The world of jam bands has expanded greatly in musical variety since the Grateful Dead first spawned the genre decades ago, from rockers who embrace jazz-style improvisation to funk and jazz bands that put on rock-style performances. Colorado-based group The Motet, led by drummer Dave Watts, is on the jazz end of the jam-band spectrum, with elements of funk, progressive rock and afrobeat in its sound as well. Watts founded the group in 1998 with a rotating cast of fellow band members, and since then The Motet has released six studio albums.
Like the jam-band godfathers in Phish, the members of The Motet like to play musical dress-up at Halloween, and every October they perform concerts featuring the music of one other artist. Tribute subjects have ranged from the Grateful Dead to Madonna to the Beatles, giving an idea of the breadth of style that The Motet’s music encompasses. As Watts puts it on the band’s website, it’s all about combining the spontaneity of jamming with the core of solid songwriting: “Instead of just the energetics we’re used to bringing with improvising, soloing and extended arrangements, we really decided to focus on tunes, because we understand how powerful a great song is.”
