Recently I have had the opportunity of getting hired to fill in as the house drummer for the Star Tavern’s weekly Jam session. It’s a gig that runs from 7:00 pm – 11:00 pm. Normally four 45 minutes sets with 15 minute breaks in between. Besides the time I really didn’t know what to expect going in. I knew it was gonna be a jam but didn’t know any of the people besides the owner who plays rhythm guitar and sings. The rest of the guys were new faces that I had never played with so I didn’t know what to expect. All of these guys were great musicians from what I was told, two of them were people who were well accomplished musicians. One had played for Roy Orbison (Sonny Boykin) back in the day, the other owned a recording studio in Manhattan (Bruce Whitcomb) and later told me stories of recording Jeff “Tain” Watts, Steve Jordan, and others.

As soon as the jam started the owner calls out “This ones a 12 bar blues feel in E major” or at least that’s the key I think he called out… Anyway, from the first note that was played I knew how the rest of the night was gonna be. We gelled instantly and kept our ears open, and our eyes on each other patiently waiting for the next movement, chord change, and ending. Not blowing it out of proportion or anything but you would have thought we had been playing together for years! It was such a great experience that I hope I get the chance to grace the stage with them again. You can check out the video below to see some of the footage from the session I did.