[Dixielandjazz] Louis Armstrong music writing abilities

[dwlit at cpcug.org]

> The Library of Congress has a lead sheet dated 1922 for "Cornet Chop
> Suey," clearly written in Armstrong's hand. Therefore he could write
> music. Other music from that time period, from his association with
> Oliver, is probably in Lil's hand. There are quite a lot of copyright
> deposits of tunes composed by Lil, Oliver and Louis and many appear to
> have been written by the same person.
>
> The big question is whether there is a copyright deposit on file for
> "Struttin." I have never seen one, but there is also a file card for each
> deposit of written music. If this music has gone astray, the file card may
> still exist, and the cards generally had more info on them than the music
> (full name of composer, addresses, publisher, etc.)
>
> Cheers,
> Chris

There are copyright submission lead sheets (no chord symbols, tho'
occasionally a chord's notes are written in) in 3 different hands: at
least one Oliver tune; several Louis tunes; and the majority in a hand
that typically writes the note heads backwards, that might be Lil's. My
question is "Who actually wrote the sheets and sent them to the Copyright
Office?"
Submissions typically are sent by publishers. The Fats Waller folders
contain many lead sheets with separate typed lyric sheets attached--surely
Fats didn't send 'em!

BTW, many of the sheets have indeed gone astray. Usually copyright
submissions are in the composer's folder, but apparently sometimes those
in leadsheet format might be in a classification number for "Lead sheets".
Most of the 1923 Olivers were not in the Oliver, Louis or Lil folders when
I looked for them while doing "Dixieland Fake Book Vols 1 & 2" in 2004-5.
Fortunately, Dave Sager and Chris Tyle had scanned them years before, so
they were able to send me copies.

BTW, Would-be researchers should note that individual tunes (sheet music,
lead sheets) are cataloged under and arranged on the shelves by
*composer*.
In the LoC system, there are separate numbers for different formats--eg
published orchestrations have a different classifation number.

Stomp Off used to publish bound catalogs w/supplements compiling the
fliers many of you probably receive listing/describing the latest batch of
CDs. These bound supplements contained an index to the albums that
included tune titles and composers thoroughly researched in the Copyright
files as well as reference books. The most recent supplement I have stops
with album 1324.

--Sheik
http://americanmusiccaravan.com