Jam

Now that noodling - the improvisational art of "the jam" - has become respectable, it's time to celebrate those locals who have devoted themselves to furthering the jam-band cause with electronic ellipsis, techno-terrorism, humor and hubris: The Disco Biscuits. Deadheads and rave kids alike all groove deeply to CDs such as Uncivilized Area (Hydrophonic) and Encephalous Crime (Diamond Riggs) and CD bootlegs (band-approved) of the group's slowly stewing, improvisational prowess onstage.

There is a wealth of musical talent on the Main Line, according to percussionist John Breslin. And Breslin believes he has found a way to tap some of that talent through his performances at The Main Lion, which allow members of the audience to play with the band. Since September, the John Breslin Jazz Band has been performing on Sundays from 7 to 11 p.m. at the Main Lion on Lancaster Avenue in Strafford. Its repertoire incorporates standard jazz tunes and some improvisational work - the stuff that makes jazz so unpredictably rich.

A collision of two tractor-trailers on I-95 in South Philadelphia that left one man dead and at least one other injured, and a five-alarm fire on nearby Delaware Avenue, caused monumental morning rush hour traffic jams today. The trucks crashed in the northbound lanes of I-95 near Tasker Street at 2:54 a.m., police said, when one of the rigs hit an overhead sign. Its driver was found dead inside. His name was not released. The driver of the other truck, Edward Coslin, 33, of National Park, N.J., was taken to Methodist Hospital, where his injuries and condition were not immediately known.

Market Street was all swiveling hips and snapping fingers last night during a rockin', rollin' block party. The four-block jam was the highlight of Day 7 of the Welcome America! celebration, an 11-day orgy of parties and special events to commemorate the opening of the Pennsylvania Convention Center and the Fourth of July. It was curb-to-curb people as thousands turned out for the festivities along Market Street, between 9th and 13th streets. Jugglers and an Uncle Sam on stilts moved through the crowds.

Forty-one million cases of the stuff produces more than fruit cup and jam. Chilean fruit is key to the survival of Philadelphia's port. To protect that market, six Harrisburg heavyweights head off tomorrow on a 20,000-mile round-trip to the edge of South America. Their spokesman, Bill McLaughlin, says "it's not a trade mission. It's to reassure Chile we love them. " Somehow, the $40,000 cost - for plane tickets, hotels and meals - seems outrageous at a time when those legislative leaders are fighting to avoid bankruptcy for the city and close a $2 billion state budget gap. An argument might be made that healthy discussion about how to solve city and state problems will also take place among the bipartisan delegation leaders on the trip.

If you're not a beach bunny, here's an alternative for landlubbing it on Labor Day weekend: the Penn's Landing Jazz Festival, from Aug. 31 to Sept. 3. Top national acts will join local musicians for the four-day jam on the waterfront. Here's the musical rundown: Aug. 31: Chris Connor, 8 p.m. Sept. 1: Posmontier Brothers (4 p.m.), Special EFX (8 p.m.). Sept. 2: Shirley Scott Trio (5 p.m.), Harper Brothers (8 p.m.). Sept. 3: Reverie (3 p.m.), Sumi Tonooka (5 p.m.)

The Word's music draws on the sounds of Southern worship, but the band itself worships at the altar of jam. Stretching two sets over more than three hours, the five-piece group touched on a handful of gospel classics, but its sound has more to do with the Allman Brothers than Sister Rosetta Tharpe. When the Word's other members picked Robert Randolph to play pedal steel on their self-titled 2000 album, he was virtually unknown outside the devotional circuit. Seven years later, he is arguably its marquee player, acknowledged as a contemporary master of his chosen instrument.

Neo-hippie groove meisters Rusted Root are a lot like the Teletubbies: soft and sappy, and college students find them trippy. Like the Tubbies, the band has a worldview that is nothing short of warm, fuzzy humanism, and it puts its money where its mouth is, staging a food drive at each tour stop and donating to local charities a dollar from each ticket sold. So, beating up on Rusted Root is a bit like saying Tinky Winky isn't manly enough. The hard-working Pittsburgh group's music is a bland stew of post-Grateful Dead jam gymnastics, Afro-pop tribal beats, and vaguely mysterious Eastern modal chords.

