Jam band

The term jam band describes bands, often psychedelic rock bands, whose concerts largely consist of improvisational music, such as those of the Grateful Dead. The term likely derives from the jam sessions of jazz musicians, though those sessions tend to be more free of constraints, whereas jam bands generally improvise around specific songs and/or song structures, often segueing smoothly between songs.

Although usually associated with psychedelic rock, jam bands often draw on various musical traditions, including funk, progressive bluegrass, blues, country music, rock, folk music and jazz.

Jam bands sometimes improvise around the chord progressions of pre-composed songs, varying them by tempo or other dimensions. This is arguably a progression of the guitar solo, a feature of traditional rock music. Some jam bands only perform this type of jamming, hardly ever heading into uncharted territory. Others completely improvise the notes, tempo and structure of the music, distinguished only from jazz jam sessions by instrumentation and perhaps by the size and activity of the audience.

With some exceptions, such as the New Grass Revival and Frank Zappa, the jam band environment before 1990 was dominated by the Grateful Dead. Beginning with the formations of Phish and Widespread Panic in the mid 1980s, the jam band genre gradually expanded beyond the musical styles of a handful of bands. As a result of this expansion, one can no longer consider jam bands as subscribing to a particular style of music. What these bands share in common is improvisation within a typically, though there are exceptions, rock-band format.

21st century jam bands

In the 21st century, bands such as Umphrey's McGee and String Cheese Incident are active in the jam band genre, with other popular groups including moe., Lotus, Keller Williams, Sound Tribe Sector 9, Railroad Earth, and New Monsoon.

Musically, some of these newer jam bands contrast with the traditional camp, as exemplified by the Grateful Dead and Phish, by means of song structure. Spurred on by the popular success of the Dave Matthews Band and often heavily influenced by modern-rock bands such as Pearl Jam and Hootie and the Blowfish, bands such as Spin Doctors, G. Love & Special Sauce, The Samples and Agents of Good Roots began playing jammed out acoustic pop music, concentrating more on lyrics than on extended instrumental jams, and seemingly aiming for commercial success. With some exceptions, this new generation of jam bands treat their songs as songs, rather than launchpads for lengthly improvisational workouts favoured by the pioneers of the style.

A new genre of jamband music has exploded on the landscape in the past 5 years. A form of live improvisation mimicking the sounds of DJs and electronica musicians, its has been dubbed Organic Electronic, Hippie Techno or Live-tronica. (as noted in Entertainment Weekly) The sound orginated out of some of Phish's more upbeat live jams during '96-'99 and was inspired by 90's funk-hop acts like Beastie Boys and Jamiroquai, as well as groups like Radiohead, Orbital and club DJs. Live-tronica bands such as Lotus, STS9, Signal Path and New Deal are rapidly joining the upper ranks in the jamband world.

Jam bands can be found to concentrate around virtually every musical genre, most traditionally rock, but Jam bands can find roots in Bluegrass (Yonder Mountain String Band) and Jazz (Karl Denson's Tiny Universe) as well.

Types of jamming

A Phish fan and Yale University music major named John Flynn noted in 1995 that the band had two distinct styles of improvisation. Expanding those two defined categories, these can be applied to the music of jam bands as a whole.

Type I

Improvisations based around the already existing chord progressions of pre-composed songs, consisting of variations on the written notes and tempo. This is arguably a logical progression of the guitar solo, a feature of traditional rock music. Some jambands only perform this type of jamming, hardly ever heading into uncharted territory.

Type II

Jams which completely improvise the notes, tempo and structure of the music. Though these can and often do involve long workouts which end up sounding nothing like the songs they started out as, they are differentiated from jazz jams in that they mostly begin as a Type I jam.

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