The phrase “jam session” conjures images of musicians sitting around with no real purpose other than to play and enjoy the company of other musicians. It isn’t meant to be taken too seriously.
Next week in Lansing, though, organizers are serious about planning a jam session with hopes of breaking a world record.
Event organizer and musician Terry Terry has been hosting informal jam sessions at his home for a while. At one of those sessions, the conversation turned to the longest jam on record.
There’s no single definition of what a jam session is, so The Guinness Book of World Records doesn’t list a record, but John Addis of the Black Bar Band says some research came up with a doozy of a jam, held in Spain.
With that, the idea of setting a new standard in Lansing took hold.
“The record in Grenada, the 57 hours of continuous, non-stop music, there was never more than a 30-second pause,” Addis explained.
“So, I think we’d still break the record even if there was a 29-second pause. We won’t try for that.”
On Monday morning, organizers will begin a jam session at Terry’s Urban Beat in Old Town Lansing, with a goal of topping that record by three hours.
Since “jam session” is ill-defined, here are the parameters they’ve set up:
- There must be at least three musicians on stage at all times, and they’ll rotate in and out at regular intervals.
- Music must be original, not any existing songs at all, to avoid copyright issues.
- There can be any combination of acoustic, electronic or vocal music from a variety of genres.
- Most importantly, the music will be continuous, with no breaks.
Terry said they’re starting on a Monday morning for a reason.
“If we’re going to be going 24-7, so 2 in the morning, 4 in the morning, and 8, 10. Those are not common times,” he continued. “We did design this for days when musicians would less likely have gigs. So, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. So, we did that to kind of accommodate that, so we get more people involved.”
Musicians are still signing up, and attendees might even take part.
While most jam sessions don’t really have a purpose and aren’t being recorded, Addis says any moments of gold that happen will be preserved.
“One of the beauties of this event is that it will be completely recorded and streamed,” he said.
“If any of those magical moments happen, I think there will be a record of them. We’ll go back and build some song out of them, out of those moments, later.”
The event is open to the public around the clock at Urban Beat, and you can also watch it online.
At this point, it should be said that great music isn’t all that likely at The Longest Jam.
At that record-setting jam in Spain, there was never silence for more than 30 seconds.
Another organizer, Jeff Boog of the band 800G, said there’s music even in silence.
“I don’t think anybody needs to be scared that they’re going to be the one to cause us to lose the world record because they stopped making noise for 2.5 seconds. The point is we are doing a continuous musical collaboration for three days.”
A simple drum beat, or a tambourine or even hand claps, can keep the jam going.
Is the world record actually going to be broken? Terry is optimistic.
"We’ve tried to think of all the contingencies, all the issues we might face and, you know, we want to do it right and we want to have fun doing it. That’s the other part of it too, it’s going to be fun, and if we’re having fun, we can get through 60 hours," he said.
The Michigan Institute for Contemporary Art is sponsoring The Longest Jam, starting at 10 a.m. Monday at Urban Beat.
If all goes well, it won’t wrap up until sometime Wednesday morning, with Lansing laying claim to the longest jam session of all time.
UPCOMING ARTS EVENTS
The MSU Wind Symphony opens its season with Thursday, September 23 at 7:30 p.m. with a program featuring works by Copland and Maslanka.
On Saturday, Orchesta Ritmo performs a mix of salsa and Latin music in Jackson at Weatherwax Hall, starting at 8 p.m.
A poetry reading by Lansing Poet Laureate Suban Nur Cooley will launch the 2026 Fall Season of the Copper Chimney Lounge Poetry Series on Sunday at 4 p.m. at the University United Methodist Church in East Lansing.
TRANSCRIPT
Scott Pohl: With Inside the Arts, I'm Scott Pohl. The phrase “jam session” conjures images of musicians sitting around with no real purpose other than to play and enjoy the company of other musicians. It isn’t meant to be taken too seriously.
Next week in Lansing, though, organizers are serious about planning a jam session with hopes of breaking a world record.
For Inside The Arts this week, I have a preview of what could become the longest jam session ever recorded: 60 hours.
[Soundbite of jazz session]
Event organizer and musician Terry Terry has been hosting informal jam sessions at his home for a while. At one of those sessions, the conversation turned to the longest jam on record.
There’s no single definition of what a jam session is, so The Guinness book of World Records doesn’t list a record, but John Addis of the Black Bar Band says some research came up with a doozy of a jam, held in Spain. With that, the idea of setting a new standard in Lansing took hold.
John Addis: The record in Grenada, the 57 hours of continuous, non-stop music, there was never more than a 30-second pause. So, I think we’d still break the record even if there was a 29-second pause. We won’t try for that.
Pohl: On Monday morning, organizers will begin a jam session at Terry’s Urban Beat in Old Town Lansing, with a goal of topping that record by three hours.
Since “jam session” is ill-defined, here are the parameters they’ve set up: there must be at least three musicians on stage at all times, and they’ll rotate in and out at regular intervals; music must be original, not any existing songs at all, to avoid copyright issues; there can be any combination of acoustic, electronic or vocal music, from a variety of genres; and, most importantly, the music will be continuous, with no breaks.
Terry says they’re starting on a Monday morning for a reason.
Terry Terry: If we’re going to be going 24-7, so 2 in the morning, 4 in the morning, and 8, 10…those are not common times. We did schedule this, we did design this for days when musicians would less likely have gigs. So, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. So, we did that to kind of accommodate that, so we get more people involved.
Pohl: Musicians are still signing up, and attendees might even take part.
While most jam sessions don’t really have a purpose and aren’t being recorded, Addis says any moments of gold that happen will be preserved.
Addis: One of the beauties of this event is that it will be completely recorded and streamed. And so, if any of those magical moments happen, I think there will be a record of them. We’ll go back and build some song out of them, out of those moments, later.
Pohl: That’s right, the event is open to the public, around the clock, at Urban Beat, and you can also watch it online.
At this point, it should be said that great music isn’t all that likely at The Longest Jam.
Jeff Boog: Oh, there will be bad music.
[Soundbite of Boog, Addis and Terry laughing]
John Addis: There’s definitely going to be some noise.
Pohl: At that record-setting jam in Spain, there was never silence for more than 30 seconds. Another organizer, Jeff Boog of the band 800G, says there’s music in silence.
Jeff Boog: So, I don’t think anybody needs to be scared that they’re going to be the one to cause us to lose the world record because they stopped making noise for 2.5 seconds. The point is we are doing a continuous musical collaboration for three days.
Scott Pohl: A simple drum beat, or a tambourine or even hand claps, can keep the jam going.
Is the world record actually going to be broken? Terry is optimistic.
Terry: You know, we’ve tried to think of all the contingencies, all the issues we might face and, you know, we want to do it right and we want to have fun doing it. That’s the other part of it too, it’s going to be fun, and if we’re having fun, we can get through 60 hours.
Scott Pohl: The Michigan Institute for Contemporary Art is sponsoring The Longest Jam, starting at 10 a.m. Monday at Urban Beat. If all goes well, it won’t wrap up until sometime Wednesday morning, with Lansing laying claim to the longest jam session of all time.
For Inside The Arts, I’m Scott Pohl.
