I have to agree that there's very little "improvisation" in any of those proggy bands you mention -- just cuz VDGG has a sax player doesn't mean everything wasn't composed beforehand.
Zappa did improvise a lot, but in a very structured "big band jazz" way (soloists taking turns in the spotlight.) So I'm not sure that counts either!
[Zappa digression: in JRS Cope compares Kimio Mizutani's "A Path Through Haze" to "Hot Rats", which I totally do not get. He called Rats a "supersession album", which it's not -- in fact Rats was the FIRST 16-track recording ever released. It's INSANELY detailed & composed, with Ian Underwood overdubbing as many as a dozen parts per song, and every bar arranged & overseen by FZ. Not much "improvising" there!!]
An individual's ability to solo, and the fact that the rest of the band can keep a riff going indefinitely (ala Cream) does not "improvisation" make. That's called "wanking", something completely different! Any 15 ninute version of "Spoonful" is pretty predictably the same as every other version -- the fact Clapton plays his canned licks in a different order each night doesn't really make it "improvised."
Other than The Dead and a few others (well, the whole "jam band movement" really) I don't think there is much "improvisation" in rock generally, at least not since the first half of the 70's. The key here is, the GROUP is improvising, not just providing a framework for a soloist to show off in.
You want true improv rock, try Nihilist Spasm Band or The Godz first record!
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