[Dixielandjazz] Fwd: Song Plagiarism - was - Night Train

[Harry Callaghan]

And here I was thinking that Paul Harvey had died,...but he's still living
in Philadelphia and playing clarinet under the name of Steve Barbone.

Just kidding, Steve....... always appreciative of words of wisdom,
especially from you or our very knowledgeable "man down under", Bill
Haeslar, who constantly run circles around me..........primarily cause I'm
too lazy to do much more than stand in the middle of one.

I don't believe I've heard the name Savoy since I got out of the record
business many years ago, but I'm sure I've got several items in my
collection on the label.

I would suspect that Lubinsky's inspiration for the name of his company
might have been by "Stomping at the Savoy" in an effort to give it a real
jazz flavor

While I don't have any of their recording artists' names at my fingertips, I
was also impressed with whoever named their label "Prestige", not so much as
to giving it a  jazz flavor but defiintely expressing a sense of dignity.

I remember that RCA Victor had a few subsidiaries, notably, Camden, Groove,
and one called "X", which they latter changed to Vik......surprising they
left out "Nipper", which was of course the name of the dog listening to "His
Master's Voice"

HC


 On 2/24/10, Stephen G Barbone <barbonestreet at earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> Song plagiarism in one form or another has been going on for centuries. But
> like Harry C says, that doesn't make it right.
>
> In our time (if you are over 70) perhaps the most prolific facilitator of
> the trend to "copy" was Herman Lubinsky a tightwad music entrepreneur from
> Newark NJ. He had a record store there and also ran Savoy Records from his
> store. With Savoy, his raison d'etre was to make and sell records, without
> paying royalties for the music. Toward that end, he hired "producers" who
> would line up jazz and R & B musicians to record "original" compositions.
> Then pay the musicians for the recording sessions but not paying royalties
> to anyone. (He owned the music recorded at the sessions as far as his
> records were concerned)
>
> Teddy Reig was one such producer who got Charlie Parker to record
> "originals" since Lubinsky would not pay money for other peoples tunes. And
> his deal was to pay the jazz musicians for the sessions, but not for the
> music which Lubinsky would now own regarding Savoy Record Sales. At one
> point, Parker needed a final tune for a session and wrote it on the spot. He
> simply took a jazz standard, Cherokee, and transformed it into Koko. Result
> no royalties at all for Lubinsky on the record..
>
> But Parker did not steal the Cherokee melody, only the chord changes. Koko
> is really a different tune and therefore is somewhat original. This was done
> all the time in music. e.g. "Five Feet Two" uses the same chord changes as
> "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone" and "Darkness on The Delta" but
> they are very different melodies.
>
> However, here's the rest of the story. During that same 1945 session
> produced by Teddy Reig, Parker wrote and recorded another original called
> Now's The Time. Uptempo blues built upon a riff. Lo an behold, some 3 years
> later during another Teddy Reig produced session at Savoy, Paul Williams
> records a tune called The Huckle-Buck. As you will remember, Huckle-Buck
> became a huge Rhythm and Blues Hit using the exact same riff as Parker's
> Now's The Time.
>
> Reig, ever the consummate smoothie justified the steal with: "The one was
> jazz and the other was rock & roll, and we were hungry. And Lubinski owned
> everything anyway." And Paul Williams would say that it was not the same
> song because . . . one song used a frenetic be-bop Alto while the other used
> a loping Tenor. Yeah, right.
>
> In any event, with lyrics added later, Hucklebuck became a huge R & B hit,
> went to the top of the charts, sold over a half million copies and breaking
> just about all records for popularity back then.
>
> And the money came pouring in for Lubinsky, while Parker felt cheated.
>
> Funny, how the exact same tune is trashed by some on one hand as being
> be-bop, yet becomes a huge R & B hit beloved by others. Funnier still is how
> Reig and Lubinsky made fortunes from cheating musicians who cheated other
> musicians by plagiarizing. Who said "You Can't Cheat a Cheater?"
>
> Cheers,
> Steve Barbone
> www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband
>
>
>
>
>
>
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-- 
Music you grew up listening to
Or when we're done you'll wish
you grew up listening to.

Callaghan's Corner
on okom.com
7a & 7p Eastern Sat & Sun

-- 
Music you grew up listening to
Or when we're done you'll wish
you grew up listening to.

Callaghan's Corner
on okom.com
7a & 7p Eastern Sat & Sun