"Four" authorship

[Larry Kart]

It's fairly well known that two tunes often attributed to Miles Davis, "Four" and "Tune Up"," were in fact written by Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson.But listening to a recording of "Four" by Lennie Niehaus I noticed that the tune was attributed to one Clarence Gaskill, a lyricist  best known for the lyric to  "I Can't Believe the You're in Love with Me." I assume that the credit to Gaskill for "Four" is just an odd mistake.

[JSngry]

He died in 1948, if that helps.

[Larry Kart]

I'm pretty sure it was just an odd error. The man was a lyricist, not a composer, and without any apparent jazz associations to boot. I'd always heard that "Four," like "Tuneup," was a Vinson creation.

[sonnymax]

From Wiki: "Because he was very knowledgeable about the music business and copyright laws, Gaskill was able to use that to his advantage. He claimed composer credit on Christmas songs and nursery rhymes like, Jingle Bells, Adeste Fideles, The Farmer in the Dell, and Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star."

[mhatta]

I guess Clarence Gaskill was like Irving Mills (many of Duke Ellington's songs) and Richard Carpenter (Walkin'), who are music publishers who would sneak credits into other people's songs.

BTW, are there any songs that Miles Davis definitely wrote himself until '70s, except some blues lines?  Seems the authorship for most of the tunes attributed to Miles have been disputed.  "Four" & "Tune Up" (actually by Eddie Cleanhead Vinson?  Are there Cleanhead's own recordings?), "Donna Lee" (based on "Tiny's Con" by Tiny Kahn?), "Solar" (aka "Sonny" by Chuck Wayne?), "Walkin'" (aka "Gravy" by Gene Ammons?), "Nardis" (by Bill Evans?), "So What" (based on "Pavanne" by Ahmad Jamal?), etc.

[JSngry]

Bill Evans has attributed Nardis as being all Miles'. 

[mhatta]

12 hours ago, JSngry said:

Bill Evans has attributed Nardis as being all Miles'. 

I meant "Blue In Green", but I wonder if "Nardis" was really written by Miles?  Miles never played it, and it sounds Gil Evans or George Russell-ish to me.

[sonnymax]

43 minutes ago, mhatta said:

I meant "Blue In Green", but I wonder if "Nardis" was really written by Miles?  Miles never played it, and it sounds Gil Evans or George Russell-ish to me.

So, Bill Evans' word isn't good enough? 

[EKE BBB]

19 hours ago, mhatta said:

"Four" & "Tune Up" (actually by Eddie Cleanhead Vinson?  Are there Cleanhead's own recordings?)

[T.D.]

1 hour ago, sonnymax said:

So, Bill Evans' word isn't good enough? 

I'll take Bill Evans's word on Nardis. As many times as Bill played/recorded that tune, he's got to be the authority. 🤣

Edited March 23, 2023 by T.D.
sp

[sgcim]

There was a tradition of the leader taking all the credit for any tunes a new sideman wrote if they wanted to play on their first album with the group.

In his autobiography, Charles Fox talks about his career as a jazz pianist. He was playing for Dizzy's group, and it came time for them to make an album. Dizzy wanted to record a suite that Fox wrote, and Fox was overjoyed. Then Dizzy told Fox that he wanted credit for Fox' Suite.

That was the end of Fox' career as a jazz musician...