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Favorite long jazz tracks


Milestones

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I've noticed a few of you have mentioned live performances which were supposed to be excluded so I'm going to sneak in Jerome Cooper's Bert the Cat from The Unpredictability of Predictability. I think that if he had done it in a studio it would have been the same length.

One of my favorite studio tracks that hasn't been mentioned is the title track from McCoy Tyner's album Sahara.

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Sun Ra--Space is The Place (title track of album) about 21 minutes

Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays--As Falls Wichita So Falls Wichita Falls (title track of album) 20:44

Art Ensemble of Chicago--Ohnedaruth (from Phase One) about 21 minutes

Lester Bowie--The Great Pretender (title track of album) about 17 minutes

Miles Davis--Right Off (from A Tribute to Jack Johnson) almost 27 minutes

If the rule could be stretched to allow 13 minute cuts:

Carla Bley--Hotel Overture (Side 1 of Escalator Over The Hill)

Weather Report--Boogie Woogie Waltz (from Sweetnighter)

Edited by Hot Ptah
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Miles - He loved him madly

Me too!

The first version of 'Naima' I heard was a sidelong live recording by an Elton Dean Quartet with Keith Tippett, Chris Laurence and Louis Moholo. Lovely - don't think that one has got to CD yet.

Edited by A Lark Ascending
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I know there was a period when Prestige would put out side long jams every now and then. Only a few of these have merit, and very few could be considered genuine classics.

NONSENSE

I like Red Garland's All Morning Long.

And some of the long Gene Ammons All-Stars pieces, too - quite creative.

Of course the Art Ensemble's Early Combinations, Old-Quartet Sessions, and All.the Numbers, and Charles Tyler's Saga of the Outlaws, and the International Phonograph Julius Hemphill and Bill Dixon reissues and lots and lots of others.

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A few of you are going under 15 minutes and some are offering live tracks. But that's fine...a little rule breaking is fine.

I apologize for what seems a dismissal of blowing sessions, mainly from the 1950s. Some of these are quite good, such as Burrell's "All Day Long." True, these long jams are generally not my thing. But for those who find them excellent, they are just that. This topic is all about favorites.

"Walkin" by Miles is pretty much a blowing tune, and it creeps near 15 minutes. I absolutely love that track.

Edited by Milestones
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There are so many long free-jazz/avant-garde tracks that I'm not even going to try to mention my favorites.

As far as straight-ahead stuff goes the first track I thought of was Dexter's "Tanya," but Shawn beat me to it. Next to mind was KD's "Una Mas." I love the way that one builds, in its own modest way.

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I guess just about everything that came to mind has been mentioned ... took me a while to dig "Tanya" btw!

One more that I love (the CD version, which I think is a bit longer?):

Miles Davis - Circle in the Round

Also some of Miles' 1960 tour tracks run for a while ... "All Blues" from Zurich (the recent TCB disc is terrific, as I already mentioned twice or thrice) is a favourite track of mine.

About Prestige ... there's some great funky stuff on those two dates Red Garland led with Trane and Byrd - I love it! Same goes for much of Ammons' jam material. Same goes, btw, for plenty of JATP material, which some may find bullshit (which others, including me, will then call bullshit in return).

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In addition to the Mingus and Miles tracks, all of these absolutely floored me..for live stuff I'd recommend Booker Ervin's 'Blue's To You' from 'Lament' on Enja, the 'Book' cooks for nearly half an hour.

Mal Waldron 'Crowd Scene'

Keith Jarrett 'Survivor's Suite' (part 1)

Archie Shepp 'The Magic of Juju'

Coltrane 'Africa Brass'

Horace Tapscott's 'Dark Tree'

Walt Dickerson 'To My Queen', (Dickerson's long tracks are uniformly excellent)

Kenny Wheeler 'Heyoke'

oh yeah, I just remembered this beauty.. 'A Sketch of City Life' the first 15 minute suite. Just about my favourite Japanese jazz.

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Edited by Imeanyou
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