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...

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…