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When you hear the name The Jelly
Jam, it may not strike a bell, but most will recall hearing about the band
Platypus, which began about four or five years ago, and featured members of
Dream Theater.
Drummer Rod
Morgenstein recalls, “I think the way it started was John Myung had given me a
call to see if I’d like to do a project with him. Then we started talking about
who would be a cool to work with. Both us were fans of Kings X. Kings X had
done some shows with Winger, but I’m not sure if they had ever done stuff with
Dream Theater.
So, we
contacted Ty (Tabor) and he was totally into it, and then John said, you
know, as far as a keyboard guy is it cool if we use Derek (Sherinian), who was
in Dream Theater at that time, and I always thought Derek was a great keyboard
player. I’d never worked with him, but I though it would be a great idea. It
was really interesting, because when we got together, none of us other than
Derek and John really knew each other all that well, we were acquaintances and
mutual admirers.”
Interestingly
but not really all that surprising, Morgenstein says that they all kind of came
to the table with different agendas on what they wanted the Platypus project to
be, and in the end there might be a perception that Platypus was kind of
searching for its identity, but he says after a quarter of a century with the
diverse Dixie Dregs, he’s been battling that his entire career.
“My whole
career other than Winger is involved with the more fusion, progressive
instrumental bands, so most the records I’m on have no singing. I was more
interested in doing something that was vocal
oriented. Derek had the total opposite interest, because his dream is to be
recognized as an instrumentalist, he’s quite talented and so he wanted to do an
all-instrumental record. So, I think between that we ended up meeting in the
middle.”
Progression from Platypus
After meeting in the middle
and releasing two innovative albums, Platypus lost a member and again was faced
with a directional decision. Instead of searching for a replacement for Derek
Sherinian, when it became apparent that he would not be continuing on with the
project, the remaining members of Platypus thought that it may be really
interesting if they just did it as a trio, and The Jelly Jam was born.
 “We
all had enough creative ideas, where between the three of us we could come up
with material for a record. The process has been the same with all of the three
recordings (When Pus Comes to Shove, Ice Cycles, and The Jelly Jam S/T). The
guys come to my house, a couple of them live there for a week or so, and we kind
of just go through ideas that we each have or just jam and see what emerges.
That’s a very exciting part of the process, having nothing, then all of the
sudden before lunch you have like three really cool ideas that you’re going to
work on that will actually become songs.”
From the drummers
perspective, some things on the Jelly Jam CD that make it interesting are that two or
three of the songs were initially inspired by drum beats, namely, "I Can't Help
You" and "I am the King."
“I teach at Berkley College
of Music, so during the semester, I have a four/five hour commute (from his
home of New York), and so when I drive it sometimes, I’ll set the car on cruise
control and drum on the steering wheel and my feet are free. And so, the drum
beat to the very first song on the record (he demonstrates) that started in my
car…”
Morgenstein says that the
reason he likes the album so much, is that it's not an
album of the stock drum beats that you hear on most albums. He says, As a drummer, it’s
always exciting to hear a drum part that can almost start alone. If you can
hear a drum beat and then know what the song is, he explains, they call it a
signature drum beat. And, he believes that those who know The Jelly Jam songs,
will be able to place the music by the drum beat even if they hear it again
years down the road.
Another great attribute of
The Jelly Jam, Morgenstein adds, is that “If you’re just a music listener.
If you’ve never played a musical instrument, if you just hear something and you like
it, I think you can listen to Jelly Jam that way, because it’s melodic enough,
they're all vocal oriented tunes pretty much and you know, you can be fooled into
thinking that it's just this. And you go ‘Oh, yeah, it’s a nice song.’”
However, on the other side
of the spectrum, he adds, “If you’re a musician and you enjoy the challenge of
having to dig a little bit deeper and figure things out rhythmically and
harmonically, there’s a whole lot of that stuff there too. Because, usually the
two worlds don’t mix, If there’s someone who just loves pop music and they hear
the Dixie Dregs, they’re going to go, 'There’s no singing. That music sounds
weird'. Or, if you have someone who’s like a prog head who digs Dream Theater, if
you play them AC/DC they’ll go, 'That sucks. It’s so stupid. It’s just basic
rock-n-roll', So, to me, Jelly Jam could appeal to people that are in both of
those worlds.”
