A jam band is a musical group whose concerts and live albums substantially feature improvisational "jamming". Typically, jam bands will play variations of pre-existing songs, extending them to improvise over chord patterns or rhythmic grooves. Jam bands are known for having a very fluid structure, playing long sets of music which often cross genre boundaries, varying their nightly setlists, and segueing from one song into another without a break.
Originally emerging from the psychedelic rock movement of the 1960s, the style was pioneered by acts such as the Grateful Dead, the Free Spirits, Love, the Yardbirds, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, the Mothers of Invention, Jefferson Airplane, Soft Machine, Cream, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Pink Floyd and the Allman Brothers Band. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the style influenced a new wave of jam bands who toured the United States such as Phish, Blues Traveler, Widespread Panic, Dave Matthews Band, The String Cheese Incident, moe., and Col. Bruce Hampton and the Aquarium Rescue Unit. The jam-band movement gained mainstream exposure in the US in the early 1990s with the rise of Phish and the Dave Matthews Band as major touring acts and the dissolution of the Grateful Dead following Jerry Garcia's death in 1995.
Jam-band artists often perform a wide variety of genres. While the Grateful Dead is categorized as psychedelic rock, by the 1990s the term "jam band" was applied to acts that incorporated genres such as blues, country music, contemporary folk music, funk, progressive rock, world music, jazz fusion, Southern rock, alternative rock, acid jazz, bluegrass, folk rock and electronic music into their sound. Although the term has been used to describe cross-genre and improvisational artists, it retains an affinity to the fan cultures of the Grateful Dead or Phish.Relix, all issues.
A feature of the jam-band scene is fan recording of live concerts. While the mainstream music industry often views fan taping as "illegal bootlegging", jam bands often allow their fans to make tapes or recordings of their live shows. Fans trade recordings and collect recordings of different live shows, because improvisational jam bands play their songs differently at each performance.
History Modern use and definition
In the 1980s, the Grateful Dead's fan base included a large core group that followed their tours from show to show. These fans (known as "Deadheads") developed a sense of community and loyalty. In the 1990s, the band Phish began to attract this fan base. The term "jam band" was first used regarding Grateful Dead and Phish culture in the 1980s. In 1998, Dean Budnick wrote the first book devoted to the subject, entitled Jam Bands.Budnick, Dean (1998). He founded Jambands.com later that year and is often credited with coining the term.Peter Conners JAMerica: The history of the jam band and festival scene, Da Capo 2013 p. 68,70 However, in his second book on the subject, 2004's Jambands: A Complete Guide to the Players, Music & Scene, he explains that he only popularized it.Jambands, Dean Budnick, Backbeat Books, 2003, p. 241, JAMerica, p. 79
Rolling Stone magazine asserted in a 2004 biography that Phish "was the living, breathing, noodling definition of the term" jam band, in that it became a "cultural phenomenon, followed across the country from summer shed to summer shed by thousands of new-generation hippies and hacky-sack enthusiasts, and spawning a new wave of bands oriented around group improvisation and super-extended grooves." Another term for "jam band music" used in the 1990s was "Bay Rock". It was coined by the founder of Relix magazine, Les Kippel, as a reference to the 1960s San Francisco Bay Area music scene, which included the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and Moby Grape, among many others.
By the late 1990s, the types of jam bands had grown so that the term became quite broad, as exemplified by the definition written by Dean Budnick, which appeared in the program for the first annual Jammy Awards in 2000 (Budnick co-created the show with Wetlands PreserveAlex Bereson A Night Out With: Peter Shapiro; Death of a Deadhead Dive nytimes.com 5 August 2001, Retrieved 2 February 2009 owner Peter Shapiro).
Although in 2007 the term may have been used to describe nearly any cross-genre band, festival band, or improvisational band, the term retains an affinity to Grateful Dead-like bands such as Phish. Andy Gadiel, the initial webmaster of Jambands.com, states in Budnick's 2004 edition of Jambands that the music "...had a link that would not only unite bands themselves but also a very large community around them."Jambands, Dean Budnick, Backbeat Books, 2003, p. 243.
