Bebop heads: Donna Lee

[Christian Miller]

Aaron asked me to transcribe that tune for him before he went on the Phil Schaap Show to talk about the origin of DL. I told him there were some similarities, but it was obviously a different tune based on "Indiana" Tiny was amazing, the guy was a drummer, yet he was able to write something like that! There's proof that Fats Navarro improvised a line very similar to DL that was recorded a few months before the first version. Listen to his entrance at 1:32
.

We had this discussion here about this nine yeas ago!
It sure sounds more like the way Fats played than The Prince of Darkness played. According to a pianist I used to play with, Miles used to get booed off the stand when he played with Bird back then.
My guess is that jazz back then was an aural language that was passed down during jam sessions where guys developed "lines" over popular chord progressions like "Indiana". Aaron didn't refer to DL by name, he referred to it as the "line" that they played on Indiana.
Aaron was so big back then, he was being referred to as the "white Bird". He told me that he saw Bird while he was walking down Broadway at that time, and Bird said, "Don't you try to hide from me. I know who you are!"

But someone had to write out the line that Miles and Bird played in unison, and the P of D might have been cunning enough to do it. Who knows?
"Only the Shadow knows..."

Again the porous border between improvisation and composition….


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[GuyBoden]

Here's a few practice licks from Bars 1-5, transposed into C Major changes.

I'm trying to create practice licks, whilst learning the tune.

Maybe, they might or might not be useful licks for other players too.

[bluenote61]

Here's a couple of very usable licks from Bars 1-4, transposed into C Major changes.

I'm trying to create usable licks whilst learning the tune.

They might be useful licks for other players too.

Thanks.
But as a note, in lick 1 I think the resolution would be at the c# (3rd of A), not at the following e.
In lick 2 the resolution would be in the next bar, adding b and resolvi g to a, the 5th of D7.

[lawson-stone]

Aaron asked me to transcribe that tune for him before he went on the Phil Schaap Show to talk about the origin of DL. I told him there were some similarities, but it was obviously a different tune based on "Indiana" Tiny was amazing, the guy was a drummer, yet he was able to write something like that! There's proof that Fats Navarro improvised a line very similar to DL that was recorded a few months before the first version. Listen to his entrance at 1:32
.

We had this discussion here about this nine yeas ago!
It sure sounds more like the way Fats played than The Prince of Darkness played. According to a pianist I used to play with, Miles used to get booed off the stand when he played with Bird back then.
My guess is that jazz back then was an aural language that was passed down during jam sessions where guys developed "lines" over popular chord progressions like "Indiana". Aaron didn't refer to DL by name, he referred to it as the "line" that they played on Indiana.
Aaron was so big back then, he was being referred to as the "white Bird". He told me that he saw Bird while he was walking down Broadway at that time, and Bird said, "Don't you try to hide from me. I know who you are!"

But someone had to write out the line that Miles and Bird played in unison, and the P of D might have been cunning enough to do it. Who knows?
"Only the Shadow knows..."

I really appreciated this post and its insight. Thank you!

[lawson-stone]

Again the porous border between improvisation and composition….


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Especially among players who knew each other, played the same gigs, and were part of the same musical moment and movement. How could they not have ideas bleed across and among themselves?

[AllanAllen]

Aaron asked me to transcribe that tune for him before he went on the Phil Schaap Show to talk about the origin of DL. I told him there were some similarities, but it was obviously a different tune based on "Indiana" Tiny was amazing, the guy was a drummer, yet he was able to write something like that! There's proof that Fats Navarro improvised a line very similar to DL that was recorded a few months before the first version. Listen to his entrance at 1:32
.
We had this discussion here about this nine yeas ago!
It sure sounds more like the way Fats played than The Prince of Darkness played. According to a pianist I used to play with, Miles used to get booed off the stand when he played with Bird back then.
My guess is that jazz back then was an aural language that was passed down during jam sessions where guys developed "lines" over popular chord progressions like "Indiana". Aaron didn't refer to DL by name, he referred to it as the "line" that they played on Indiana.
Aaron was so big back then, he was being referred to as the "white Bird". He told me that he saw Bird while he was walking down Broadway at that time, and Bird said, "Don't you try to hide from me. I know who you are!"

But someone had to write out the line that Miles and Bird played in unison, and the P of D might have been cunning enough to do it. Who knows?
"Only the Shadow knows..."

Who is the Prince of Darkness? What are you talking about? Why did the guy who played Tiny's Con need you to transcribe it? I'm so confused....

[mr. beaumont]

Who is the Prince of Darkness? What are you talking about? Why did the guy who played Tiny's Con need you to transcribe it? I'm so confused....

The Prince of Darkness! You know, the Chameleon. The Man in the Green Shirt, man.

[Mick-7]

Who is the Prince of Darkness?

That was a nickname for Miles, so named for his sometimes Jekyll and Hyde temperament (exacerbated later on in his life by his addiction to pain killers). Wayne Shorter wrote a tune by that name.

[GuyBoden]

Here's a few more practice licks from Bars 5-8, transposed into C Major changes.

I'm trying to create licks, whilst learning the tune.

Maybe, they might or might not be useful licks for other players too.

[AllanAllen]

That was a nickname for Miles, so named for his sometimes Jekyll and Hyde temperament (exacerbated later on in his life by his addiction to pain killers). Wayne Shorter wrote a tune by that name.

I had a thought it was Miles, but he also said Davis in the post. I'm easily confused.

[Christian Miller]

I had a thought it was Miles, but he also said Davis in the post. I'm easily confused.

Well if you colonials will insist on using surnames as given names, this exact confusion will arise.


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[sgcim]

Who is the Prince of Darkness? What are you talking about? Why did the guy who played Tiny's Con need you to transcribe it? I'm so confused....

Aaron didn't write it, he just sightread it in the studio. He was a child prodigy who could sightread anything. Guys tell me that they used to hear him featured on the radio when he was still in his teens, playing live every week. He was in his 80s when we played in the same band, and he probably didn't want to go through the trouble of writing out a fast tune like that, when he could get a young guy who worshiped him to do it for him.

The first words he ever said to me were "Whatever happened to Dick Garcia?" Every jazz guitar player he knew always wanted to know that, so he was kind of kidding around. He used to do studio work with him in NY, and one day he just disappeared. Unbelievably, years later I stumbled on to the answer online, when his nephew had posted something about his uncle being a once famous jazz guitar player. I emailed him and asked who his uncle was, and it turned out to be Dick Garcia! He told me he was still alive and living in "isolation" in his parent's house, studying and practicing Zen Buddhism. Aaron told me that Garcia was always a 'hung up' guy who was always complaining about all his problems all the time, so maybe Zen Buddhism brought him the peace he seemed to be searching for.

Hearing Aaron play solos in the band was a religious experience for me. He created high art every time he improvised. No BS, just pure melodic jazz genius.
He told me he was married to the jazz vocalist helen merrill, and when he woke up one morning , she was gone, along with the piano!
His son, Alan Merrill was the guy who wrote the tune "I Love Rock and Roll, Put another Nickel in the Juke Box Baby".
Sadly his son was one of the first casualties of the COVID pandemic while playing gigs in rock clubs when it first broke out in NYC.

He told me a story about the John Lewis album he played on, "Little David's Fugue". While all the other guys were drinking and getting high during the breaks, Aaron would sit there playing Bach on the flute. John Lewis came up to him and asked him what he was doing. Aaron said "Practicing Bach". John Lewis thought about it for a little while, and said, "Hey, you know that's not a bad idea. Maybe I should try something like that!"
Aaron worked hard to control his laughter.