Are Jam Bands prog rock?

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 Gaston wrote:

Umphrey's I was going to mention, as well as Moe. 
On that note , if we're going to
classify Jazz fusion as prog here on this site, we should be
classifying a band like MMW as a jam band, Furthermore, why are
bands like Galactic not more like prog (space fusion/electronic
funk prog), not jam bands? 
Bands like Galactic and MMW always get placed in the jam
band category, so I think the worlds of Prog and Jam Bands are merging
steadily. I mentioned earlier that there was no difference in the 60s
and 70s, it was all rock music (pop music). The rock categories came
later.
I always thought Djam Karet was a jam band. 

Along the lines of has been said here, I think that making this sort of
jump of claiming that MMW is prog is too big of a stretch. The problem
here is that we're talking about jazz and
prog. Jazz, as time goes on, continually decays in its meaning. While
it once stood to mean swing oriented music, the move towards jazz-funk,
world-jazz, and fusion, even as early as the 1950s made this definition void. Now, generally, jazz is the result of two ideas of what exactly it is.
Jazz now basically is anything that 1) is some variation or recreation
of the popular music of the 1910-1950 period, and/or 2) is
improvisational and predominantly instrumental. 

So, what exactly does that mean? It means that we have to be careful
with how we define and consider jazz. The kind of "jazz" fusion that
appears on this board is by and large the jazz that shares many
characteristics with prog rock. Take, for example, a comparison of why
this board would consider Return To Forever prog and not MMW. RTF is,
compared to most other jazz, highly structured. Although there are no
vocals and quite a bit of improv, thus making it jazz, its character is
progressive. Corea uses many of the famed prog synth sounds in the
music, i.e. minimoog, mellotron, rhodes. Di Meola's electric guitar
playing is heated and often uses effects, making the music very rock
flavored. Clarke and White make their sound much funkier, but it is
still very rock oriented. MMW plays shorter, less complex pieces, has many un-prog sounds, and occasinally has a dj play with them (even though DJ Logic is a very good musician). 

Ultimately, the difference is in the sound. I do have a live recording of RTF
extending their songs for upwards of twenty minutes, but the basic
sounds and the complexity of their music set it apart from the music of
MMW. 

Poll Question: Are Jam Bands Prog?
Poll Choice	Votes	Poll Statistics
Yes	0	[0.00%]
No	5	[22.73%]
Some bands are like prog	16	[72.73%]
Phish and Grateful Dead are kinda, but no one else	1	[4.55%]
This topic is closed, no new votes accepted