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Jammin Crop Circles

by Matt Cheysson

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"How many times have we been confronted to friends, relatives, or others, who ignore and fail to understand the "beauty" behind jamming ? Living in Europe, the phenomenon is all the more frequent. I myself have to dodge such questions as "why do you have so many tapes of the same band?", "aren't you going to get bored if you go see 20 shows of the same band in one month?", "isn't it always the same?", ever other week. And so far i had never managed to come up with a decent explanation, one that would actually carry my point across in a failry understandable manner... Until recently.

A couple of nights ago, one of those nights where i have simply way too much time on my hands, i came up with this "theory", or rather, "analogy" to explain to an un-enlightenedmind what jamming was all about, and why us "fools" keep running back to see the same bands over and over and over again.

I call this theory the "Walk in the Fields" theory. To illustrate such theory, I will be using Phish as musical reference (excuse the lack of originality). Of course this whole brainstorming is based on my imperfect music knowledge ( i may have many tapes, i do not play an instrument) so be gentle if you see a gross inaccuracy or sacrilegious statement.

Picture each "jam-songs" as fields of tall grass or plants (whichever you choose, hehehe), about man's height, that obstruct a standing man's view, but which you can peer over if you jump or stand on tip-toes. Whenever the band starts one of these songs, it' slike they take a "trip to the fields". Let me explain.

Take such songs as Reba, Hood, Down With Disease or Slave. These start off with a straight-forward composed part that hardly ever changes. The guys mightplay with it a little but more often than not, it stays the same. That's the "Walk TO the fields" part: picture the boys walking off to some wield fields at the end of town. To get there, they always follow the street, the same pre-designed route. One of them might do a little loopy thing like jumping over a trash can or something (ie pull out a weird riff) but all in all, that part of the trip remains fairly standard.

Then the boys arrive at the fields. To situate you, that would be the end of the "Thank you Mr. Minor" part in Hood. From then on, as we all know, anything goes.

The jam itself is like a walk across this field: you have a starting point (the "thank you mr. hoooood..." line would be the gate leading onto the field) and an ending point ("you can feel good, good about hoood") to the walk. In between those, there IS a central path across the field, which would be the "standard version" of a song, if such a thing exists (album version for example), but one doesn't necessarily have to follow it. Around it is just Wild vegetation.

I see the jam as the band starting on that path, and then each member taking off into whatever directions he choses, off INTO the fields, INTO the high grass. Sometimes the members will go their own way, sometimes they go in pairs or groups (for example when Mike and Fish follow and tease each other). Usually they all walk apart from each other.

Occasionally, the members will look up and take a peek above the grass "by reaching on tiptoes", to see where the others are in the Field/Jam. That's also how they are able to "meet up" at the end of the path: they'll look up , see where the others are and "join them". Alternatively, they might even meet up in between, "bumping into each other" by accident and sticking together thereafter.

Occasionaly, one member gets really lost, and the others will go look for him. On other times, one of the boys might, upon wondering around the "field", find himself crossing onto ANOTHER field (i.e. he will play a riff or a couple chords from another song), accidentally or intentionally, and might invite, meet (sometimes upon common decision beforehand) or try and lure the others to that field (segues, or teases).

From there, they might find the new field's central path and follow it to the end (ex: 7.22.97 show, DWD > Mike's) or just chill/jam on it for awhile and then head back to the original field (12.28.95 - Bathtub Gin > The Real Me > Bathtub Gin) .

The interesting thing is that bands such as Phish, or the Grateful Dead, or even now moe. have, through practice and time, developped what would seem to be an almost extra-sensorial sense that enables them to locate each other across the field, without having to stop and stand on tiptoe above those high plants. They just KNOW. Good musicians may play the same chords for ahwile to listen and get an idea of what the other members are doing, and make it seem normal. Excellent musicians seem to feel one another's progress, to guess where the others are "heading", as if equipped with a radar/sonar.

And to explain how it is that jamming never seems to be the same and why we, as jamaholics, keep begging for more, isn't it easy to consider this? If one enters a huge field and wonders off amidst the grass, wondering around for an undetermined and varying length of time, what are the odds that he will take the exact same paces across the ground? As long as he stays within the limits of his knowledge of the territory, he will eventually fin his way to the exit.

This analogy, if not perfectly accurate and dead solid, at least has the merit of putting into "image" how jamming occurs, and does (I've taking the liberty of testing it on some people less knowledgable of the jamband music) work to some extent. At least it might spark someone's interest, and as we all know, that is already half-way to being "converted".