Blues Takes on St. James Infirmary

Discussing Herbie Hancock's Watermelon Man in his book, The Jazz Standards, Ted Gioia includes recordings by it by Buddy Guy and Albert King and bemoans what he found the scarcity of blues artists performing the songs he viewed as jazz standards. One problem is that his list of standards omits juke box jazz hits like Herbie Mann's"Comin' Home Baby, and Jimmy Smith's Back at the Chicken Shack, that served as band and/or set openers for various bands such as Muddy Waters and the like. But even with famous blues songs that he included such as W.C. Handy's St. Louis Blues and St. James Infirmary he seemed unaware of notable blues recordings of those songs, some of which I included with respect to St. Louis Blues, a couple of days ago.

Today I do the same with St. James Infirmary, the story and origins of which are discussed in a wonderful book by Robert W. Harwood, I Went Down to St. James Infirmary: Investigations in the shadowy world of early jazz-blues in the company of Blind Willie McTell, Louis Armstrong, Don ... where did this dang song come from anyway? It explores some of the myths of the songs origins as well as its complicated copyright history and the like. In his book, Gioia inexplicably omits the great Bobby Bland Duke recording that can be heard on the link of the top of the page (Soul singer Geater Davis did a tough recording that mirrored Bland's. Below are some more renditions from the Blues World.

Snooks Eaglin

Gary B.B. Coleman

Chris Thomas King recorded this on his 2006 post-Katrina recording Rise. 

Here he is seen performing this in 2015 at Toronto's Beaches Jazz Festival.

Chicago blues diva Angela Brown

The highly underrated Dave Alexander aka Omar Sharriff

Heritage Blues Orchestra

Lastly, Rhiannon Giddens with the Silk Road Ensemble

Ted Gioia's Stimulating The Jazz Standards

The Jazz Standards: A Guide To The Repertoire
Ted Gioia
Oxford University Press
2012: 544 pages

Musician and author Ted Gioia has provided a fresh resource for jazz aficionados with his new book The Jazz Standards: A Guide To The Repertoire. What he has done is take 250 compositions that he finds to be at the core for jazz musicians and provides an overview of the compositions including some biographical information of the composers, the history of the song including what shows or movies it may have appeared in and then a discussion of the recording history of the recordings, noting how the song first came into the jazz repertoire and discussing some of the notable jazz recordings of the composition.

When I received my review copy I was impressed by the originality of this book which was an effort in part to cull the Fake Books of the most important compositions. Such an effort is likely to lead to questions of omissions both in the selected songs as well as the renditions he discusses. While there were a few songs I had minimal familiarity with, I would be hard pressed to name any I might disagree being part of the Jazz Repertoire. My disagreement might be in what was omitted, particularly thinking about blues compositions like Leroy Carr’s “How Long, How Long Blues” or Eddie Miler’s “I’d Rather Drink Muddy Water,” which still receive fresh attention today decades after their original waxing decades ago.

I was surprised by the omission of Dinah Washington’s rendition of “Love Come Back to Me,” or Dexter Gordon’s rendition of “Love For Sale,” in discussing those classic songs both of which have been extensively recorded. Also more surprising is the omission of Bobby Bland’s superb recording of “St. James Infirmary,” particularly in light of Gioia’s referring to Buddy Guy’s recording of “Watermelon Man” as a rare instance of blues artists tackling the jazz repertoire. Otis Rush recorded Kenny Burrell’s “Motoring Along,” Junior Wells handled “Chitlin Con Carne,” and Taj Mahal did a terrific treatment of Horace Silver’s “Senor Blues," to name a few examples. This perhaps indicates that Gioia does not have as deep a background in the blues as well as the fact that one will not find many of the compositions of Burrell, Buddy Johnson, and Jimmy Smith, which were favored by a wide variety of musicians, included among those included by Gioia.

I note that the recordings he cites and recommends cover a wide range of styles and even genres so if he omits Dr. John’s rendition of “St. James Infirmary,” he does include Dr. John doing a Johnny Mercer song and he cites a number of other recordings by Dexter Gordon and Dinah Washington with other of his Jazz Standards. Also even with only 250 standards discussed, the book is weighty and over 500 pages.

The Jazz Standards is a pioneering work that will inform and educate as well as generate much thought and discussion. It is a welcome addition for jazz bookshelves and will make a wonderful gift for the jazz lovers on your gift lists.

I was provided a review copy from the publisher or a publicist for the publisher. 

Gioia's Jazz History Thoughtful and Erudite

The History of Jazz - Second Edition
Ted Gioia
Oxford University Press 2011

Ted Gioia has updated his "The History of Jazz" which is welcome for those looking for a concise overview of jazz's development. While the title might be be more accurately titled, "Jazz: A Selective History" Or "A Concise History of Jazz," that is a matter of semantics. Gioia does generally trace what is generally viewed as the music's growth from its origins out of ragtime through its world wide spread. Gioia has updated his earlier history to perhaps give more emphasis to the global developments of jazz.

I give him more leeway in selection of material in such a topics as jazz history than I gave his "Delta Blues," which was highly flawed and omitted seminal figures in his subject matter. While there are unquestionably trends and artists in jazz's development that he might have devoted some space to, but it might have made this volume unwieldly. For example, he could have delved a bit more into some of the early women blues singers recordings, other than Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith.

Gioia writes very clearly about the artists and does present what most would agree are the major figures in the music's history such as Armstrong, Morton, Hines, Ellington, Eldridge, Basie, lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, Parker, Gillespie, Coltrane, Monk, Powell, Miles Davis and many more. He concisely discusses their lives and music and innovations in a lively and informative way. I was particularly impressed by his discussion of Bill Evans and Evans’ importance and influence on contemporary jazz piano.

Gioia’s discussion of the diversity of jazz around the world today is only an overview and overlooks some currents such as gypsy jazz. I do not know how exhaustive his suggestions for further reading was intended to be but there were some worthy books that were not included (such as recent bios of Lester Young). Gioia has included a listed of performances for suggested listening as opposed to recommending albums. In this respect, I suggest it may have been useful to have presented these in a chronological manner as opposed to alphabetical by artist.

In summary, this is a thoughtful and erudite introduction to jazz history that will be of value to more than jazz novices.



I received my review copy from a publicist or from the publisher.