Jazz Changes

Songs from 1914 to 1928

Early jazz through the years

These ten songs were written between 1914 and 1928 and carried into jazz on blues and jazz records of the 1920s, among them St. Louis Blues, Dinah, Avalon and Basin Street Blues. Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters, Eva Taylor, Louis Armstrong, Jimmie Noone and Red Nichols' Five Pennies make those early records. The page follows the songs from there to the trios, singers and bands that play them into the 2010s.

Through the years

  1. 1910s

    W. C. Handy publishes St. Louis Blues in 1914, one of the first blues songs to succeed as a pop song. Al Jolson introduces After You've Gone at the Winter Garden in 1918, and Marion Harris records it that July with Rosario Bourdon's orchestra. Charles Warfield and Clarence Williams are credited with Baby, Won't You Please Come Home in 1919.

  2. 1920s

    Bessie Smith records Baby, Won't You Please Come Home in 1923 and St. Louis Blues in 1925, with Louis Armstrong on cornet. Ethel Waters records Dinah in 1925, and Eva Taylor sings If I Could Be with You in 1927. In 1928 Armstrong records Basin Street Blues and St. James Infirmary, Red Nichols' Five Pennies record Avalon, and Jimmie Noone's band, with Earl Hines on piano, records Sweet Sue, Just You.

    Al Jolson Avalon · 1920Eva Taylor Baby, Won't You Please Come Home · 1922Bessie Smith Baby, Won't You Please Come Home · 1923Ethel Waters with her Plantation Orchestra Dinah · 1925Bessie Smith St. Louis Blues · 1925Ben Bernie and His Hotel Roosevelt Orchestra Sweet Georgia Brown · 1925Bessie Smith After You've Gone · 1927Eva Taylor with Clarence Williams' Blue Five If I Could Be with You · 1927
    7 more
    Red Nichols and His Five Pennies Avalon · 1928Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five Basin Street Blues · 1928Louis Armstrong & His Savoy Ballroom Five St. James Infirmary · 1928Duke Ellington St. Louis Blues · 1928Jimmie Noone's Apex Club Orchestra Sweet Sue, Just You · 1928Louis Armstrong After You've Gone · 1929The Mound City Blue Blowers If I Could Be with You · 1929
  3. 1930s

    McKinney's Cotton Pickers reach number one with If I Could Be with You in 1930. Art Tatum plays St. Louis Blues alone in 1933, and in Paris the Quintette du Hot Club de France, with Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli, records it and Dinah. Fats Waller records Dinah and Sweet Sue, Just You in 1935, and Benny Goodman's trio and quartet play After You've Gone, Dinah and Avalon.

    Louis Armstrong Dinah · 1930McKinney's Cotton Pickers If I Could Be with You · 1930Louis Armstrong & His Sebastian New Cotton Club Orchestra If I Could Be with You · 1930Cab Calloway St. James Infirmary · 1930The Charleston Chasers, directed by Benny Goodman Basin Street Blues · 1931Bing Crosby and The Mills Brothers Dinah · 1931Bing Crosby with Isham Jones Sweet Georgia Brown · 1932Art Tatum St. Louis Blues · 1933
    14 more
    Art Tatum After You've Gone · 1934Django Reinhardt and the Quintette du Hot Club de France Dinah · 1934Benny Goodman Trio After You've Gone · 1935Coleman Hawkins with Michel Warlop Avalon · 1935Fats Waller and His Rhythm Dinah · 1935Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli St. Louis Blues · 1935Fats Waller and His Rhythm Sweet Sue, Just You · 1935Quintette du Hot Club de France with Freddy Taylor After You've Gone · 1936Benny Goodman Quartet Dinah · 1936Benny Goodman Quartet Sweet Sue, Just You · 1936Dicky Wells Sweet Sue, Just You · 1937Benny Goodman Quartet Avalon · 1938Louis Armstrong Baby, Won't You Please Come Home · 1939Count Basie and His Orchestra with Helen Humes If I Could Be with You · 1939
  4. 1940s

    Artie Shaw records St. James Infirmary in 1941 with Hot Lips Page, and in 1947 Jack Teagarden makes it his feature at the Town Hall concert of Louis Armstrong's All Stars. Sidney Bechet and Muggsy Spanier record If I Could Be with You and Sweet Sue, Just You in 1940, and Jazz at the Philharmonic plays After You've Gone live in 1946 with Charlie Parker and Lester Young. Ella Fitzgerald sings Basin Street Blues in 1949.

