Artist: Louis Armstrong's Hot Five
Author: Spencer Williams
Label: Okeh
Year: 1928
Dixieland classic. Basin Street borders the former Storyville, New Orleans' red light district until it was shut down (by order of the US Navy authorities) in 1917. It's the borderline between French Quarter and the Precincts. On the small St. Louis #1 cemetery, scenes were shot for the Easy Rider film and it's the last resting place for jazz legends and voodoo queens alike (the Barbarin family, Marie Laveau Sr & Jr). Basin Street hits actual Armstrong Park with Congo Square (see there). Author Spencer Williams grew up on Basin Street. His mother and her sister had a brothel there. Spencer played piano at Mahogany Hall, Lulu White's poshiest bordello in Storyville.
Covers:
Charleston Chasers [supergroup with Jack Teagarden (vocal), Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller (arrangement) and Gene Krupa]
Louis Prima [& his New Orleans Gang]
Benny Goodman [vocal: Joe Harris]
Jack Teagarden [the first to sing it (with the Charleston Chasers)]
Diana Krall [on hurricane Katrina benefit concert Higher Ground]
Preservation Hall Jazz Band [vocal: Merle Haggard]
At the uptown side of Basin Street there used to be a real 'bassin'. That's when Canal Street still was a real canal (linking the river with Lake Pontchartrain) and here at Basin Street there was this enlargement where vessels could turn.
If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors,
please let me know:
Arnold Rypens
Rozenlaan 65
B-2840 Reet (Rumst)