Jam Bands

Reared on the extended sonic excursions of the Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers, jam bands have, over the course of the genre's free-flowin' lifetime, added world-beat, jazz, hip-hop and bluegrass flavours to their mix. These tracks represent the genre's wide range and depth, from Blues Traveler to the Jazz Mandolin Project, but — out of sheer respect — we've weighed the odds in favour of the heavyweights. Deadheads, get your groove on to "Truckin'," "Sugar Magnolia" and more; acolytes of the Allmans, get ready for "Ramblin' Man" and "Melissa"; Phish fans get down to "Bouncing Around the Room" and "Down With Disease" for starters. The jam band shows its eclectic colours in Next Steps.

Throughout the '90s and into the 21st century, the jam band phenomenon has graduated from college campuses to the world stage, and is now a multi-genre scene, in large part due to the brilliance of this next set of tracks. Check out the jazz/funk of New Orleans' Galactic — "I Got It (What You Need)"; "Bobski 2000" — an outfit that has evolved since its formation in 1994 by experimenting with elements of hip-hop and electronica; or the rockin' fusions of Widespread Panic, the Athens, Georgia, jam band whose Über Cobra 2004 live album was recorded in Myrtle Beach the previous year, and features a smooth-movin' take on "Wonderin'." The spirit of the jam connects Montreal and Toronto, in Deep Cuts.

Why do jam bands draw massive crowds? Every night can, and typically does, offer a completely new show. Well, that extensive variety of songs just got a little more extensive thanks to these Deep Cuts, which include contributions from homegrown jammers like Mahogany Rush's Frank Marino, the legendary Montreal axeman whose fretwork is positively radio-active on "Return to Avalon," from his Real Live release, and Toronto's Rough Skeletons, the two-piece collaboration between Owen Marchildon (from Purple Hill) and keyboard wiz Paul Shepherd that has added dashes of folk and eccentricity to the simmering global jam stewpot.

Music historians will tell you that the first official "jam band" dates back to the '30s, when Coleman Hawkins entered the studio with his improvisational All Stars, but it was really the Grateful Dead who gave the concept — great musicians exploring their craft without strictures, in an atmosphere of chilled-out creative communion — its current incarnation: a massive happening kept vital by a loyal, obsessive fanbase. Here we trace the phenomenon's evolution from cornerstone acts the Dead and and the Allmans, through the rise of Phish and Blues Traveler in the '80s, the Disco Biscuits and the String Cheese Incident in the '90s, and beyond. Find out what the millions of fans who throng to jam-band concerts across the planet are clamouring for with these jam-tastic Essentials.