jamming

[passgroove]

I was wondering how are jam sessions oprganized in america? Do you have any special rules or anybody who has learned a tune can play?

[passgroove]

the question actually refers to all the countries that are represented here

[NickT]

I don't know about America, but in the UK most jams will tend to be themed. By this I mean that they may be blues, jazz, rock oriented. This will tend to be governed by the house band.

 

The themes will be loose, just to give the jam some sense of coherence and some common ground from which the players can communicate. If you're going to a jazz jam, it would help to know some standards and some common jam tunes, Chameleon, All Blues, Summertime, that kind of thing.

 

Most of the jams that I go to have been blues oriented, but quite alot of soul and funk tunes get played as well. Most of the time there will be someone in charge, who has a list of players and puts together line ups and generally keeps things running smoothly.

 

If there are jams that you want to check out, it might be worth going down as a spectator to see how it runs and what kind of material gets played, before taking an instrument with you.

[Fred TBP]

NickT has it right, America's format is very similar. We tend to call them "open mike nights". Most of them cater to rock, blues and acoustic players, but there are other jams out there for funk, R&B, and the experimental.

 

If you're ever in New Jersey, or just curious about what we do here besides make drugs and dairy products, here's a couple of cool sites:

 

NJ Open Mic Website

 

Jersey Jams Website

 

The latter is directed more towards working bands and musicians, but there are good links to some of the open jams in the state.