[Dixielandjazz] Query on a couple songs.

[Bill Haesler]

Lowell Busching aked:
> The title of the song is "Blueberry Rhyme"  .........he mentioned that for about 2 years now he has been trying to find out if there was a meaning behind that title?  
and
> I would like to know if there is a definitive answer on whether the Willie "The Lion" Smith's composition  is titled, as Paul  gave it in the program, "Echoes Of Spring" with the plural or as I thought I heard it titled as simply "Echo of Spring".?  

Dear Lowell,
Unfortunately, there is nothing regarding the origin of "Blueberry Rhyme" (composed 1939, copyrighted in February 1940) in Scott E Brown's 1986 James P Johnson book, 'A Case Of Mistaken Identity'. 
Nor in the Frank H Trolle booklets (Parts 1 & 2) published in 1981 by Micrography.
It was not included in James P's 1939 stage production, 'Policy Kings', which opened at the Nora Bayes Theater on 30 December 1939 or 'The Organiser (A Blues Opera In One Act)' from 1940. For which the score is lost.
Johnson's piano solo version was recorded for Columbia on 14 June 1939 under the supervision of John Hammond, but remained unissued until the LP era.
The session is not mentioned in Hammond's 1977 autobiography 'John Hammond On Record". 
It would therefore seem that it was just a title given to a very beautiful tune.

So far as as "Echo Of Spring" [1935. Clarence Williams - Willie Smith (The Lion) qnd Tausha Hammed) is concerned it is singular.
Courtesy of the DJML Angel, Audrey Van Dyke, I have a copy of the sheet music.
Very kind regards,
Bill.