Music Comparing Saints Come Marching in

The jazz and gospel standard “When the Saints Go Marching In” lends itself well to musical reinterpretation, and is adaptable to many different styles or genres of performance. With strong cultural and geographic ties to New Orleans, the song naturally made its way into the repertoires of musicians the likes of Louis Armstrong, who helped cultivate the early jazz scene. Louis Armstrong himself performed the song in a number of different ways, and was the first to bring “When the Saints Come Marching In” to a wider American audience. Two of Armstrong’s recordings of “Saints” include a big band-style live performance with Danny Kaye, as well as a more classic New Orleans-style swing version with a full jazz band including trombone, clarinet, bass, drums, and Jewel Brown accompanying on vocals. In the 1970s, the godfather of soul, James Brown offered a version that, while unique, exemplifies the commercialization of funk music. Greg Howlett and Andy Leftwich offer a totally deconstructed instrumental version of the song rendered with piano and fiddle. These four different versions of “When the Saints Go Marching In” shows how one tune can be adapted to suit various tastes, styles, cultures, and instrumentation arrangements.
The Louis Armstrong and Danny Kaye version is arranged for a big band audience, and the lyrics are adapted to appeal to a crowd that appreciates both jazz and Western classical music. Using scat, call-and-response, and multi-layered vocals, Armstrong and Kaye create a powerful duet version of “Saints.” Distanced as it is from its gospel and African-American roots, “Saints” takes on a life of its own in Armstrong and Kaye’s version. Armstrong and Kaye trade off vocally, going back and forth with each other in a conversational style without veering from the traditional melody of the song. Practically the opposite of the Howlett and Leftwich version, in this Armstrong and Kaye “Saints,” the instrumentation takes a back seat. Armstrong does not even play his main instrument, the trumpet, once. Instead, subtle horns add occasional and soft punctuation in the background. Standup bass and jazz drums keep the rhythm going, and the song is played up tempo with a cheerful and lively tone squarely within the big band framework. Armstrong and Kaye are having fun here, too, with smiles never leaving their faces as they transform “Saints” into an homage to the musical giants who have gone before: the “saints” to which they are paying tribute.
Thus, Armstrong and Kaye use the vehicle of this traditional funeral hymn to celebrate the lives of musicians and what they have contributed to the legacy of Western music. Instead of singing the traditional lyrics, Armstrong and Kaye mention Brahms, Chopin, and Mahler. Comedy also plays an integral role in this version of the song, as Armstrong and Kaye banter about liking Rachmaninoff (on and off, he says), Rimsky (of coursikoff!), and Haydn (who? Who? Well tell him to come out!). Kaye’s vaudeville background clearly influences this version of “When the Saints Go Marching In.” The only other version that comes close to incorporating comedy is the James Brown version, but only because the music video is set in a church in which Brown is the pastor and the congregation full of fun-loving dancers. Taken on its own, though, the James Brown version does have a touch of lightheartedness and comedy, especially when Brown sings, “Get on the Jesus crusade,” a line that does not appear in the most standard form of the lyrics. The Howlett and Leftwich version lacks humor entirely, except for the fact that it is a complete reworking of the song and has a touch of irony to it.
In a more traditional New Orleans swing jazz version with Jewel Brown, Louis Armstrong also sings the vocal lead. However, in this version, Armstrong plays trumpet for the first few measures of the long, setting up “Saints” as a classic New Orleans piece. The trumpet carries the lead melody, but the clarinet adds the harmonics to create the multilayered effect typical of the genre. In this version, the interplay between trumpet and clarinet is similar to the interplay between Armstrong and Kaye in their version. The trumpet and clarinet, or the two vocalists, have a musical conversation, a question-and-answer format and is captivating, engaging, and quintessentially jazz. After the initial instrumental start to the song, Armstrong then calls out for vocals, inviting audience participation. Jewel Brown enters a quarter of the way through the song, first adding some background and harmonics to Armstrong and then turning her voice into a lead instrument, adding depth and nuance with scat. For a few bars, all the musicians offer background vocals too, but this version of the song shifts, changing with every few bars. For example, when Jewel first starts singing, the feel of the song is traditional gospel but then it veers more towards bebop and swing jazz when Jewel turns her voice into an instrument to do scat. This version of the song is the most musically complex.
