Musicians sought for World’s Longest Jam in Lansing

Musicians from around the Midwest will gather at UrbanBeat in Lansing Sept. 28 through 30 to try to break the record for the world’s longest continuous jam session. The organizing committee is seeking musicians to volunteer to play; sign up at longestjam.com.

The current record is 57 hours, set in Granada, Spain, in August 2023. The World’s Longest Jam effort in Lansing has a goal of at least 60 hours. The event will be open to the public, with donations accepted to defray costs. More than 100 musicians are expected to participate. 

Terry Terry, owner of UrbanBeat and producer of the event, said the idea for the record-breaking effort came after a jam session with friends. 

“Chatting with a few friends this winter after an improv session with our group, The OtherBand, we hit on the idea of seeing if there was a world record for a jam session and then trying to break it,” he said.

Turns out the “record” is informal, based on internet searching. Guiness, the traditional arbiter of world records, has no jam record.

The World’s Longest Jam committee has developed a definition of a jam:

• At least three musicians on stage at all times. Musicians will be rotated in and out at regular intervals.
• Continuous music with no breaks. The music never stops.
• No “songs” as generally defined, although pieces of music in the public domain and original music are welcome.
• Music can be produced with acoustic, electronic or vocal instruments.
• A variety of genres (minimum number of 10 genres).
• No pre-recorded music.

The idea is to have certain types of music at certain times; jazz for a couple hours, electronica, Dead-style playing, bluegrass and more. The goal is to have musicians with somewhat similar proclivities playing together in a jam setting.

“We just want to have some fun and maybe break a record,” Terry said. “As our poster says, ‘It’s about time!’”