[Dixielandjazz] St Louis Blues (was 1st Jazz recording?)

[JimDBB at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/25/2003 1:14:19 AM Eastern Daylight Time, a.crouch at unsw.edu.au writes:

> Early recordings of St Louis Blues are fascinating and a real challenge to
> jazz musicologists. Ciro's and WC Handy's own early recording may be
> "jazzy" but I think they lack that "spark" that we identify with music that
> is unambiguously jazz. It's a difficult subject and once we start
> considering issues such as gestalt we get into a right 
> royal mess.

The St. Louis blues was written to be a popular song.  Most songs that are used in jazz were written to be pupular songs. 
When a jazz musician plays them they become jazz. It's fairly simple...nothing difficult about it at all.

Jim Beebe