Talk:Donna Lee

Authorship
Really, IS it scholarly consensus that Miles wrote Donna Lee? I don't know many scholars who would support that claim. I mean, all signs point to him being full of hot air. It's very typical of Parker's style, even more so when you consider that it was written off the changes of another tune, something he did a lot. Something Miles did a lot was claim credit for songs he didn't write, like Blue in Green, etc. All the evidence for Miles writing it is his word, and his word isn't worth much.Havic5 06:25, 15 July 2007 (UTC)


 * @Havic5 I fully agree. 181.120.104.177 (talk) 13:23, 13 July 2022 (UTC)

^- Absolutely, it isn't. I've been examining Parker tunes for about a year now. Parker explores the chords much more in this tune than Miles ever did anywhere, which was really typical of him (Parker) everywhere. Miles was a minimalist player, who composed simple, yet catchy, 2 to 4 note leads, which is polar opposite to songs like "Donna Lee" or "Scrapple from the Apple". It may also be important to note that I have on an album a recording of Charlie Parker and Miles Davis playing "Donna Lee" at around 230 bpm. Miles makes numerous mistakes, and by this one can see that he either did not practice the tune enough, or he just couldn't match Parker technically (which would lead one to conclude that the tune WAS composed by Parker and not Miles). The song is standard Charlie Parker greatness. --65.92.47.177 08:15, 28 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Please see Wikipedia's official policy on no original research. The standard for inclusion is verifiability from published reliable sources. dissolve  talk  11:47, 23 February 2008 (UTC)
 * From JazzStandards.com: "Although for generations 'Donna Lee' has been credited to Charlie Parker, it was actually a Miles Davis composition based on the chord changes to 'Indiana.' The authorship of the tune came to light when Gil Evans (who later arranged some of Davis’ most successful albums) sought permission from Parker to arrange the song for Claude Thornhill’s Orchestra. Parker referred him to Davis who gave Evans the go-ahead. This information is confirmed by several sources including Brian Priestley’s Chasin’ the Bird: The Life and Legacy of Charlie Parker and Stephanie Stein Crease’s Gil Evans: Out of the Cool." Jafeluv (talk) 07:52, 14 December 2008 (UTC)
 * Chambers, Jack (1998). Milestones: The Music and Times of Miles Davis. De Capo Press. p. 61. ISBN 0306808498 and just about all other modern scholarship about the tune arrives at this same conclusion. I have reworded the article (changed by an anonymous editor) to indicate this. dissolve  talk  08:07, 14 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Miles is notorious for taking credit for other peoples work, and Donna Lee is no exception. Please stop printing fallacies in this article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.157.14.53 (talk) 19:37, 12 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Case closed, reliable sources confirm it was composed by Miles Davis. Congratulations to User:Havic and 65.92.47.177 for their competent musical "analysis".--Sum (talk) 10:39, 6 July 2010 (UTC)

Name of tune
There are two contradictory explanations in the article of who "Donna Lee" is. Considering that Mingus's autobiography is notoriously unreliable, is there any reason the story there should be included (or at least without a substantial warning)? -- & what's the cite for the identification of Donna Lee as Russell's kid? How reliable is the info there? --ND (talk) 20:37, 2 August 2010 (UTC)

Four note groups?
"utilizes a compositional style based around the usage of four note groups"

I genuinely don't know what this is referring to. Does it mean "four-note groups"? If so, which ones? I don't doubt there's some analytical point here but it's by no means obvious to me what it is. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.194.48.42 (talk) 20:42, 11 May 2012 (UTC)

Begins with a half-bar rest
Formally, the song may begin with a half-bar rest, but it is much easier to understand the song rhytmically if instead the fourth measurement is just half as long as the other measurements. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.254.121.212 (talk) 06:37, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

Authorship (again)
Regarding 's recent edit...you're right, there is no evidence for Parker's authorship, but Peter Spitzer sure makes a strong case. Eman 235 / talk 14:59, 7 July 2015 (UTC)

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