[Dixielandjazz] Long Songs

[Stephen G Barbone]

On Apr 14, 2010, at 10:49 AM, dixielandjazz-request at ml.islandnet.com  
wrote:

> From: dwlit at cpcug.org asked B H.
> To: "Bill Haesler" <bhaesler at bigpond.net.au>
>
> Hi all. Bill, thanks for (hopefully) getting us back on track.
>
> The purpose of the question was to view tunes from a different
> perspective. We all have favorites we love playing. But presumably  
> there
> are tunes we can really get into, tunes that inspire us to keep  
> going and
> play at higher levels.
>
> What are yours?
>
> --Sheik


Dear Sheik & Bill:

Jumping in here, two of my favorites which we always seem to extend are:

1) "In a Mellow Tone."

2) "Fly Me To The Moon."

When the rhythm section gets into a Basie like groove on Mellow Tone,  
it seems as if we don't want the tune to stop. Then again, we are a  
solo oriented band an each of the soloists just love to keep it going.  
(we use amplified guitar & double bass in the rhythm section.)

"Fly Me To The Moon" is another one that offers exciting, to us, a  
tremendous amount of possibilities for musical conversation.

We often do them at swing dances and caution the dancers that these  
are going to be long, and a challenge to them to keep dancing. Most  
accept the challenge and dance their butts off. Both tunes have, been  
kept going for 10 minutes or so and the experienced dancers love it.

Black & Blue and St James Infirmary are others (at slower tempi) that  
turns the band and the audience on. Sometimes going for over 10  
minutes as the soloists get into them.

As an aside, John Coltrane was  a soloist who would sometimes , like  
the energizer bunny, keep going and going. In conversation with Miles  
Davis, he said he didn't know how to end his solos. Miles replied,  
something like, just take the F***ing horn out of your mouth>

Longest tune I ever witnessed was about 55 years ago when I went to  
see Cecil Taylor. He played one tune for a whole set, 45 minutes. I  
didn't understand what he was doing, but it was an wonderful  
experience to see a pianist play that hard for that amount of time.  
His energy level was extraordinary.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband