Edgar Sampson, music · Irving Mills, lyrics · First recorded by Benny Carter's orchestra, 1933
Blue Lou
Edgar Sampson wrote it, and Benny Carter's orchestra made the first record in 1933. According to JazzStandards.com, it is rarely sung and suits blowing better than singing. Hear it with Chick Webb in 1934, Ella Fitzgerald in 1953 and a long jam session.
Listen in this order
The path starts with Benny Carter's first record in 1933 and Edgar Sampson's own arrangement for Chick Webb. It goes on to a Fletcher Henderson big band, a small band, a vocal, a long jam session and two later saxophone-led records.
Benny Carter's orchestra recorded it in New York on October 16, 1933, in a session that also produced Devil's Holiday, Lonesome Nights and Symphony in Riffs. According to JazzStandards.com, this was the first recording of the song.
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Listen for
Listen for a trumpet playing the tune first, then Teddy Wilson's piano solo, then the saxophones getting busier near the end. Sid Catlett keeps the beat on drums, and the whole record sits in a relaxed groove.
Try it on your instrument
Play the first six of the , one per bar: , , Cm7♭5, F7, , . Smaller version: play only F7 and B♭maj7, one per bar, and listen for where the record settles on B♭.
Edgar Sampson, who wrote the song, arranged this version for Chick Webb's band, which recorded it for Decca in New York on November 19, 1934.
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Listen for
Listen for Taft Jordan's trumpet and Edgar Sampson's alto saxophone, who both take solos, and for Chick Webb's drums pushing the band along. The pace is quicker than Carter's record.
Try it on your instrument
Play the , 17 to 24, one per bar except where two share a bar: , , , , Fmaj7, F♯°7, Gm7 C7, . Smaller version: play only Fmaj7, Gm7 and C7, skipping F♯°7.
A Study in Frustration: The Fletcher Henderson Story
Fletcher Henderson's orchestra recorded Horace Henderson's arrangement in Chicago on March 27, 1936, with Roy Eldridge on trumpet and Chu Berry on tenor saxophone.
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Listen for
Listen for solos from Roy Eldridge on trumpet and Chu Berry on tenor saxophone, with the whole band behind them. Horace Henderson wrote the arrangement and plays piano on the record.
Try it on your instrument
Play the end of the two ways. First: , , , , which leads into a repeat. Then: B♭maj7, E♭maj7, then and F7 sharing a , then B♭maj7, which settles at home. Hear the difference between the two endings.
Eddie Heywood's sextet recorded it for Commodore Records in 1944, when the group was playing nightly at New York's Cafe Society. The record uses Heywood's own arrangement.
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Listen for
Listen for Doc Cheatham's trumpet, Vic Dickenson's trombone and Lem Davis's alto saxophone sharing the arrangement, with Eddie Heywood's piano out front. After the big bands, six players give the tune a lighter sound.
Try it on your instrument
Play the last four of the , bars 21 to 24: , , with in the same bar, then with , which leads back to B♭. Smaller version: play only Gm7, C7, Cm7 and F7.
Ella Fitzgerald with Sy Oliver and His Orchestra · 1953
Decca 78 rpm single
Ella Fitzgerald recorded it with Sy Oliver and his orchestra in New York on February 13, 1953, for Decca. According to JazzStandards.com, few singers have recorded the song.
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Listen for
Listen for Ella Fitzgerald's voice with Sy Oliver's orchestra behind her, and for her scat singing, where she uses wordless syllables in place of words. The words tell of a woman whose love has left.
Try it on your instrument
Hum or play the melody while a friend, or a looped recording, plays the first eight of : , , Cm7♭5, F7, , , , F7. Smaller version: play only the F7 and B♭maj7 chords in alternate bars.
Norman Granz brought ten players into a New York studio on September 2, 1953, for a jam session that filled a Clef LP. Blue Lou runs over thirteen minutes on The Complete Jam Sessions.
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Listen for
Count the voices you can pick out: two trumpets, an alto saxophone and three tenor saxophones, plus vibraphone and piano, with bass and drums underneath. At more than thirteen minutes, it is by far the longest record on the path.
Try it on your instrument
Play the as a loop, as a jam session would: , , Cm7♭5, F7, , , , F7. Improvising over the loop needs practice; the smaller version is to play only F7 and B♭maj7 in alternate bars, keeping a steady beat.
Benny Carter, who made the first record of the tune in 1933, returned to it on June 11, 1957, in Los Angeles with Ben Webster and Frank Rosolino. It came out on Jazz Giant in 1958.
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Listen for
Listen for solos from Carter's alto saxophone, Ben Webster's tenor saxophone, Frank Rosolino's trombone, Barney Kessel's guitar and Andre Previn's piano. Compare this seven-piece band with Carter's 1933 orchestra.
Try it on your instrument
Play the whole as : , , , , Fmaj7, F♯°7, Gm7 C7, . Smaller version: play only 17 to 20, Fmaj7, F♯°7, Gm7 and C7.
Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis played it with Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown and Jimmie Smith at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland on July 15, 1977. The set came out on Pablo Live as Montreux '77.
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Listen for
Listen for Eddie Davis's tenor saxophone out front, with Oscar Peterson's piano, Ray Brown's bass and Jimmie Smith's drums behind him. This is a live festival recording, and it is the shortest long-form take on the path.
Try it on your instrument
Play the first two of the , and , four times in a row, then for a bar. Listen for how F7 pulls toward B♭maj7. Smaller version: alternate F7 and B♭maj7, one bar each.
Benny Carter's orchestra records the tune in 1933, and Chick Webb's band follows in 1934 with an arrangement by its composer, Edgar Sampson. Fletcher Henderson's band records Horace Henderson's arrangement in 1936.
1940s
Eddie Heywood's sextet records it for Commodore in 1944, while the group plays at New York's Cafe Society. Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli play it in Rome in 1949.
1950s
Ella Fitzgerald sings it with Sy Oliver's orchestra in 1953, the year of a thirteen-minute jam session produced by Norman Granz. Benny Carter returns to it in 1957 with a seven-piece band.
1970s
Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis plays it at the 1977 Montreux Jazz Festival with Oscar Peterson on piano. A year later Peterson's trio plays it at Salle Pleyel in Paris.
More great versions
4 more, from 1949 to 1978. Tap a cover to play it here.
1940sDjango Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli1949
1950sArt Tatum1953 · Swing
Marty Paich Combo1957
1960s
1970sOscar Peterson Trio1978
Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli
1949
Djangologie Vol. 20 / 1949
Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli play it in Rome in 1949, on guitar and violin, in a relaxed groove.
Marty Paich leads a seven-piece combo with two trumpets and two valve trombones in Los Angeles in July 1957, and opens the Mode LP A Jazz Band Ball with it.
The tune's layout, its keys and the chord chart, for anyone who wants to play along.
Show the form and chords
How the tune works
B♭ majorusual key
32 barsA · A · B · A form
B♭ major → F major → B♭ majorkey centers
A8 bars
A8 bars
B8 bars · bridge
A8 bars
B♭
F
B♭
Thirty-two in four sections of eight, , in B♭. Each opens with , , Cm7♭5 and F7, then and . Bars 7 and 8 differ: the first A ends on and F7 to lead into the repeat, while the second A and the last A end on and F7 sharing a bar, then B♭maj7. The , bars 17 to 24, moves to F: , , and C7, then Fmaj7 and F♯°7 again, Gm7 and C7 sharing a bar, and Cm7 and F7 to lead back to B♭. These follow the iReal Pro chart; other lead sheets may spell some chords differently.