Aunt Hagar's Blues

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Aunt Hagar's Blues is a Blue Song , the WC Handy (music) and James Tim Brymn (text) written and 1921 as Aunt Hagar's Children's Blues published. The song is also known as Aunt Hagar's Children (initially the title of the instrumental version published in 1920) or Aunt Hagar's Children Blues . According to a revised version (published in 1922), its title Aunt Hagar's Blues is mostly used today. The song became a widely played jazz standard in the years that followed . According to Leonard Feather and Ira Gitler , it is one of WC Handy’s most famous compositions.

Background and characteristics of the song

Handy wrote thirteen blues compositions between 1912 ( The Memphis Blues ) and 1921 ( Aunt Hagar's Blues ), of which St. Louis Blues (1914) was the most commercially successful. As in other compositions, Handy used Latin American elements in Aunt Hagar's Blues and in the piano version Aunt Hagar's Children, which was first published ; In the A part of the melody, a tango-like mood was created. Aunt Hagar's Blues is written in F major . At the beginning of the composition there is a dark mood that evokes the blues.

The main theme of Aunt Hagar's Blues is a 16-bar melody that goes back to a folk song of the Afro-American population whose words were I wonder where's my good ole use to be ; Handy had heard this song many years earlier and first used it in his adaptation of Douglas Williams ' Hooking Cow Blues (1917). Handy initially used conventional 12-bar blues structures for the second and third sections of the melody. For the version from 1922 Handy revised the chorus and created text-rich , parlando performed and thus clearly verse- like parts, which were sometimes referred to as patter chorus .

The phrase of the Aunt Hagar's Children

Contemporary Illustration from Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe . The corresponding line of text reads: Dont be feard. Aunt Hagar, said the oldest of the men, I spoke to Masr Thomas bout it, and he thought he might manage to sell you in a lot both together.

Hagar is Sarah's slave in Genesis , who had a child with Abraham ; their progeny were cast out.

Vanity Fair magazine recalled after the W. C. Handy title appeared that Aunt Hagar's Children was the name given by the black population of the United States during the existence of slavery , based on a Negro Folk song from the southern states. The American electorate, who advocated slavery in the 19th century, used Aunt Hagar's Children as a blanket phrase for the black population: "Displaced persons and outcasts who are subjected to severe servitude." The motif emerges as a phrase ( What have they done to all Aunt Hagar's Children ) henceforth in Afro-American slang and in American literature; It is already mentioned in Uncle Tom's hut from 1852. It is also the title of a short story collection by Edward P. Jones , which appeared in 2006.

First recordings

The first recordings of the title were made in 1921 by the vocal quartet Tim Brymn's Black Devil Four (as Aunt Hagar's Children Blues , OKeh 7856) in April 1921, Lanin ’s Southern Serenaders (as Aunt Hagar's Childred [sic] Blues , on Paramount / Bluebird 20068 resp. as Henderson's Dance Orchestra on Black Swan 837) on August 30, 1921, by the formation Ladd's Black Aces (as Aunt Hagar's Children Blues , Gennett ) around Phil Napoleon and Jimmy Durante (vocals: Sam Lanin), which was also formed in August 1921. This was followed by recordings of the singer Alice Leslie Carter (Arto) and the band Brown and Terry's Jazzola Boys (around Percy R. Terry, OKeh 8018) in September 1921, now published for the first time as Aunt Hagar's Blues .

Later cover versions

Already in the next year the title was recorded by Isham Jones ; WC Handy played his composition with his orchestra (including probably Thomas "Tick" Gray (trumpet) and John Mitchell (banjo), Okeh 4789) in New York City on January 5, 1923. Aunt Hagar's Blues was already known in the early 1920s a. a. by the Original Memphis Five (aka Kentucky Sereanaders ), the Virginans around Ross Gorman (Victor 19021) and Frank Westphal , covered in 1928 by King Oliver and His Dixie Syncopators (arranged by Benny Waters ); in the 1930s and 1940s, versions and versions followed. a. by Paul Whiteman , Jack Teagarden , James P. Johnson , Eddie Condon , Art Tatum (1949) and Lu Watters . The discographer Tom Lord lists over 200 cover versions of the title under the named names in the field of jazz (as of 2016), of which, according to jazzstandards.com, the versions by Louis Armstrong ( Louis Armstrong Plays WC Handy , 1954), Ted Lewis (1923) , Kid Ory and Sammy Price / Doc Cheatham stand out.

score

  • Aunt Hagar's Blues (WC Handy) Score and parts for big band , edited by Michael Abene , UPC 073999425369.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Peter C. Muir: Long Lost Blues: Popular Blues in America, 1850-1920. University of Illinois Press 2010, pp. 134 f. ( books.google.de limited preview).
  2. ↑ Nat Shapiro , Bruce Pollock (ed.): Popular music, 1920-1979: A Revised Cumulation. Volume 1. Gale Research Co., 1985.
  3. ↑ a b basic information at jazzstandards.com.
  4. ↑ a b c Tom Lord : The Jazz Discography. (online, accessed December 22, 2016).
  5. ^ Leonard Feather, Ira Gitler: The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz. New York, Oxford 2007.
  6. ^ David A. Jasen: Beale Street: and Other Classic Blues: 38 Works, 1901-1921. 1998.
  7. ^ Peter C. Muir: Long Lost Blues: Popular Blues in America, 1850-1920. P. 121 ( books.google.de limited preview).
  8. ↑ Note discover .
  9. ^ Henry Martin: Enjoying jazz. Schirmer Books, 1986.
  10. ^ Vanity Fair. Volumes 24-25. Cover Condé Nast, 1925.
  11. ↑ Mark I. Wallace, Theophus Harold Smith: Curing Violence. Polebridge Press, 1994.
  12. ^ Clarence Major: Juba to Jive: A Dictionary of African-American Slang. Penguin Books, 1994.
  13. ↑ All Aunt Hagar's Children by Edward P. Jones In: Houston Chrinicle. 2006.
  14. ↑ OKeh matrix S-7856. Aunt Hagar's children blues / Tim Brymn's Black Devil Four. In: Discography of American Historical Recordings . Retrieved May 28, 2019 .
  15. ↑ Regal 9000 series at 78discography.com
  16. ^ Victor 19000 series at 78discography.com