{"id":634,"date":"2009-07-17T22:04:16","date_gmt":"2009-07-18T02:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mpomy.com\/?p=634"},"modified":"2009-07-17T22:04:16","modified_gmt":"2009-07-18T02:04:16","slug":"does-this-look-like-a-jam-band","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mpomy.com\/?p=634","title":{"rendered":"Does this LOOK like a jam band?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"genesis1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Let’s not worry about ‘prog-rock’ for a minute.\u00a0 I’ve no real beef with the label.\u00a0 Labels can be helpful, they can even be necessary.\u00a0 Certainly ‘jam band’ is a label.\u00a0 But if you’ve decided to use a label (and I am talking about you<\/em>), then it’s absolutely essential to realize the infinite variety that can exist within any grouping that may share a single characteristic.\u00a0 There’s a lot of different kinds of prog out there.\u00a0 There’s a lot of different kinds of jam bands too.<\/p>\n

So, with all that out of the way, let’s get to the topic du jour<\/em> – Genesis.\u00a0 Here’s an easy one, an absolute, something you can hang your hat on, unchanging, objective reality.\u00a0 Gabriel-era Genesis was not a jam band.<\/p>\n

Many other popular bands from 1970 through 1975 conducted sonic explorations that happened right before the audience’s very eyes.\u00a0 They threw caution to the wind and ventured into the world of improvisation where anything could happen.\u00a0 And such behavior was not limited to the Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers, although those are two fine examples from the era.\u00a0 Even real prog bands would strip themselves naked of any script or predictability and just see what happened – King Crimson is a perfect example.<\/p>\n

As Miles Davis was bringing elements of rock into jazz, bands that improvised were really bringing elements of jazz into rock.\u00a0 Zappa would use his entire ensemble (and sometimes an audience<\/a>) as an instrument and conduct noise to tell the story or make the point.\u00a0 In the earliest parts of this period, Syd Barret-era Pink Floyd experimented with music\/noise to match their groundbreaking visual show<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One of the most important aspects of improvised music is the relationship (or lack thereof) between the players.\u00a0 Ideally, great improvisation happens when the group all know one another so well that they can basically read each others’ minds.\u00a0 The result is that classic moment of the whole becoming a unit that is greater than the sum of its parts.\u00a0 Its a cliche, but in this case, it is true.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, jams can become much more interesting by the presence of a destabilizing influence.\u00a0 The great example of this is Miles Davis in 1970.\u00a0 He spent a lot of time and did a lot of touring with band that consisted of himself on trumpet, Gary Bartz on sax, Michael Henderson on bass, Keith Jarrett on keys, Jack DeJohnette on drums and Airto on percussion.\u00a0 Although the band had a strong improvised element, the whole thing was beautifully thrown off one night when John McLaughlin joined on electric guitar.\u00a0 Everyone was thrown out of their comfort zone and the thing got even better.<\/p>\n

So, once again, Gabriel-era Genesis was not a jam band.\u00a0 They composed together for five glorious years (all writing credits were always given to all five members) and their goal upon going in front of an audience was to recreate, as much as possible, the sound on the record.\u00a0 But with all that talent, all that original thinking, all those fancy toys, and all that affinity from years of playing, recording and touring together, I have always wondered, what would it have sounded like if THIS<\/em> band jammed?\u00a0 What if they just started with some very basic ideas, musical germs, and noodled a bit and jammed and worked on making something from nothing?\u00a0 What would that sound like?<\/p>\n

And now I know what it would sound like and it is a beautiful noise.\u00a0 And, in the very near future, I look forward to sharing it with you over at Blogerantz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let’s not worry about ‘prog-rock’ for a minute.\u00a0 I’ve no real beef with the label.\u00a0 Labels can be helpful, they can even be necessary.\u00a0 Certainly ‘jam band’ is a label.\u00a0 But if you’ve decided to use a label (and I … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23],"tags":[578,210,573,576,575,577,574,341,357,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mpomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mpomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mpomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mpomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mpomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=634"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/mpomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":636,"href":"http:\/\/mpomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634\/revisions\/636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mpomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mpomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mpomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}