If your answer is 'Miles Davis', you are in good company but you're wrong. One of the most popular standards of modern jazz was written by jazz guitar great Chuck Wayne. The whole story has been told by Wayne himself in this Cadence interview (page 11): Wayne wrote it in 1946, Miles Davis heard it in a jam session and, years later, recorded it under his own name. After you know this, jazz history won't be changed and Davis' importance won't be reduced but I thought it was right to remember this wonderful guitarist giving him his due credits for that song.
How nice to give credit where due in the case of the fondly remembered Chuck Wayne. I saw him once in a duo appearance with the great Joe Puma in New Britain, CT at some highly unlikely biker bar back around 1978 roughly. What a joyful performance by both men, incredible licks and musicianship, true spontaneity and creativity. Thanks for the wonderful blog!
ReplyDeleteIs there any composition credited to Miles that he really wrote - appart from stuff like Jean-Pierre? It seems like he was into the habit of stealing other's copmpositions, recording them under his own name. Nardis is Bill Evans', by the way.
ReplyDeleteAnd 'Blue in green' too. This was probably one of the 'bad' sides of Davis, but as I said, this won't reduce his importance. In the case of 'Solar' the information is not widely known as for the Evans' ones, so I just wanted to give my contribute and pay hommage to Wayne.
ReplyDeleteFour, Tune Up, Half Nelson, Donna Lee (no, it's not Bird's either), Boplicity...
ReplyDeleteCHuck Wayne deserves this hommage!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments Imazighen. If you stay tuned, I'll post in the next days something interesting about Snoozer Quinn, one of the biggest cases of 'lost' jazz guitar greats. Hope to meet you here.
ReplyDeleteI'll be awaiting it, thanks, Fingerstyle!
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