Garland Jeffreys

Jeffreys is from Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, of African American and Puerto Rican American heritage. He majored in art history at Syracuse University where he met Lou Reed, before The Velvet Underground became active. In 1966, Jeffreys began to play in Manhattan nightclubs including Gerde\'s Folk City, The Bitter End, Gaslight, Kenny\'s Castaways and later Reno Sweeney, where he began to explore racially conscious themes in his work, sometimes utilizing blackface masks and a rag doll named Ramon in performance. Jeffreys played guitar on John Cale\'s 1969 debut solo album Vintage Violence and contributed the song "Fairweather Friend". In 1969 he founded Grinder\'s Switch with Woodstock-area musicians including pianist Stan Szelest, guitarist Ernie Corallo, and percussionist Sandy Konikoff. Lewis Merenstein, producer of Van Morrison\'s Astral Weeks, produced this one album before the band di…