Miles Davis: Origins of "Donna Lee," 1 of 2. Guest Post by John Purcell

[John Purcell is a Boston alto saxophonist with a lifelong interest in Charlie Parker and his music, and a Founding Member of this Playback. His Charlie Parker essays can be found here, and he continues to post there a monthly column, Parkeology, which explores Bird’s music in detail. The following essay, in two parts, was written especially for us, and is a good example of what you will find in his columns. 

First, some background: Charlie Parker and Miles recorded “Donna Lee”on May 8, 1947, and the 78 rpm disk was advertised for sale by August. Claude Thornhill’s band recorded the Gil Evans arrangement of it on November 6, 1947. We know now that it was written by Miles, and that Savoy credited Parker because he was under contract to them. I explained the finances of this once common practice in an earlier essay. According to the late Ira Gitler, who was on the scene, the tune was named for bassist Curley Russell’s daughter, probably by the producer, Teddy Reig, as was often the case. (This practice was so common that naming tunes will be the subject of a separate essay.) Now, here’s John’s essay:]

Origins of "Donna Lee,” Part 1 of 2

by John Purcell

“Donna Lee”…was the first tune of mine that was ever recorded. But when the record came out it listed Bird as the composer. It wasn't Bird's fault though. The company just made a mistake and I didn’t lose no money or nothing. It was through “Donna Lee” that I met Gil Evans. He had heard the tune and went to see Bird about doing something with it. Bird told him that it wasn’t his tune but that it was mine. Miles: The Autobiography—pp. 103-104)

Bird didn’t write “Donna Lee.” Period. Miles wrote “Donna Lee.”

This much-discussed topic may be old news to some, but these two essays mark the first time that all the relevant audio clips have been collected and compared. These clips demonstrate that Miles adapted a few phrases from two existing tunes when he composed “Donna Lee,” but that the final result is unique and original.

Nothing about “Donna Lee” (based on the changes to the 1917 standard “Indiana”) suggests that it was written by Bird, so we can leapfrog that discussion entirely, especially given the above quote. Just the fact that the melody sits ridiculously high on alto saxophone is enough to rule it out, let alone the unbroken chains of eighth-notes, grouped squarely into four-bar blocks. Bird’s compositions are characterized by their sophisticated rhythmic construction, and never ever employ long strings of eighth-notes.

The mixup began when Savoy listed Bird as the composer, plain as day, on the label of the original 78 rpm release. [Lewis notes: The label has three errors, probably made by producer Teddy Reig—Tommy Potter is called Charlie, Parker's first name is spelled Charley, and Max's last name is given as Roache. However, "Chas" is OK, as that was a standard shortening of Charles.)

Bird is still listed as the composer today. [Lew notes: In fact, the Parker estate has been vigilant about collecting money for it. The sentence above, “The company just made a mistake and I didn’t lose no money,” may have been added for legal reasons. But as I have shown, companies often did this on purpose, not by mistake. And Miles certainly did lose money—it has been recorded about 400 times to this day.]

Those who took this credit to Parker at face value can certainly be forgiven, since the melody often draws directly from Bird’s vocabulary. In this respect, it has a lot in common with “Little Willie Leaps” (Savoy Records, August 14, 1947), which nobody disputes is by Miles. Some argue that Miles, at age twenty, was too inexperienced to have written “Donna Lee,” and cite as evidence that he had difficulty executing the theme. But did he? Everyone was having trouble with everything on this surprisingly starcrossed date, which commemorated Bird’s “homecoming” from L.A. Of the five frustrating takes of “Donna Lee,” none is scuttled by Miles alone, and in general he plays the head competently. (Takes 2 and 3 are here.)

Concerning experience, no one would deny that Miles was still finding his footing in 1947, but his harmonic sophistication had been evident from the start, residing just below the surface of his tentative early solos. In short, nothing in “Donna Lee” is beyond his ken, and many phrases have a clear connection to his solo ideas. (I will provide a leadsheet in Part 2 of this essay.)

And here’s the head from Master Take 5, the one that was issued on 78 rpm (complete track in Part 2):

Disbelievers embarked on a search for precursors to “Donna Lee,” and Miles’s reputation as a tune stealer may have provided some impetus. [Lewis notes: It’s ironic that in this case Miles was the victim, not the supposed “thief.” But in fact I have demonstrated that it was usually the record companies who listed the wrong composers, for financial reason—not Miles, Bird, or any of the musicians.] This search turned up two prime suspects: the theme of drummer-composer Tiny Kahn’s punningly titled “Tiny’s Con” (6/8/46) and Fats Navarro’s trumpet solo on “Ice Freezes Red” (1/27/47), co-credited to Tadd Dameron. [Lew notes: In Ira Gitler’s book Swing to Bop, p.133, Dexter Gordon says the latter title was somebody’s witty way of paying tribute to two of the most loyal bop fans, “Ice” from D.C. and Bob “Red” Redcross, a friend and employee of several musicians.] Bud Powell played piano with Bird and Miles on “Donna Lee,” so his recording of “Indiana” from 1/10/47 was also wanted for questioning. But although it’s an amazing performance, there is no musical similarity with “Donna Lee.” [Lew adds: There’s a slight similarity to the theme of “Ice Freezes..” at 2:07, but that’s probably not meaningful.]

In the next essay we will look closely at “Tiny’s Con” and Navarro’s solo to see exactly how they compare with “Donna Lee.”

John Purcell

[THANK YOU, JOHN! Part 2 coming soon!

All the best,
Lewis

P.S. John is not related to the multi-reed player of the same name who recorded with Jack DeJohnette and others from the late 1970s through the 1990s. Don’t forget John’s Charlie Parker essays here. Click on that or cut and paste this: charlieparkercentennial.com ]