Сент-Джеймсская больница: История блюзовой и джазовой стандарты

American blues song and jazz standard

"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. 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 time signature, but has also been played in .

The perennially popular song known today as "St. James Infirmary" (also known as "Gambler's Blues") originated as an American folk song. Carl Moore and Phil Baxter published copyrighted sheet music for the song, entitled "Gambler's Blues," under Baxter's own imprint and through Harry D. Squires, Inc. in 1925. In 1927, Fess Williams and his Royal Flush Orchestra released the first recording of the song under the title "Gambler's Blues," crediting Moore and Baxter. Louis Armstrong and his Savoy Ballroom Five recorded the song in December 1928. Okeh Records released Armstrong's recording, entitled "St. James Infirmary," crediting the composition solely to noted jazzman Don Redman, who had joined Armstrong's band for this session. Nonetheless, the second and subsequent releases of this recording credited the composition to one Joe Primrose. Beginning in 1929, Mills Music, Inc. published, advertised and promoted the sheet music for its arrangement of the song under the title "St. James' Infirmary," crediting its composition to Irving Mills's nom de plume, "Joe Primrose." Despite losing a New York State unfair competition lawsuit it brought against a rival music publisher on appeal, Mills Music somehow retained effective control over rights to the song, thereby profiting from it for decades, as though the song had not been in the public domain.