AND THE WINNERS WERE…

Live Set of the Year: Phish, 12/31/99, Set II
Jam of the Year: The Disco Biscuits, Akira Jam, 12/31/99
Release of the Year: Grateful Dead, So Many Roads
Live Album of the Year: moe., L
Wetlands Award (Lifetime Achievement): B.B. King
Studio Album of the Year: Percy Hill, Color in Bloom
Future Jam (musicians' award): Soulive
New Groove of the Year: Fat Mama
Home Grown Music Award: Strangefolk
Radio Show: The Music Never Stops, Barry Smolin, KPFK, Los Angeles
Fan Web Site: www.etree.org
Community Service: Strangers Helping Strangers
Topper Award (commitment to the scene): Chris Zahn
Jambands.com Writer: Jeff Waful

Last month, on June 22, the first-ever Jammy awards were held in front of a packed house at Irving Plaza in New York City. The one-of-a-kind event was presented by Jambands.com and executive produced by Peter Shapiro and Dean Budnick. Shapiro, who owns the Wetlands Preserve, is the publisher of Jambands.com. Budnick is editor-in-chief of Jambands.com and also co-hosted The Jammys with Peter Prince of Moon Boot Lover. The evening had two basic components: awards were presented in various categories and the scene's best bands performed sets of blistering music with special guests.

As I watched the show, I couldn't help but think about the various production details that needed to come together for the night to run smoothly. A concert with two or three bands can get pretty confusing, so I really could not imagine what it took to coordinate seven different bands and numerous other musicians. Not only was the concert a logistical nightmare, but it was also completely unprecedented. Since this was the first time an award show of this nature was held, Shapiro and Budnick had nothing to use as a reference. Sure, both men are well aware of what goes into producing concerts, but neither had ever put together so many different elements for one night. With my Backstage Pass, I'll give you a behind-the-scenes glimpse of what it took to make The Jammys happen from start to finish.

The idea for the event formulated itself approximately 10-12 months ago out of casual conversations between Budnick and three different band managers. John Topper from moe., Bob Kennedy from Deep Banana Blackout, and Darren Cohen from The Slip all mentioned doing something called "The Jammys" as an obvious play on "The Grammys." The concept was not given much more than a laugh at first. "They thought it was a funny idea…they all mentioned it to me just as a joke," Budnick said. After a little bit of thought, however, it seemed quite natural to consolidate and showcase what is going on in the scene. As Shapiro put it: "we wanted to have a big party and get a lot of friends together."

For the four months leading up to The Jammys, Budnick and Shapiro worked seven days a week on the awards show. Both men are also involved in numerous other projects (including the everyday operations of Jambands.com), so The Jammys needed to be pieced together over a long period of time. The wide range of tasks included: talking with the managers and agents of all of the performers; deciding who would be presenting awards; inviting all of the nominees; coordinating the press lists and guest lists; establishing the order of the bands; selecting the winners; and an obscene amount of various details.

Various members of the community fielded a lot of the miscellaneous jobs. Jim Walsh, the publicist for moe., was brought in to handle all of the publicity for The Jammys. Walsh's help was absolutely necessary so that Budnick and Shapiro could focus on more production-oriented aspects of the show. When it came to putting together the program, the producers were able to get the support of two Jambands.com writers, Jesse Jarnow and Jeff Waful. Jarnow was responsible for all of the copy and Waful handled the layout duties, putting the text into booklet form.

Managing the guest list and the press list was quite a task. The original motivation for The Jammys was to celebrate the community and Budnick made a promise to himself that anyone even remotely connected to the scene would be put on the list. In the end, approximately 400 people were admitted for free into the show. With such a huge guest list, the line outside the venue wrapped around the corner and guests actually had to wait longer than regular ticket holders to get inside Irving Plaza. Apart from the 400 guests, there were also requests from 50-75 members of the media to attend The Jammys. A piece about the show ran on RollingStone.com and VH1 also covered the event. In the end, Budnick was "very happy" with the media's response to The Jammys.

The process of getting confirmations from all of the musicians was also extremely difficult. For some of the bands, their set time was a crucial factor in figuring out if they could be a part of the event. For example, the New Deal had to play early in the evening because of their post-Jammys show at the Wetlands. Another example is Frogwings who left the show within minutes of their set. Most of Frogwings plays in The Allman Brothers Band and the only reason Frogwings could play at The Jammys was because ABB had the day off. Without perfect routing (ABB was in New Jersey on the 21st and in Massachusetts on the 23rd), Frogwings would not have been able to appear at The Jammys.