What's in a Name
As for the name, The Jelly
Jam, Morgeinstein, explains it away to “stupid band stuff.” He says, “Over the
course of the weeks that we’re together, everyday there’s fifty new things, one
more bizarre than the next. And then one day, I forget if Ty or John said it,
they just said 'Jelly Jam' and they both went hysterical laughing and loved it. I
was like the girl in Woody Allen’s Annie Hall going, ‘I don’t get it.’ Like
that’s funny, where as Platypus, we all like fell on the floor. We loved it.
Derek said, I’m trying to find a sound for this solo, something that sounds like
a Platypus. We don’t know what a Platypus sounds like, but to him, that was the
sound he was looking for.
You know, ‘Jelly Jam’, I
didn’t love it at first, and then I said if we can say, ‘The Jelly Jam’ I’ll go
along with it. Any word that you say enough times, suddenly takes on its own
life. And then, I love the cover. I think maybe Ty may have come up with that,
just the jar of jelly. I think it’ll make a great t-shirt, especially that
stonewashed look.”
A Happy Trio
“I’m the only one of the
three of us, who comes from a jazz-rock-fusion background. It’s a totally
different genre of music than the progressive rock. Sometimes the two are
linked together but the Dixie Dregs and Dream Theater to me don’t sound anything
alike. It’s a very different mindset, not that the Dregs come from a jazz base
but Dream Theater, that kind of music comes almost from like a heavy metal base.
It’s super musicianship, but with a really hard rock, and I don’t mean like a
Bon Jovi heavy metal, I mean like speedmetal and all that kind of stuff. So, I
guess I bring like the fusion and jazz side to the band, and Ty certainly is
heavily influenced by the Beatles. I have to say, he’s the one who brings that
really beautiful melodic pop side to it. Although, Kings X, is another heavy
rock band but you have that in the mix too.
It’s really fascinating when
you have guys that come from slightly different backgrounds thrown in a room
together. A lot of times, it’s not going to work, because you sometimes have
this polarization among musicians…but, we get along great, I can’t tell you how
much fun it is.”
Morgenstein explains that
since he and Myung live near each other on Long Island, Tabor will stay with him
and once Myung moseys over around eleven, a typical day of rehearsals will begin
with a fresh cappuccino from Myung’s personal machine.
“We all have cappuccino’s,
talk a little business, then we start working, and then we go out to a nice
expensive lunch. Come back from lunch work a little more, maybe another
cappuccino, and then a really nice dinner followed by wine and cigars. Part of
the recording budget is cases of really good wine and really fine cigars. It’s
just like become a thing, and it started with Platypus. And, I think like the
band members of our other bands would be really surprised. When you’ve worked
with a certain group of musicians for years, and your personalities are
established and the whole way the band runs, a lot of times you don’t see the
whole side of the person.”
He also added that with The
Jelly Jam being a
"side project type of thing" they hope it will turn into something, but
it is currently not the band that that they make a living from. And, that
actually isn't a bad thing, because they can write more freely without worrying
about mainstream standards.
"So, I think you
can also have a different mindset. We’re not thinking ‘Oh my God, what’s radio
going to say.’ It’s kind of like, ‘What do we want to do, what do we think is
really cool?, and then you hope that it will follow where enough of your fans
will think so too.”
A Live Jam?
With Dream Theater and Kings
X touring together later this summer, one can only wonder if The Jelly Jam will
be making any live appearances, and while Morgenstein says that they definitely
have to (and want to) get out on the road, he’s not sure if it will happen until they have a
second album out.
“You need to have enough
music. But, we already have the drums and bass and most of the guitars done to a
follow-up CD, we did it in December, basically because we knew that we were all
going to be on tour in our other bands…as soon as Ty gets home from that (Dream
Theater, Joe Satriani, King’s X tour), we’ll probably try to finish up the next
Jelly Jam CD. So, we may get it out the early part of next year. Then we’ll
have two CDs and then Dream Theater will not be on the road next year at all, so
there’s a good chance we’ll be able to work something out. We definitely want
to do it, we get along great and have a lot of fun together.”
Also be sure
to read our review from the Winger 2002
reunion tour with additional information from our interview with Rod, and an in
depth history of the Dixie Dregs and the Steve Morse Band, from our recent
interview with Steve Morse.
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