Bjam Records...The Lowdown

In The Beginning

What began as a daydream eventually became Bjam Records, but the roots go much deeper than 1990.

Around 1991 or 1992 I began thinking seriously about recording audio. The idea did not come out of nowhere. It had been forming for decades.

My musical life began in 1965 in a neighborhood band called The Turks. We were bonded by friendship and by music. We listened to KXOK and KATZ, the pop and R&B AM stations in our part of town. The Beatles were taking over the world. No one struck a richer vein in R&B than Motown. Something was shifting culturally and musically. Even if we could not name it, we felt it.

The country was moving away from the tight collar feel of the 1950s. The beat poets and the bohemian culture had already cracked the foundation, though at thirteen years old I knew nothing about that. What I knew was that I wanted in. Being in a band was the doorway.

I recruited Stanley Fuller on drums, Harry Stefanyszyn on guitar, and John Ziebold on piano. We assumed I would eventually play bass, but I had not learned yet, so I became the singer. That was the Turks lineup. We were through the roof with excitement. There was no stopping us.

Many bands later, many miles later, the Turks faded into memory, but the impulse never left.

LEVEL 3 MANIA

In the late 1980s I acquired a four track cassette recorder. At the time this was serious technology. You could record four separate tracks onto a cassette at home. No big studio required. Just an outlet and imagination.

I began recording myself, friends, anyone willing to experiment. That was the birth of Level 3 Mania, my home studio on the third floor of my old house in the Soulard neighborhood on the south side of St. Louis.

Tracks piled up. Ideas floated. Conversations, some clearer than others, stretched late into the night.

Harry was still in the picture. So was a newer friend, Carl Stelzer. Somewhere in that fog of tape hiss and possibility we decided to start an independent label and release recordings ourselves. We called it BJAM Records.

The name came from an episode of Sesame Street where the alphabet was sung and after each letter the word jam followed. That is the truth. It was not because my last name begins with a B. At least not consciously.

Our first plan was to record spoken word artists and add musical elements behind the pieces. After a few attempts the concept dissolved. I cannot tell you exactly why. It simply did. But BJAM Records and Level 3 Mania survived.

The Geyer Street Sheiks

In 1992 a jug band that had once been popular in town reformed after a long hiatus. They added a new singer named Alice Spencer. Alice was from Texas and had come to St. Louis to study musical theater. Before joining the Sheiks she had formed Three Marry Widows, a band that gained national attention with the album Which Dreamd It? released on TVT Records.

When she joined The Geyer Street Sheiks, the chemistry was undeniable. The Sheiks already had a strong following in the metro area. They were exceptional musicians. Adding Alice, a powerhouse vocalist, elevated everything.

Carl told me about them. I went to a local club to hear them and was blown away. They were fantastic in every respect. After seeing them a second time it became obvious. They needed to be recorded. It would have been a shame not to.

Carl knew the band and introduced me. A few days later we invited them to breakfast at the iconic Uncle Bill's Pancake House. We told them we had an idea or two to run by them.

Alice could not attend, but Steve Mote, the de facto leader, along with Tom Hall, Charlie Phiefer, and David Gibbons showed up. Six guys at a table covered in pancakes, eggs, and coffee got down to serious eating before serious talk.

After we filled ourselves, we laid out the idea. A proper live studio recording. Not Level 3 Mania. This required a real studio with all the tools.

You never know how those conversations will go. They could have dismissed us. Instead they were excited and receptive. They would take it to Alice and get her input.

Carl and I brought Harry in as a third partner.

That was the true beginning of BJAM Records as a functioning label. Not just a name. Not just a daydream.

And that is only part of the story.

Subsequent Releases...

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Far As The Wind Blows by Belle Starr

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What’s That Smell? Live At The Venice Cafe by Funkabilly, recorded at the legendary The Venice Cafe

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The compilation Out Of The Gate Again – Sixteen More From The Grain Belt, featuring a range of St. Louis area artists

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Rethink Rubbish by FulmAr

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It’s Hoo Doo Time by The Hoo Doo Cats

These releases captured a cross section of the city’s sound: roots rock, alternative country, funk-inflected hybrids, folk, and independent experimentation.

Bjam Records operated with a simple philosophy. Record the music. Press it. Put it into people’s hands. Support the artists. Preserve the moment.

Although the label no longer distributes new material, many titles remain available through used CD outlets and digital platforms. The recordings continue to circulate, carrying forward the spirit of a time when independent music in St. Louis was thriving, collaborative, and fiercely local.

Bjam Records may have closed its doors in 2006, but the music lives on.

Bjam Records.....Discogs

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Reach Out

bjamrecords@gmail.com

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سلام

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