on the 20th at the Spectrum. Of course, these incredible runs will come as little surprise to anyone who has ever been mesmerized by Fierro’s solo ten minutes into the Weather Report Suite on Wake of the Flood. But beyond the solos, Fierro adds so much texture in the interstices and enlivens the background; just listen to the Weather Report Suite from the Pittsburgh Civic Arena on the 24th.

Fierro certainly had the chops to play sax with the Dead. He had learned the instrument by ear as a kid and, deeply ensconced in early rock and roll and R&B, was sitting in at clubs by 15. Later, Fierro became fascinated by jazz and, as he recalled, “paid ten years of jazz dues, learning everything I could.” And in 1968, he moved to San Francisco and started playing around town at every opportunity. As you can imagine, it was not long before Fierro met Jerry. As Fierro tells it,

I met Jerry in Golden Gate Park, but I didn’t really understand who he was at first. I was there with a friend who was a conga player, and there were probably 40 other conga players there, pounding their drums and making a lot of noise. I would play along with them; a lot of horn players would do that. So this guy came up to me and said, ‘Hey, man, you play pretty good. Where are you from?’ I said ‘El Paso.’ ‘How long have you been in town?’ ‘Oh, about a week.’ And then he said, ‘I’m playing a gig at the Matrix, over on Fillmore. You want to come down and play with us?’ We’ve got this organ player, Howard Wales.’ And the funny thing is, I knew Howard from El Paso; he was hanging out there for a while! So I said, ‘Sure, I’ll be there.’ And it wasn’t until I got there that I really understood that this was Jerry! He had Bill Vitt on drums and John Kahn on bass. We had a great time, and Jerry said, ‘I’ll be calling on you.’ We became friends immediately. It was love at first bite, man!

While Fierro found a home with Mother Earth, the Bay Area rock and blues band, he continued to jam with Jerry on occasion. And in 1971, Jerry and Howard Wales tapped Fierro to help record Hooteroll?. Two years later, on July 19, 1973, the sax player sat in with Jerry and Merl Saunders, which might have been what led to Fierro’s participation on Wake of the Flood. Regardless, several months after his time with the Dead, Fierro and Jerry, together with Merl, John Kahn, and Ron Tutt, founded Legion of Mary.

After Legion of Mary disbanded in ’75, Fierro never worked professionally with Jerry again. But the saxophonist stayed active. In 1984, Fierro became a member of Zero, the jam band that Steve Kimock and Greg Anton started a few years earlier (Donna joined Zero a decade later while Fierro was still in the band). And up until his death in 2008, Fierro regularly sat in with other Dead-adjacent bands, including Dark Star Orchestra and String Cheese Incident.