How are improvisational parts of jamband type live performances coordinated and managed among the band’s members?

Question

I’m thinking about bands like The Grateful Dead, Dead & Co, Phish, Dave Matthews Band… when it comes to the long, improvisational portions of the songs’ performances, how do the other band members know what parts to play or when to return to the regular cadence of the song or end the song all together? Some of these bands’ live performances of their songs improvise longer pieces than the actual songs themselves.

In: 2

Answer 1

Depends on the group, but usually there’s a basic chord progression framework and musical cues to let the other members know when you’re about to wrap something up or change to the next motif. What those are depends on the group.