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tune confusion


tooter

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Having just got the double album "The Transition Sessions" (Donald Byrd and Doug Watkins), I was surprised to see that on disc 2, track 7 is "Panonica". At first I thought it was just mis-spelt but then I noticed the composer is stated as Duke Jordan rather than Monk. When I got round to listening, the tune sounded familiar and I tracked it down (no pun intended - would be ashamed!) as "Two Loves", which is composed by DJ. It appears on several of his albums and on "Watkins at Large", as correctly stated in the notes on "Transition Sessions".

I thought this snippet might be helpful to any who encounter the same puzzle. ^_^ "Panonica" at AMG gives only the one occurence.

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Watch out, because "Two Loves" is really TWO compositions. One is titled "Sheila" and one is titled "Tracey" - I forget which is which off the top of my head.

This is exactly the kind of thing that I'm straightening out in my discographies. When you include composer credits you can do that. Rust, Jepsen, Raben, Bruyninckx, Lord don't include them and so there is rampant confusion when there are two or more tunes with the same (or even just similar) titles.

The Tete Montoliu discography was full of such confusion.

Mike

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I'm beginning to see the light! I have been puzzling about your first post, Mike, and wondering if I had failed to see something obvious. It's quite interesting, where these things lead. "Tracey" with an "e" is like Stan and Clark but the first name is usually without I think. I had no idea about his family. But why did he then call the tune "Panonica" I wonder, or is that just a mistake on "Transition Sessions"?

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Just noticed from the appendix to Mike and Noal Cohen's 'Rat Race Blues' book that 'Sheila (Pannonica)' is listed as one of the Melotone Music, Inc. publishing holdings administered at the time by Gigi Gryce.

So does this mean the DJ didn't write it at all then? Mike?

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Hi Tooter - table lists it as a Duke Jordan composition but published under one of Gryce's publishing companies. Maybe Mike can elaborate? (from the book it is clear that many musicians of the time got their tunes published by Gryce, who was something of a pioneer in this field).

Great book by the way.. :tup

Edited by sidewinder
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As you stated, many musicians published their compositions through Gigi's publishing companies, of which Melotone was one (Totem was another).

Gigi copyrighted these pieces in the form of a bunch of booklets, many of them written in pencil, under the name 'Modern Melodies Booklet' (or variations thereof). A given booklet could contain compositions by different composers, or some might contain works by just one composer (although I'm not absolutely sure about that - Mike could confirm this). In more than a few instances, these compositions remain unrecorded to this day. I gathered all of these booklets (there may still be one or two missing) as part of the Jazz Copyright collection at the Library of Congress. The booklets related to Gigi's publishing activities take up a whole box to themselves. There are twelve boxes in all; for example, another box is filled with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock's copyright deposits.

Mike and Noal did an amazing job inventorying the pieces in all the Gigi booklets, including identifying which pieces were unrecorded (no small task, believe me). The appendix is true work of art. Thanks to their efforts, the legacy of Gigi's pioneering (but ultimately unsuccessful) effort to protect the work of his fellow musicians has been preserved for researchers to investigate for years to come.

Bertrand.

Edited by bertrand
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OK, so maybe this is even more confusing.

I was taking my info on the spelling of Tracey and which of the Two Loves it is from the liner notes to the Savoy Trio/Quintet album by Duke Jordan.

Duke and Sheila were married from 1952-1962. So I would imagine that in 1956 they were still enamored with each other. It seems plausible that Duke Jordan would retitle a tune he had named "Sheila" after they split, but that's not when it happened.

Both "Sheila" and "Tracey" are in the Melotone catalog. This will certainly require another peek at the copyright deposits, which ought to be a snap since they've already been gathered - Bertrand?

And yes, absolutely one folio might have pieces by different composers. For example, in the same one folio as "Sheila" and "Tracey" is "Shuffle Boil", "Gallop's Gallop" and "Brake's Sake" by Monk, "Smoke Signal" by Gryce, "Speculation" by Horace Silver, "Blue Walk", "Long Way Home" and "The Strut" by Benny Golson, and other pieces by Jordan from those Signal sessions. The title of the folio is "Modern Melodies" and it was registered at the copyright office on November 28, 1955. The questions would be, was the alternate title on the original copyright deposit, was it on the second copyright (1958), did it have the misspelling, and does the music match with the first or second of the Signal recording version.

I don't know that I would characterize Gryce's efforts as "unsuccessful" because he brought so much awareness of the need for composers to retain their copyrights that it is now commonplace for jazz writers to have their own publishing company. Just the other night, Maxine Gordon (widow of Dexter) credited Gigi as the one who improved things in that regard. BTW she's done a lot of work on copyrights and studying contracts.

Mike

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