SwingDJs

Here's something I noticed recently.
Sweets Edison's solo in "Avenue C" (Basie, 1945), ends up being the melody to "Sweets" (Basie, 1950).
Coleman Hawkins solo in "One O'Clock Jump" (Metronome All Star Band, 1941), ends up the melody to "Feedin' the Bean" (Basie, 1941)
The first two bars of Cootie Williams solo in "Rockin' Rhythm" (Duke, 1933(?)), ends up as the melody to "Peckin" (Goodman/James, 1937).

Any other good solo quotes turned into songs?

Campus Five wrote:Here's something I noticed recently.
Sweets Edison's solo in "Avenue C" (Basie, 1945), ends up being the melody to "Sweets" (Basie, 1950).
Coleman Hawkins solo in "One O'Clock Jump" (Metronome All Star Band, 1941), ends up the melody to "Feedin' the Bean" (Basie, 1941)
The first two bars of Cootie Williams solo in "Rockin' Rhythm" (Duke, 1933(?)), ends up as the melody to "Peckin" (Goodman/James, 1937).

Any other good solo quotes turned into songs?

Neat. I love those kind of connections... I'll have to check those out.

I'd guess a lot of songs got their origins from some improvisations.

According to what I've read the Basie head arrangements owe a lot to solo motifs that arose while playing other songs. So pretty much every classic Basie song like OOJ, Woodside, Texas Shuffle, Every Tub etc. got their riffs from solos.

Not quite the same, but Wardell Gray's solo on "Twisted" was turned into vocalese by Annie Ross of Lambert, Hendricks and Ross.

I don't think this counts, but what about Happy Go Lucky Local / Night Train?

julius wrote:Not quite the same, but Wardell Gray's solo on "Twisted" was turned into vocalese by Annie Ross of Lambert, Hendricks and Ross.

Yeah, that stuff is cool...listening to the actual solo that was used when the vocalese person wrote down words. Gene Ammons' Red Top, James Moody's I'm In The Mood For Love, etc, etc.

Vocalese isn't the same thing. I'm a firm believer that songs that weren't written with words, generally shouldn't habe words.

I'll try to do some research. I think in "Beyond Category," there is some mention of Duke taking Bubber Miley's solos and turning them into other pieces.

Kalman

Shorty Dave wrote:I don't think this counts, but what about Happy Go Lucky Local / Night Train?

Actually the song was originally Johnny Hodges' That's the Blues Old Man.

The melody of "I'm checking out, Goombye" on Blue Rose [1956 collaboration of Rosemary Clooney and Duke Ellington/Billy Strayhorn] is the same as on "Barney Goin' Easy", [Ellington's Small Units; Barney Bigard and his Jazzopaters; 1935-1951].

"Barney goin' Easy" is an instrumental but sounds like a melody, not a solo, so I'd be curious to know when words were added or if it was composed as a song.

Duke recorded "I'm Checkin' Out" twice in 1939, but it wouldn't surprise me to hear that it was an instrumenal first. After all, "Never No Lament" was the original instrumental version of "Don't Get Around Much Anymore." As I said, songs that weren't written with words, generally shouldn't have words - although there are some exceptions. But c'mon -"Duke's Place" why bother? A vocal version of "Cottontail"? Ughhh....

More on topic, I was really referring to songs that were generated spontaneously out of other songs, or riffs, or solos. I wasn't really thinking about songs that had two different titles, or different lyric vs. instrumental versions. Obviously the Basie band of the late 30's, early 40's would be ground zero for that kind of creativity, I was just wondering if there are any other intresting momments like that.

I guess we should just burn all copies of "squeeze me don't tease me" (originally "subtle slough").

Campus Five wrote:As I said, songs that weren't written with words, generally shouldn't have words - although there are some exceptions. But c'mon -"Duke's Place" why bother? A vocal version of "Cottontail"? Ughhh....

I don't necessarily agree with this - I think there are a lot of melodies that are naturally lyrical. And the words give another layer of meaning - as I sit here all I can here is Ella singing "Duke's Place" in my head

Ella is allowed to sing whatever she damn well wants, even "Squatty Roo"

A good artist can still record crap. Just because it's Ella doesn't make it good.

I tend to agree.

I don't think there's a whole lot of artistic merit in the way lyrics were added to something like Opus One "...so they call it opus one". But turning something like 'Never No Lament' into 'Don't Get Around Much Anymore' seems to have more integrity about it.

trev wrote:I tend to agree.

I don't think there's a whole lot of artistic merit in the way lyrics were added to something like Opus One "...so they call it opus one". But turning something like 'Never No Lament' into 'Don't Get Around Much Anymore' seems to have more integrity about it.

There are exceptions to every rule. I'm a fan of the instrumental myself, so when a good instrumental is turned into a pop song, it's usually annoying.

Ella's conversions were like scatting over a song anyway, so I think there's how the exception often works with her.

Another almost exception is the way Jimmy Dorsey's "Sorghum Switch" was turned into "Coleslaw" by Jesse Stone. It's annoying too, but amusing at the same time. The song was just average to begin with, so turning it into an R&B novelty song didn't seem to hurt it.

For the record I never much cared for Don't Get Around Much Anymore. It's an ok tune, but not a favorite.