Adventures in Music Editing - Manny Albam's "Pan Americana"
For over fifty years, I’ve been editing music of all types, first for my own study, later as Editorial Director at Warner Bros. Publications, consulting editor at Hal Leonard Corp. and finally senior editor for Jazz Lines Publications. Rob DuBoff understood the importance of making available excellent editions of jazz ensemble, symphonic orchestra, the libraries of Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and on and on. We now have several hundred publications, most edited from original scores and/or parts. These publications have been acclaimed by musicians and estates. They are properly licensed and payments are being made to the creators.
I continue to edit scores on my own, particularly since Covid closed down everything and I knew that that was the time to finally learn Finale, a music engraving software. I prepare these scores so that the handwritten scores I originally wrote out can go into storage, and prepare new items I continue to acquire. Many of these cannot be published due to licensing issues, but I hold out hope. I also prepare new editions of Public Domain titles to conduct with student ensembles.
I obtained several titles that were written for the Charlie Barnet 1949 band, which are housed at the Institute of Jazz Studies. A couple of them have been published by Jazz Lines, but a few are not. One is a composition by Manny Albam called “Pan Americana,” part of which was recorded by Capitol Records. Before I found the original score and parts at IJS, I didn’t realize that this piece was actually a longer work. The parts indicated that there were cuts made, as well as other changes.