"Donna Lee" is a bebop jazz standard originally attributed to Charlie Parker, although Miles Davis also claimed authorship. Written in A-flat, it is based on the chord changes of the jazz standard "(Back Home Again in) Indiana". Beginning with an unusual half-bar rest, "Donna Lee" is a very complex, fast-moving chart with a compositional style based on four-note groups over each change.
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Authorship
"Donna Lee" was originally attributed to Charlie Parker on the original 78-rpm recordings and was copyrighted under his name in 1947. Revelations in various interviews and publications have since shown that Miles Davis also claimed to be the composer. Among these is a statement Davis made in his autobiography:
"I wrote a tune for the album called 'Donna Lee,' which was the first tune of mine that was ever recorded. But when the record came out it listed Bird [Parker] as the composer. It wasn't Bird's fault, though. The record company just made a mistake."
Recordings
"Donna Lee" was originally recorded by the Charlie Parker Quintet on May 8, 1947 for Savoy Records in New York City. Performers for the session were Charlie Parker (alto saxophone), Miles Davis (trumpet), Bud Powell (piano), Tommy Potter (bass), and Max Roach (drums). "Donna Lee" was the first of four tunes recorded during the session and was recorded over four full takes, the fourth being the master take.
Jazz bassist Jaco Pastorius recorded his interpretation of "Donna Lee," a solo electric bass rendition featuring Don Alias on congas, for his debut album Jaco Pastorius (1976). Of Pastorius's performance, peer and contemporary Pat Metheny said:
His solo on ‘Donna Lee,’ beyond being astounding for just the fact that it was played with a hornlike phrasing that was previously unknown to the bass guitar, is even more notable for being one of the freshest looks at how to play on a well traveled set of chord changes in recent jazz history—not to mention that it’s just about the hippest start to a debut album in the history of recorded music.”
The composition has been recorded many times by avant-garde saxophonist Anthony Braxton, including a cut for his album called Donna Lee. Other artists include Tito Puente (Latin jazz composer and performer), Nick Brignola, Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh (saxophone), Clifford Brown, Wallace Roney and Ryan Kisor (trumpet), and Karrin Allyson (piano/vocal scat). In 2012, the Luso-Cape Verdean singer Carmen Souza made her own version, with lyrics in Cape-Verdean Creole, which she wrote herself, and published in the LP Kachupada.
Beyond Jazz
The song is referenced in the guitar solo on Canadian rock band Coney Hatch's song "Monkey Bars" from their eponymous album.
Name origin
The piece is most likely named after bassist Curly Russell's daughter, Donna Lee Russell.
Charles Mingus offers an alternative origin in his quasi-autobiography, Beneath the Underdog, which describes a period in his life when he had two "wives" named Donna and Lee-Marie. Allegedly, when he introduced them to Davis, Mingus referred to them as "Donna-Lee" because he perceived them both as a single wife.