Jam sessions are back. Anyone who still associates them with seasoned musicians of an older age and an old audience is wrong: a new generation is breathing new life into the age-old musical art form.
It doesn’t come completely out of the blue. As music consumption becomes more and more volatile, there is obviously a need for a counter-movement. For example, young people en masse devour online tutorials that explain how to play certain instruments or how to compose songs yourself. A jam session live in the hall is then an ultimate look behind the scenes; as a curious music lover you are right on top of it.
Legendary
Lee-Ann Johanna (22) is a junior programmer at the Amsterdam pop venue Paradiso and organizes jam sessions there. With as few covers as possible, she adds: ‘I try to break through the cover culture in jam sessions, because it is best when something new and contemporary is created on the spot. But if a cover is played, then preferably music from after 2015. We’ve heard everything that came out before that often enough. Moreover: if you don’t repeat new music, it never has a chance to become legendary.’
She still remembers her first jam session. ‘That was in 2018 at a release party of the artist T-Shawn. He had placed a few instruments in the middle of the room in a warehouse in Amsterdam South. It ended in a big jam session and the evening also led to a few musical friendships.’
Local talent
The new style jam session seems to have really gained momentum with the recent emergence of a new English jazz scene. Johanna: ‘Bands like Ezra Collective, Kokoroko and Nubya Garcia jam together a lot and when they are in the Netherlands they also invite local talent to play. This resulted in new jam session evenings at various locations in the Randstad, led by young musicians. Like the guys we invited to the Super-Sonic Jam tonight, the first night of the Super-Sonic Jazz festival in Paradiso.’
The evening consists of three different blocks of 45 minutes, led by band leaders from various Amsterdam jam session evenings. For example, keyboardist Benjamin Ankomah (24) , better known as Bnnyhunna, has an evening at the Soho House, drummer Junya Appiah (27), better known as Junya, leads an evening at club A’dam&Co and drummer Emmanuel Afriyie (24) aka Els Di incredible (24) at club Doka.
Junya Appiah drums in the bands of Rimon and Full Crate, among others, and was already jamming as a 2-year-old. ‘My mother is a drummer, vocalist and guitarist and always sang while cooking. I then grabbed some pans and spoons and we made music together.’
In addition to keyboard player, Benjamin Ankomah is also a producer for other artists and released his debut EP in 2021 as a solo artist Sintha from. ‘A jam session is the best translation for what I do; both making music and composing.’ Does that mean you can’t be a jam session musician if you don’t compose yourself? ‘Indeed, sometimes you spend two hours straight creating new work. You have to be very creative for that.’
‘Experience also plays a role,’ says Emmanuel Afriyie. He plays drums with rappers Frenna and Jonna Fraser, among others, and tours Europe with foreign artists. ‘At a jam session you are not in the service of a popular vocalist, but in the service of the music. As a group you have to be in contact with each other.’
The jam sessions have an open stage, which means that every musical visitor can participate. What if someone comes on stage who is not connected to the rest of the group?
‘The foundation is usually strong enough to withstand the blows,’ says Ankomah. ‘But the special moment is often gone by then.’
“If you just come to show how well you can play an instrument, it’s not going to work,” says Afriyie. “It’s a team sport, but not a competition, rather a training.”
They learned to play together at an early age, because besides the fact that all three are of Ghanaian descent, grew up in the same neighborhood and went to school together, they also went to the same Pentecostal church in Amsterdam Southeast. They’ve been jamming together in church every Sunday since they were 11.
“We learned to play as a unit there. We play in the service of God and we honor him through music. We are led by the holy spirit, so it can go either way. You have to be flexible for that,’ says Appiah. Ankomah: ‘We often have that feeling that you are making something bigger than yourself during a jam session.’
When asked if they hear when someone has not learned to play in church, all four, including Lee-Ann Johanna, say yes. “It’s about being not just an instrumentalist, but a musician who empathizes with the rest of the band,” Appiah says.
The free form also brings an element of surprise, says Afriyie. “You see some people come back to jam sessions more often and wait for the moment to come out of their shell. Sometimes we are suddenly blown away by the talent.’ ‘For the audience, such moments also have a binding effect,’ Johanna adds. ‘Together you experience how something is made that did not exist earlier that evening. You hardly see people filming with their cell phones. It is only used to record the sound.’
The Super-Sonic Jam on November 16 is part of the Super-Sonic Jazz Festival 2022, 16/11 to 20/11 in Paradiso, the Vondelkerk and church building De Duif in Amsterdam.
In a lot
During a jam session, new work is composed by a band or a number of artists, often supplemented by spontaneous visitors. Jam means, among other things, ‘accumulation’ and session ‘session, meeting’. During jam sessions, covers of well-known songs are also often played in order to offer the musicians something to hold on to and the audience to recognize.