Posted in "St. James Infirmary", In performance, Versions on April 18, 2008 | No Comments »
A bit more than two years ago, I published on this site a mini-review of a then-new version of “SJI” by Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan. I really didn’t care for it, but of course I know that Campbell and Lanegan have a lot of indie-rockin’ fans. Anyway, Campbell did the singing on that, so [...]
Posted in "St. James Infirmary", Versions on April 7, 2008 | 2 Comments »
All About Jazz describes a White House event featuring guests the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Kermit Ruffins, and others. Also:
As the night wound down and the guests were either asked to leave or escorted out, Condy Rice sat in at the piano, she is a fine pianist by the way, and did a credible version [...]
Posted in "St. James Infirmary", Versions on March 27, 2008 | No Comments »
From time to time I check out Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz, on NPR. It’s often pretty good. In an interesting recent episode the subject is Jimmy McPartland — a cornetist, but also, it turns out, McPartland’s former husband.
I didn’t know a tremendous about McPartland, who died in 1991. But I enjoyed the program. Many of [...]
Posted in "St. James Infirmary", In performance, Versions on February 27, 2008 | No Comments »
Something I did not know: Cab Calloway’s grandson is a working musical performer. His name is C. Calloway Brooks. A New England Conservatory of Music grad, he performed with his grandfather back in the 1980s, and now tours with the seven-piece Cab Jivers. And according to this brief piece about him, “SJI” is (not surprisingly) [...]
Posted in "St. James Infirmary", In performance, MySpace/YouTube/Etc., Versions on February 25, 2008 | No Comments »
A long time ago I corresponded with, and if I remember right, even spoke to, some folks in Holland putting together a two-part radio show of versions of “SJI.” (Here and here.) During that exchange I was informed that a version of “SJI” performed by Johnny Kendall & The Heralds was a huge hit there, [...]
Posted in "St. James Infirmary", Versions on February 12, 2008 | No Comments »
Back in August, I got a note from Communicatrix Designs, where someone had come upon this site while searching around for information about “St. James Infirmary.” The reason: That firm was designing Megan Mullally’s new CD, which was to include her version of “SJI.”
I did not know Megan Mullally sang. I knew her as very [...]
Posted in "St. James Infirmary", Versions on January 22, 2008 | No Comments »
A while back I mentioned that Cassandra Wilson performed “SJI” in a New York concert that impressed the New York Times. According to All About Jazz, she has “recently mastered her latest installment for Blue Note. The album is fresh & individual take on a wide variety of standard repertoire,” including “SJI.” Her band includes [...]
Posted in "St. James Infirmary", Versions on January 22, 2008 | No Comments »
The Times Picayune has a piece about Aaron Neville — coming through a difficult year after his wife passed away — collaborating with Dr. John. Apparently they’ve been recording together sporadically in Nashville, which is where Neville lives these days. So far, the piece says, the recordings have had Neville on vocals, with Dr. John [...]
Posted in "St. James Infirmary", Versions on January 21, 2008 | 4 Comments »
During last year’s Jazz Fest, Offbeat ran a piece (which I mulled at the time) about three different versions of “SJI” played in different musicians’ sets within minutes of each other. One of those was Trombone Shorty’s take, and I remember at the time thinking “I’d like to hear that.”
And now, I have heard it, [...]
Posted in "St. James Infirmary", Musical context, Versions on January 3, 2008 | No Comments »
I received an email a little while back from a reader in California, who wondered if there might be a connection between Dr. John’s 1982 “Touro Infirmary” — which I wrote about here — and Muggsy Spanier’s “Relaxin’ At The Touro.”
From what I was able to learn online, Spanier was born in Chicago in 1906 [...]
[Or: The Point of this Site]
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 third version.
And now, this site: A place to collect some of the links, leads, thoughts, and suggestions relating to the song that readers (from Finland, The Netherlands, Australia, Spain, England, Sweden, Canada, and all over the U.S.) have sent me. This may lead to a fourth and significantly expanded version of the essay, some day. Also on this site: Plenty of tangents.
Never heard "St. James Infirmary"? Start here.
The most recent version of my "St. James Infirmary" essay is now a few years old. But it's still a fairly decent overview of what I know about the song, and why I'm interested in it. You can read it either in the book Letters from New Orleans (see below), or in the archives of The Gambit, the New Orleans weekly that published the piece as a book excerpt when LfNO came out.
This site is a partial spinoff of the book Letters from New Orleans, published by the unstoppable Garrett County Press. My interest in "St. James Infirmary" is the subject of one essay in the book. All author proceeds from the book still go to post-Katrina relief efforts, so I think it's okay for me to say: You ought to buy it.
