Conference demon::after_hours

556.0. "W.C. Handy" by OSOV03::KAGEYAMA (Don't throw your javelin) Tue May 27 1997 01:17

Here'a a topic for W.C. Handy, "Father of the blues" or the composer of
eternal "St. Louis Blues."

I'll start with gathering a discussion in topic 18, "Willie Dixon," 
which begins with the doubt about their conredentials as blues 
song-writers.

- Kazunori

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Note 18.19                        Willie Dixon                          19 of 33
VAXUUM::T_PARMENTER "Noncrepuscular"                   1 line  30-JAN-1992 09:17
             -< still twangin' away on my one-string diddley bow >-
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Um,  Can W.C. Handy squeeze in there somewhere?
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Note 18.20                        Willie Dixon                          20 of 33
WEORG::RICH                                          22 lines  31-JAN-1992 09:56
                                   -< exit >-
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    RE: 19
    
    I could be way off on this, but I thought that Handy was known mostly
    for taking existing blues melodies and writing down the music.  In
    other words, not composing melodies and lyrics from scratch.
    
    Let me state unequivocally, however, that I just remember reading 
    something to this effect in the liner notes to Louis Armstrong's
    album "Louis Plays W.C. Handy" and either the liner notes or my
    memory of what was actually written in them may be way off.
     
    Except for St. Louis Blues, though, I admit I don't know any Handy
    compositions.
    
    Please feel free to tell me more about Handy's contributions and
    compositions.  
    
    For my edification (not so that we can argue about whether Dixon or
    Handy was the greatest).   :^)
    
    Bert                          
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Note 18.22                        Willie Dixon                          22 of 33
RAGMOP::T_PARMENTER "Noncrepuscular"                   1 line  31-JAN-1992 12:28
                     -< It'll take a while to do up Handy >-
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Every good blues writer is a folklorist.
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Note 18.23                        Willie Dixon                          23 of 33
YUPPY::DUTTONS                                        2 lines  31-JAN-1992 13:02
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    There's a WC Handy songbook if you want to have a look - with notes by
    the man himself, as I remember.
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Note 18.24                        Willie Dixon                          24 of 33
RAGMOP::T_PARMENTER "Ling Ting Tong"                   1 line  31-JAN-1992 14:00
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I was planning to settle down with Louis Armstrong Plays W.C.Handy.
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Note 18.29                        Willie Dixon                          29 of 33
RAGMOP::T_PARMENTER "Year of the Golden Monkey"      18 lines  21-FEB-1992 12:24
                              -< Mental torment >-
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I've still been thinking about this.  Both of them were show-business 
songwriters who kept their ears open to what was happening around them.  
W.C. Handy actually heard a woman say the line "I hate to see the evening 
sun go down" and I imagine Willie heard someone say "We're gonna pitch a
ring-dang-doodle tonight" or some such.

As for Handy going for "respectability", it is impossible for any of us
to imagine the degree to which black people were oppressed in this country
in those days and I wouldn't be too quick to judge Handy for wanting to 
make his music respectable.  Handy was working in the 
"coon music"/minstrel-show; Willie Dixon was post-Duke Ellington.  

I really haven't sorted out all my thoughts, but it still seems to me that
"St. Louis Blues" is a finer *composition* than anything in the Dixon 
catalog.  I'd go further and say that it's possible that the overall Dixon
catalog is the greatest of all in modern-era blues.  However, I keep thinking:
Yeah, but "Goin Down Slow" is a better *song* than anything on the Dixon list
and so is "It Hurts Me Too".
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Note 18.32                        Willie Dixon                          32 of 33
WEORG::RICH                                          34 lines  13-MAR-1992 11:56
                                -< Handy info >-
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    Here's what the liner notes to "Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy"
    has to say about W.C. Handy:
    
    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    
    W.C. Handy is known as "Father of the Blues," although of course
    he did not invent the blues.  What he did do was to put down many
    traditional blues he had heard on his travels.  Born in 1873, just
    eight years after the abolition of slavery, he would be famous if
    only for "St. Louis Blues," a tune that for many represents jazz.
    To Handy's eternal credit he gave the sources of the original parts
    to the contributions wherever possible.  In George Avakian's
    detailed notes for the original LP, he rightly says, "Handy 
    organized these snatches of words and melodies into blues songs.
    The importance of his pioneering can be appreciated only when
    one considers what a vast repertoire of popular music has grown
    out of the richness which Handy's first published compositions
    brought to wide attention."
    
