The jazz run-on: A fake term made up by a kid?

March 12, 2023 11:47 AM

When I was a kid, a friend who was in band told me that in jazz, two pieces meant to be played played back-to-back that were in the same key were called a "run-on". (We were discussing Megadeth's Holy Wars…The Punishment Due at the time.) I just tried to search for this, but search engines have been ruined. I can't find verification for this. Is this really a term that is used (or was used) in jazz?
posted by ignignokt to Media & Arts (8 answers total)

This is segue in other musical contexts. For what it's worth, the Wikipedia page mentions other terms for related concepts but doesn't include "run-on"--but also doesn't say anything at all about jazz.
posted by pullayup at 11:57 AM on March 12, 2023

I'm a musician and fairly frequently play jazz gigs. This isn't a term I'm familiar with. Do you have any examples of jazz pieces you'd describe like this?
posted by spielzebub at 12:07 PM on March 12, 2023

Response by poster: spielzebub, I don't have any examples. That's why I think it may not be a real term.
posted by ignignokt at 1:08 PM on March 12, 2023 [1 favorite]

My husband is in his late fifties and started playing jazz saxophone in school and hasn’t ever heard this term.
posted by PussKillian at 1:14 PM on March 12, 2023

Best answer: I can imagine a band director making the analogy to a run-on sentence and a kid thinking this was A Thing that people said, but I've never heard it
posted by Jon_Evil at 1:46 PM on March 12, 2023 [1 favorite]

Like spielzebub, I'm a musician and play and have played a ton of jazz, and I've never heard this phrase.
posted by jonathanhughes at 2:03 PM on March 12, 2023

I haven't heard it, but it makes sense. A Segue is two songs that run together immediately, but there can be a loose segue. The example I'm thinking of is the transition between 'Bye Bye Love' and 'Moving in Stereo' on The Cars first album.
posted by ovvl at 5:15 PM on March 12, 2023 [2 favorites]

Not quite the same, but this does remind me of a musical concept used in jazz, the contrafact — a work with a new melody based on the harmonic structure (e.g., chords) of another tune. I’m sure I’ve heard segueing a contrafact together with its referent tune a few times.
posted by alb at 8:58 AM on March 13, 2023 [1 favorite]