Basin Street Blues

Columbia Records 78 by the Charleston Chasers with additional lyrics by Jack Teagarden and Glenn Miller, 1931
First eight bars of the jazz standard "Basin Street Blues" on tenor sax

"Basin Street Blues" is a song often performed by Dixieland jazz bands, written by Spencer Williams in 1928 and recorded that year by Louis Armstrong.[1] The verse with the lyric "Won't you come along with me / To the Mississippi..." was later added by Glenn Miller and Jack Teagarden.

The Basin Street of the title refers to the main street of Storyville, the red-light district of early 20th-century New Orleans, north of the French Quarter. It became a red light district in 1897.[2]

  1. ^ "Jazz Standards Introduction: Origins, History, Theory, Musicology, Biographies, and Books". Jazzstandards.com.
  2. ^ "Storyville, New Orleans Red-Light District 1897-1917". Storyvilledistrictnola.com.