Poll: Who do you think composed "Donna Lee"?

[Clint 55]

Let's just say Miles wrote the Real Book and call it a day lol.

[Doctor Jeff]

This has been an interesting discussion. I didn’t know it was a controversial thing re’ who wrote Donna Lee.

I think in jazz “ownership” of a song is less of an issue than with rock. Of course there are royalties to be paid.

But many if not most jazz songs are collaborative, like the music itself. I would guess the bandleader when a song was introduced publicly would ordinarily get the credit, and his fellow players would just grumble awhile then think “I can’t wait until I’m a bandleader.”

There are the occasional situations where an artist’s manager or record company chief insists on the artist getting coauthorship. I think that happened with Billie Holiday and Strange Fruit. Of course it happened with Frank Sinatra and Elvis a gazillion times. Kind of a “pay to play” thing.