Inside a Small Circle of Friends:
The John Street Jam
by Peter Aaron
...but
that place is also a restaurant so there’s a lot of extraneous
noise that goes on there. We wanted to do something that put more of
the focus on the musicians and let them really connect with the audience,
and since Terri was already involved with the chapel as an elder at
the church it made perfect sense to hold it there. We knew that the
space was used as a nursery school before we moved in, but later we
found out that before that, in the 1960s, it had been a coffeehouse
with regular music. So we’ve kind of brought it full circle.”
The Massardos arrived at the Jam’s discerning booking format
via a natural, trial–and–error path. “The first couple
of Jams were open–mic nights, but there were already enough other
places doing that,” explains Steve, who with Terri is an 11–year
veteran of the Hudson Valley Folk Guild. “We realized that if
we wanted to keep the audience coming back we had to have consistently
great music, so we made the booking policy invitation–only. We
started inviting people whose music we already knew or who we’d
seen and liked at the other open–mics, and auditioned the demos
that came our way.” It’s clearly a method that works, to
which the popular event’s glowing reputation certainly attests.
And tonight’s (February 9, 2008) bill is nothing if not further
testament to the Jam’s penchant for luring excellent performers.
The first round pairs New Yorker Eugene Ruffalo with local favorites
Loretta Hagen, Denise Jordan Finley, and The Trapps main man Sean Schenker.
The players each play a song and then pass the ball to the singer to
their left, introducing their tunes and occasionally exchanging a laugh
with the audience. After everyone’s done three songs apiece,
it’s time for a 10–minute intermission and some more coffee
and refreshments.
CONTINUE...
|
