Jay Dorfman

American drummer, percussionist, photographer, video editor and composer born in Brooklyn, New York.
He grew up in Brooklyn and started to play in a local band called "The Madabouts" together with Marvin Kaminowitz. Finally, in 1967, Marvin, Jay and friends from other local bands decided to found a band called "Sweet Smoke of the Happy Plant Pipeful". The name was later shortened to Sweet Smoke, while in certain night clubs, they had to call themselves "The Ice Company", in order not to provoke the public. Dershin played guitar and percussion and was also vocalist in the band.
The band got a gig at the "Cafe Wha?" in Greenwich Village and after success, the chief of the bar booked them for half a year to tour through Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. After that tour, they didn't want to return to their parents, as 3 of the members quit school for the tour. So the band decided to leave the US and to settle over to Europe in 1968. Jay and Marvin were the last both and arrived in Europe in 1969.
The band headed to Amsterdam that year, but they were not allowed to enter the Netherlands. So they had to find a place to stay near the Dutch border in Germany, in a small town called "Emmerich".
They met sculpturer Waldemar Kuhn, who helped them to find a place and much more and who later became their band manager. They toured through Europe and recorded 3 albums. In 1972, they went to India and reunited in 1973 in Bavaria. They went for a live album in 1974, after which the band split.
Jay manged to receive a masters degree in fine arts after returning from Germany. His main focus was technically driven music, which included drum programming. It is known, that he programmed the drum tracks for Planet Rock (US 1982) (opens in a new tab) on a Roland drum machine.
In the 1980's, he became early staffer for a start-up television company called. He was working there for many years and evolved to a professional video editor, photographer and photo journalist, eventually.