Limehouse Blues (film)

Limehouse Blues is a pop song whose music was written in 1922 by Philip Braham; the text was written by Douglas Furber. He was first called Breaker of Hearts before Lyricist Furber suggested to rename it in Limehouse Blues. The song became the Jazz Standard.

Issue and registration number of songs

Since the Middle Ages Limehouse was a port of London. At the beginning of the 20th century lived in the district, which is part of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, primarily members of the sub-proletariat. Also there was a Chinese quarter, which was also treated in contemporary literature, in which about 100 Chinese families lived. In particular, the film adaptation of Thomas Burke's Limehouse Nights Book by David Wark Griffith ( Street Dreams and Broken Blossoms ) made ​​more aware of the conditions in the district.

The lyrics of the song playing on the misery in this neighborhood to: In Limehouse, where Orientals love to play / In Limehouse, where you can / Hear the Blues allday / Oh Limehouse Blues / I have the Limehouse blues. Nevertheless, it is in the play by no means a real blues. Rather, it is in this lamentation to " a fascinating combination of words, melody and harmonies in a pseudo - Chinese way. "

The 32 -bar song is written and in G major in the song form ABAC (since 1924). The A- parts have a Lydian opening; the harmonious development of the piece has more to do with a Charleston with a blues.

Use in the theater

As Limehouse Blues, the song appeared on the show A to Z of Teddie Gerrard and Jack Buchanan, which was performed in London. A revised version of the song was inserted in 1924 in the Revue Charlot 's, which was performed at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London.

Starting the recording mode

The first shot is from the Queen's Dance Orchestra in England, which was directed by Jack Hylton ( and from 1923 under his name appeared ). But this instrumental version was not very successful. In New York, the instrumental version was posted on February 24, 1924 premiered by Paul Whiteman, " in F minor, in 2/4 stroke and moderately fast, more. Than symphonic piece with jazz elements than as a jazz song " This performance was at the same concert, Whiteman as well as the Rhapsody in Blue conducted.

With the text by Douglas Furber the song in America was interpreted for the first time by Gertrude Lawrence in the show Andre Charlot 's Revue of 1924. This show ran (parallel to the London performance ) from January to September 1924 in 298 performances on Broadway. In response to the Broadway hit created American recordings of Limehouse Blues. This came in the charts and proved to be best sellers:

• Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra (1924, # 24)
• Carl Fenton and His Orchestra (1924, # 14)
• Duke Ellington and His Orchestra (1931, # 13)
• Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra (1934, # 20)

Use as film music

The song was named after the eponymous thriller (1934 ), the twisted Alexander Hall with George Raft and Anna May Wong. The song found its way into music films like Ziegfeld Follies ( with Fred Astaire and Lucille Bremer in Asian makeup ), and Star! ( with Julie Andrews, also in Asian makeup ). In the anti-Soviet propaganda film GPU ( 1942) by Karl Ritter, the title of Freddie Brocksieper and his combo was played. Woody Allen used the recording of Jackie Gleason (1960) and Bert Ambrose (1936 ) in his film Alice; in Allen's Sweet and Lowdown was a version of Howard Alden used.

The way to Jazz Standard

The song soon became one as a standard piece to the repertoire of many Jazz musicians. Joe Venuti played a song in 1927 with guitarist Eddie Lang, pianist Arthur debris and multi-instrumentalist Adrian Rollini. Benny Carter changed the speed and arranged a up-tempo version for the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra, which was recorded in 1934. Django Reinhardt also played the song with the Quintette du Hot Club de France (1936 ), Chu Berry already in his first recordings under his own name (1937 ). Sidney Bechet took in 1941 a virtuoso version with him and Charlie Shavers as soloists. Art Tatum interpreted the song in 1943. Dietrich Schulz- Köhn noted that in Jazz " the tempos changed so [ s ] that now threatened to be lost in jazz concerts of the original character of Limehouse Blues to go. " As an example he calls the concert of the trio of Gene Krupa and Charlie Ventura in the New York Town Hall of 1945: the drummer Krupa drove there saxophonist Ventura and pianist George Walters " to such a pace that even the critic Leonard Feather on the cover of the record his great astonishment about the rapid game expressed. " same applies to a recording of trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and Roy Eldridge with the trio of Oscar Peterson in 1954., where " clearly used to the topic and the harmonies of Limehouse Blues as a vehicle for improvisation, without emphasize the special character of the song " as they appear for Schulz- Köhn particularly in the interpretation of Duke Ellington from 1931.

Cannonball Adderley showed 1959 ( Quintet in Chicago) with John Coltrane that the song is also suitable for improvisation in modern jazz. Joe Henderson with Wynton Kelly in 1968 also showed the potential of Limehouse Blues. Only occasionally is jazz singers took as Rosemary Clooney (1961 ) on the song.