Jam band

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The term jam band describes bands, often psychedelic rock bands, whose concerts largely consist of improvisational music, such as those of The Grateful Dead, Allman Brothers Band, Phish, Cream, Widespread Panic, moe., String Cheese Incident and many others. The term likely derives from the jam sessions of jazz musicians.

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

Jam bands sometimes improvise around the chord progressions of pre-composed songs, incorporating variations on recognizable themes, riffs and rhythms, while allowing for unexpected detours of unpredictable duration. 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 completely uncharted territory. Others engage in free improvisation, in effect spontaneously composing music that has never been heard before by the audiences or the players themselves.

With some exceptions, such as Cream (arguably the first true jam band), Deep Purple, Frank Zappa, and The Allman Brothers Band, the jam band environment before 1990 was dominated by the Grateful Dead. Beginning with the formation of Phish and Widespread Panic in the mid 1980s, the jam band genre gradually expanded beyond the musical styles of a handful of bands. These bands were playing an unknown style of music that was akin to everything from jazz to progressive rock, though it seemed new to all who heard it. This was the beginning of the jam band scene as we know it. As a result of this expansion, one can no longer consider jam bands as subscribing to a particular style of music.

1 Generations
2 21st century jam bands downloads
3 Festivals
4 External links

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Generations

It is generally considered that jam bands are based in "generations." That is, some bands are considered precursors to those that followed.

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First Generation (mid-1960's - early-1970's)

The Grateful Dead are considered the first rung in jam band lineation. As noted above, bands such as Cream laid the ground work for The Grateful Dead, but the Dead truly were defining and defined by jamming. The Allman Brothers Band, Deep Purple, and New Riders of the Purple Sage can also be considered first generation jam bands.

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Second Generation (1980's)

The gap between first and second generations of jambands is the largest of any jam band generation gaps, spanning roughly 10-15 years. The two most notable second generation jam bands could be considered Phish and Widespread Panic and, to a lesser degree, Primus and Beanland. These bands formed in the 1980's, but found their most success beginning in the early 1990's.

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Third Generation (early-to-mid-1990's)

With the renewed vigor of The Grateful Dead in touring and the exposure of Phish and Widespread Panic, the early 1990's saw many bands forming within the blooming jam band scene. Some bands that start in this genre but seemed to expand elsewhere, including pop music, include the Dave Matthews Band, Blues Traveler, Rusted Root, moe., String Cheese Incident, Medeski, Martin and Wood. The third generation of jam bands saw defining moments in their beginnings: the death of venerable Grateful Dead guitarist, frontman, and genre spokesman Jerry Garcia, the rise of Phish, and commercial success of Dave Matthews Band and Blues Traveler.

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Fourth Generation (1995 - present)

Notable fourth generation bands include the Disco Biscuits, Dispatch, Umphrey's McGee, Moonshine Still, Ray's Music Exchange, Raq, Lotus, The Breakfast, Sound Tribe Sector 9, Zilla, Strangefolk, Tea Leaf Green, Tri Point Paradox, God Street Wine, Assembly of Dust, Yonder Mountain String Band, Keller Williams, The John Butler Trio, New Monsoon, Barefoot Manner, Benevento-Russo Duo, and the Animal Liberation Orchestra

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The Contemporary "Jam Scene"

The contemporary jam scene, built on the bands fundamentally described as "Fourth Generation Jam Bands", in the United States has grown to encompass bands from a great diversity of musical genres. A new genre of jam-band music has exploded on the landscape in the past five years. A form of live improvisation mimicking the sounds of DJs and electronica musicians has been dubbed "livetronica." The Disco Biscuits can be one of the acredited bands to pioneer this shift in the jam-band aesthetic, as they were the first band influenced by Phish and some forms of electronic music to experiment with livetronica. Bands who have a similar style to The Disco Biscuits, such as Lotus, Sound Tribe Sector 9, Signal Path, and The New Deal are rapidly joining the "jamtronica" style in the music world. Even though their section of "jam band genre" is different than others, some fans have no trouble touring to other bands that are largely progressive rock such as Umphrey's McGee, as well as jazz, fusion, and funk bands such as Garaj Mahal, Medeski, Martin, and Wood, and Galactic, and even progressive bluegrass bands such as Yonder Mountain String Band. Musically, jam bands sometimes share little other than an approach to music emphasizing improvisation and live performance as opposed to studio recording. The jam scence today is arguably defined best not by musical genre, but by audience. The common thread uniting all of the jam bands today is a common fan base.

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21st century jam bands downloads

One of the latest websites for archiving of jambands is the Live Music Archive. Example of jam bands live courtesy of Jambands Author Dean Budnick: Moe. , Steve Kimock and The Slip, Soulive, Merl Saunders and host Peter Prince for a version of the Isley Brothers’ “It’s Your Thing.”

More and more bands have been distributing their latest shows online for the past couple of years. All of the big name acts, notably Phish, Widespread Panic, and The String Cheese Incident have been offering digital downloads within weeks of the dates played. Other bands, such as Gov't Mule, Umphrey's McGee, and The Disco Biscuits, have also begun to enter this trend. Even The Grateful Dead have begun to offer online, digital download only, live releases from their archives.

There has even been news articles written about how major promoters speculating that within ten years, kiosks will be able to be set up at venues with USB enabled downloading, through a memory stick, of digital releases of the shows that took place mere minutes before.

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