In the mid-1980s, several influential folks had the idea of assembling in one location for one evening what would be considered a gathering of the three best rock-n-roll keyboard players of the 20th century. There was no contest as to who those players were, since most would agree Fats Domino, Ray Charles, and Jerry Lee Lewis are the perfect choices. But how to get them to appear together in one place, since they all had busy careers and schedules – that was the challenge. Enter Paul Schaffer, who is no keyboard slouch in his own right. Paul was selected to sell the artists on the project, select the venue, and serve as the Host and Musical Director. The producers, David McBurnett and Bob Vernon, selected the Omega Productions crew to record the concert as part of an HBO television special. They also asked Omega’s President, Paul Christensen, to track and engineer the recording, serve as Audio Producer, and supervise the post-production. Thanks to Pam Irwin, Steve Lowney, David Buell, and all the Omega folks who worked to make the project a success.
The plan was hatched and the resulting concert and television special preserved individual performances and an unforgettable jam of three iconic artists who would never again appear together in concert. Only one venue could do justice to such an unprecedented reunion of three musical treasures. The schedule was set for New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz and blues, and the historic Storyville Tavern (Storyville Jazz Hall) in the French Quarter.
The evening began with solo performances from each artist after Paul interviewed them at the bar. Paul, Ron Wood, and the all-star band did a short number as an interlude to the final jam. Finally, the night culminated with a spontaneous jam session kicked off with Ray Charles on his venerable Fender Rhodes, picked up by Jerry Lee on his identifiable CP70 keyboard, and finally coming around to Fats on the Steinway acoustic piano. The trio jammed through several songs, each taking unprompted leads, and ended with a rousing rendition of Swanee River.
Over 35 years ago, Omega Productions had the pleasure of being part of this historic concert. It was one of the highlights of our 50+ year history. As Paul Shaffer was quoted as saying, “Finest night of my life.” We couldn’t agree more.Recently, our YouTube concert video was taken down. However, please enjoy this behind-the-scenes interview and documentary:
