A "Precursor" -- to put it lightly -- of "Donna Lee." Tiny Kahn's "Tiny's Con."

[Larry Kart]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fayt31lQiDI

 

Aaron Sachs and the Manor Re Bops: Aaron Sachs (cl) Terry Gibbs (vib) Gene Di Novi (p) Clyde Lombardi (b) Tiny Kahn (d) 1158 " Tiny's Con" Manor 1124 New York, June 8, 1946.

 

Written by drummer-composer-arranger Tiny Kahn. A forerunner of Miles Davis’s “Donna Lee,” 

recorded by Charlie Parker in 1947. 

Do you think Miles copped it?

 

[JSngry]

Not at all a a cop, too many differences.

But as an early bebop line on "Indiana" changes, yeah, it is that.

[AllenLowe]

I agree with Larry, there are a lot of pieces of it in that, at least rhythmically, mirror Donna Lee.

Edited March 6, 2023 by AllenLowe

[Larry Kart]

In the words of Judge Roy Be-Bop,  'There are a lot of  pieces of it that "Donna Lee" mirrors -- not that "mirror 'Donna Lee'."

[JSngry]

Overlay the two lead sheets. 

[Big Beat Steve]

Thanks for bringing this (back) to everyone's attention. The tune (along with the entire session) is more easily available (offline, i.e. outside YT) on Xanadu 124 (Bebop Revisited Vol. 2).

Edited March 7, 2023 by Big Beat Steve

[sgcim]

I probably posted here about how Aaron Sachs gave me the record with that Tiny Kahn tune, and asked me to transcribe it, to see how close it was to "DL".

I told him it had strong similarities, but it wasn't a ripoff.

Phil Schaap had Aaron on his show, just to talk about the evolution of Donna Lee.

When we used to play it on a gig, Aaron would say, "Let's play that line they wrote on Donna Lee."

This fostered the impression that they might have started out with Tiny's tune, and then each player would subtract or add parts to it over time, until they arrived at what we now know as Donna Lee. Jazz was a more communal, jam session art back in Aaron's time, and everybody played with everyone else after their commercial gigs, and would come up with contrafacts in that manner.

Those cats used to jam in The Bronx over Aaron's parent's house.

[Brad]

Some similarities but I go with that there are pieces that DL mirrors.