other free fusion classics?

Was rereading Doug's excellent free fusion article, and was impressed by his ability to pick just a few key pieces as exemplars of the style... Anyone have any other favorites to add to the list? I'm wanting more to listen to, so surely we can make this pile bigger...

Also, is it possible to stretch the category in a rock direction? Anyone got any good examples of music that hits this vein coming from a background in the rock?

Ame Son, good thought... they always reminded me a bit of early Soft Machine, if that group hadn't gone full into the trio extensions... In fact, one thing that originally got me wondering about extending the "free fusion" angle into rock was looking back through some Softs live recordings from the late 60s (i.e. post-psych, pre-Wyatt departure) -- sometimes they're pretty obviously what would later become called 'prog' (no bad thing from my pov, I'm a conditional prog fan), and other bits are more self-consciously 'experimental', but it seemed to me there are definitely sections that work in much the 'avant-vamp' trance-rhythm way Doug was describing...

Rock into jazz?  I don't follow the POV that R&B groups like The Free Spirits or Jeremy & The Satyrs evolved into something that pre-figured this particular genre, at least not based on their studio albums.  That said, vibist Mike Manieri has recently made available some sessions from the legendary White Elephant Orchestra (related to J&TS) that might suggest otherwise.

I'm with Kevin in that the Softs were my first choice for free fusion derived from the rock baseline, though I tend to use Elton Dean rather than Robert Wyatt as the qualifier. Third saw the final dissolve of their prog inclinations and with Dean's replacement by Karl Jenkins on Six, the momentum toward intricate fuzoid moves had begun to gather.  But the inclusive span between 'em is remarkably rich.  That said, Ian Carr's Nucleus could best define free fusion in the UK.  Can't really claim rock roots for 'em though, with guitarist Chris Spedding as the token rockist on their first two lps.

Santana is another possible example, spanning Caravanserai through Welcome.  While thrilling again to the Lotus live double disc, it'd be a bit of a stretch to deem it free fusion-- moreso a latin jazz/funk hybrid.  Peels the paint off the walls but really, it's outside category.

Zappa's jazz adventures in the late 60s/early 70s set the prototype for hyper-complex jazz-rock, years before Mahavishnu Orchestra became culpable for the very same.  Again no, not what we're trying to extract here.

Early incarnations of German outfit, Embryo, often adorned their krautrock with jazz colours.  The group then struck deep into a free fusion vein when Americans Mal Waldron (el-p) and Jimmy Jackson (org) came aboard for Steig Aus and Rocksession.  This was continued to some extent with reed player Charlie Mariano's involvement on We Keep On (particularly evident in the "world fusion" found on the disconforme reisssue bonus tracks.)

Embryo-related group Missus Beastly tightened up from psych rock to jazzrock from 1969-1974 but the documentation doesn't suggest much overlap of the two genres.  I dunno, it seems that other kraut-jazz-rock groupings tend toward the jam-based (Annexus Quam, Ibliss, Sweet Smoke) or the technical (Out Of Focus, Guru Guru's Dance Of The Flames).

Generally it appears that rock groups required the addition of a jazz player (eg Dean with Soft Machine, Waldron with Embryo) to catalyze their mutation.  Offhand, I can't think of any that self-transformed, without intervention...