Hi, my song list is very poor. Could you guys please help to expand it?  Which are the "most popular"   tunes that are often played at jam sessions?    Autumn Leaves, Giant steps,  The Chicken, Feel Good, Watermelon Man……others? (any style welcome!)

Thanks if you can help

That would depend.  It would be different for a jazz jam than for a blues jam.  What type of music are we talking about.

http://www.drummercafe.com/content/view/3/29/

Follow the link above and familiarize yourself with most every song among those CDs, but especially Kind of Blue. At least 60 percent of all the tracks on that list are standards.

Thanks for the link...

I have never heard of anything that you mentioned here so I am not sure if I can really help.
Some songs that I don't play with a band but to just jam on songs that most people know and are easy.
Margaretta Ville
Brown Eyed Girl
Jumpin Jack Flash
Honky Tonk Women
Old Man - Neil Young
Mustang Sally
Sweet Home Alabama
Horse with No name
Cocaine
Any Beatles song
Take it Easy - Eagles
There are so many,

The best thing to do when jamming with people you haven't jammed with before is to not
get real technical.  Just try to groove on songs that everyone has heard before. Most of these
songs you can mess up on and still get through them.  This is kind of a question that depends on
the people that you are jamming with and what music styles and back grounds they come from.
You wouldn't probably jam on Sweet Home Alabama with a Satriani Style guitar player or
someone that is really heavy into Jazz/Fusion. You might get it out of a guitar player that plays Blue Grass or Country. I could jam on everything that I mentioned but these songs may not be my choice to play with a band anymore. I kind of promised myself along time ago, that I wasn't going to play Stairway to Free Bird anymore.  I played a 25th High School Reunion and at the end of the night,
they were chanting Free Bird, Free Bird, Free Bird.  We gave them Free Bird and it was killer.
It is hard to say what songs are a must to learn for a drummer.  The bigger your list is that you are
able to play the better.  That is any musicain.
                                    Nutty

Great List Louis,
I didn't know that he specified Blues but your list is very good.  My band really does play some of these songs.  I love the term Butt Shakin Blues.  Would be a good title for a song.
                           Nutty

Cool list Louis! We play about 1/3 blues and 2/3's classic rock. On the blues side we play:
Steve Hunter-Night Stomp
Stevie Ray Vaughan-Pride And Joy
BB King-The Thrill Is Gone
Kenny Wayne Shepherd – Trouble Is
Dr. Feelgood – Riot In Cell Block No. 9
Stevie Ray Vaughan-Voodoo Chile
Jeff Healey-Yer Blues
Albert King – Born Under A Bad Sign
Allman Brothers-Whipping Post
Stevie Ray Vaughan-Cold Shot
Stevie Ray Vaughan-Couldn't Stand The Weather

A few others I can't think of at the moment. Point is, particularly with blues, play what you like and so long as you are playing it well the blues fans will love it. Good luck!

You jazzers forgot buddy Rich! Great big band stuff to play along with (although you quite literally need the big band to play with it unless you have a CD)

I totally agree with the wisdom of knowing what the type of jam session you are going to is. Blues, jazz and sometimes rock are all types of 'jam sessions' I've been to over my life.

However, I think the original post may have been - what songs should I know for a jam session - not your average gig.

I'll admit that it's been a long time since I've played any kind of jam session. I do think that many of the songs folks have listed (some of the Stevie Ray stuff, Satriani, Georgia Satellites, Steely Dan etc) are great songs to know but would not ever be found at a jam session. The jam sessions I've been to rely on everyone being able to make it through a song easily and without sweating the arrangement. If there are cool stops, kicks, riffs and lines that can put some players out of the loop.

My best memory of this was from when I did do jams back in the mid to late '70's. Typically most of the players that would show up were at best amateur level with some mildly experienced pros showing up occasionally. Unfortunatley the lowest common denominator would rule. For instance if we played say, an Allman Brothers tune, I'd want to play "Statesboro Blues", a very popular Allman song getting tons of play in Southern Florida back then. However, finding a guitar player who could play slide and know the lines to make the song work (VERY important for this tune) was almost impossible, even amongst the better players that would show up. What we would end up playing is "One Way Out" - which is pretty much a straight uptempo blues song. It was not important to know any real lines to get through the song. Sooooooo.......endless blues noodling was the norm. That's just one example but there are some others in later year jazz jams where you may want to do, say, a cool Wynton Marsalis song but you end up playing a "Real Book" standard like 'All the Things You are'. Again - no real breaks or arrangement and just a walking bass and the drummer playing spang-a-lang time to accompany the lead line and chord changes with 'fours' being included every so often.

I will defer to maybe younger players who have experience with New Millenium jams (if that actually happens in the under 30 crowd) but the above is my experience.

Songs like 'Satisfaction' , 'Honky Tonk Woman' for rock jams, 'Stormy Monday' , 'I'm a Man' for blues, and 'A Foggy Day' and 'Green Dolphin Street' for jazz are examples of songs that are kinda 'no-brainers' for most players.

FWIW, I should also mention that I really do NOT enjoy playing these type of songs because they feel tired to me. Of course I have been around a few years.

To sum up my post, most jams usually use broadly known, simple songs for a variety of players to play together on. In the case of rock and blues songs, very few chords would be used. With jazz, very little rhythmic or groove variety. This does exclude what are sometimes called 'pro jams' which are usually more invitation only get togethers of more established players. Pro Jams also usually have very experienced players playing tunes that the average 'jammer' wouldn't touch.

IMHO, My .02, YMMV etc.

Jim

In my experience at jam sessions the most popular was none other that Mr. Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" with the Kingsmen's "Louie Louie" a close second.