    Bechet-Spanier Big Four Sweet Sue, Just You · 1940Artie Shaw and His Orchestra with Hot Lips Page St. James Infirmary · 1941Wild Bill Davison and His Commodores Baby, Won't You Please Come Home · 1943James P. Johnson If I Could Be with You · 1944Jazz at the Philharmonic After You've Gone · 1946Jack Teagarden with Louis Armstrong St. James Infirmary · 1947Ella Fitzgerald with Sy Oliver Basin Street Blues · 1949
  5. 1950s

    Bud Powell's trio and Dave Brubeck's trio both record Sweet Georgia Brown in 1950, and Oscar Peterson's trio plays it live in Toronto in 1958. Louis Armstrong's All-Stars open an album with St. Louis Blues in 1954, Miles Davis records Sweet Sue, Just You in 1956, and in 1959 Duke Ellington and Johnny Hodges stretch Basin Street Blues past eight minutes.

    The Dave Brubeck Trio Avalon · 1950Bud Powell Trio Sweet Georgia Brown · 1950The Dave Brubeck Trio Sweet Georgia Brown · 1950Louis Armstrong St. Louis Blues · 1954Nat King Cole with Nelson Riddle's Orchestra If I Could Be with You · 1955Sonny Criss After You've Gone · 1956Wes Montgomery After You've Gone · 1956Art Pepper with Warne Marsh Avalon · 1956
    11 more
    Chet Baker Big Band Dinah · 1956Sonny Criss Quintet Sweet Georgia Brown · 1956Miles Davis Quintet Sweet Sue, Just You · 1956The Oscar Peterson Trio Sweet Georgia Brown · 1958Hampton Hawes Sweet Sue, Just You · 1958Billie Holiday with Ray Ellis Baby, Won't You Please Come Home · 1959Duke Ellington and Johnny Hodges Basin Street Blues · 1959The Dave Brubeck Quartet Basin Street Blues · 1959Dizzy Gillespie Sextet St. Louis Blues · 1959Red Garland Trio St. Louis Blues · 1959Barney Kessel Sweet Georgia Brown · 1959
  6. 1960s

    Coleman Hawkins and Pee Wee Russell reunite in 1961, after 32 years, to open Jazz Reunion with If I Could Be with You, which they last recorded together in 1929. Red Garland's trio records St. James Infirmary and Baby, Won't You Please Come Home on one day in 1962, and Miles Davis records the second with Basin Street Blues in 1963. Thelonious Monk plays Dinah alone in 1964, and Jimmy Smith plays St. James Infirmary on organ in 1965.

    Bobby "Blue" Bland St. James Infirmary · 1960Lou Donaldson Avalon · 1961Pee Wee Russell & Coleman Hawkins If I Could Be with You · 1961Sarah Vaughan Baby, Won't You Please Come Home · 1962Red Garland Trio Baby, Won't You Please Come Home · 1962The Red Garland Trio St. James Infirmary · 1962Miles Davis Quintet Baby, Won't You Please Come Home · 1963Miles Davis Basin Street Blues · 1963
    4 more
    The Dave Brubeck Quartet St. Louis Blues · 1963Thelonious Monk Dinah · 1964Jimmy Smith with the Oliver Nelson Orchestra St. James Infirmary · 1965Ella Fitzgerald with Marty Paich Sweet Georgia Brown · 1966
  7. 1970s

    Oscar Peterson plays Basin Street Blues alone in a German studio in 1970, days after Dave Brubeck's trio with Gerry Mulligan plays it in Berlin. Teresa Brewer sings Baby, Won't You Please Come Home with Count Basie and Thad Jones in 1973, Ray Brown's sextet with Herb Ellis plays After You've Gone live in 1974, and Chet Atkins and Les Paul record Avalon in 1975. In 1977 Basie and Dizzy Gillespie record St. James Infirmary.

    Oscar Peterson Basin Street Blues · 1970Chet Atkins and Les Paul Avalon · 1975
  8. 1980s

    The Dirty Dozen Brass Band plays St. James Infirmary on My Feet Can't Fail Me Now, the group's first album, released on Concord Jazz in 1984.

  9. 1990s

    Keith Jarrett's trio, with Gary Peacock and Paul Motian, plays Basin Street Blues live at the Deer Head Inn in Pennsylvania in 1992, and ECM issues it in 1994. That year Roberta Flack records Sweet Georgia Brown with new lyrics that she wrote with her producers.

    Keith Jarrett Trio Basin Street Blues · 1992
  10. 2000s

    Anat Cohen's quartet plays St. James Infirmary for more than ten minutes live at the Village Vanguard in 2009, with Benny Green, Peter Washington and Lewis Nash. Ray Bryant plays If I Could Be with You alone at the piano at Rutgers University in 2004.

    Anat Cohen St. James Infirmary · 2009
  11. 2010s

    The Texas trio Hot Club of Cowtown records Sweet Sue, Just You in 2012 on fiddle, guitar and bass, in the style of Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli. Hugh Laurie opens Let Them Talk with St. James Infirmary, Jon Batiste records it in 2018, and the Hot Sardines include Dinah on a 2011 album. Max Raabe and his Palast Orchester play Avalon in 2019.

    Hot Club of Cowtown Sweet Sue, Just You · 2012

The tunes