Week 1 - 25 best live records of all time.

[Rich-n-Texas]

I'm so excited!

[3-LockBox]

Next thing you're going to tell me is that I can't hear Jimi.

Yes, we agree that jamming gets out of hand, just as over-playing in prog gets out of hand. There's nothing wrong with catching hold of a groove and letting it ride, which is the one aspect of jam bands that I like, because if I really dig a song, the longer the better. Its the free form thing that kills it for me. It wouldn be different if the band was really good at it, but by and large, it tests the patience of the listener, that is, the sober listener. I can remember revelling in Live At Filmore East, as well as other long-winded jam bands' live releases, but when I'd revisit them sober or straight, I wondered where the party went.

I do agree with you that too much emphasis is put upon the playing, rather than the song in most jam prone bands, but that's just my own personal taste. I never listened to music because of the artist, I listen for the music, and if my favorite bands makes a crappy album, I move on. But there are some guys who like it when a song stretches out and and the guitarist/s starts playing excerpts from Brahams or Gershwin, just to show that he can. I think these guys are usually musicians themselves who appreciate this sort of diversionary interlude tucked inside an all too familiar song. I guess that sort of jamming breaks up the monotony of seeing a band for the 50th time in 7 or 8 years (can you say Deadhead?), not that that level of fandom could exist these days.

I realize that using a Prog band's song referring to a jamming is an apples to oranges comparison, but my point was that if an artist has got 20 minutes worth of something to say and I like what he's got to say, then timeframes be damned, as long as it isn't the same idea over and over. Even classical music has its share of wankery, what with composers that took their sweet-assed time to get their song in gear. Prog though, can be similar to jam bands in that they squeeze together too many random ideas in an attempt to make those epic length songs, because their fans expect it, but a lot of times the effort is terribly contrived, just like some long jams are.

When the Allman's recorded Live at Filmore East, many of the bands from that era were flirting with genre bending ideas (like progressive rock), borrowing from jazz and classical, and that included emphasis on playing as much as the song. It just so happened that in the Allman's case, their bag was musician interaction, something that had been around long before the Allmans; something that was an intregal part of jazz, as well as bluegrass, which would have also had some influence the Allmans, being that they were from the south. I don't know if soloing was much a part of blues in its purest form, but soloing was/is an important aspect of bluegrass and jazz. As much as jamming can be long in the tooth for some folks, other eat it up.

Of course most all of this is behind us, because when the jam bands were in their heyday, concerts and festivals were many, and relatively cheap. This allowed fans to obcess the musicians as much or more than the music. Jam bands were popular because fans felt they really got their 15 dollars' worth, and it took a while for the acid to kick in anyway. There was no hurry. As far as time goes, I'll bet the Allman didn't play any longer than anyone else, whether they played 7 songs in two hours to someone else's 15/16 songs in two hours. I doubt that in today's economy, anyone can see a band more than a few times in one lifetime, much less follow a band around a large geographic area, seeing them 5 or 6 times a year, and appreciating that the band injected a long, jazzy interlude into a well worn song.

I don't see how jamming could be appreciated today like it was years ago, considering that for a lot of people there would be, in my estimation, a real lack of familiarity and intimacy with a modern jam band compared to "the good ole days", unless of course you live in close proximity to a jam band. Like Bobsticks eluded to, people are/were fans of jamming because it was an "in the moment thang", not because there is necessarily a right or wrong way to do it, or a right time to to do it for that matter. Jam happens. I can see how you might approve or disapprove one artist's approach over another, but all that means is that the two artists are different, not right or wrong.

Anyhoo, who jams anymore to the degree that the Allmans do/did? (excluding prog)