December 28, 2006

i'm comin' virginia

Posted by dogpossum on December 28, 2006 10:33 AM in the category digging and music

I'm currently really loving the song I'm Coming Virginia, penned by Donald Heywood and Marion Cook, recorded by a whole range of people, from Django Reinhardt to Fletcher Henderson.

I'm still loving the Maxine Sullivan version from this album (you can listen to bits of the song here). I think it's a minor key thing. But Sullivan's version is really just the beginning.

I'm also quite taken by a 1927 Fletcher Henderson version (Sullivan's is 1956), though there's a really big tempo shift (Henderson's is about 200bpm, Sullivan's 110bpm), and quite a serious difference in mood - Sullivan's is mellow and laid back, Henderson's (though mellow for much of his stuff in this period) is pretty well pre-swing and very up-and-down feeling (ie makes you want to charleston rather than swing out like a groover).

I also have a version by Sidney Bechet which I quite like, and I'm pretty well partial to another 1927 version, this time by Frank Trumbauer and his Orchestra with Bix Beiderbecke. This one, while the same year as Henderson's, is really far more serious. You can hear the New Orleans funereal march echoes in this version (which is actually called I'm Coming Home Virginia and comes from this album). This one sits on about 132bpm.

I'm Coming Virginia is really the best song.
I think my favourite thing about it is the way it's spelt on both my Henderson albums - I'm Coming Virgina.

Posted by dogpossum on December 28, 2006 10:33 AM in the category digging and music