During her most powerful contributions to the song, Jewel Brown takes center stage, and all other instruments take a break except for the drums and bass. Yet she never sings the vocal lead; a female lead in “Saints” is rare indeed. Jewel does her best to upstage Satchmo, who has none of it, a potent stage dynamic. Even Armstrong, who is clearly the leader and sings the main vocal line, lets Jewel bring the song to life with her rich blanket of vocal styling. During the song, there are several instrumental solos, typical of a jazz piece, and even the trombone player gets a solo in this song. The band consists of drums, stand-up bass, trombone, clarinet, and Louis on trumpet. Similar to the Armstrong Kaye version, naturally, this version is more akin to the New Orleans spirit that “Saints” epitomizes. Like the Danny Kaye version, this one is lively and cheerful and encourages audience engagement. It is a mid-tempo version, but one that is difficult to listen to without moving the body. The band is also admirably multicultural, and it is rare to have an Asian drummer in a jazz band.
On the contrary, Greg Howlett and Andy Leftwich offer one of the most subdued and sedate versions of “When the Saints Go Marching In” that has ever been recorded. Performed live in a large concert hall, this version features Howlett on Piano and Leftwich on violin/fiddle. The fiddle plays what would have been the main vocal line in the song, but this is an instrumental version. It also incorporates some bluegrass phrasing, as the violin is played in “fiddle” style as opposed to the classical genres that Armstrong and Kaye invoke in theirs. Jazz drums and bass, not shown on scrren, offer some background rhythm in the Howlett and Leftwich version, but otherwise this down tempo rendition of “Saints” lacks the soul and spirit that makes it such a memorable song. It may, however, appeal to those who appreciate the sound of the fiddle or who can understand the importance of re-interpreting a piece of music and translating it for a new audience. One can imagine this version appealing to an older white audience on a cruise ship or in Branson. It is not commercialized per se, given the niche market, but the target audience is from a higher socio-economic demographic given the concert hall setting of the recording.
James Brown’s version reveals some of the downfalls of 1980s-era studio production, which overly compresses the sound. As a result, what could have been a fun and funky version becomes a clipped and even subdued one, in spite of the attempt of the video producer to impart a fun vibe to the song. The vocals save the song, with Brown focusing on a few verses of the original lyrics rather than trying to sing the entire song faithfully. The video situates Brown in a church, leading a congregation of dancers who let the music uplift them and move them to dancing. The instrumentation is pure funk, with the flattened, rhythmic guitar allowing the bass player to truly shine. Also indicating the song was produced in the late 1970s or early 1980s and is mixed to appeal more to a white audience is the inclusion of a few clips from the Blues Brothers film. The female background vocalist adds a gospel feel, as does Brown’s call to “get on the Jesus crusade,” but generally the music is muted and compressed for a funk version of “Saints.” Like the Howlett and Leftwich version, the James Brown song lacks substantive power. All four of these versions of “When the Saints Go Marching In” are addressed to a white audience, making a traditional gospel and jazz standard accessible.
“When the Saints Come Marching In” is an American favorite for many reasons, not least of which is its versatility. To a degree, all jazz and blues standards are versatile songs, but “Saints” occupies a special place in the canon of American music. “Saints” has no one original version but does seem like it was designed to be an upbeat, up-tempo gospel-inspired folk tune with four-four timing. Louis Armstrong might have made the widest variety of different interpretations of “Saints,” partly because he was from New Orleans and also because of the need to give audiences something familiar but repackaged just for them. Both the Armstrong versions in this set of four exemplify the true spirit of “Saints,” a song that has its roots in African American music. As a listener, I prefer both the Armstrong versions to either of the other two. The James Brown version is fun and funky, but lacks the oomph that the godfather of soul is known for. The Danny Kaye version comes across as the one with the lightest heart because it has a big band feel, and also because they refer to the different classical musicians using humor to do so. The version with Jewel Brown is a more classic swing version, potently soulful, and is musically more appealing than the Danny Kaye version.







Works Cited

Armstrong, Louis. “When the Saints Go Marching In.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyLjbMBpGDA
Armstrong, Louis and Danny Kaye. “When the Saints Go Marching In.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jm6ktYq0Yxk
Brown, James. “When the Saints Go Marching In.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGVwatv00sY
Howlett, Greg and Andy Leftwich. “When the Saints Go Marching In.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag1yEOJOXRQ