Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven was a jazz studio group organized to make a series of recordings for Okeh Records in Chicago, Illinois, in May 1927. Some of the personnel also recorded with Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five , including Johnny Dodds (clarinet), Lil Armstrong (piano), and Johnny St. Cyr (banjo and guitar). These musicians were augmented by Dodds's brother, Baby Dodds (drums), Pete Briggs (tuba), and John Thomas (trombone, replacing Armstrong's usual trombonist, Kid Ory , who was then touring with King Oliver ). Briggs and Thomas were at the time working with Armstrong's performing group, the Sunset Stompers .
9-591: In five sessions between May 7 and May 14, 1927, the group recorded at least 12 sides, including " Willie the Weeper ," "Wild Man Blues", " Twelfth Street Rag " and " Potato Head Blues " (celebrated for Louis Armstrong 's stop-time solo and triumphant ride-out final chorus). Thomas Brothers cites "Wild Man Blues" as a "breathtaking breakthrough" for Armstrong's solo style because of its "effortless flow between melody, embellishment, fill-ins, and breaks." In these records, Armstrong continued and further developed his mastery of
18-479: A dope habit, is introduced. The rest of the song is a description of his drug-induced dream. As Carl Sandburg wrote in his book The American Songbag: R. W. Gordon in his editorship of the Adventure magazine department "Old Songs That Men Have Sung" received thirty versions of Willy the Weeper, about one hundred verses different. Willy shoots craps with kings, plays poker with presidents, eats nightingale tongues
27-518: A dozen pills or more, When he woke up he was on a foreign shore, The Queen of Sheba was the first he met, She called him lovey-dovey and honey pet, She gave him a great big automobile, With a diamond headlight and a golden wheel, Down in Honolulu Willie fell in a trance, Seein' the dusky beauties do the Hula dance, His sweetie got in jail and Willie sure did shout, When he got
36-537: A queen cooks for him; his Monte Carlo winnings come to a million, he lights his pipe with a hundred dollar bill, he has heart affairs with Cleopatra , the Queen of Sheba , and movie actresses. In later years, various artists covered the song. Dave Van Ronk has covered this song. Bette Davis sings this song in the film The Cabin in the Cotton . The song should not be confused with Billy Walker 's 1962 song "Willie
45-609: Is included on the Voyager Golden Record , attached to the Voyager spacecraft. This article on a United States jazz band is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Willie the Weeper " Willie the Weeper " is a song about drug addiction . It is based on a standard vaudeville song, likely written in 1904. It is credited to Walter Melrose , Grant Rymal, Marty Bloom, who published it with Morris Edwin H & Co Inc in 1908. The first recording
54-409: The Weeper," which reached #5 on the country charts. Despite having the same title, the songs are unrelated. Have you ever heard about Willie the Weeper? Had a job as a chimney sweeper, He had the dope habit and he had it bad, Listen while I tell you about a dream he had, He went down to the dope shop one Saturday night, He knew the lights would all be burning bright, Well I guess he smoked
63-554: The jazz solo, almost completely dominating some of the numbers and further breaking down the New Orleans jazz style of collective improvisation into a vehicle for the soloist. In addition to his continued personal development, the Hot Seven sides feature Armstrong's new inclination towards worked-out and rehearsed arrangements, which can be heard in "Chicago Breakdown" and "Willie the Weeper." The Hot Seven song "Melancholy Blues"
72-414: The news that she had wiggled out, He landed with a splash in the river Nile, Ridin' on a seagoin' crocodile, He winked at Cleopatra, she said "Ain't he a sight" 'n' he said, "How 'bout a date for next Saturday night?" He had a million cattle and he had a million sheep, Had a million vessels on the ocean deep, Had a million dollars all in nickels and dimes, Well he knew because he counted it
81-472: Was likely by Freddie Keppard between 1923 and 1926. Many artists recorded the song in 1927, including Frankie "Half-Pint" Jaxon , Louis Armstrong and His Hot Seven , and King Oliver . Ernest Rodgers recorded a version, also in 1927, which shares several lines with Cab Calloway 's " Minnie the Moocher ". The song has many different versions, but all share a common theme: Willie, a chimney sweeper with
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