"Conception" is a 1949

jazz standard Jazz standards are musical compositions that are an important part of the musical repertoire of jazz musicians, in that they are widely known, performed, and recorded by jazz musicians, and widely known by listeners. There is no definitive List ...

written by

George Shearing Sir George Albert Shearing (13 August 191914 February 2011) was a British jazz pianist who for many years led a popular jazz group that recorded for Discovery Records, MGM Records and Capitol Records. Shearing was the composer of over 300 so ...

in the

bebop Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early to mid-1940s in the United States. The style features compositions characterized by a fast tempo (usually exceeding 200 bpm), complex chord progressions with rapid chord changes and numerou ...

style. The composition is in the key of Db and is noticeable for its chromatic descending chord sequences. The original score was adapted by

Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th century music, 20th-century music. Davis ado ...

in 1950, who created an arrangement that kept Shearing's chord changes and main theme, but replaced the composition's bridge and ending with new melodic material. This arrangement is documented on a February 1950 broadcast recording in New York City featuring

Stan Getz Stan Getz (born Stanley Gayetski; February 2, 1927 – June 6, 1991) was an American jazz saxophonist. Playing primarily the tenor saxophone, Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, with his prime influence being the wis ...

, J.J. Johnson, and

Art Blakey Arthur Blakey (October 11, 1919 – October 16, 1990) was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He was also known as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina after he converted to Islam for a short time in the late 1940s. Blakey made a name for himself in the 1 ...

. Davis recorded this same arrangement in October 1951 for his first LP, '' The New Sounds'' (

Prestige Records Prestige Records is a jazz record company and label founded in 1949 by Bob Weinstock in New York City which issued recordings in the mainstream, bop, and cool jazz idioms. The company recorded hundreds of albums by many of the leading jazz music ...

, 1951). Davis also did a complete rewrite of "Conception" in 1950 (creating an entire new main theme) for his

Birth of the Cool ''Birth of the Cool'' is a compilation album by the American jazz trumpeter and bandleader Miles Davis. It was released in February or March 1957 through Capitol Records. It compiles eleven tracks recorded by Davis's nonet for the label over the ...

nonet, giving the composition the title "Deception". Recorded in March 1950, "Deception" retained the rewritten bridge melody from Davis's 1950 "Conception" arrangement, as well as Shearing's original

chord progression In a musical composition, a chord progression or harmonic progression (informally chord changes, used as a plural, or simply changes) is a succession of chords. Chord progressions are the foundation of harmony in Western musical tradition from ...

. Davis's 1954

Blue Note Blue Note Records is an American jazz record label now owned by Universal Music Group and operated under Capitol Music Group. Established in 1939 by German-Jewish emigrants Alfred Lion and Max Margulis, it derived its name from the blue no ...

recording "Take Off" also uses the "Conception" chord progression, including Davis's own additions to the form (the

pedal point In music, a pedal point (also pedal note, organ point, pedal tone, or pedal) is a sustained Musical note, tone, typically in the bass note, bass, during which at least one foreign (i.e. consonance and dissonance, dissonant) harmony is sounded in ...

introduction, which reappears as an added six measures to the end of the form), but "Take Off" does not include any of Shearing's original melody, and is credited to Davis. Shearing's original composition was later recorded by artists such as

Bud Powell Earl Rudolph "Bud" Powell (September 27, 1924 – July 31, 1966) was an American jazz pianist and composer. A pioneer in the development of bebop and its associated contributions to jazz theory,Grove Powell's application of complex phrasing to ...

and

Kurt Rosenwinkel Kurt Rosenwinkel (born October 28, 1970) is an American jazz guitarist, composer, bandleader, producer, educator, keyboardist and record label owner. Biography Born in Philadelphia to a musical family, Rosenwinkel began taking piano lessons when ...

. Miles Davis's "Conception" arrangement was frequently played and recorded by

Chet Baker Chesney Henry "Chet" Baker Jr. (December 23, 1929 – May 13, 1988) was an American jazz trumpeter and vocalist. He is known for major innovations in cool jazz that led him to be nicknamed the "Prince of Cool". Baker earned much attention and ...

Authorship

Bud Powell biographer Peter Pullman has written that bassist Al McKibbon, clarinetist

Buddy DeFranco Boniface Ferdinand Leonard "Buddy" DeFranco (February 17, 1923 – December 24, 2014) was an American jazz clarinetist. In addition to his work as a bandleader, DeFranco led the Glenn Miller Orchestra for almost a decade in the 1960s and 1970s. ...

, composer and saxophonist Gil Melle, and pianist

Claude Williamson Claude Berkeley Williamson (November 18, 1926 – July 16, 2016) was an American jazz pianist. Williamson was born in Brattleboro, Vermont, United States. He studied at the New England Conservatory of Music before moving to jazz, influenced ma ...

, all of whom were professional modern jazz musicians in New York City in the early 1950s, have stated in interviews that pianist

composed some or all of "Conception", and that Shearing heard and adapted Powell's work. John Coltrane biographer and jazz pianist Lewis Porter disagrees, and has argued that "Conception" is likely the work of Shearing. Porter notes that Shearing's later commercial success and turn from bebop to "middle of the road" instrumental music could have influenced the memories and opinions of the musicians that Pullman cites for evidence. Porter also notes that Shearing moved to New York City in 1947 and immediately immersed himself in the bebop community, writing a handful of bebop pieces prior to "Conception" that are stylistically similar. These pieces include "Delayed Action", "Bop's Your Uncle", and "Trixie", and their authorship has not been challenged. While Miles Davis immediately adopted "Conception" into his repertoire upon its initial publication, no record exists of Powell playing the composition, or any of its motifs, until 1953. Unlike Davis, Powell played the original published bridge melody of the composition on his live 1953 live recording and his 1955 studio recording for Norgran Records, though this neither proves nor disproves Shearing's authorship.

References

{{1950s-jazz-composition-stub 1940s jazz standards 1940 songs Real Book Song

Authorship

See also

References