Of all the juke joints and jam bands in the world . . . I had to find the one that's most diverse in its genre-jumping and most disciplined in its approach to lengthy, atypical jam solos. It's moe., named after a song by jump king Louis Jordan. "We are jam band, hear us roar!" jokes Al Schnier, moe.-man singer and guitarist. "We are definitely part of a community, and like any community we will have our own neck of the woods. " Though they're radically different from most of the jam ilk, Schnier is happy to include touring partners Particle within moe.'s mixed-bag milieu.

Drivers should expect traffic in and around Old City to be tied in knots today as President-elect Barack Obama meets with 40 governors and other lawmakers at Independence Hall. "The area from Fifth to Sixth Streets between Market and Walnut Streets will be completely shut down," police spokesman Lt. Frank Vanore said. Obama and the governors began arriving yesterday to discuss the global financial meltdown and its impact on the states. Gov. Rendell, chairman of the nonpartisan National Governors Association, is hosting the event.

Pearl Jamand Philly-raised Santigold are among top artists who will perform along with Jay-Z at the Budweiser Made in America festival over Labor Day Weekend. Dirty Projectors, Skrillex, Afrojack, Odd Future and Mike Snow are also performing over the two-day event, Sept. 1 and 2, along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. We reported the lineup's biggest names Monday morning at PhillyGossip.com after noting that an apparent Ticketmaster goof had prematurely listed acts online Friday.

"Overall, another very strong payroll report and there's every chance that March will bring more of the same. " - Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist with Capital Economics, after Friday's report that U.S. unemployment stayed at 8.3 percent. "It doesn't help to have shouting matches. We have to sit down and do our best to come up with a future for these refineries. " - U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.) after a meeting with Sunoco Inc. chief executive officer Brian P. MacDonald over refinery closings.

Silencing the loudmouth cellphone user across the aisle is surely a common fantasy among transit riders. But how often do they fulfill their wish and become peace-and-quiet vigilantes - despite decades-old laws against blocking radio transmissions? That question was raised by a report last week on NBC10, which interviewed a rider who acknowledged phone jamming on a SEPTA bus, and by a subsequent story on Forbes.com that also quoted unidentified jammers in the New York and Washington areas.

ENFORCEMENT of a bill passed by City Council last fall to regulate placement of TV satellite dishes has been stalled due to a petition filed with the Federal Communications Commission by the satellite-dish industry. The Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association is fighting the bill, approved in October and sponsored by current Council President Darrell Clarke, prohibiting satellite-dish companies and installers from placing dishes at the front of homes unless putting them elsewhere would cause signal reduction or significant extra cost.

The dreamy, laid-back sound of Jonathan Wilson's excellent solo album Gentle Spirit, and the harmony-heavy records he's produced for Dawes owe much to the roots that the North Carolina native put down in Los Angeles, first in the mythical musical neighborhood of Laurel Canyon, and now, while in Echo Park. But it's not as if the 37-year-old has been trying to summon lingering vibes from the days when Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, and the Byrds were canyon dwellers. There's simply no such mojo in the ether, according to Wilson.

Hanukkah celebrates the miracle of the oil, and for most American Jews, that means latkes - potato pancakes fried in oil. But there are many other ways to commemorate the miracle during the eight-day Festival of Lights, which begins at sundown Dec. 20. Indeed, there are as many ways to celebrate the holiday as there are communities of Jews. In Italy, small pieces of lemony-garlic chicken are coated with flour and egg and fried for Hanukkah festivities. Jews of German and Austrian descent eat deep-fried breaded veal called schnitzel.

Owen Schmitt played tuba as a boy in small-town Wisconsin and loved it. But he also happened to be a football star. He couldn't score touchdowns and march with the band at halftime. So he chose touchdowns over tuba. He went to the West Virginia University, where he became a football superstar. In his last year, he didn't have many classes and began to skip the ones he had because he discovered Guitar Hero. He loved Guitar Hero. He thought to himself it would be really, really cool if he could actually play guitar.

CAIRO - The United States increased pressure Friday on Egypt's military rulers to hand over power to civilian leaders, and the generals turned to a Mubarak-era politician to head a new government in a move that failed to satisfy the more than 100,000 protesters who jammed Tahrir Square in the biggest rally yet this week. The demonstrators rejected the appointment of Kamal el-Ganzouri as prime minister, breaking into chants of "Illegitimate! Illegitimate!" and setting up a showdown between the two sides only three days before key parliamentary elections.