jam session
9
3.9
- noun
- /dʒæm ˈsɛʃən/
- Informal
:
jam session
- We gathered at the local café for a lively jam session with talented musicians.
I'm just in an online jam session working on a song I have to record for my class.
- I'm just in an online jam session working on a song I have to record for my class.
- I'd rather be really watching The Jets, having dinner with my family, love dinners with people, love jam sessions.
Examples
-
I ran into Hargrove at a jam session and learned he needed a piano player.
Blog text (29) -
Remember how we used to belt it out at those jam sessions?
-
- We're about to have a little jam session.
-
There, with the lights low, we held a musical jam session.
Blog text (34) -
When I was little, my mom took me to watch a jam session in the neighborhood.
-
I'm just in an online jam session working on a song I have to record for my class.
-
I'm here for the jam session.
-
The Roots used to hold jam sessions at this club called Wetlands in New York City every Sunday night.
-
After the acceptance of jazz by MENC and the formation of the National Association of Jazz Educators, jam sessions and special jazz concerts became a more popular way to wind up the day.
Academic text (2002) -
In those clubs, jazz musicians honed their craft during lengthy jam sessions, where a player might improvise on chorus after chorus of standards like George Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm," or on their own compositions or blues riffs made up on the stand.
Academic text (2011)
Synonyms
85
7.7
A song you really like and often play
1
7.0
An informal musical gathering where rappers perform and freestyle over beats
How Formal
Surface Forms
Morphology
The components 'jam' (a musical/poppish tune or musical activity) and 'session' (a meeting/time period) point toward a musical meeting, so a learner who knows both words can partially infer that it involves music. However, the specific idea of an informal, improvisational gathering of musicians is a conventionalized use of 'jam' and not fully predictable from the literal constituents (and 'jam' has other common senses), so full comprehension at B1 is not guaranteed without prior exposure.
Etymology
Jam session comes from early jazz clubs where musicians would jam—play together without planning—and a session is a meeting, so the phrase named those informal music get-togethers. One popular image is players mixing their ideas like fruit in a jar of jam, which helps explain why it now means a relaxed meeting to 'improvise' music.