User talk:Vmavanti

"Power is poison" -Henry Adams

Fixing links to DAB pages
Keep up the good work, and keep the pressure on. I hope that you beat me in this month's DAB Challenge – because if you do, I will have the pleasure of awarding you a very rare barnstar. Narky Blert (talk) 21:27, 16 January 2018 (UTC)

Nice :)
Vm - just read a few of your remarks, not sure what an adult is doing here but thought I'd give you a thumbs up. Nice :) 172.58.40.87 (talk) 02:11, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

Another thumbs up. Sojambi Pinola (talk) 03:57, 25 October 2019 (UTC)

Researcher with a Question
Hi Vmavanti. I'm not sure if this is the right way to get in touch with you, I'm new to Wikipedia and this seems to be the only way to get in touch, but I apologize if this was not the best way to message you. I'm doing work as a researcher looking into the lyrics to "Take the 'A' Train" and I noticed on the Wikipedia article for Take the "A" Train that you wrote:

"The lyrics used by the Ellington band were added by Joya Sherrill, who was 20 at the time (1944). She made up the words at her home in Detroit, while the song played on the radio. Her father, a noted Detroit activist, set up a meeting with Ellington. Owing to Joya's remarkable poise and singing ability and her unique take on the song, Ellington hired her as a vocalist and adopted her lyrics."

However, you did not source this on the article. I have primary sources proving this whole story except for the fact that Ellington definitively adopted her lyrics. It is my belief that he did but this is based on conjecture, not proof. I was wondering where you got your source for this claim or if it is also a well-informed guess, as mine is.

Also if there is a better way to contact you via Wikipedia please message me or e-mail me through Wikipedia, I'm not sure how reliably I will be checking this page. Menaye (talk) 17:25, 6 June 2023 (UTC)


 * This is the right place to contact me. Thank you for your respectful question and diligence. I haven't worked on Wikipedia for years. I recall nothing about this particular matter (and v. little about Wikipedia in general) but I will dig a bit. I have a lot going on in the real world right now, much on my mind, but I will try to respond to you when I can. Thank you. Vmavanti (talk) 19:27, 6 June 2023 (UTC)
 * I doubt I wrote that section. I never use the construction "Owing to". It's lousy writing. I don't talk that way or write that way. In fact, I'm confident in saying I have never used "owing to" in speech or writing. For another reason, I usually disliked articles about songs. I spent a fair amount of time trying to get them deleted. These kinds of article were nearly always thin and poorly sourced. There simply wasn't enough published information out there to build a substantive article. Nor was there a large audience for it. Niche within a niche within a niche. Largely a waste of time.
 * I have Ellington's autobiography, Music is My Mistress. On p. 216, Ellington quotes Sherrill telling her story: "I had written a set of lyrics to 'Take the A Train' and had come to the theatre to sing it for you...You called Billy Strayhorn to the piano. He played, I sang, and you listened. After I had finished, you asked me to sing something else, and I sang three other songs."
 * Nothing here about Ellington approving of her lyrics. But she did join the band after she finished school, and she did sing "Take the A Train" again with her lyrics. I can check some other books, but I don't have any more that are only about Ellington. You might try Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington by Terry Teachout. Maybe I can check that at the library. I don't listen to jazz anymore. Recently I considered getting rid of all my jazz books. I don't know if I helped you much. But that's my brief look at the matter. Vmavanti (talk) 02:08, 7 June 2023 (UTC)
 * I looked this up in Ted Gioia's book The Jazz Standards. No doubt, Joya Sherrill wrote the lyrics for Take The A Train while she was a high school student in Detroit. I didn't know it had lyrics. It's an interesting article by Gioia. Ellington was a real womanizer—and the women didn't seem to mind. In fact, the article gave me the impression that the only reason Ellington invited her to the studio was so he could have an affair with her, as he did with many of his singers. So long as it's consensual, I guess, that's the usual defense. At least he waited until she graduated. Vmavanti (talk) 00:29, 8 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Thank you for the help. Apologies that I thought you wrote that section, I must've misread the edit history. And I found similar things about Joya Sherrill from similar sources. Other articles you might find interesting on this subject are "A Blues Singer Looks Back," May 25, 1979 in the NYT, and her obit in 2010 in the NYT. Both confirm the story of her writing lyrics in high school. This story is easy to find but it's harder to find definitive proof that these lyrics she wrote in high school were the actual lyrics used in the song. The matter is further complicated by the fact that there are 2 different sets of lyrics to the song, one that Ellington used in live performances, and another used on records. Who contributed to these lyrics is muddy between the likes of Billy Strayhorn, Joya Sherrill, and Ortho Lee Gaines (member of the Delta Rhythm Boys who made the first recorded vocal version of Take the A Train with lyrics).
 * I suspect we won't ever fully know and will be left to best guesses. As you acknowledge, Ellington was a real womanizer, and Sherrill seems to have been star struck as a young 15 year old who probably would not complain about Ellington using her lyrics uncredited. 2601:18D:4500:47F0:608F:D02A:B124:8FC9 (talk) 15:51, 8 June 2023 (UTC)