Ambiguity
By the late 1990s, the term jam band became applied retroactively in jam band circles for bands such as Cream,Cream 2005 Pat Buzby, JamBands.com, 13 November 2005, Retrieved 10 September 2007 who for decades were categorized as a "power-trio" and "psychedelic rock", and who when active were largely unrelated to the Grateful Dead, but whose live concerts usually featured several extended collective improvisations. In his October 2000 column on the subject for jambands.com, Dan Greenhaus attempted to explain the evolution of a jam band as such: At this point, what you sing about, what instruments you play, how often you tour and how old you are has become virtually irrelevant. At this point, one thing is left and, ironically, after all these years, it's the single most important place one should focus on; the approach to the music. And the jamband or improvisational umbrella, essentially nothing more than a broad label for a diverse array of bands, is open wide enough to shelter several different types of bands, whether you are The Dave Matthews Band or RAQ.The Jamband Backlash: Where did Things Go Wrong? Dan Greenhaus, Jambands.com, Oct 2005
The Jammy Awards have had members of non-jamming bands which were founded in the 1970s and were unrelated to the Grateful Dead perform at their show such as new wave band The B-52's.Anastasio, Phish Win At Jammy Jam Jon Wiederhorn, MTV News, 4 October 2002 Retrieved 4 October 2007 The Jammys have also awarded musicians from prior decades such as Frank Zappa.My Morning Jacket Lead Jammys Charley Rogulewski, Rolling Stone, 24 February 2006 Retrieved 4 October 2007
Debate
Artists such as The Derek Trucks Band have resisted being labelled a jam band. Dave Schools of Widespread Panic said in an interview, "We want to shake free of that name, jam band. The jam band thing used to be the Grateful Dead bands. We shook free of that as hard as we could back in 1989. Then Blues Traveler came on the scene. All together, we created the H.O.R.D.E. tour, which focused a lot of attention on jam bands. Then someone coined the term jam bands. I'd rather just be called retro. When you pigeonhole something, you limit its ability to grow and change."Bob Makin Widespread Panic: Against the Grain jambands.com October 1999 An example of a prior-era band that gained the label "jam band" through an active affiliation with the 1990s jam band culture is The Allman Brothers Band. However, Gregg Allman has been quoted as recently as 2003 by his fellow band member Butch Trucks in stating that rather than being a jam band, The Allman Brothers are "a band that jams".Jambands, Dean Budnick, Backbeat Books, 2003, p. XII
Although Trucks suggests that this is only a difference of semantics, the term has a recent history for which it is used exclusively. An example of this discernment is the acceptance of Les Claypool as a jam band in the year 2000. Though known for his decade with Primus (a band that jams) and solo works, it was after he created the Fearless Flying Frog Brigade with members of Ratdog and released Live Frogs Set 1 that as Budnick wrote had "marked [Claypool's] entry into [the jamband] world."Jambands, Dean Budnick, Backbeat Books, 2003, pp 248–9 Budnick has been both editor-in-chief of Jambands.com and executive editor of Relix magazine.Melinda Newman "Jam Bands Weather Economic Uncertainty With Ingenuity and Loyal Fans," Washington Post 9 August 2009, Blake Gernstetter "Relix Remix: Music Mag Relaunches Under New Ownership" Mediabistro.com, 4 May 2009
Late 1960s–1970s: The Dead and the Allmans
The band that set the template for future jam bands was the Grateful Dead, founded in 1965 by San Francisco-based guitarist Jerry Garcia. The Dead attracted an enormous cult following, mainly on the strength of their live performances and live albums (their studio albums were only modest successes and received little radio play). The band specialized in improvisational jamming at concerts. They played long two-set shows, and gave their fans a different experience every night, with varying set lists, evolving songs, creative segues, and extended instrumentals. Some of their fans, known as "Deadheads", followed their tours from city to city, and a hippie subculture developed around the band, complete with psychedelic clothes, a black market in concert-related products, and drug paraphernalia. The band toured regularly for most of three decades.
The Allman Brothers Band were also considered a jam band, particularly during the Duane Allman era. Songs such as "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" and "Whipping Post", which were 5–7 minutes long on their studio albums, became 20-minute jams at concerts. The Allmans performed a 34-minute jam with the Grateful Dead in 1970. Their 1972 album Eat A Peach included "Mountain Jam", a 34-minute instrumental that was recorded live. The 1971 live album At Fillmore East featured a 24-minute version of "Whipping Post", and a 20-minute version of Willie Cobbs' "You Don't Love Me".
The British space rock band Hawkwind were also progenitors of the jam band sound.
1980–1999: Deadheads
In the mid-1980s and early-1990s, the bands Phish, moe., Edie Brickell & New Bohemians, Blues Traveler, Ozric Tentacles, Widespread Panic, Dave Matthews Band, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Spin Doctors, The String Cheese Incident, Col. Bruce Hampton and the Aquarium Rescue Unit, Medeski Martin & Wood, The Black Crowes, Leftover Salmon, The Samples, Galactic, əkoostik hookah, and Lettuce, began touring with jam band-style concerts. Their popularity increased in the early 1990s.
Phish formed in 1983 at the University of Vermont. They solidified their lineup in 1985 and began their career with a few Grateful Dead songs in their repertoire. The Grateful Dead released "Touch of Grey" which became a hit song on MTV in 1987. They eventually began playing football stadiums. Widespread Panic originated when Michael Houser and John Bell started playing together. In 1986, after Todd Nance and Dave Schools joined them, the band played their first show as "Widespread Panic". Blues Traveler and Spin Doctors - formed and fronted by school friends John Popper and Chris Barron, respectively - regularly performed at the jam band-friendly venue Wetlands Preserve in New York City. In 1991 Dave Matthews, together with jazz musicians Carter Beauford and LeRoi Moore, formed a trio which - after Stefan Lessard joined them - became the first iteration of the Dave Matthews Band.
Improvisations have taken a backseat to more polished material, which may be due to their crossover commercial successes, MTV videos, and mainstream radio airplay. In the mid nineties, Dave Matthews band achieved commercial success and won a Grammy for Best Rock Performance with the song "So Much To Say". By the end of the decade, Phish had signed a recording contract with Elektra Records, and transformed from a New England/Northeast-based band into a national touring band (see: Colorado '88). With its fusion of southern rock, jazz, and blues, Widespread Panic has earned renown for appearing multiple times in Pollstar's "Concert Pulse" chart of the top fifty bands on the road, and they have performed more than 150 live dates a year."