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Dizzy and an Answer to Theft

Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2004-11-12 17:14

Here's a great article on Dizzy Gillespie http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2004/11/11/bmdizz.xml&sSheet=/arts/2004/11/11/ixartleft.html, which, incidentially, has the definitive answer to complaints that flute players have "stolen" the Brahms First Sonata:

"Some earlier jazz musicians were worried about others 'stealing' their stuff. Gillespie's attitude was very different. It was summed up by a memorable remark he once made about his close friend, Charlie 'Yardbird' Parker. 'Bird gave the world his music, and if you can hear it you can have it. You can't steal a gift.'"

Best regards.

Ken Shaw

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Re: Dizzy and an Answer to Theft

Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2004-11-12 17:56

That is a beautiful thing that Dizzy said!

Perhaps our ultimate goal as musicians (quite apart from any consideration of fame or finances) should be that what comes out of our horns be perceived by listeners as "a gift" rather than "noise".

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Re: Dizzy and an Answer to Theft

Author: GBK
Date: 2004-11-12 19:24

"...Bird gave the world his music, and if you can hear it you can have it. You can't steal a gift..."

Unfortunately that defense wouldn't have held up in the George Harrison case - or any other plagiarism case.

http://www.ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/law/library/cases/case_brightharrisongs.html ...GBK

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Re: Dizzy and an Answer to Theft

Author: msloss
Date: 2004-11-12 20:39

It is an interesting conundrum. How many of the great classical works across history are based on prior work? Should Brahms have been sued for writing variations on Haydn? For that matter, should Haydn have been sued for writing that chorale in the first place since it was based on an Austrian hymn?

All composers have to stand on the shoulders of those that come before them. We have no lingua franca to speak if works aren't somewhat derivative of each other.

The question is, where is the line between inspiration and plagiarism? Sampling by any other name is (or was) Musique Concrete. To my knowledge Schafer and Stockhausen didn't get sued for unlicensed use of train sounds. Unfortunately, art and commercialism collide on this subject, and somebody could unfairly benefit from repackaging another's original work.

Dizzy's sentiment is pure of heart, and many of us have borrowed a lick from the Bird... and gotten paid for the gig. I suspect it is pure economics at work. Scratching out a living like so many jazzers do, borrowing a riff is an "homage". A rapper sampling Parliament Funkadelic and going double-Platinum, well that's "stealing". I wonder where the line is. Probably where the cost of the lawyers intersects the potential settlement revenue...

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Re: Dizzy and an Answer to Theft

Author: allencole
Date: 2004-11-12 20:43

I don't think that adaption is plagarism, nor is the co-opting of style. Even parody is many cases not considered a violation of intellectual property rights.

Now in the George Harrison thing, I don't think that there was any tribute to the original composer. Bad George...

But I would like to share my favorite case of plagarism. Anyone remember Dueling Banjos, from the movie Deliverance? That piece (composed by Arthur Smith) had been performed in a B&W episode of The Andy Griffith Show many years before Eric Weisberg tried to pull his fast one.

The moral: At minimum, Google the piece before you steal it!

Allen Cole

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