Library

Basin Street Blues

Spencer Williams

Style
Jazz
Tradition
Jazz standard
Form
Verse and 16 bar refrain
Keys
C and B♭
Level
3
Played on
Voice

In the public domain. Source

Music

The 16 bar refrain. A slow blues; swing the eighths.

70bpm

Click any note to start from there

History

Spencer Williams wrote it in 1928, Mayfair Music published it, and Louis Armstrong recorded it that year. Basin Street was the main street of Storyville, the New Orleans red light district.

Glenn Miller and Jack Teagarden later wrote the verse that starts "Won't you come along with me, to the Mississippi," and the Charleston Chasers recorded it with that verse for Columbia in 1931. Many printings since then open with it.