'It Was Just a Jammin’ Time': Musicians Recall Late Night Jams at Fillmore East

'Fillmore East: The Venue That Changed Rock Music Forever’ Book Excerpt

Jimi Hendrix, Band of Gypsys, Fillmore EastPhoto by© John Chappina

Steve Miller, Steve Miller Band: Shows could run until four in the morning. You could stay up all night. And there were a lot of jams that I would go to that that would be exactly the case. The cream of the crop of the world would be passing through town and would come by and play. It would not be unexpected to have Hendrix come in and play or Jeff Beck or any one of the really great, great guitar players or see Cannonball Adderley come in and play.

And you would see jam sessions that were — it was kind of an iffy thing. Depending on who it was and how good the percussion was, it could be really, really great or it could be just one of those kind of monotonous, the same riff over and over and over for forty-five minutes but most of the time in New York, it was always great and it was always really exciting and there were a lot of really cool people.

Dickey Betts, Allman Brothers Band, Fillmore EastPhoto byBen Haller

Country Joe McDonald, Country Joe & the Fish: When you’re a lead singer, rhythm guitar player, and a songwriter, you don’t want to be in a jam session with the egos of lead guitar players. They go over and hold you hostage for as long as they wanted to. I remember Janis also, neither of us wanted to have anything to do with a jam session. That’s an instrumentalist’s deal.

Steve Miller: One of the great things about it was that it wasn’t so controlled. If you wanted to go all night, if you wanted to go to four in the morning, you’d go to four in the morning. We used to play three-hour shows and then come back and jam for two hours, depending on who was there. It was just a much better time.

Elvin Bishop, Paul Butterfield Blues Band: It was just a jammin’ time. I remember I used to love jammin’ with the Allman Brothers. Our paths crossed quite a lot. I was really good friends with Duane and Dickey Betts and it was just a jammin’ time. In New York City in general, we had a lot of jam sessions with the Allmans and with B.B. King and Jimi Hendrix and Clapton and Buddy Miles and people like that. It was just a lot more jammin’ goin’ on in those days.

Naturally, the one with the Allman Brothers where they did the live recording, that was a hell of a thing. These days, in general, you can’t visualize a big venue like that letting people jam ‘till four or five in the morning. It just never happens. Everybody’s just so cold-blooded about the money these days.

Nowadays they sell those tickets, the venues, they do the show, and they get your ass out of there, and that’s it.

Frank Mastropolo is the author of Fillmore East: The Venue That Changed Rock Music Forever and the 200 Greatest Rock Songs series.