Basin Street Blues (arr. Will Corbin) by Spencer Williams Sheet Music for Brass Ensemble at Sheet Music Direct

Product Details

Artist Spencer Williams

Score Type

PDF, Included with PASS

Composer Spencer Williams

Arranger Will Corbin

Format Digital Sheet Music

Pages 22

Arrangement Brass Ensemble

Publisher Will Corbin

Level 3

Product ID 1559918

Genre Blues Jazz Historic

Instruments French Horn Trombone Trumpet Tuba

Performance Group Brass Quintet

Product Description

Basin Street sits on the edge of the French Quarter of New Orleans. A few years before this song was written, it served as the border of a red-light district known as Storyville. A city councilman named Sidney Story came up with the idea of creating a district to which prostitution would be limited, where it could be watched and regulated. So "The District" was created in 1897; it soon became known as "Storyville," much to the chagrin of Councilman Story. During its 20-year official life, a visitor could buy a "blue book" for two bits that listed prostitutes alphabetically and by race and address. It was abolished in 1917 during World War I because it violated a rule that no house of prostitution could be within 5 miles of a military base. The Navy wanted its sailors pure of heart. It's also a place where jazz grew up. The bordellos hired musicians to entertain customers, who weren't particularly interested in the music. So the mostly black performers were free to experiment, to try new syncopated rhythms, to blend the sounds of African drums and plantation gospel to come up with what would become known as Dixieland music. Storyville (it would later mostly be razed for public housing, and still later begin to gentrify as property values rose) was where Spencer Williams wrote the song in 1928; Louis Armstrong, who spent some of his childhood nearby, first recorded it in 1928. It has since been recorded by dozens of other artists.
If you need alternative instrumentation, I'm happy to accommodate. Contact me at wilcor@aol.com.

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