The Phoenix Media Group recently initiated the next phase of its jam band master plan with its Phoenix Presents live series. This imprint will offer a number of notable performances, recorded by legendary engineer Sam Kopper at a low price ($10 for single discs, $15 for doubles). The first wave of bands to appear on Phoenix Presents includes Jiggle The Handle, Blueground Undergrass, Soup, Blind Man's Sun and Ulu. Over the next few months, we will speak with a number of the performers who will be part of the series, which has the potential to be the King Biscuit of the new century.

This month's conversation is with Jiggle the Handle drummer Greg Vasso. Greg began his professional musical career, fresh out of college, by joining jam band stalwarts, Max Creek. After a few years on the road with that group, he gravitated into the Jiggle camp.

The past twelve months have been active ones for Jiggle. Along with the group's heavy tour schedule (and any number of side projects), the band released two discs. The first of these, In It Again, is a studio effort which principally showcases the quartet's songwriting skills. By contrast, the group stretches things out a bit on the Phoenix release, Live at the Stone Coast Brewery. For more information on Jiggle and the series, visit www.jigglethehandle.com or www.radiophoenix.com.

DB- Let's jump right in and talk about the disc. How did it come about? Was it something you had been thinking about for a while?

GV- It was pretty simple, actually. Phoenix approached us and it seemed like the right thing to do. It was a good thing for everybody. They were getting rolling with their series and we knew that we were going to be doing a more song-oriented studio album at the time. So we decided to follow it up some months down the pike with the live thing. It worked out really well.

DB- Well it's certainly a contrast to In It Again which offers much more succinct versions of your songs.

GV- We're extremists in terms of our personalities. The two albums reflect those extremes.

DB- You mention extremism. I've seen Jiggle on many occasions, and one some nights you seem to stay more focussed on the songs while on other occasions you really seem to crack everything open. I'm curious how and why does that vary from night to night? Is it just something simple like the length of your set or is there something else at work?

GV- Well obvious the time of the set matters. But even if we have only an hour, we still try to make that hour a small journey, to take it in a few different directions that will keep people on their toes. It's like a little roller coaster ride. But we're also affected by the vibe of the room, how we're feeling that day and what we've been practicing over the past couple weeks. We've definitely had gigs where we might have been better off just playing tunes but we were in jam mode because that's what we'd been doing for two weeks. So we'd go off on twenty minute forays and lose a few folks.

DB- And gain a few hardcore fans too, I would imagine. Along with the jams, I think Live At The Stone Coast Brewery rather effectively showcases your vocal interplay. A number of people enjoy the textures in your vocal jams. How consciously do you work on them?

GV- That's actually one of those areas we have kept more free. It's one of those things that clicked out of the gate, and because of that we don't want to think about it too much. We've learned to jam on our instruments better by listening to our vocal jams We are very good at listening to each other's vocals and leaving space for other people to make the whole thing sound really good, but at times we can struggle with that instrumentally. We are starting to put a bridge between those two. There are nights when it makes the room vibrate in funky ways; it's pretty cool.

DB- In this context, how has the band's sound evolved over the past few years?

GV- The biggest evolution has been Paul and Chris coming to the band. Paul brought a whole new sense of harmonies, and some strong tunes. Kew added just a thick, mature sound, and a bluegrass background. I think the big evolution has taken place with the four of us coming in and starting to interact in terms of writing, and jamming. I feel we're really starting to come together as a four piece unit, beginning to understand each other's languages. I think a lot of the evolution that has taken place with the band has occurred there. Of course we have further to go, in just getting those two under our belts, in terms of writing songs and taking jams to magical places. Then we need to work on blending the two because it can be tough line to walk at times. Again I would say that this live album and In It Again are the two extreme versions of where we've been at in those two areas over the past two years. And the dream continues for sure.

DB- You began your career with Max Creek. What drew you to Jiggle?

GV- The reason I joined the band was to be able to get out and tour the country [editor's note: the group recently returned home from a southeast run]. I absolutely love Max Creek. I love all the guys, and I especially love playing with Scott the guitarist. But they all have families and other responsibilities, so there came a point when I realized that they didn't want to get out there and kick it nationwide. That's why I decided to leave. It was a difficult decision.

DB- Describe the transition from Creek to Jiggle.

GV- One of the first immediate surface level things I found with Jiggle was we were playing much smaller rooms. I didn't have as big a monitor and all this space to bash my cymbals, and no one cared. I was kind of spoiled out of the gate, to be fresh out of school and hop on with Creek. We were playing all of these huge rooms with unbelievable production so that threw me for almost a year in terms of just learning how to play to a room and not overplay the band. I would say in Jiggle my drumming is a little more musical. In Max Creek it was more punchy, rock and rolly, which I still like to do and we definitely have our tunes which do that but as I float towards jazz that's where my sound is headed.

DB- How have you evolved as a drummer?

GV- I went from rock to progressive rock to jam rock and more recently into jazz: Neal Peart, Carl Palmer and Bill Bruford and then into the jam rock thing. Listening to so much Grateful Dead and then Max Creek, really got into my bones, although I wouldn't necessarily say the drumming rubbed off on me More recently in the past year and half I've been studying with Bob Gullotti and he's been showing me some of the finer points of jazz.

DB- You performed with a percussionist in Max Creek. I am curious, would you be eager to bring one into Jiggle?

GV- It's been on our minds for sure. I went through a phase of feeling a little stomped on by it, then totally enjoying the space and now I'm feeling that I'd like to get back playing with someone else. Actually if you print this I will love it, because if I could find the messiah-person tomorrow I would be all for it: a percussionist who is tasteful, who could also play the kit, and if they had turntable capabilities that would even better, Of course if they could sing then we would just give the band to them (laughs).

DB- Have you ever played with someone on turntables?

GV- No, I haven't but I personally love it. I am just starting in with a program called Acid on my laptop doing some loops and stuff that perhaps we'll see in some Jiggle jams over the next year. I definitely love it. I don't want it all night but I think it had adds a different flavor.

DB- Let's talk about songwriting. Do people present songs to the band fully formed or is it more of a collaborative, exploratory process?

GV- More often than not recently things are less formed. We work on them together in practice, trying out different ideas in different sections, recording them and listening back. Paul has a four track, and lately he's been great with taking rehearsal tapes, and laying harmonies on them. In the former days they would come mostly-formed out of the gate from either Paul or Gary.

DB- Have you done any songwriting?

GV- I have. I've written several tunes with Scott from Creek and we'll probably be introducing some of those in the near future. I've done some lyrics too, although I work slowly.

DB- One Jiggle feature that I enjoy is the monthly webcast. I listened in on Super Bowl Sunday. What is that experience like?

GV- That's actually part of Jiggle tradition. We have a Jiggle Super Bowl party every year. We're on Jiggle Bowl Four this year. We play football- tighty whities versus boxers and then we come home and play the halftime webcast [editor's note: the tighty whites were trounced this year]. We love it, it's a cool thing. You can actually feel the energy out there. Then there's stuff going on through the chatboard which is pretty cool.

DB- You just returned from a southeast run. What else do you have planned for the months to come.

GV- Well we're going to be taking it a hair slower than last year but not much. Gary is getting married and has a baby on the way. We're definitely going to head out west in the early spring, then we'll be back east. Then it'll be back out west in the summer for High Sierra and that kind of stuff. Maybe next fall we'll be recording again.

DB- Do you already have a batch of new songs, ready to go?

GV- In the past two weeks we've come up with six or seven. We'll need to play them out for a good six months. That's why I'm saying next fall.