Rami Jaffee

Rami Jaffee
Born	11 March 1969
Origin	Los Angeles, United States
Genres	Rock
Occupation(s)	Musician
Instruments	Keyboards, accordion, harmonica
Years active	1989–present
Website	http://www.ramijaffee.com
Notable instruments
Hammond B3 Mellotron M4000D Farfisa Organ Wurlitzer 200

Rami Jaffee (born 11 March 1969 in Los Angeles), is best known as the keyboardist of The Wallflowers and work for several bands and artists, including Foo Fighters, Pete Yorn, Soul Asylum, Stone Sour, Joseph Arthur and Coheed and Cambria.

Biography

Early life

Jaffee bought his first keyboard at age 13. He soon started to play with various local bands while attending Fairfax High School. During his high school years, he often spent time at Canter's Deli, down the street from his high school on Fairfax Avenue. Canter's Deli, or more specifically, The Kibitz Room (a small bar at the back of the deli), proved to be an important influence in Rami's musical career.

Rami briefly attended Santa Monica College after high school, but decided he'd learn more from the continued experience of playing music live. He began making a name for himself in and around Los Angeles as he developed his unique keyboard sound while playing with a number of local bands. Soon Rami was in high demand for studio work.^[1]

Career

Around 1989, Jakob Dylan and his friend Tobi Miller formed a group "the Apples." They were looking for a keyboard player. While asking around, Rami Jaffee's name constantly came up, but was initially rejected due to his reputation for not joining groups. Jaffee heard about Dylan's search through a mutual friend, and after listening to their demo tape quickly joined. Rami joined for the need to play music, rather than achieving success.

A few weeks later the Apples had changed their name to the Wallflowers, and played in a number of local clubs. Their performances earned them their first record deal with Virgin Records. In 1992, the Wallflowers released their first self-titled album.

They toured extensively through the U.S. and Canada in 1992 and the Spring of 1993. They opened for bands such as Cracker, the Spin Doctors and 10,000 Maniacs and headlined some shows themselves. When they returned home there was a shakeup at Virgin and they lost the two contacts that had originally been interested in the band's talent. The album wasn't a huge seller and the band soon felt that Virgin had lost interest in them. In addition, Virgin began trying to use the Dylan name to sell records— a tactic the band, and especially Jakob, refused to cater to. Eventually they asked to be let out of their contract. Virgin agreed, and they left in the summer of 1993. Unfortunately, the word got around that the band was "difficult", which led to almost a year of uninterest from the record companies. Rami explains:

"I was living at home and there was no money for anything. I would try to explain to friends that [getting out of our contract] was a good thing; but the bottom line was that we didn't have a deal anymore. I had a certain faith in playing Jakob's music, though. Somewhere between, 'Oh, this is definitely going to blow up,' and 'I don't care if it ever goes anywhere. I love these songs and I want to play with him.'"

During the dry spell, Rami kept that faith in Jakob and in the Wallflowers. He paid the bills by delivering pizza for Damiano's (across the street from Canter's Deli) and playing with local acts such as El Vez. Although his session appearances were becoming more frequent, and he had some enticing tour opportunities (such as with Lenny Kravitz), Rami had to make some tough decisions. "Jakob was always writing, trying to keep things going. I was always playing and doing sessions [in order to] make ends meet... I kept denying anything that would take me away from Jakob," said Rami (Jewish Exponent, 1998). It was also obvious to Rami that he had something to offer Jakob and the band... and especially the songs. "I believe in these songs and I'm here for the duration, because no one is writing songs like these anymore, songs that have room for a Hammond organ and me."

Rami's dedication stayed strong even in the face of uncertainty with record contracts and band membership. In 1994 the Wallflowers were signed by Interscope Records and they began to work on their second release. Simultaneously, Rami found himself in high demand as a studio musician, working frequently for other artists with producers Paul Fox (who produced the Wallflowers' debut), Matt Hyde, and Rick Neigher. Rami took nothing for granted. As a result, 1996 brought new albums by artists such as Rickie Lee Jones, the Hookers, Tina & the B-side Movement, Leah Andreone, Chalk Farm, and Phil Cody—all bearing the Jaffee name on their liner notes (often misspelled). Also released in 1996 was the Wallflowers' sophomore release, "Bringing Down the Horse," which went on to sell over 5 million copies.

The extensive tour and promotion that followed the release of the album helped them gain recognition. Between 1996 and 1997, the Wallflowers were featured in all of the industry magazines, received abundant radio play, appeared frequently on television, and earned several award nominations. In 1997 Rami's personal life also changed. His first child was born. He left the tour in mid July 1997 on parental leave. Chris Joyner filled in for Rami until he returned in September.

In 1998, the Wallflowers returned to the studio to record "Heroes" for the Godzilla Soundtrack, which earned them another Grammy nomination that year.

After the release of "Bringing Down the Horse," Rami continued his outside studio work, playing with Everclear, Grant Lee Buffalo, Richie Sambora, Macy Gray, Jeremy Toback, Joe Henry, Melissa Etheridge and Garth Brooks.

At the end of 1998, when the Wallflowers tour finally began to slow down, Rami expanded his musical talents and began producing for his friend and former labelmate, Phil Cody. His production credits include Andy If's album "Memories of Connecticut" and the band "the Color Green"'s 5 song EP. Rami formed a production team with fellow Wallflower Greg Richling.

In September 2000, the band set out on the road again in support of "Breach", released 10 October 2000. Highlights of the tour included opening acts like Minibar and John Doe as well as the honor of opening shows for veterans Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and the Who. The Breach tour ended on 09.22.01 in Noblesville, IN— finishing off a set of opening dates for John Mellencamp.

In November 2002, the Wallflowers released their fourth album "Red Letter Days". The band toured extensively in 2002/2003 with some appearances following in 2004, including a concert aboard the U.S.S. Stennis, an aircraft carrier out at sea.

With a new drummer, the band released "Rebel, Sweetheart", their fifth album, on 24 May 2005.

He led the house band on the Fran Drescher Talk Show and, as of 2010, co-owned a recording studio called Fonogenic Studios in the San Fernando Valley.^[2]

In 2012 and 2013, Jaffee was a member of the Sound City Players, a supergroup formed by Dave Grohl that, in addition to appearing in Grohl's 2013 documentary, Sound City, played a limited number of tour dates in 2013. The Sound City Players consisted of a rotating number of artists including Grohl, Jaffee, Stevie Nicks, Alain Johannes, Paul McCartney, Rick Springfield, Josh Homme, Trent Reznor, Krist Novoselic, and more.

Discography (excerpt)

Year	Group	Title	Label	Instrument
1992	The Wallflowers	The Wallflowers	Virgin	Piano, Hammond Organ
1993	Darlene & Co	Absence of Uniformity	Sovereign	–
1994	El Vez	How Great Thou Art	Sympathy for the Record Industry	Hammond Organ
		Fun in Español	Sympathy for the Record Industry	Hammond Organ
	Victoria Williams	Loose	Atlantic	Hammond Organ
1995	Edwin McCain	Honor Among Thieves	Lava/Atlantic	Hammond Organ
1996	Tina & the B-Side Movement	Salvation	Sire/Elektra	Piano, Hammond Organ, Farfisa
	El Vez	Never Been To Spain (Until Now)	Munster	Keyboards
	Phil Cody	The Sons of Intemperance Offering	Interscope	Piano, Accordion, Hammond Organ, Mellowtron
	The Wallflowers	Bringing Down the Horse	Interscope	Organ, Piano
	Chalk FarM	Notwithstanding	Columbia	Accordion
	Leah Andreone	Veiled	RCA	Organ
	The Hookers	Calico	RCA	Piano, Accordion, Hammond Organ
	Rickie Lee Jones	Party of Five	Warner	–
1997	The Wallflowers	KCRW Rare on Air, Vol. 3	Mammoth	Piano
	The Honeyrods	The Honeyrods	Capricorn	Piano, Wurlitzer
	Everclear	So Much for the Afterglow	Capitol	Vox Organ
	Uma	Fare Well	Refuge	Piano, Hammond Organ, Vox Organ, Optigan
	Soul Asylum	I Know What You Did Last Summer	Sony Columbia	–
	Andy If	Road Trip	CU
1998	Richie Sambora	Undiscovered Soul	Mercury	Accordion, Hammond Organ, Clapping, Optigan
	Agents of Good Roots	Only By One	RCA	Organ
	Esthero	Breath From Another	Sony/Works	Optigan
	The Wallflowers	Godzilla	Epic/Sony
	Scott Thomas Band	California	Elektra
	Grant Lee Buffalo	Jubilee	Slash/Warner
1999	Chlorine	Primer	Timebomb/BMG	Keyboards
	Matt Brown	Morning After Medicine Show	EMI Uncle Green, released 2011	Keyboards
2000	The Wallflowers	(Breach)	Interscope	Keyboards
2002		Red Letter Days	Interscope	Keyboards
2005	Foo Fighters	In Your Honor	RCA Records/Roswell	Keyboards
	The Wallflowers	Rebel, Sweetheart	Interscope	Keyboards
2006	Willie Nile	Streets of New York	00:02:59/Reincarnate	Hammond Organ
	Foo Fighters	Skin and Bones	RCA Records	Piano, Organ, Accordion, Keyboard
	Pete Yorn	Westerns EP	Red Ink / Columbia	B-3 Organ, production
2007	Mike Brown & the Sneakies	American Hotel	Oasis Entertainment	Hammond Organ, Keyboard
	Coheed and Cambria	Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for Tomorrow	Columbia Records	Synthesisers and Piano[3]
	Foo Fighters	Echoes, Silence, Patience, and Grace	RCA Records	Accordion, Keyboard
2008	The Fallen Stars	Where the road bends	Kiss My Squirrel Records	Hammond Organ, Keyboard, Accordion
2011	Foo Fighters	Wasting Light	RCA Records	Keyboards, Organ, Mellotron
2012	The Wallflowers	Glad All Over	Columbia/Interscope	Keyboards
2013	Joseph Arthur	The Ballad of Boogie Christ	Lonely Astronaut Records	Organ
	Chuck Ragan	Till Midnight	Ten to Two Records	Keyboard, glockenspiel, accordion
2014	Gunash	Same Old Nightmare	Go Down Records	Hammond Organ
	Foo Fighters	Sonic Highways	RCA Records	Keyboards
2015	Foo Fighters	Saint Cecilia (EP)	RCA Records	Keyboards
2016	Gunash	SuperHeroes In Town (EP)	Go Down Records	Hammond Organ, Keyboards

References

1. "The Wallflowers Bios – Rami Jaffee". The Wallflowers. Retrieved 2008-09-15.
2. "New Fran Drescher Talk Show". The Daily Truffle. Retrieved 2010-11-23.
3. Mentioned in Album Booklet for Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for Tomorrow

External links

• Official website