Well I must say, this sounds fairly promising: A collaboration of sax player Billy Harper and author Amiri Baraka. On Jazz.com, Alan Kurtz writes* about the track “Africa Revisited,” on Harper’s Blueprints of Jazz, Volume 2, noting “Baraka’s restrained (yes, restrained!) participation” in the piece, reading an “epic narrative” titled “Where Dad Stuff Come From?” over the music. By “Dat Stuff,” Baraka means jazz. Kurtz continues:
The Professor’s saga of Dat Stuff commences with “the earliest blood songs the African made at the bottom of the ship” during the 40 days on the ocean, 40 nights in hell of the Middle Passage. Next comes the work song, for as the Professor Emeritus declaims, “We were not brought here to play basketball or place second on American Idol.”
In due course Dat Stuff arrives in Congo Square, with a side excursion to St. James Infirmary, which the Professor Emeritus luridly calls a “blood & guts arena.” Once in the Crescent City, though, Dat Stuff has a fateful “new encounter with European instruments,” says the Professor Emeritus, “themselves prototypes of the ancient African ones.”
Obviously it’s the “side excursion to” SJI that interests me most. Though the whole thing sounds pretty entertaining to me.
Unfortunately, the Amazon listing for the CD, which claims it came out on November 4, consists of one used copy, for $90! The record label’s site has a February 2009 release date.
So: Standing by till then.
[*Update: Kurtz stops by in the comments below to emphasize that he does not actually endorse Baraka's work on this as something I -- or anyone -- should spend time on. Duly noted!]
A couple of years ago I did some research into the song "St. James Infirmary," wrote up what I found, emailed that essay to friends and posted it on my web site (as part of a series of "Letters From New Orleans," as I was living in that city at the time). Based on the feedback, I wrote a second version of the essay, and asked for more feedback. Based on that, I wrote a 
Rob, I appreciate your mentioning my jazz.com review of Billy Harper’s “Africa Revisited” featuring Amiri Baraka. However, I fear I misled you with my reference to a “side excursion” to St. James Infirmary.
First, my description of Baraka’s history-of-jazz vignette as an “epic narrative” was meant sarcastically. It’s nothing of the sort. Moreover, his sole allusion to SJI comes in a hazy snippet from what may or not putatively be legendary cornetist Buddy Bolden’s funeral procession. Someone, perhaps a processioner, seems to ask: “Was it the St. James Infirmary or one of them other blood-&-guts arena [sic]?” Presumably, the questioner is inquiring as to where the late lamented kicked the bucket.
Sad to say, Professor Baraka’s grasp of history is exceedingly scant. Buddy Bolden, if indeed that is whose procession has generated this fictitious query, was buried in an unmarked grave in Holt Cemetery, a potter’s field in New Orleans. But Bolden died in the state insane asylum at Jackson, Louisiana, where he was confined for the last 24 years of his life. As far as I know, there is no evidence that Bolden received a postmortem procession (who would have paid for it?), nor are there any records of his ever being admitted to St. James Infirmary. He certainly did not die there.
As to why Professor Baraka alludes to SJI as a “blood & guts arena,” I suspect he is exercising poetic license just to jazz things up, so to speak. In any case, as I hope you now realize, this is not a promising lead in whatever mystery you may be trying to solve relating to the St. James Infirmary. It’s a dead end, no pun intended.
So as not to mislead anyone else, I have changed the subject wording in my review from “side excursion” to “sidelong glance.” I apologize if I sent you or anyone else on a wild goose chase. And as for your comment that “the whole thing sounds pretty entertaining to me,” I assure you, Rob, it’s not. If it’s entertainment you’re after, check out my short piece “Buddy Bolden on the Holodeck” at jazz.com: http://www.jazz.com/jazz-blog/2008/7/2/buddy-bolden-on-the-holodeck. Now THAT’S entertainment!
I picked up on what you thought about Baraka. It was hard to miss, you were very clear. I’m always interested in any reference to SJI at all. And I guess when I say “entertaining,” I don’t mean it in quite the way you took it. Thanks for the clarification, though.