Stomp Off 1001 - Dickbaker.org

Smith, an article titled “Jelly Roll Morton --Plagiarist?”-- www.vjm.biz/new_page_8.htm:[Describes the later 1929-30 recordings byMorton as popularly and commerciallyunsuccessful.] The titles recorded in 1929and 1930 [in NY] were "published" by theVictor-affiliated Southern Music Company.The word published is given in quotes asthey were never actually published but onlyregistered at the Library of Congress (andnot at the time of recording but at the time ofissue which meant up to five years later!).So, while King Oliver was quite successfulwith "his" Mule Face Blues and BoogieWoogie (published as stocks by SouthernMusic; actually written by Dave Nelson),Morton was left out in the cold.How can this decline be explained? Had helost his creative ability to compose when hereached New York? Certainly none of the1929-1940 tunes was outstanding. Is thiswhy he apparently stole tunes? According toHarrison Smith (the West Indian sharingoffice with Jelly mentioned in Lomax’ book),18 of the 26 tunes he recorded for Victorbetween December, 1929 and October,1930 and three of the titles recorded forGeneral in 1940 were stolen. In two articlesin Record Research in 1957 (# 11 and 13)he listed these and showed what he claimedwere the original titles. I repeat this list belowas many present-day VJM readers may nothave these RR issues.[Goes on to list 21 titles, listing the “real”composers and in many cases the “real”titles. Claims that he and Ben Harrisonwrote “Bluebird.”]Harrison Smith (1895- c. 1980) was active inthe music business in New York from 1913.He was manager, agent and, from 1925,music publisher. According to his owntestimony, he never composed anything butwrote many lyrics, so the composer of themajority of these titles would be BenGarrison. He was "a ghost writer for Jelly RollMorton, was formerly a staff arranger for[Arthur] Fields – [Fred] Hall, ClarenceWilliams, etc. He was a native of Columbia,South Carolina" (HS in RR # 13). No furtherinformation is available.The author, Björn Englund, then points outthat several of the tunes claimed claimed bySmith had been recorded and copyrightedsome years before by Morton, so it’s hard toknow how much credence to give his claim.But from his copyright remarks, I presumewe’ll find Smith & Garrison holding thecopyright to “Bluebird,” whether they wrote itor not.The other titles in the Smith list are...Blue Blood Blues -- “really” Majestic Stompby Hector MarcheseDon’t Tell Me Nothing ’bout My Man -- reallyby Smith-GarrisonEach Day -- Sing A Little Song Each Day bySmith-GarrisonFickle Fay Creep -- Just A Lonely Echo bySmith-GarrisonGambling Jack -- All Girls Are Beautiful Girlsby Smith-GarrisonHarmony Blues -- Honeymoon Farm byGarrisonIf Someone Would Only Love Me --(Gee I BeHappy) If Someone Would Only Love Meby Smith-GarrisonMushmouth Shuffle -- You Taught Me HowTo Love by Billie RossMy Little Dixie Home -- by Smith-GarrisonOil Well -- I Know Something Now (That IDidn’t Know Before) by Gene BackPonchatrain -- I’m Always Sharing You byHector MarchesePrimrose Stomp -- Aunty, Got A Border Nowby Charley PearsonSmilin’ The Blues Away -- by Smith-GarrisonStrokin’ Away -- Kisses From You by HectorMarcheseThat’ll Never Do -- Ne Var by Smith-GarrisonThat’s Like It Ought To Be --(There’s NothingFunny About That) That’s Like It OughtaBe by Roy Evans & Harrison SmithTurtle Twist -- Turtle Walk by Tosh Hammed& Ben GarrisonMy Home Is In A Southern Town -- byJohnny Lee LongSweet Substitute -- by Hector MarcheseSwingin’ The Elks -- The Old Swimming Holeby Hector MarcheseVictor does have Morton as composer on hisrecording of it (23004, 12/17/29), but theprimary Jelly Roll Morton site(www.doctorjazz.co.uk) links to that sameHarrison Smith article, so it must give somecredence to it.However, in the book for 1930 we findI'm looking for a little bluebird; melody by J.R. Morton. © 1 c. Sept. 26, 1930; E unp.28396; Southern music pub. co., inc., NewYork.But in the University of Chicago Library we findthis sheet music:“I’m Looking for a Little Bluebird (To CheerMe Up With a Little Song),” Harrison Smith,music by Ben Garrison; Harrison SmithMusic Publisher, 1949.And indeed, in the 1949 copyright book wefindI'm looking for a little bluebird, to cheer mewith a little song; words by Harrison Smith,music by Ben Garrison, arr. by Aletha MaeRobinson. © Harrison Godwin Smith;24Dec49; EP42924.And note that athttp://memory.loc.gov/service/music/eadxmlmusic/eadpdfmusic/mu2005.wp.0027.pdfunder the rubric Guides to Special Collectionsin the Music Division of the Library ofCongress, we find Jelly Roll Morton Collection.I divides its Jelly Roll holdings into twocategories: “Music Composed or Arranged byJRM” and “Music Performed by JRM,Composed by Others.” “Bluebird” is in the“composed by” section, citing “manuscriptlead sheet” and the 1930 copyright asevidence.I’m sorry, but this smells to high heaven.Harrison Smith pops up in 1947 claiming thatJelly stole “Bluebird” from him clear back in1929; then in 1949 he copyrights the pieceand publishes it--himself. In the 1947 articlehe gives no evidence, but seeks to impuneJelly’s claim by stating that Jelly & SouthernMusic didn’t “publish” the tune (in sheet musicform) but only registered a copyright.Well here’s what: the vast majority of thepure jazz titles in this index weren’t publishedas sheet music either. Ragtime and Tin PanAlley pop songs were published first, thenrecorded, but jazz titles generally wererecorded first (and probably never publishedin print): The record itself was theirpublishing.Jelly Roll copyrighted and recorded the tunein 1929; Victor “published” the work on itsrecord number 23004 with his name on it ascomposer.Why didn’t Harrison speak up at the time? Acompany as big as Victor publishing a workby an artist as well kn own as Morton surelywouldn’t have gone unnoticed, but Harrisoncomes along 18 years later (conveniently afterMorton had died) and claims he really wroteit? Phooey!I’ll bounce this off Butch Thompson andJames Dapogny, but for now I’m switchingthis back to JRM. [Butch responded, agreeswith me entirely.]I’m More Than Satisfied (Fats Waller–Raymond Klages)Keith Nichols Cotton Club Gang 1242Red Rose Ragtime Band 1360ASM, 1927, Robbins; m. Waller/w. Ray Klages,but we’re using Raymond everywhere else..I’m Nobody’s Baby (Benny Davis–Milton Ager–Lester Santly)Keith Nichols Cotton Club Gang 1242Barbara Rosene 1368Rec. Mildred Bailey, 4/2/40, Columbia 35626.Tommy Dorsey, 4/10/40, Victor 26609, HMVEA-2603. Benny Goodman 4/10/40, Columbia