Jef Jaisun

I was fortunate enough to spend a couple hours with the icon/oclast Jef Jaisun this afternoon at Seattle's legendary Blue Moon. I'd been a huge fan of Jef's since 1973 or so when I first heard his Friendly Neighborhood Narco Agent. It was a whole lot of fun to hear what Jef's been up to, especially his adventures as a photographer over the past 40 years or so.

An interesting account about Jef's recording career is chronicled by Corry Arnold, an historian of the Jabberwock on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley: "At 1:45 am on June 4, 1966, twenty year old aspiring musician and photographer Jef Jaisun walked in to The Jabberwock for the first time, Perry Lederman was playing. Jaisun would go on to work for Max Scheer's Berkeley Barb and later become immortal in the Bay Area for producing the much-played and fondly remembered record Friendly Neighborhood Narco Agent. This record, independently released as an EP by Jaisun in 1969, was later picked up Dr. Demento, and the song reached an audience outside the Bay Area. Jef recalls "The entire package was patterned after Country Joe's Rag Baby EPs, right down to using Sierra Sound as the recording studio. I figured if it worked for him, well ... not to mention that people in the Bay Area, and Berkeley in particular, had become accustomed to that type of EP packaging, thanks mostly to Joe. Several other folkies released similar EPs about the same time."

Another organisation of note, The Blues Foundation, gives considerable detail in recounting Jef's accomplishments as a Blues Photographer and also his humanitarian work: "Jef Jaisun has been actively photographing the Blues for over 30 years. Whether he’s working the Jazz Fest main stage or hanging out at the Back Porch in Chicago, or sitting in your favorite Blues joint, Jef can always be found where the music is. He is staff photographer for Blue Suede News and Blues ToDo Monthly, two long time Northwest music publications. Since 1980, his work has been featured in every major American Blues magazine and on the covers of numerous CDs. In 2004, he donated more than 250 photos to the Blues Music Archives at the Chicago Public Library. His rare 1985 photo of B.B. King embracing Luther Allison at Switzerland’s Nyon Festival was a highlight of 2006’s KBA-winning book, The B.B. King Treasures. Since Hurricane Katrina, Jaisun has worked closely with the New Orleans Musicians Clinic and other organizations, both as photographer and fund-raiser."

It was an honor to actually sit down and spend some time with Jef. He's a great guy and I admire his vision in photographing blues and rock & roll artists. I hope the readers of this will encourage him to publish a photo book some day soon. The world would be enriched by such a project.