Read the reviews from our shows in Chemainus & Crofton, B.C.:
1925 - Columbia recorded "St. Louis Blues"
Bessie Smith with Louis Armstrong
Andrew Homzy
Band leader Fate Marable remembered that when Louis Armstrong first joined him, one tune that went down well with the audiences was “The St. Louis Blues” (1914). Marable relayed how “the power of Armstrong’s trumpet sent the famous
W. C. Handy composition bouncing off the boat to the shores in both directions.” As Marable explained it, “It was an entirely different kind [of] music.” It differed from “ragtime which preceded it or the swing which followed.”