And Jahn? Jahn was trying to figure out his next move. "I just started looking around and gigs were dwindling and it never officially ended but in November or so there were no more gigs. And so I had long been friends with Al Maddy, I had met him the day I had come to New York in 1978 and we were friends ever since. And he and I were playing together, he had formerly played with Peter Jordan of the New York Dolls and Stumblebunny in the Ghosts in 78 so Al and I decided to form a band and sitting around my bedroom and I said 'You and I should do something tioether'. We were sitting around my bedroom saying 'wow, we should do something together', and I made a phone call to Peter Jordan who was working at Bleeker Bob's and said 'Hey, you wanna play bass with me and Al Maddy' and he said 'Sure, and I think Sammy is available too'
"Two days later we went into a rehearsal studio and we looked at each other and we went 'oh my God, this sounds good.'
"This was the third generation. The first generation would end about the time of the CBGBs album, with the first incarnation of Tuff Darts with Robert Gordon, Laughing Dogs, The Shirts and that was the ending of the first flowering and 77 on there was the next wave of bands, and then from 1980 on there was almost a third wave. Nothing took off but I think it was a really vital time. First and foremost, The Revlons- you still had a lot of really first rate musicians. But as a loci from media and record company, it had had its' moment.
"We always wanted it to be soul music without being purist, or slavish- I've always had a healthy skepticism for purism in any musical form. So we really wanted to turn it on its' ass, and filter soul through our rock and roll sensibility, which was predominant for us. But I had grown up in the Bronx and grown up loving those records so… I was a confirmed Curtis Mayfield freak by the time I was 11/12 years old. . I have a song that the current Impressions are giving consideration 'I Still Yearn'.
"We loved disco, we loved rap. We were unabashed by our love for that music- while people were saying 'disco sucked', we were having rappers come up and play with us. So we went to a gig and we saw Arno Hecht playing on alto sax and Arno said 'I'm gonna bring this trumpet player if you don't mind- Paul Literal." And then they started playing with us for awhile and while everybody else was playing post-punk we were playing soul ballads.
"And then Cris Cioe was working for Soho Weekly News and he wrote about a gig we did opening for Dexy's Midnight Runners, and he wrote really nice things and our horn players went 'that guy is great, you should get him', so we got him because he had written a review of us. They met at my parents house, they christened themselves The Uptown Horns.
"And when they left the Nitecaps they went to join one of my favorite bands in the entire world, a band I had modeled in the Nitecaps on, the J Geils Band. What could I say but go and more power to you. then they ended up playing with James Brown and playing with the Rolling Stones.
"And that was it, we had the horn section and it was just a matter of time before word got out and record companies started getting interested in us."
And the rest is history. Despite buzz in England, France, and especially Italy, Sire wouldn't pay for a return trip to the UK, the album flopped and Sire dropped them.
What followed was ten years of doing everything from being music director of Sylvain Sylvain's pick up bands to various variations of the Nitecaps but Jahn had left the passion and needed the money as he raised his daughter. The child would grow up to become the popular DJ Grace Of Spades and while Jahn claims not to believe Grace is following in his footsteps, he probably does.
In 2000, Jahn returned to the music scene, he formed a Deep Soul cover band, and got a weekly gig. This lead to him forming the Bowerytones who played a gig at the Bowery Poetry on June 20th celebrating Jahn's 50th birthday. A new album is recorded and due this autumn.
Outside the diner, Jahn was being asked different types of questions and paid for his answers by a survey company. They use him often because Jann is erudite, malleable and smart. In a word, he is nice. On Facebook the day after the interview, he reviews this portion of the q&a as follows: "Had a bacon sandwich. It was a pleasure".
And towards the end of the interview, Jahn speaks about running into the owner of Sire records: " I hadn't seen him in years, and keep in mind he also did business with my Aunt at Premier Talent, he worked with many acts- Talking Heads, the Ramones, the Pretenders.
"Seymore looked at me and he didn't quite remember who I was when I introduced myself, I said 'I''m Jahn from the Nitecaps' and I saw him registering who I was and immediately I said 'I just want to say thank you' and he goes' what for?' And I said 'for paying me to make a record, for giving me the chance to see a little bit of the world, and meet some great people and for paying me to not make a record.' He said 'oh, well you're welcome'. Ithink he thought I was going to launch into some kind of tirade.
"I have no bone to pick. I am one of a million people who has recorded an album that wasn't a hit . I got to do it. "
It was a pleasure.