Brass Quintet Horn,Trombone,Trumpet,Tuba - Level 2 - Digital Download

SKU: A0.1373864

By Bobby Darin. By Paul Francis Webster and Sonny Burke. Arranged by Peet du Toit. Blues. 17 pages. Peet du Toit #958338. Published by Peet du Toit (A0.1373864).

Black Coffee is a song with music by Sonny Burke and words by Paul Francis Webster. The song was published in 1948.
It's first two measures are nearly identical to Mary Lou Williams' 1938 piece What's Your Story Morning Glory, and both songs share melodic motifs drawn from blues (including a strong melodic emphasis on the flat third and flat seventh intervals, known as blue notes). Williams felt that Burke and Webster plagiarized her composition, and reportedly considered taking legal action over the matter. The two songs have significant melodic and rhythmic differences after the first two measures of their respective 'A' sections, and Black Coffee has a unique bridge section that has no parallel in Morning Glory. However, during her piano solo, Williams plays both the identical feel and harmonies that appear on Black Coffee, with dominant chords moving up and down by half steps in lieu of staying on the tonic chord. While not a carbon copy, Burke and Webster arguably picked sections of What's Your Story Morning Glory to string together to create a new song. Coincidentally, jazz trumpeter Paul Webster (no relation to lyricist Paul Francis Webster) was given co-writer credit for Morning Glory by Williams when she published her song in 1938.

My dear friend, Sam Harrill, has added his percussion magic some years later, and I am re-posting this for greater effect. Nothing in the brass parts changed. Thank you, Sam!