John Kahn and Bill Vitt, from Keystone Encores’ back cover (photo by Annie Liebovitz)

Drummer Bill Vitt, known for his collaborations with Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders—most notably in the various Keystone recordings—passed away earlier this week. The news was confirmed this morning by the Jerry Garcia Twitter account (h/t JamBase).

Vitt grew up in Sacramento, CA, but eventually made his way to San Francisco, where he was connected to Garcia through Howard Wales in 1969 (Vitt would later appear on Garcia and Wales’ 1971 album, Hooteroll?) and began playing with the Grateful Dead guitarist and keyboardist Saunders at a venue called the Matrix. Starting with a series of jam sessions with Wales and Vitt, a group later formed featuring Vitt, Garcia, Saunders and bassist John Kahn. The quartet would then move to the Keystone, where they played frequently, leading to several recordings from renowned taper Betty Cantor-Jackson. The 1973 album Live at Keystone chronicles performances from that year, along with subsequent releases like 1988’s Keystone Encores and 2012’s comprehensive Keystone Companions: The Complete 1973 Fantasy Recordings.

Vitt spoke with Jambands.com back in 2012 about the Keystone sessions and playing with Garcia and Saunders. The drummer noted how the two musicians initially were strangers when they started playing together, along with the easy chemistry that formed with the band. “Merl was all new to Jerry,” Vitt says. “That’s how they learned from each other because they both had something different to offer, and I think that had a lot to do with the fact that a lot of that stuff sounded really good. It was just a different blend. They got along really well. “What are you doing? That’s really cool.” The ego thing was nonexistent in that band. That’s one of the reasons I liked playing in that band. We just played. That’s all we did.”