The Trident Rocks and Rolls!

On April 11th, 2007 an email was received from Norma Dale of San Rafael. Norma wrote, ” I was just a teenager in high school the first time I went to the Trident in Sausalito. There were four of us and we found a handbill that said the Moby Grape and the Buffalo Springfield would be performing at the Trident on Sunday. When we got there we were the only customers! This had to be in early 1967. The boys I went with were members of an East Bay/Hayward band, and after a while, the group’s drummer got up and began messing with the drums. Before the other musicians could pick up a guitar, members from Moby Grape and the Buffalo Springfield got up, and rather than let the boys touch their instruments said they would play together for us. We ended up dancing to the “Buffalo Grape” and took away some great memories.”

April 12th, 2007 the Marin Independent Journal published an article called “Those were the days (and nights) where IJ readers shared their Marin nightclub memories through the decades. IJ reporter Rick Polito reported that “Jazz and Folk shared the bill at the Sleeping Lady in Fairfax. River City had all the bands right up the street. In Sausalito, it was the Trident!” The following quotes were taken from this article:
Bill Rude wrote, “The Trident in Sausalito was one of the premier and most beautiful jazz clubs in the Bay Area during the sixties. Owned by the Kingston Trio, it opened in the early 60s and closed for a major hip remodel in late 1968 for about a year (remodeling was slow as creative hip counterculture craftsman were hired) In the ’70s, I believe it was a hangout for rock musicians … while some little old ladies at lunch and tourist dined outside on the dock of the bay. Don’t think the music lasted too long into the 70s, but I was gone by that time. It was a superb nightclub to work and listen to jazz.”

Terry Garthwaite wrote, “In the 60s, there was the Trident in Sausalito with great jazz groups like the Gary Burton Trio and Jon Hendricks. Marin had great clubs with some of the world’s greatest musicians. We’re lucky!” Wasn’t Terry in the band Joy of Cooking?
Bruce R. Elliot wrote, “Heading north along Bridgeway in Sausalito, one could start at Sally Stanford’s Valhalla for some turn of the century architecture, food, and gifted piano playing. From there you could walk to the Trident and Ondine, the old Pacific Yacht Club building, which stretches out over the Bay. In the mid ’60s and 70s, the Bay Area music scene ballooned in Marin County, and venues like the Trident hosted many bands like the Jefferson Airplane, the Moody Blues, and the New Riders of the Purple Sage. Many of Marin’s hip older people will have fond memories of the Trident. The interior of the existing restaurant, Horizon’s, looks almost exactly the same as it did in 1976.”

If you have any similar stories you’d like to share…we’d love to hear them!

Buffalo Springfield Hollywood Bowl photo Henry Diltz