St. James Infirmary Blues

"St. James Infirmary" on tenor sax

"St. James Infirmary" is an American blues and jazz standard that emerged, like many others, from folk traditions. Louis Armstrong brought the song to lasting fame through his 1928 recording, on which Don Redman is named as composer; later releases credit "Joe Primrose", a pseudonym used by musician manager, music promoter and publisher Irving Mills.[1] The melody is eight bars long, unlike songs in the classic blues genre, where there are 12 bars. It is in a minor key, and has a 4
4
time signature, but has also been played in 3
4
.

  1. ^ Harwood, Robert W. (2022). I went down to St. James Infirmary: Investigations in the shadowy world of early jazz-blues (Third Extended ed.). Los Angeles, California: Genius Music Books. pp. 105–117. ISBN 978-1-947521-76-6.