Another interesting story surrounds Les Claypool's collaboration with The Disco Biscuits. Budnick was originally talking with David Lefkowitz (who manages Claypool and Galactic) about getting Galactic involved with the event. Galactic could not appear because of scheduling issues, but Lefkowitz asked Budnick if he'd be interested in having Les play at the show. Obviously, Dean was more than happy to have Claypool contribute to the evening. The next problem was figuring out how to best utilize Claypool's presence. Budnick felt the pairing with The Biscuits was obvious because "in terms of attitude and ethos, the sensibilities of both seemed pretty similar." Considering that Claypool and The Biscuits had never played together before (and the fact that their medley rocked), their set was appreciated by all.

The producers are also extremely thankful to have had the contributions of Merl Saunders, John Scofield, Strangefolk, Susan Tedeschi, Deep Banana Blackout, Soulive, The Slip, and everyone else who performed. Considering the amount of touring that Scofield has been doing lately, it was a tremendous coup to have him play with Soulive at The Jammys. Budnick felt that Scofield "added an element of class to the evening." Merl Saunder's presence was also significant considering he is very much entrenched in the old days of San Francisco 60's psychedelica. Budnick considers Saunders to be a very "vital" part of today's jamband culture. Watching all of these musicians honor their legends made for great moments. Throughout the course of the night, the music of the Grateful Dead, Santana, Frank Zappa, Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd, Miles Davis, Bill Monroe, and Parliament Funkadelic were all covered.

The list of presenters was just as diverse as the performers. People who were called on to hand over the awards included: Steve Bloom (High Times), Richard Gehr (The Village Voice), Lee Crumpton (Home Grown Music Network founder), Sam Kopper (first program director at WBCN in Boston, Phoenix Presents live engineer), John Scofield, Anthony DeCurtis (Rolling Stone, VH1), Kirk West (ABB archivist), and a few Jambands.com staff members. Kirk West's comments were especially poignant as he spoke about the recently deceased Dick Latvala. Latvala was the famed Grateful Dead archivist who is the Dick from "Dick's Picks." v Even with all of his concert producing experience, Pete Shapiro was still extremely nervous on the night of the show. "I was worried about how it all was going to flow," he said. With so many bands, the changeover time was definitely a concern. Wisely, Shapiro and Budnick recruited members of moe.'s production team to help run The Jammys. Chris Burrows was production manager for the show and Skip Richman was the stage manager. Both of their jobs centered around solving logistical problems and managing all of the equipment and musicians. In reference to Burrows and Richman, Budnick said, "there is no way the event would have come off like it did without those two guys."v A unique part of the evening was Pete Shapiro's presentation of a Lifetime Achievement Award to B.B. King. At 8:05 PM on the night of the show, King and Shapiro were videotaped from backstage at King's new blues club in New York City. Shapiro then returned to Irving Plaza where the recording was shown to the audience on a large projection screen. An interesting note about B.B. King is that the producers originally attempted to have him sit-in with moe. as part of the show. According to Budnick, though, the logistical obstacles were too great to make it happen.

The Jammy's finale was an amazing rendition of the Isley Brother's "It's Your Thing." The song featured a star-studded cast with Jen Durkin (Deep Banana Blackout) and Peter Prince on vocals, Eric Krasno (Soulive) and Brad Barr (The Slip) on guitars, and the rest of The Jammy's orchestra filling the stage. According to Shapiro, the evening's last song came about in true improvisational form. "We didn't know whether or not to do a final jam," Shapiro told me. "Everyone was hanging around backstage and Fuzz [Deep Banana Blackout] really wanted to do it…it literally came together seconds before they went on stage." Amazingly enough, the song ended exactly at 1:30 AM which was the curfew for the evening. The show was over and Budnick and Shapiro allowed the exhaustion to take hold.

The feedback the two men have received since the event has been unanimously positive. People have been especially impressed considering it was the event's first year. The plans are already in the works for the second annual Jammys which will almost definitely be held at a bigger venue. If there was one drawback to the night, it was that the venue couldn't hold enough people. A larger venue will also have a bigger stage which will allow the Jammys orchestra to be able to play during the changeovers. The Jammys have been over for only about a month, but this forward-looking community has already begun thinking about next year's event. The producers will have a tough time topping themselves, but I have a feeling that Shapiro and Budnick will rise to the occasion. "I think next year we'll do some crazy stuff…we have been getting many great ideas," Budnick said.

I feel very privileged to have attended the first annual Jammy awards. Watching the show unfold, I had a very clear sense that something historical was taking place. The show was completely unique and it will be exciting to watch the tradition grow and develop over time. Like the Grateful Dead said in their acceptance speech for So Many Roads: "…a good idea never dies."

Lee Seelig is currently on the road with Addison Groove Project and Uncle Sammy. Say "Hi" to him at any one of the shows on tour. Otherwise, send all comments to leemseelig@hotmail.com.