How High The Moon

[steev]

Hi Guys,
Thought I would try something different from the usual suspects (Stella, Autumn Leaves etc) and came across this catchy little tune, its quite infectious and has a great chord progression that dosnt seem too hard. Digging a bit deeper I found a vid of Joe Pass playing it, incredible as ever, and Les Paul in his later years. Its the first time I have seen Les play, what an inspiration considering what he endured and overcame his Bio should be compulsory reading.
I'm only in the early stages of arranging so have a long way to go yet. Has anyone else done this tune berfore? Any comments, likes/dislikes etc.

Steev

[jseaberry]

Look at "Ornithology" by Charlie Parker; it's a contrafact.

[steev]

Hi jseaberry,
must admit I didnt know what contrafact was so I looked it up. You are dead right Ornithology was built over How High The Moon 6 years after it was published. It was quite a common practice, apparently during the 30's and 40's, so I'll keep an eye out for anymore. Would you get away with today? probably not. Thanks for the comment.

Steev

[jseaberry]

Sure, you can do it; it's done a lot. A chord progression can't be copyrighted, only a melody. so people write new melodies over old ones all the time. Dave Liebman has a cool tune over "All The Things You Are" ....I can't remember the name, but it is done a lot.

[steev]

Thanks for the info, makes you wonder why we cant post our work on this website without the threat of copyright if we have virtually rewritten a song via adding passing notes, scale runs, arpeggios etc and altered the timing of some melody notes. Maybe if we called the song by another name (lol).

[jseaberry]

That IS what you do; make it a new melody. It's yours.