Donna Lee, Charlie Parker (Advanced)

As performed in this interview!

While interviewing Trey Hensley we happened to start talking about Charlie Parker. Trey played me his version of Donna Lee and he got 95% of the way through it. I transcribed his arrangement and I filled in the last couple of measures for Trey, maybe one day I’ll figure out how to play it. By the way, Donna Lee is a contrafact of Back Home Again In Indiana. It is either composed by Miles Davis or Charlie Parker. Miles Davis says he wrote it even though it was attributed to Charlie Parker for years. You can still find people debating online, to me it sounds more like a Charlie Parker tune than a Miles Davis tune. Also, controversial opinion incoming, Charlie Parker is much better at playing it. That being said, multiple other sources have come forward and have backed Miles Davis as the author. I honestly don’t know, so I guess we’ll just accept a mixture of attributions.

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(Advanced guitar tabs generally include a very ornamented version of the melody, chord markings above (with extra extensions and variations), kick-offs, tags, and improvisation that drifts far from the melody at hand. Expect to come across hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides and more in all kinds of combinations as well as syncopation, triplets and other rhythmic challenges. These tabs are excellent if you want to get inside the head of another improviser and explore the choices that an advanced flatpicker might consider.)