Jam On It: Hippies, Jazzbos, and Beat Junkies Build One Nation Under a Mutant Groove

LET US NOW praise great Americans: Louis Armstrong, Jerry Garcia, and Grandmaster Flash made their history with equal parts pioneer cojones and improvisatory derring-do. They had a lot in common. Back in the day, each would move their crowd, playing off dancefloor energy, freestyling musical fragments into data streams, blowing minds, slapping behinds. They began by playing for their own tribes—who liked to boogie, liked being surprised, liked smoking weed—and found bigger audiences than they could ever have imagined.