28 years ago today, I was abruptly pulled away from a business meeting by a receptionist. A friend and colleague urgently needed to speak with me. He delivered the news that Jerry Garcia had left us. The memory remains etched in my mind, frozen in time. It was a shocking moment, though not entirely unexpected given Jerry's declining health in the preceding years. Yet, the impact on my world was profound. The source of the vibrant energy that had shaped my existence for the past 17 years had suddenly faded, at least in its physical form.

The Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia embodied the spirit of the San Francisco Beat/ Hippie culture. A cultural sanctuary that had drawn me in like a moth to a flame. While the glimmering facets of this scene certainly captivated me, it was the music that truly seeped into my very essence. Always the music – an eclectic fusion of genres, an embrace of all sounds. Jazz, that quintessential American form, flowed through their veins, woven with threads of the entire spectrum of popular American music. From the Carter Family to Elvis, Chuck Berry to Earl Scruggs, Wilson Pickett to John Coltrane to Hank Williams, and on and on… all harmonizing within a tapestry of improvisation and innovation.

It was the nomadic carnival of the Grateful Dead that ensnared me in its celebratory whirlwind. It became the conduit through which I forged some of my most profound relationships, ones that endure to this very day. My local crew of kindred spirits and I poured our souls into this captivating vortex of devotion, grasping fleeting moments of euphoria amidst the demands of our everyday lives.

After the departure of the Pigpen, Jerry Garcia reluctantly stepped into the role of frontman, a  role that became too much for him to bear. He was essentially  just a humble  banjo-picker who ingeniously transformed the electric guitar into a vehicle for interstellar exploration and guided it back to the firm foundation of American roots music, not a saint ,not a leader of a movement just a man who loved music and wanted to be free.

The legacy that Jerry birthed shows no sign of waning to this day. Regardless of the players who continue to carry the torch, it is the soul of Jerry Garcia that still lights the way. His essence persists without flickering transcending time space and reason.