I have this dualdisc: https://www.discogs.com/World-Drummers-Ensemble-A-Coat-Of-Many-Colors/release/4101527
The artist, World Drummers Ensemble, seems to be a group that was put together for one night for one live show. Before I enter this artist into MusicBrainz, I’d like to get some opinions on this.
Google search results seem to indicate they can be treated as an album artist?
https://billbruford.com/summerfold/world-drummers-ensemble/
An “Artist” can be an artists for a recording, an album (release) or both. When adding an artist, just add the entity (be sure search first). If there are artists with the same name but different people, be sure to add in disambiguation comments (what distinguishes them).
Where it will matter whether they are the album artist or not is when you create the release.
See the following for further details:
I looked at the links you supplied, and to be candid, it’s not clear that “World Drummers Ensemble” is a “group;” it could be a “work.” a “project” or an “event” by the artists listed.
You’ll have to do some more (extensive) research to confirm if they are, in fact, associated with the group. Google may not be able to supply the info you’re looking for; you might have to reach out to the artist/label/studio/etc. for details.
The artists have, what look to be, existing entries:
When creating the release, if they are the members of this group, I would use the “Album Artist” field of “World Drummers Ensemble” and in “Artists,” list them out individually.
I found some additional artist information in the description of this video:
Not sure how to reference or quote that.
Well I made an attempt:
Looks like you got most of it correct. Nice artwork too. Couple of notes though.
The names in brackets - are these the writers? If yes, then they should not go there, but as part of the Works. You can create a Work for each Recording using the Edit Relationships page then add the Written By credit.
Are these people in the brackets the only drummers on stage for those tracks? If so, then drop the World Drummers Ensemble bit from each track name and let each track have separate credits of those actual performers.
I think we are still in the guidelines to have the Release Artist as World Drummers Ensemble as that is who they performed as at the event.
I assume the tracks on the DVD side are videos. You can click each recording in turn and edit it to add the tick next to “VIDEO” to show this better.
The names in brackets I got from the back of the package. The discogs page lists them as writers, but I am not certain that is a reliable source for attribution.
I don’t know.
They are in the VIDEO_TS folder, but all the track “videos” are a static image with audio. Additionally, the last page of the package booklet says “The CD side of this disc carries a maximum of 60 minutes audio. The entire programme is repeated in its full 68 minutes length with two additional tracks on the DVD Side.”
The eleventh track is a video and I have now marked it as such.
Ah - so it is not really a proper “video” on the DVD. Just a bit of a cheat. Which is a pity as a video would have answered the questions.
By looking at the track list, and the little YouTube advert, I would have thought those names in the brackets are the performers of those tracks. Improvising on stage. If I was putting this Release in I would use those as the credits for those tracks.
But who is track 7 and (roach).
From listening, can you work out if there are more drummers when there are more names? Yeah - kinda tricky I know.
I also agree that for this release Discogs is not the best of references. They are trying to read the cover like we are.
From the description under this YouTube video I deduced that “Roach” is probably Max Roach. It is a guess on my part, with some reasonable confidence.
I’ll do some listening and more searching to see if I can improve the attributions.
Max Roach did compose a solo drum work called “Self Portrait”. I’ve created a work for that and linked it to this release.
I also linked to the existing work for King Crimson piece B’Boom. Is that track only on the DVD? The youtube promo you linked shows 10 tracks on the CD.
I am quite confident that the names in brackets are the composers of those various tracks, not performers. (Roach, for one, last performed in public in 2001). As such, they should be removed from the recording artist credit.
Also note, from the description on the youtube promo:
The music includes pieces from all members, but also from Switzerland via Pierre Favre, Turkey via the Harem Percussion Group, America via Max Roach, and there’s even a re-working of King Crimson’s “B’Boom”.
Thank @highstrung for the information and updates!
That track in not on the CD side. It is only on the DVD side.
I just noticed from the cover art that this is, in fact, not a one-night live performance album, but instead a conglomeration of two live performances from 1996 and 2005. I added the “recorded at: place” relationship to each recording.
Track 1, “Conundrum”, is a recording of the same work as Track 1 of CD 2 of VROOOM VROOOM by King Crimson. Although Bruford is not attributed in that recording, he is attributed on the Wikipedia page. I am not sure how to create a work entry for this.
I was looking at this a little…repertoire.bmi.com has 2 entries titled “Conundrum” under Bruford’s name … one credited solely to him, and one to all six KC members as per the wikipedia page. (My guess is that there is really only one work, composed by Bruford, but for legal reasons a bunch of KC tracks were jointly credited.)
My inclination would probably be to to create a work credited solely to Bruford and with the ASCAP ID 330628450. However, you could also make a case for creating a jointly credited work linked to BMI work ID 15736226.
If one were to get nitpicky about it, you could probably create both works, mark one as “based on” the other, and link the recordings to the appropriately credited versions (i.e. the KC recording to the jointly credited, and the WDE recording to the Bruford-only credited work). That’s above and beyond what I would usually attempt, unless it happened to be an artist in which I was especially invested.
This is what I love about the “fussy” MB guidelines. It ends up we learn so much more about the music we are listening to. 
I am not sure what should be done as far as works for Ritm Kompozisyon (it seems very generic for a title, and I can’t find anything recorded by Harem under that title) or the title track (which I’m guessing, just from the credits, is a collective improvisation).
