Long Play on The Nightside features Swiss Suite and Big Alice

The Nightside we will feature two extraordinary concert recordings during the Long Play at 11 pm. Long Play is a deep dive during the last hour of The Nightside into the music that time forgot.

Swiss Suite (26:50) by Oliver Nelson from the live recording Swiss Suite

This extraordinary performance took place on June 16, 1971, at the Montreux Jazz Festival.

Arranger and alto saxophonist Oliver Nelson’s “Swiss Suite” is recognized as his last major jazz work. His death four years later robbed jazz of one of its finest composers, while success writing for film and TV had kept him away from jazz in the intervening years. Nelson had risen to prominence with “Blues And The Abstract Truth”, one of the first crossover jazz albums of the 1960s, before becoming an in-demand arranger and the composer of themes for Ironside, Six Million Dollar Man, and others. He joined Flying Dutchman Records in 1969 and two years later appeared as the opening act at a night celebrating the label at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. This album captures that performance. The aptly named title track, a showcase for lead saxophonists Gato Barbieri, Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, and Nelson himself, was composed specifically for the event, which also featured reprisals of three of his favorite older pieces, including the celebrated ‘Stolen Moments’. This reissue marks the album’s first appearance on CD.

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Big Alice (18:33) by Charles Mingus from Mingus at Carnegie Hall

Recorded at Carnegie Hall on January 19, 1974, by Mingus with Jon Faddis, Charles McPherson, John Handy, George Adams, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Hamiet Bluiett, Don Pullen, and Dannie Richmond.

The piece was written by Don Pullen and is included in the reissue of the album which originally featured two extended jams but not the rest of the concert which is found on this, the second disc of the reissue.

The Mingus Band is in its prime you won’t want to miss the show.

Listen to long plays during the 11 o’clock hour of The Nightside with Andy O’…these special extensive compositions needed a deeper listen.

Tune in to The Nightside with Andy O’ on Sunday night, October 24, from 8 to midnight.

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