When I arrived at the p (performance) space at the Just About Music (JAM) dorm, I was not met with the thumping drums and shredding guitar that I thought I would be. A handful of “jammies” were hanging out, talking, relaxing and waiting for Musiccom — the hall government over at JAM — to start. Three year JAM resident Bryan Sutermaster ’09 let me in the door, introduced me to the rest of his “jamily” and we talked for a minute or two before Musiccom began.
All Musiccom meetings start with community news. The group discussed everything from event planning to organizing the cords and wires in the p space. After community news and funding requests, next on the agenda was announcement of musical happenings.
This discussion and knowledge of musical and cultural events around Cornell, Ithaca and the surrounding communities are a very large part of what makes JAM, JAM. Sutermaster noted that one of the great things about JAM is that it creates a network of musicians and music lovers that jammies can be a large part of. Grinning, he told me that he couldn’t remember a show he attended where he didn’t know at least one person.
“90 percent of the time it’s someone in the band … and 60 people in the audience,” he laughed.
According to Dawn Gearhart ’10, an RA in JAM, the program started before there was actually a dorm. It started on West Campus when a contingent of diehard Grateful Dead fans formed a group within one of the West Campus residence halls. Dan Wolff ’09, another RA, added that sometime in the 90s, the group grew so large that a dorm was established on North Campus. Over the years it has expanded and grown to what it is now.
The jamily extends outside of Cornell as many local bands contain JAM alumni. Bands with both current and former jammies play not only at campus events and fraternity parties, but also at Castaways, The Haunt and The Nines, among other venues. Not only are the jammies often guests at other places, but the jamily often invites guests to their home throughout the year. Oteil Burbridge, bassist for The Allman Brothers Band, visited JAM during the 2005-2006 school year, and the Lee Boys dropped by last year.
One guest that the members of JAM welcome to their humble abode every year is Samite Mulando of Uganda. The motivational speaker and philanthropist has come to JAM to play his music and speak on growing up in Uganda every year for over a decade.
“It’s a really, really cool event,” Sutermaster said. “A really inspiring event.”
The Samite Mulando event, which will be on April 20th this year, is JAM’s biggest event of the year.
Their biggest series of regular events is the coffee house series of concerts. The first Sunday of every month, Just About Music holds an open mic night. The event takes place in the p space and all are welcome to perform, listen or both.
As fun and exciting as special events are, the JAM building has a lot to offer its residents everyday. There is a 24-hour practice space, the performance space, a new, fully functional studio that was installed this fall, smaller practice rooms and lots of lounge areas for hanging out. The RAs also hold regular listening parties. When a student wants to introduce the jamily to a favorite artist, everyone is invited to come listen and hang out. The RAs even give out a couple CDs to students who like what they heard.
Attending the Musiccom meeting and talking to the residents of JAM, I got the sense that JAM provides a great place to simply learn about music, exchange ideas and just sit and discuss your favorite hobby. In fact, according to Sutermaster, the best part of JAM is the network of musicians and friends that it creates. Several former jammies, both residents and RAs, return from time to time just to visit, and sometimes to play.
In the near future, Sutermaster expressed to me his vision of a JAM archive. He would really like to have a record of everything that has been recorded in JAM. There have been a lot of great live performances and quality EPs recorded there, and it would be great to have them all in the same place — easily accessible to future JAM students.
As far as other future plans, Sutermaster would just like to increase awareness of the JAM dorm and its program. He thinks it would really be great for the entire Cornell community if JAM had more of a presence.
As Sutermaster puts it, “there’s a lot of really good music that goes on here.”