Marijuana.com

deadhed

My theory: Some bands draw their influences from the blues. Some from punk. Some from jazz. Jambands, though, draw their influences from music. Members of jambands are music lovers. By doing what they do, they are paying the ultimate tribute to all the music they draw their influences from. I don't see jambands as a seperate musical genre, because what they are doing is paying tribute to music genres in general. Even Phish (whom I consider one of the more radical jambands and whom I am not terribly fond of) lets their roots show through. The whole point of them, I feel, is to say "look, you might enjoy what we're doing, but check out these guys, they're the real masters." That's what makes them so appealing, that you can get into a jamband and take out whatever nuggets of music that you want. More to come at a more sane hour when sober.

 

schwadood

That is exactly what I have been saying for a long time. Why dedicate yourself to one genre? I'd get bored. Why not just get up there and play what feels good, whether thats blues, jazz, rock, bluegrass, or a combination of anything and everything. Genre's are so limiting.

Jam band musicians, in my opinion, are trying to get to this sort of non-thinking way of playing. They can see that the music exists outside of there instruments and they are trying to get a the music to flow through them. This theory is a little difficult to explain. I hope you understand. Anyway, anyone that has ever seen a show should have some idea what I'm talking about. And then the audience is dancing and they become a part of it too. It's beautiful, that kind of union.
peace