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05-01-2024 01:48 PM
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Here’s the version Bird did with Tristano, Billy Bauer etc. Actually it was recorded later in 1947 than the well-known version with Miles.
Personnel: Barry Ulanov And His All Star Metronome Jazzmen
Fats Navarro tpt; Charlie Parker alt; Lennis Tristano p; Billy Bauer g; Tommy Potter bs; Buddy Rich d.
WOR Mutual Studios, New York City - Saturday, November 8, 1947.
Online discographies suggest that the earliest version by Bird was with Dizzy in 1945, but I can’t find that anywhere. (It’s on the Philology label so is probably some kind of bootleg/broadcast type thing.)
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Yeah I mean I do know the fretboard in the way you describe as well. I would consider it part of learning one’s instrument.
If it comes across sometimes like I'm being patronising, bear in mind it's because I have absolutely no idea how you play. The ability to talk eloquently online about music theory does not indicate to an ability to play - and vice versa. You may be an absolute beast or a rank beginner and I honestly don't know. So while I say, that doesn't mean I assume you're not a good player, it does mean that I don't really have much context for any of this.
On the other hand debating the value of the ideas of someone like Barry Harris seems.... A more or less complete waste of time. He knew more about this music than any of us could ever hope to, and some amazing students including many greats of jazz.
Doesn't mean it's right for you. Either you find it useful or you don't. But there's not much to debate there. (Although I can't imagine Barry would have recommended not learning how to construct all the chords etc on a given root note.) They are one of a number of things I have got a lot of use out of, and I recommend them.
For my own part, I have tried to explain why something like his approach to minor II V's might be useful and why one might want to practice that way. It took me a fair amount of time to get my head around it.
My analysis was an (old) attempt to reflect Barry’s way of teaching it. (Or maybe more accurately one aspect of Barry's teaching.) Not a lot more than that.
No analysis gives a complete picture.
Sent from my iPhone using TapatalkLast edited by Christian Miller; 05-01-2024 at 03:50 PM.
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Miles wrote it tho
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The Charlie Parker Omnibook credits it to Charlie (?)
Oh, there's some controversy about it....
Authorship. "Donna Lee" was originally attributed to Charlie Parker on the original 78-rpm recordings and was copyrighted under his name in 1947. However, in various interviews and publications since, Miles Davis has claimed to be the composer.
Heck, nothing new about that, Miles claimed to have composed many other people's tunes! It was copyrighted by Parker!
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This is standard Donna Lee lore.
Miles probably wrote it.
Who knows why it ended up that way …
Charlie Parker was the big cheese at the time and miles wasn’t well known. People cared less about songwriting provenance at the time. Publishers were famously uninterested in properly crediting black musicians in particular. All of the above. None of the above.
Christian maybe knows more?
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Well exhibit A is this known Miles composition of the same era
Which to me sounds much more like DL than any Parker composition I can think of. Maybe you can think of one?
I would say the heavy use of running scalar eighth notes is note something that shows up so much in Bird's heads... At least the ones I can think of off the top of my head.
Miles talked about learning 'running style trumpet' when he was getting it together.
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Why would Miles's word be taken? He was the jacker of all jackers. Read the wiki article:
Although Davis claimed being the author, noted composer, arranger Gil Evans in a radio interview on WKCR FM, NYC stated publicly that the true author of the piece was drummer Norman "Tiny" Khan who taught the melody to Davis who then taught it to Parker.
Donna Lee - Wikipedia
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Not just lore. There is a quite careful analysis in a volume edited by Dave Oliphant called The Bebop Revolution in Words and Music. The chapter by Douglas Parker "'Donna Lee' and the Ironies of Bebop" makes a solid case, tracing the whole story and the musical lines of dependence, that Miles Davis composed the tune and even talks a bit about why Davis did not seem able to play his own composition very well. It's a very interesting read loaded with musical examples.
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I bet it was Miles who called the tempo being the confident young man he was.
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Originally Posted by Christian Miller
Last edited by Bobby Timmons; 05-01-2024 at 07:59 PM.
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Originally Posted by Christian Miller
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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..."
Ed Cherry at Small Last Night (6/3/24)
Today, 09:07 PM in The Players