3 Live Jam Band Albums That Show What Improvisation Is All About

In the world of rock music, there is a subsection of artists known as jam bands. These groups take songs they’ve written and released on studio albums and play them live, often extending the tunes to upwards of three-, four-, or even 10-times their original length. The result is a master class in improvisation and sonic chemistry.

Here below, we wanted to explore three such offerings. A trio of alums from some of the best jam bands that illustrate how a song can become a landscape of sound spread out over 10 or even 20 minutes. Indeed, these are three live jam band albums that display what improvisation is all about.

[RELATED: 3 Transcendent Acoustic Songs by Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds]

Listener Supported by Dave Matthews Band (1999)

Over the course of its history, Dave Matthews Band has released countless live albums. But one of their first was this 1999 concert record and it remains one of the band’s best. Recorded after the group’s third studio LP Before These Crowded Streets, Listener Supported is essentially a greatest hits album of all the songs from DMB’s first three hit records (Under the Table and Dreaming and Crash). There’s a nearly 10-minute version of the fan favorite “#41,” a 13-minute version of “Jimi Thing,” and over 14-minute version of “Two Step.” To use a word, it’s a classic.

A Live One by Phish (1995)

When it comes to jam bands, Phish might be at the top of the mountain. The Burlington, Vermont-born group, which followed in the footsteps of the Bay Area-born Grateful Dead, can play songs for upwards of 20 minutes. And the 1995 album A Live One was the first formal live release for the band, despite many bootlegs that have come before and since. A Live One opens with a perfectly bouyant tune, “Bouncing Around the Room,” and while only four minutes, the tune sets the table for 12-, 15-, 20- and even 30-minute long tunes.

Gut the Van by Dispatch (2001)

This double-disc from the Middlebury, Vermont-born band Dispatch is comprised of songs recorded live from April 16, 1996, to June 17, 2001. For Dispatch, which rose to fame thanks to the file-sharing era around the turn of the century, songs like “Passerby” and “Prince of Spades” stand out. On the work, several songs extend thanks to guitar solos and percussion jams into seven or even eight minutes, displaying the band’s prowess live and the energy they offered fans to get them excited.

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