Take 5 With St. James Infirmary

One of the best-known jazz & blues songs associated with the City of New Orleans, St. James Infirmary has been subject to many recordings and interpretations for decades. Artists such as Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Chris Thomas King, and many others have recorded it. Also, it has been subject to scholarly study by Robert W. Harwood (and I recommend this volume) going through its origins and its history. Here is a link with more information about this book. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4758997-i-went-down-to-st-james-infirmary

Today's Take 5 is a short playlist of renditions of this classic tune. And I could easily have included another dozen renditions.

We start today's playlist with the great Louis Armstrong. This was not the first recording. That was by Fess Williams under the title of "Gambler's Blues."  This recording is from 1928 and includes the great Earl Hines on piano.

Next, we turn to the great Cab Calloway who recorded it originally in 1930 but also did a 'soundie' of the tune.

Bobby Bland made one of my favorite recordings of this song. It was the flip side of his No. 2 R&B hit "Don't Cry No More." I have included the original recording and not a live performance as he performed an abbreviated version on the videos available. I note that soul-blues singer Geater Davis also did a recording that was modeled on Bland's version.

Chris Thomas King, son of Baton Rouge blues legend Tabby Thomas, is a highly underrated blues performer and so much more. His moving rendition was included as part of 'Rise," his post-Katrina recording. Here he performs it at The Beeches Jazz Festival in Toronto.

We conclude this with a performance by Shamarr Allen who recorded this for his 'Meet Me on Frenchman Street" album.

Meet Me on Frenchman Street

Mystery Street Records is an affiliate of the fan-funded Threadhead Records, that was established after Hurricane Katrina, as a way for lovers of New Orleans, its food, culture, architecture and music, to assist in the recovery of the city and its musical scene. It issued earlier this year Frenchman Street, an anthology of New Orleans music mostly derived from Threadhead Records, but also including rare material from other sources.

Frenchman Street is itself in the Bywater area just outside the French Quarter and the location of music venues such as Snug Harbor, d.b.a., The Spotted Cat, Blue Nile, and other music venues where one can hear Jazz Bands, Trad bands, Funk bands and more to paraphrase Shamarr Allen’s delightful Meet Me on Frenchman Street on which fellow trumpeter Kermit Ruffins joins for a celebration of the scene there. Songwriter Alex McMurray perhaps echoes what many might think when he sings You’ve Got to Be Crazy to Live In This Town, while blues and R&B singer Jesse Moore is heard on When the Hoodoo Come Down from a pre-Katrina CD. Glen David Andrews may be better known for gospel but his Dumaine Street Blues is a blues with brass band seasoning followed by The New Orleans Night Crawlers” with the invocation to party, Alright Alright.

Margie Perez & the King Cake Babies celebrate Mardi Gras Carnival, while Holley Bendtsen & Amasa Miller, joined by the Pfister Singers take us Down to Jazz Fest. Echoes of trad jazz support Paul Sanchez on his Exit to Mystery Street, while he is joined by John Boutté for their collaboration Stew Called New Orleans from a fine Threadhead disc by the two. The disc closes with Boutté’s updated take (from the 2006 JazzFest) of Randy Newman’s Louisiana 1927 with his biting new lyrics about President Bush’s response to Katrina and the levees failing in addition to Newman’s lyrics about floods in cajun Louisiana. Previously it was available on a limited edition WWOZ fundraiser but this release makes this available to a larger audience and would almost be reason enough to buy this varied compilation by itself. But there are 11 other additional reasons for obtaining this lively collection.

Previously I ran my review of the Mystery Street compilation Vieux Carre and this is a companion to it. I purchased this disc.

Mystery Street's Fine Collection of Contemporary New Orleans SOunds

Mystery Street Records is an affiliate of the fan-funded Threadhead Records, that was established after Hurricane Katrina, as a way for lovers of New Orleans, its food, culture, architecture and music, to assist in the recovery of the city and its musical scene. Mystery Street has just issued the second anthology of New Orleans music, Vieux Carré, that presents a wide range of music that might be heard in The fabled French Quarter. 14 selections from a variety of sources (not simply Threadhead productions) make for a throughly entertaining hour or so of listening.

Just to give a sampling of the contents there is an engaging rendition of Smiley Lewis’ Hook Line and Slinker, by the Creole String Beans, Ingrid Lucia’s sultry Midnight Rendezvous, John Boutté, Bill Lynn and Paul Sanchez joined by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band for a cynical look at BP’s response to its Oil Well spill, Nobody Knows Nothin’, Tricia Boutté and the Norwegian Ytre Suloens Jass-Ensemble on a stirring gospel Keep Your Hands On the Plough (I downloaded the underlying CD Oh Mahalia after hearing this), Holley Bendtsen & Amasa Miller on a wonderful song about missing New Orleans, Creole Moon, Ensemble Fatien’s African-jazz reworking of St. James Infirmary, Paul Sanchez and friends including Shamarr Allen recounting the horrors of the levees breaking on the previously unreleased Home, and Matt Clark and others (Sanchez, Allen, Ivan Neville, and Teedy Boutté) letting us know their spirit is Bent Not Broken, and that New Orleans will be coming back.

This is such a marvelous sampling of the diversity of New Orleans music. Bent Not Broken and Nobody Knows Nothin’ were previously issued as digital singles and the other material is generally from recordings that can be obtained from www.louisianamusicfactory.com and better sources. The applicable websites are www.threadheadrecords.com and www.mysterystreetrecords.com.