[Dixielandjazz] Origin of "When the Saints..."

[Ingemar Wågerman]

Is "When the Saints" a Negro Spiritual? Was it played in New Orleans 
around 1900? Interesting questions. Some facts:

In1896, a song "When the Saints ARE Marching in" was published in "Songs 
of the Soul No 2", edited by James M. Black (who was white!) The melody 
and lyrics are quite different from the song we all know, "When the 
Saints GO Marching in".

According to James Fuld ("Book of World-Famous Music") "there is a 
widespread but unsubstantiated rumor that the spiritual was played in 
New Orleans about 1900." Louis Armstrong talked about hearing the song 
as a child, played both as a hymn and more joyous after the funerals.

There is a LC tape where Papa Celestin discusses how he learned and 
incorporated "When the Saints" to the New Orleans music scene. He moved 
to New Orleans in 1904 and played there before 1910. The tape is not 
available at the moment but I hope to get information later.

"When the Saints Go Marching HOME" was published under that title in 
"The Island Song Book", privately printed in Chicago, January 1927. The 
"native songs" from Treasure Island in the Bahamas were collected by 
John and Evelyn McCutcheon. I have not seen this book and I can not tell 
if it is the same melody and lyrics as "When the Saints GO Marching in".

The same year, 1927, it was printed in "Spirituals Triumphant Old and 
New" by Edward Boatner (black), this time with the "GO" title.

Before that, it was recorded several times, first by Paramount Jubilee 
Singers 1923. The song is "our" WTS, but the title on the label (Pm 
12073) is "When ALL the Saints COME Marching In".

Sam Butler ("Bo Weavil Jackson") recorded it in 1926 as "When the Saints 
COME Marching HOME". There are several other variants, too.

In 1998 there was a newspaper article "He wrote ´When the Saints Go 
Marching In´ for $5" about how Virgil Stamps and Luther Presley wrote 
the song in 1937! They made an arrangement of it, that´s all! Maybe the 
article tried to convince the readers that WTS is a white gospel tune. 
It is not!

The question remains: What is the origin of "our" When the Saints?

Ingemar Wågerman, Gota River Jazzmen, Sweden