"When Will the Blues Leave" is the album's most extended blowing vehicle from the 2017 Sweet Stuff session by the Daniel Rotem and Josh Johnson Quartet, featuring Ornette Coleman's blues composition as a platform for expansive improvisation. Daniel Rotem leads with a marathon ten-chorus tenor saxophone solo at 206 BPM over the 12-bar blues in F, building a narrative of escalating intensity that demonstrates his ability to sustain creative momentum over a long stretch. Josh Johnson follows with seven choruses of alto saxophone at 205 BPM, matching Rotem's inventiveness with his own distinctive voice. Bassist Alex Boneham closes with five choruses, an unusually generous allocation that reflects the democratic spirit of the session. Coleman's composition brings a free-jazz sensibility to the blues form, encouraging the kind of melodic and rhythmic freedom that characterizes his approach to improvisation. The track's total solo content of twenty-two choruses makes it the most expansive performance on the album, providing each musician with ample space to develop ideas fully. The choice of a Coleman tune alongside Monk and Henderson compositions reveals the quartet's broad aesthetic range.
