On a Monday night in August 2026, during the New York trip, Gerbman walked into The Bitter End on Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village, put his name down for the jam, and found himself on one of the most storied small stages in American music. He did not bring a guitar. He did not know the other players. He played anyway.
The Bitter End opened in 1961 and calls itself the oldest rock and roll club in New York City. The room is small, the wall behind the stage is bare red brick, and the list of people who have stood in front of that wall runs deep: Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, and blues players like Otis Rush and Taj Mahal. In more recent times, Joe Bonamassa played there early in his career, long before the big halls. It is a stage where guitar history was made, and where it is still being made every week.
Why the jam still matters
For blues musicians, jam sessions have always been more than informal entertainment. They are part of the way the music is passed on.
A jam forces musicians to listen, react and communicate without the safety of a rehearsed arrangement. You may not know the other players. You may not know exactly which direction the song will take. You may even be playing an unfamiliar instrument. What matters is whether you can hear what is happening around you and become part of it.
That is one of the reasons jam sessions have played such an important role in blues, jazz and rock music for generations. They create a place where experienced players, younger musicians, local regulars and visitors can meet on equal ground: the stage.
In a city where so many historic music venues and traditions have disappeared, there is something genuinely valuable about someone continuing to protect that culture. Richie Cannata’s Monday Night Jam does exactly that. Cannata, the New York saxophonist and producer known for his work with Billy Joel on records like Turnstiles, The Stranger, 52nd Street and Glass Houses, has hosted the jam for well over fifteen years. Week after week, musicians are still given the opportunity to walk into The Bitter End, put their name down and potentially find themselves playing on one of New York’s most historic stages.
There is no guarantee of who you will play with. There is no guarantee of how it will sound. That uncertainty is part of the education.
For Gerbman, that made the opportunity particularly meaningful. He did not arrive with his own guitar, his own amplifier or the musicians he normally plays with. Someone lent him a guitar, he stepped onto the stage and had to do what jam sessions have always asked musicians to do:
Listen. Adapt. And play.
That tradition deserves to be kept alive. And it is good to know that, at The Bitter End, it still is.
Gerbman did not simply visit The Bitter End. He took part in the tradition that keeps the room alive. And afterwards, a small Gerbman & Blues Flood mark stayed behind.
The Bitter End, at 147 Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village, has presented live music since 1961 and describes itself as the oldest rock and roll club in New York City. Richie Cannata, longtime saxophonist with Billy Joel and founder of Cove City Sound Studios, hosts the venue’s Monday Night Jam.
Visit The Bitter End website