(Special thanks to Jessie for typing out this article!)

Sunday, November 26, 2000
Leader-Telegram

By William Foy, Leader-Telegram staff

Flower Power

Rami Jaffee, who co-founded the Wallflowers with Jakob Dylan, is happy letting the band's lead singer bear the brunt of the spotlight's glare.


    Rami Jaffee likes being a Wallflower- and a wallflower. Jakob Dylan, the band's guitarist, lead singer, and songwriter and the son of a certain other well-known musician, gets featured in dozens of major publications, including the cover of Rolling Stone, while the other band members- Jaffee, guitarist Michael Ward, bassist Greg Richling, and
drummer Mario Claire- stand quietly in the background. But Jaffee, who co-founded the Wallflowers with Dylan 10 years ago in Los Angeles, doesn't mind when his friend is the one to expound on the band's success, including his singles such as One Headlight, Sixth Avenue Heartache, and The Difference; the multiplatinum 1996 album Bringing Down the Horse and Breach, this year's critically acclaimed follow-up; and its two Grammy Awards.
    Gosh, I feel sorry that Jakob has to do most of the press, the 31-year-old Jaffee said recently from Sacramento, Calif., where the band was four days into a tour that will bring them to Zorn Arena on Wednesday. But he
does a great job.
    While Jakob does most of the interviews and all of the songwriting, Jaffee pointed out, the music making really is a cooperative effort. Jakob writes the songs on guitar most of the time, he said, and that's just a skeleton of what it turns out to be. That's what makes us more of a band than not.  All the musicians are free to give input, and Jakob sometimes will offer suggestions to some of the other instrumentalists. We've been playing with each other the longest, Jaffee said, and he knows something I might do or a certain sound he might throw it out there, (such as) "Do your whistly organ thing."
   Jaffee can handle the anonymity because it has been the same situation for Tom Petty's Heartbreakers and Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, two ensembles he greatly admires, which is evident from the Wallflowers' sound.  Sometimes we get more (publicity) than those guys, he said citing Hearbreakers keys man Benmont Tench as a particular favorite. He was like me in that he didn't write any songs for the band, but you really hear his parts stick out.
     Jaffee's keyboard parts stick out on several Wallflowers cuts, including the organ sweel at the opening of One Headlight and gorgeous music-box notes on the ballad Baby Bird, the hidden track that closes Breach. Jaffee got the music-box sound from hand-plucking some muted and nonmuted strings and overdubbing some playing with a Celeste (a soft strip of cloth between the hammers and strings) and a small pipe organ.  That
combination accounted for just two of the approximately 50keyboards he used on the album.  Jaffee'sother keyboard influences include Dr. John, Leon Russell, jazz players Jimmy McGriff and Jimmy Smith and Al Kooper, known for his
distinctive playing on such landmark Bob Dylan albums as Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde. That's one good thing about interviewing Jaffee rather than Jakob Dylan: The keyboardist willingly admits to the influence of Dylan Sr.
That's easy for me, Jaffee said, mentioning Highway 61 Revisited as a particularf avorite.
    Jakob has been more guarded on the subject, although in the round of interviews to promote Breach he has alluded to his lineage.   As he told The Associated Press recently, I'm by no means more comfortable about it now
than I was then.   I just find it more relevant.
    Although the band is building its own repertoire, Jaffee said they still enjoy playing songs by others.  They had a hit two years ago with Heroes, their version of the David Bowie song that was on the Godzilla soundtrack.   The composer met them recently in New York, while they were opening for the Who for four days at Madison Square Garden, and said he loved their recording, Jaffee was happy to report.
    When the band played at UW-Eau Claire in the spring of 1997, they played three covers: Smokey Robinson and the Miracles' Tears of a Clown, Carly Simon's You're So Vain, and Prince's Raspberry Beret. They will throw one in this time around, but Jaffee asked that it be kept a surprise.   Suffice it to say that it' snot a Bob Dylan song, as Jakob has ruled that verboten. That's the only setback in this band for me, Jaffee said.