Kurt Rosenwinkel
Hi, thanks for your message. It's the paragraph starting "Rosenwinkel's musical contributions ... ", which is unsourced and contains some non-neutral wording like "iconic". Best wishes, Tacyarg (talk) 08:11, 2 October 2023 (UTC)

Broken anchors
I fixed most of those broken anchors you asked about at the help desk. (I used to run a bot that dealt with these things) I haven't decided what to do about the following ones yet as they are non-trivial. I'll look at them again tomorrow.

Don Ellis Orchestra : I can't find the broken anchor

Free Country (album) : Looks like a false positive caused by the template

Music from Other Galaxies and Planets : Princess Leia's Theme

Soprillo : Looks like another false positive caused by the template

Straight No Chaser (magazine) : Bookogs

The George Benson Collection : White Rabbit

Traveling Miles : Run the Voodoo Down Probably best just to link to the main Bitches Brew article. Winston365 (talk) 07:38, 11 October 2023 (UTC)


 * Thanks very much! — Vmavanti (talk) 13:21, 11 October 2023 (UTC)

Wardell Gray
So what exactly was the problem with the discography listing in Wardell Gray that you removed in September, 2023? Possibly the article reference numbering (which was just removed, but you didn't) is out of place, and maybe the formatting was, but a lot of factual releases of Wardell Gray (perhaps mostly CD, but unreleased material comes out that way) are no longer in the article.Finney1234 (talk) 01:14, 25 January 2024 (UTC)
 * Have you compared it to other discographies on Wikipedia?—Vmavanti (talk) 01:44, 25 January 2024 (UTC)
 * Can you point to what you consider a solid discography or (even better) a Wikipedia guideline about discographies? My major concern is that you removed a lot of relevant releases rather than simply reformatting them. (Yes, the article does not have the encyclopedic references that it should..but there's a huge number of music articles that are decent and truthful but have the same issue)Finney1234 (talk) 02:02, 25 January 2024 (UTC)
 * The best thing you can do is learn how other discographies are formatted. There is no ideal discography off the top of my head, but the previous discography I altered was radically different from every other discography on Wikipedia. So even a quick glance at most any page will reveal the differences. Read WP's rules. Read what I have written on my Userpage. For example, no compilations. No re-releases. Generally no 78s. Try to stick to American releases for American musicians. No catalog numbers. No recording dates. No extraneous data. Keep it simple: Title, record label, year of release. It doesn't have to be complete or exhaustive. I have found the most reliable sources for discography to be 1) the actual recording in your hand 2) Discogs.com. All material on Wikipedia must be sourced, and that usually includes discographies. The discography I wrote looks pretty solid to me. If you are getting info from other sources, you need to reveal what those sources are, then we decide whether they are acceptable sources. Thanks.—Vmavanti (talk) 03:16, 25 January 2024 (UTC)