Post 534: 'COME BACK SWEET PAPA' - PAUL BARBARIN, LUIS RUSSELL AND LOUIS ARMSTRONG

'Come Back Sweet Papa', composed by Paul Barbarin and Luis Russell, was recorded by Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five in Chicago on 22 February, 1926. You can hear that two-and-a-half-minute recording by clicking here.

Paul Barbarin

'Come Back Sweet Papa' has a good melody and is fairly easy to play, especially as its chord progression is simple. The 16-bar Verse makes good use of the 'Nowhere Chord'; and the Chorus is a straightforward 32-bar (16 + 16, with a 'break' on Bars 15 and 16, as in dozens of other traditional jazz classics).

I used to play this tune ten years ago but, when I needed it recently, I had to re-learn it and was reminded what a good tune it is. I keep it in one of my mini-filofaxes (see below), where I had written it out in the transposed key of C (correct for the trumpet and other Bb instruments) but of course that means Concert Bb to the band as a whole.

Armstrong chose to use six bars from the final eight of the Chorus as the basis for an Introduction; and his band played the Verse only in the middle of the recording, as a sort of Interlude. The Hot Five also added a neat little four-bar Coda of stop chords. But of course it is up to any band today to treat the total 16 bars of Verse and 32 bars of Chorus in any way and order that they like.

Isn't it amazing, by the way, that you can get all the information you need to play a great jazz classic on just 20 square inches of notepaper?

But you can find a much tidier - and probably more accurate - lead-sheet on the site of the great Lasse Collin, at:
http://cjam.lassecollin.se/songs3/comebacksweetpapa160122.html

Post 157: FROM 'CALL OF THE FREAKS' TO 'GARBAGE MAN BLUES'

'Stick out your can! Here comes the Garbage Man!'

I have enjoyed this song ever since I first heard it three years ago. It's simple, catchy and requires only the singing of the above words three times over a basic 12-bar blues.

However, having got round to studying the tune and writing it out (by ear) today, I discovered it has quite a history.

Originally it was 'Call of the Freaks', recorded in 1929 by both the Luis Russell Orchestra and the King Oliver Orchestra. I am uncertain who composed it. Possibly it was King Oliver (perhaps collaborating with Dave Nelson) or more probably it was Luis Russell.

Within a  year or two, it was recorded by the Luis Russell band as 'New Call of the Freaks', said to be by Russell's percussionist, Paul Barbarin. In fact, I can't detect much that is 'new' about this version. Maybe it was the words that were written by Barbarin.

Certainly, about this time it had acquired the 'Garbage Man' vocal chorus and it caught on with vaudeville-type singers, such as Milton Brown and his Musical Brownies. By then, it was renamed 'Garbage Man Blues'.

A further stage (in my opinion one we could have done without) involved a few singers thinking it funny to add scatological lyrics.

But in its latest manifestation - performed by that great young band Tuba Skinny - it is simple, infectious, innocuous and pure delight.

To enjoy it, CLICK ON HERE.

There's much that makes this piece appealing. Best played at a tempo of crotchet = 150, it begins by vamping these two bars.

They can be repeated anything from four to eight times. Then there can be some solo choruses - either 12-bars or 16 bars (over the continued vamping of the above bars). Then we have this little bridge:

It leads us into the 12-bar blues, with the 'Stick out your can' vocal.

Following this, the 12-bar blues pattern may be repeated ad lib; but a good coda is provided if the band plays the 'bridge' again to finish.