Spencer Williams – Sweeney's Gumbo YaYa

Welcome to this site on New Orleans music. There are four posts about New Orleans standards that are attracting more attention now than when originally posted. Since these posts are accompanied by one of my shows, I thought I would make it easier to read and listen to them..

Recently, my number one visited page provides the back story on “Darktown Strutters Ball.” When I prepared for this show a few years back, I was conflicted over the use of a racist term for African-American neighborhoods and yet there was this amazing song that used it. The post and the accompanying show delves into the context of the song written by African-American composer Shelton Brooks and how various artists handle the song. If you listen to the show, you will hear five versions of “Darktown Strutters Ball.”

Next on the resurgent reading list is my post and show about Basin Street Blues. Composed by Spencer Williams who lived in Mahogany Hall on Basin Street and originally recorded by Louis Armstrong, who grew up in that neighborhood at the height of its notoriety, the song has evolved over the years including the addition of an opening musical phrase and lyrics (with a Glen Miller assist). You’ll get the full story and listen to the show here. The street has evolved too.

My post on Lil Liza Jane scores the next top spot in recent views. The post and show explores adaptability of this minstrel era song which has been updated and adapted by a variety of artists, including groups who follow in the tradition of the Black Indians of Mardi Gras. If you read this post (and listen to the show), feel free to leave a comment in a call and response style as one reader did.

Finally, the New Orleans standard (without a New Orleans back story) “St. James Infirmary” continues to get attention from readers and listeners. This was actually the first post and show I did focusing on a particularly standard. And I loved the history of it. Here it is.

A reminder that I’ve retired Gumbo YaYa and replaced it with a non-recorded live drive-time show on Thursdays on my community radio station KAOS. I play uptempo music and often draw from my New Orleans library. You can stream the show live and listen to the most recent shows using Spinitron (just type in the date and time into the ARK player that corresponds with my most recent show time adjusted for your location)

“Now Basin Street is the street where the folks all meet. In New Orleans, land of dreams.”

Basin Street Blues is another New Orleans jazz standard with a fascinating back story.

The song was composed by Spencer Williams and originally recorded by Louis Armstrong – two New Orleanians who grew up on and around Basin Street. However, when the song was recorded in 1928, the street no longer existed. City leaders, anxious to erase the area’s reputation for legal prostitution, had changed the street’s name to the innocuous “North Saratoga.”

For a time, Williams actually lived in Mahogany Hall on Basin Street with his aunt, the famous bordello’s owner and manager, Lulu White. He would later commemorate the business in a song called Mahogany Hall Stomp. Basin Street was a key arterial and border to the famed Storyville–a 16-block area that for 20 years up to the U.S. entry into World War 1 was a city-regulated zone of prostitution. The many brothels and saloons that sprung up provided a regular and contented audience for the nascent music called “Jass.”

Basin_Street_Blues_Columbia_78_1931_Charleston Williams version of Basin Street was a 12-bar blues tune without lyrics. In the 1928 and 1932 Armstrong recordings, Satchmo scats the song’s vocal parts. But in 1931, Jack Teagarden sang the song with a group called The Charleton Chasers with lyrics, that according to Teagarden’s recollection, were written by him with help from bandleader Glenn Miller.

It was also at that time that the more “come hither” like opening was added, making the song a musical advertisement for folks to come and visit New Orleans. (What were they thinking?) Teagarden, by the way, wasn’t from New Orleans. However, the famous trombonist died of a heart attack in a New Orleans hotel after a 1964 performance.

Because of the song’s popularity, the city changed the name back to Basin Street. But by that point, the Storyville legacy was long gone and the street really wasn’t a place for tourists to visit.

As often happens with great songs, the lyrics are malleable. I don’t think I’ve heard a version with the same set of lyrics. Armstrong and Teagarden routinely played the song in front of audiences as well as recording it several times. Teagarden was usually faithful to the lyrics he wrote. Armstrong some times skipped the opening stanza of “Won’t you come along with me to the Mississippi,” preferring to start with the line that I quote at the beginning of this post.

One notable change is that the early versions of the song by Armstrong and Teagarden contain this line “Basin Street is the street where the dark and light folks meet.” But I haven’t had much luck finding it sung that way in versions after the 1940’s. Given that Storyville was a place where white customers could listen to music played by African Americans and have sex with African Americans and Creoles, the song’s line is perhaps the most genuine part of the song.

Won’t you listen along with me as I play a few versions of Basin Street Blues on my show this Thursday. Here’s the podcast of that show!

Sweeney’s Gumbo YaYa is a weekly radio show broadcast on two FM stations in the great state of Washington. Subscribe to this blog to get notices on the next show.