instrumental

From guitarist Brendan Bayliss:
So, what we try to do [to prevent stale jams] is play this thing called "Jimmy Stewart." This one time we played a wedding [9/8/01, Pittsburgh] and it was in the Jimmy Stewart Recital Hall. We showed back up at 3:30 in the morning and did a 45-minute improv thing. So what we try to do is write into each setlist "Jimmy Stewart;" first set and second set. It's a ten-minute allotment for whatever happens. If it's really good, it can be longer. If it's really bad, it will be cut short. Usually one of them is kind of structured where we'll write out chords or an idea, like say A section is jungle drumbeats and then the B section will go into piano and bass/drums breakdown. Then guitar will come up with a head and the C section would be whatever, some kind of metal thing. So each night is different and we don't really rehearse it. It's just sort of a chord chart that you read as you're going along with it. So we do one of those each night and then we do one that's just completely wide open.

I talked with them about it before and after the show. It's basically a semi-structured jam, similar to 'Jazz Odyssey'. Before the show, they'll predetermine a few keys they may want to jam in, and determine a few progressions they may want to go through as well. It's very loose.....and may not even be in any key (or time sig.) at certain points. Apparently they've been developing this new 'structured' unstructured jamming technique for the last couple weeks. They definitely seemed to have a different attitude (towards jamming) upon thier return home........ Author: SherifF CC Ridah

Cory summed up the concept behind Jimmy Stewart rather well. Friday night Brendan was mentioning that they try to break this "jam" into about four sections - with the hope that possibly in the future one or more of these sections grows into an actual song. The name comes from the room where the Bossardt/Welsh wedding reception was held (the Jimmy Stewart Room in the Renaissance Pittsburgh Hotel). Rumor has it that the band went back into the room sometime early morning and jammed for over an hour while Kevin recorded the "Session." Author: Jeremy Welsh

cohesive group theme jamming
Author: Jon McL