Because many contemporary jam bands like Phish and The Disco Biscuits are sustained through the support of extremely loyal fans, many may mistakenly evaluate their music as if all their stylistic and performance tactics are completely unique. However, many of the practices employed by contemporary improvisational groups are deeply rooted in older, more established forms of music, making bands like Phish and The Disco Biscuits fusion groups who integrate many different styles into their musical catalogue. While such groups incorporate influences from every corner of the musical spectrum, this analysis will focus on the connection between modern jam bands and the original improvisational music form: jazz.
Harkening back to the swing style popularized in the 1920’s and ‘30s, there is a distinct connection to contemporary jam music in that both are fundamentally dance music. When swing was at the forefront of American pop culture, clubs like The Savoy and The Cotton Club were filled with young people showing off their chops with free style, improv-heavy dances like “The Lindy Hop” (Hubbard, 131). Similarly, upon entrance to any Phish show, one will inevitably encounter throngs of people expressing themselves through dance. In the book The Phish Companion, a comprehensive guide of Phish music and culture, the authors describe one performance at which “from the front row to the back, all you could see was people dancing their hearts out, loving the groove” (Mockingbird, 748).
For further comparison to jazz it is helpful to analyze the similarities between jam bands and the bebop style that followed swing. Bebop musicians perceived swing as being too formulaic and traditional, and consequently emphasized speed, technical virtuosity, and extreme register shifts in their music (Hast, 233). While bebop was certainly not dance music, the emphasis on injecting passion and expression into playing is an essential part of jam band structure. For example, any Disco Biscuits show features the band driving their compositions into unfathomable speeds, employing lightning fast ascending and descending scales, and illustrating their impressive command over their respective instruments, leaving the band as drenched in sweat as bebop players were decades earlier.
Another fundamental jazz principle that has been incorporated by many jam bands is the notion of signifying, the practice of introducing one’s own technique and improvisation into an already established tune. Bebop trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie explained this idea in an essay in which he says that pop tunes were “too bland and mechanically unexciting,” leading beboppers to build on top of those compositions by “substituting their own melodies, harmonies, and rhythms over the pop music format” (Gillespie, 166). This idea is central to many Phish and Disco Biscuits shows because it makes covering (playing another group’s) material all the more exciting precisely because that song will be different from the original. For example, Phish has reworked rapper Will Smith’s hit “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit’ It” to include a funky bass line and piercing guitar solos while The Disco Biscuits tailored Men Without Hat’s “The Safety Dance” to include heavy synthesizers and keyboard effects.
Accordingly, while traditional jazz musicians emphasized different instrumentation in their tunes, preferring horn sections to electric guitar and keyboards, technological innovation used on albums like Herbie Hancock’s Head Hunters and Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew laid the framework for the complex sounds used in jam band arrangements. Therefore, it is apparent that many of the principles that define Phish and The Disco Biscuits’ music can be historically traced to the many forms jazz music has taken over the past decades.
References:
Gillespie, Dizzy. To Be, Or Not...To Bop. New York: Doubleday, 1979. In Keeping Time: Readings in Jazz History. Robert Walser. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Hast, Dorothea. Exploring the World of Music: An Introduction from a World Music Perspective. Highland Park, NJ: Kendall Hunt Pub Co, 1997.
Hubbard, Karen and Monaghan, Terry. Negotiating Compromise on a Burnished Wood Floor: Social Dancing at the Savoy, in Julie Malnig, ed., Ballroom Boogie, Shimmy-Sham, and Shake: A Social and Popular Dance Reader Chicago: U of Illinois P, 2009.
The Mockingbird Foundation. The Phish Companion: A Guide to the Band and their Music. San Francisco, CA: Backbeat Books, 2004.
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