Struttin 'with Some Barbecue

Struttin 'with Some Barbecue is a jazz composition in song form written by Lil Hardin Armstrong and published in 1928. The songwriter Don Raye wrote the lyrics in 1950.

background

The melody is chordally based on Hardin's typical piano style with extended harmonies, although the emphasis on the major seventh is based on the blues- oriented repertoire of the bands of classic New Orleans jazz .

Louis Armstrong, Carnegie Hall , New York City, circa February 1947. Photo William P. Gottlieb

The composer's husband, trumpeter Louis Armstrong , claimed after the divorce to have ceded the copyrights to the composition to his then-wife Lil Hardin Armstrong. In 1967 he said that the idea came to him in 1927 while eating barbecue food with the drummer Zutty Singleton . That same year, Lil Hardin complained about these disputes at the Melody Maker, recalling that she had won a lawsuit over authorship. As a composer, Hardin contributed some pieces to the repertoire of the Hot Five , in which both played together from 1925. It is precisely because of the aforementioned and other harmonious peculiarities that Struttin 'with Some Barbecue as a composition bears far more distinct traits from Hardins than from Armstrong's hand.

The title was first recorded in Chicago on December 9, 1927 ( Okeh 8566). The original version with Armstrong's Hot Five is considered by many critics to be the best recording of the song; In addition to Armstrong (cornet), Kid Ory (trombone), Johnny Dodds (clarinet), Lil Armstrong (piano) and Johnny St. Cyr (banjo) were involved.

effect

Armstrong re-recorded Struttin 'with Some Barbecue for Decca in 1938, arranged by Chappie Willett with his orchestra; played with Louis Armstrong a. a. Louis Bacon , Red Allen , Wilbur DeParis , JC Higginbotham , Albert Nicholas , Luis Russell , Pops Foster and Paul Barbarin . In the next year, the title was covered by Bob Crosby ; in the 1940s, versions and versions followed. a. by Eddie Condon , George Wettling , Lu Watters , Bobby Hackett , Jimmy Dorsey , in Europe by Sidney Bechet , Jacques Hélian and Carlo Krahmers Hot Seven . The discographer Tom Lord lists over 760 cover versions of the title in the field of jazz (as of 2016), among which for jazzstandards.com the versions by Chris Barber & Uralsky All Stars, Pete Fountain , Art Hodes , Lee Konitz (in a duo with trombonist Marshall Brown ), George Lewis and Turk Murphy stand out.

literature

Ted Gioia : The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire Oxford University Press, New York, Oxford 2012, ISBN 978-0-19-993739-4 .

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b basic information at Jazzstandards.com
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Ted Gioia: The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire . P. 409
^ William Emmett Studwell: They Also Wrote: Evaluative Essays on Lesser-Known Popular American Songwriters Prior to the Rock Era . Scarecrow Press 2000, p. 4. There Louis Armstrong is given as another author of the melody.
^ ^A ^b ^c Joshua Berrett Louis Armstrong and Paul Whiteman: Two Kings of Jazz Yale University Press 2004, p. 72f.
^ Gene H. Anderson Louis Armstrong , The Grove Dictionary of American Music (2013).
↑ See Linda Dahl: Stormy Weather: The music and lives of a century of jazzwomen. Quartet Books, London 1984, p. 24. Dahl believes that the title was written by both of them. Sally Placksin ( Women in Jazz. From the turn of the century to the present. Hannibal, Vienna 1989, p. 78) emphasizes that Hardin, as musical director, was responsible for the repertoire of the studio band. Some of the titles that Louis Armstrong contributed are known to play the melodies for her and then to write down the notes as quickly as they were played.
^ Daniel Stein Music Is My Life: Louis Armstrong, Autobiography, and American Jazz University of Michigan Press 2012, pp. 32ff.
↑ cf. e.g. Dave Oliphant: The Early Swing Era, 1930 to 1941 . Greenwood Press, 2002, p. 154, and Richard Cook , Brian Morton : The Penguin Jazz Guide: The History of the Music in the 1000 Best Albums . 2010
↑ ^a ^b ^c Tom Lord : The Jazz Discography (online, accessed December 18, 2016)

[jazz-1] sic information at Jazzstandards.com

[TD-2] Ted Gioia: The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire . P. 409

[3] William Emmett Studwell: They Also Wrote: Evaluative Essays on Lesser-Known Popular American Songwriters Prior to the Rock Era . Scarecrow Press 2000, p. 4. There Louis Armstrong is given as another author of the melody.

[JB-4] A ^b ^c Joshua Berrett Louis Armstrong and Paul Whiteman: Two Kings of Jazz Yale University Press 2004, p. 72f.

[5] Gene H. Anderson Louis Armstrong , The Grove Dictionary of American Music (2013).

[6] See Linda Dahl: Stormy Weather: The music and lives of a century of jazzwomen. Quartet Books, London 1984, p. 24. Dahl believes that the title was written by both of them. Sally Placksin ( Women in Jazz. From the turn of the century to the present. Hannibal, Vienna 1989, p. 78) emphasizes that Hardin, as musical director, was responsible for the repertoire of the studio band. Some of the titles that Louis Armstrong contributed are known to play the melodies for her and then to write down the notes as quickly as they were played.

[7] Daniel Stein Music Is My Life: Louis Armstrong, Autobiography, and American Jazz University of Michigan Press 2012, pp. 32ff.

[8] . e.g. Dave Oliphant: The Early Swing Era, 1930 to 1941 . Greenwood Press, 2002, p. 154, and Richard Cook , Brian Morton : The Penguin Jazz Guide: The History of the Music in the 1000 Best Albums . 2010

[lord-9] Tom Lord : The Jazz Discography (online, accessed December 18, 2016)