    -------------------------------------------------------------------
    
    The CD liner notes were written by Brian Peerless in April 1986.
    
    The liner notes also included the following bibliography:
    
    Bigard, Barney -- With Louis and the Duke (Macmillan)
    Chilton, John --  Who's Who of Jazz (Macmillan)
    Handy, W.C. -- Father of the Blues (Sidgwick & Jackson)
    Jones, Max and Chilton, John -- Louis (November Books) 
    
    
    
    Bert

                                 W.C.Handy

                      (Born William Christopher Handy)

                     November 16, 1873 - March 28, 1958
                       Birthplace: Florence, Alabama

W.C. Handy called himself "the Father of the Blues." While Handy did not
invent the blues form, he was one of the first to use the term "blues" in a
song title ("Memphis Blues" in 1912) and include "blue notes" (flatted
thirds and sevenths) in a published composition. Handy did as much as any
early pioneer of the blues to promote the music form and push for its
inclusion in the early 1900s American music vernacular. As a songwriter,
bandleader, and publisher, Handy became synonymous with the blues, though
his relationship with the music was always distanced due to his cultivated
musical standards. He called the blues a "primitive music" and alluded to
its "disturbing monotony," yet Handy remained a blues champion until his
last days. To honor Handy's contribution to the blues, the Memphis city
fathers named a park after him, and each year the Blues Foundation honors
selected blues artists and their work with W.C. Handy Awards, the blues
equivalent of a Grammy.

Handy was born in Alabama and studied music as a youth. He played cornet in
bands traveling the South with minstrel and tent shows. According to Handy
it was in 1892, during the course of his travels, that he first heard Delta
blues. After playing with Mahara's Minstrels, he assumed the troupe's music
directorship in 1896 and performed light classical pieces, popular dance
numbers of the day, and rags throughout the Mississippi Delta in the late
1800s and early 1900s. In 1908 he was requested to write a campaign song to
help elect E. H. "Boss" Crump mayor of Memphis. Handy obliged; the original
title of the song he composed was "Mr. Crump." Handy later changed it to
"Memphis Blues" and published it in 1912. The song became a big hit. Purists
have debated whether or not "Memphis Blues" is indeed a true blues.
Regardless of the musical technicalities, the song inspired other composers
to pen 'blues" songs, including Perry Bradford, who wrote "Crazy Blues" for
singer Mamie Smith. Smith recorded the song in 1920, marking the first time
a blues song was recorded. The tune ushered in the classic blues period of
the 1920s.

Handy published "St. Louis Blues" and "Yellow Dog Blues" in 1914 and "Beale
Street Blues" in 1916, among others, and in 1917 moved to New York City,
where he recorded with his own band until 1923. In 1922, he founded the
Handy Record Company, but the label folded before it issued any recordings.
In the 1920s and 1930s Handy worked with a number of orchestras. In 1938 he
penned his autobiography, Father of the Blues. Due to failing eyesight,
Handy faded from the performing scene in the 1940s. He died in 1958.

Probably "St. Louis Blues" is the second wellknown song after "When The
Saints Go Marching In" in jazz, but might be the most wellknown song in 
blues.

Langston Hueges selected following resnditions of "St. Louis Blues" 
among 100 best performances of jazz(and blues?) in his "The First Book 
of Jazz"(1955).

>Bessie Smith                    St. Louis Blues                 Columbia
>Earl Hines(Boogie Woogie)       St. Louis Blues                 V-Disc
>Hall Johnson Choir              St. Louis Blues                 Victor
>Jonny Moore's Three Blazers     St. Louis Blues                 Exclusive
>Larry Adler                     St. Louis Blues                 Decca
>Louis Armstrong                 St. Louis Blues                 Okeh

I add Cab Calloway version to the above. 
Tell me your favorite "St. Louis Blues".
One CD could be made of "St. Louis Blues" solely.


Hueges also selected W.C.Handy's "Memphis Blues" in his 100. Has anyone
heard it?  Is that really a blues?

>W.C.Handy(with narration)       Memphis Blues And Others        Audio Archives

- Kazunori

  Well, since this version had both Bessie Smith *and* Louis Armstrong...

>Bessie Smith                    St. Louis Blues                 Columbia

  For me, that's game, set, and match.    8)     - Jay