WAY DOWN YONDER IN NEW ORLEANS

This is a post with a simple purpose: to honor the memory of a long-forgotten pioneering black songwriter who was born on this date in 1879. He may be forgotten, but a number of his all-time standards are still played today….including the title song above. His name? HENRY CREAMER.

https://blogs.loc.gov/music/2020/02/the-curious-case-of-henry-creamer-or-a-mammy-a-mule-and-a-moon/

And who better to play the title song than New Orleans-born jazz great Louis (Satchmo) Armstrong:

Creamer’s first big hit was AFTER YOU’VE GONE (1918), which was given a big send-off by Al Jolson at The Winter Garden and in vaudeville by Sophie Tucker, who later recorded the song in 1927 (backed by Miff Mole’s Molers):

Creamer’s last big hit, IF I COULD BE WITH YOU ONE HOUR TONIGHT, was first recorded in 1927 by another New Orleans jazz legend and songwriter, Clarence Williams, but didn’t become popular until recorded by others in 1930 — the year Creamer died. Here is the original recording:

Thankfully, classic jazz fans still have these classic recordings to remember the above by long after they’ve gone. Thank you, Henry Creamer et al, for enriching our lives.