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Rami Jaffee

Today we will tell you about keyboardist Rami Jaffee, best known as a member of the "Foo Fighters".


(Photo: Palmspringslife.com)


1. He was born in Los Angeles, California on March 11, 1969 to a father of Jewish-Russian origin and a mother of Jewish-Moroccan origin.


2. He bought his first keyboards with the Bar Mitzvah gift money and in a short time started playing in local school bands.


3. Rami attended "Hancock Park" elementary school and "Fairfax" high school. He testifies that he could be seen improvising on the grand piano during breaks in the high school auditorium, with long hair and a Grateful Dead T-shirt.


4. He grew up in the "Fairfax" neighborhood and used to attend the "Beit Am" synagogue in the neighborhood. At the age of 16, he was working as a counselor at the camp of the Jewish Community Center (JCC).


5. In the years 1982 to 1987 he played in local bands, mainly "Daisy Chamber" which played David Bowie style music.


6. At the same time, he made sure to visit the neighborhood bar "Kibitz Room" where he watched the performances of local bands every Tuesday night.


7. After finishing high school, he started working as a session player in recording studios. In the nineties, he participated in the albums of artists such as Rickie Lee Jones, "the Hookers", Leah Andreone and Chalk FarM.


8. In 1989 he joined the band "Apples" founded by Jakob Dylan (son of Bob Dylan) and Tobi Miller.


9. A few weeks later, they changed their name to "Wallflowers" and signed a recording contract with "Virgin Records".


(Photo: Fanart.TV)


10. In 1992 the band released their debut album "The Wallflowers". Rami played keyboards, sang background vocals and participated in writing one of the songs.


11. The album was not very successful but the band got to serve as a warm-up band for bands like "Cracker" and "10,000 Maniacs".


12. The big break came with the second album "Bringing Down the Horse", which included the hits "One Headlight", 6th Avenue Heartache", "Three Marlenas" and more. Listen to how the sounds of his Hammond organ influence the song "The Difference".



13. At the same time he was a member of the "Wallflowers" Rami was a sought-after session player and played among others on albums such as "On How Life Is" by Macy Gray, "Undiscovered Soul" by Richie Sambora and "Jubilee" by "Grant Lee Buffalo".


14. In 1998 "The Wallflowers" received a Grammy nomination for the song "Heroes" which appeared in the movie "Godzilla".


14. In 2000 they released their third album "Breach". Rami will remain a member of the band and will also be a partner in its next three albums including "Glad All Over" from 2012.


15. In 2005, Jaffee began collaborating with the "Foo Fighters", in their live performances. Even when he was not an official member of the band, Rami influenced the band's sound at concerts, as can be heard, among others, in the following performance from the album "Skin And Bones" from 2006.



16. At the same time, Rami was a guest on all the band's albums as a session player, starting with "In Your Honor" from 2005, and later on the albums "Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace" from 2007, "Wasting Light" from 2011, "Sonic Highways" from 2014.


17. In 2012 and 2013, Rami was a member of the "Sound City Players", a supergroup formed by Dave Grohl, who, in addition to appearing in Grohl's 2013 documentary "Sound City", performed a limited number of shows in 2013.


18. In 2017, Rami was announced as an official member of the band. The first full album he released with the band as an official member was "Concrete and Gold" from 2017, but whoever looks at the credits for the mini-album "Saint Cecilia" from 2015 will see that he is already mentioned in the credits as a member of the band.


19. In 2021, together with the Foo's, he released the album "Medicine at Midnight" and the tribute album to the disco days of the "Bee Gees" "Hail Satin".


(Photo: Fanart.TV)


20. In March 2022 he released the album "Dream Widow" - the debut album of Dave Grohl's and the members of the "Foo Fighters" imaginary band.


21. In the same year he participated with the band in the film "Studio 666".


22. In March 2022 the band loses its drummer Taylor but not its way and a year later they introduce their new drummer Josh Freese.


23. In June 2023, the band releases its first album after Taylor's death, the album "But Here We Are". The album was produced by Greg Kurstin and the band with Dave recording all the drums parts on the album. This is undoubtedly a lament album, both in terms of sound and lyrics, Dave reflects in the songs the feelings that he and the band experienced following Taylor's death but also what he himself experienced following the death of his mother Virginia.



22. Rami led the house band of "The Fran Drescher Show".


23. In 2007 he participated in the album "Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for Tomorrow" - the fourth album of "Coheed and Cambria".


24. In 2010 he became a co-owner of the recording studio "Phonogenic Studios" in the San Fernando Valley.


25. In 2014, he discovered the Facebook group "Bring Foo Fighters To Israel" and responded to the page with these words: "Yes!!!! Bring Us!!! Been to long Since I was Chilling in Neve Tzedek!!!"


26. When the Foo's appeared on the "Saturday Night Live" show in Christmas 2017, Rami placed a Chanukka Menorah on his keyboards.



27. The variety of keyboard instruments that Rami plays on the various albums and in the concerts in which he participates, is particularly wide and includes among others: piano, synthesizer, Hammond organ, Mellotron, Wurlitzer, Vox organ, Optigan, Farfisa, accordion and more. He also sings and plays the harmonica.


28. During his musical career Rami played and performed with other artists such as Pete Yorn, "Stone Sour", Joseph Arthur, "Soul Asylum" and more.


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