John Medeski hones his point of view
The Grateful Dead had this romantic but lazy idea about getting on stage and "freaking out" a lot of people by just "blowing something to wiggle to," as Medeski puts it. They did not have the tools to enable them to express their own personality. Medeski considers the jam band appellation to be "anti-intellectual and insulting. Anyway, we do much more than jam. We work very hard at music. It's an ignorant term. On the positive side, what's been happening is the creation of improvised experiences that can be danced to. And there's the beginning of respect from a new generation that is growing to like that cathartic experience you get from great improvisation."