Four Versions of "When the Saints Go Marching In" Compared

The jazz and gospel standard "When the Saints Go Marching In" lends itself well to musical reinterpretation and is adaptable to many different styles and genres of performance. With strong cultural and geographic ties to New Orleans, the song naturally made its way into the repertoires of musicians such as Louis Armstrong, who helped cultivate the early jazz scene. Armstrong himself performed the song in a number of different ways and was the first to bring "When the Saints Go Marching In" to a wider American audience. Two of Armstrong's recordings discussed here include a big band-style live performance with Danny Kaye, and 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 completely deconstructed instrumental version rendered on piano and fiddle. These four different versions of "When the Saints Go Marching In" demonstrate 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 this recording. Armstrong and Kaye trade off vocally, going back and forth in a conversational style without ever veering from the traditional melody of the song.

Practically the opposite of the Howlett and Leftwich version, the instrumentation here takes a back seat. Armstrong does not even play his main instrument, the trumpet, once. Instead, subtle horns add occasional soft punctuation in the background. Stand-up 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 clearly having fun, 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 pay tribute.

Armstrong and Kaye use the vehicle of this traditional funeral hymn to celebrate the lives of musicians and what they contributed to the legacy of Western music. Instead of singing the traditional lyrics, they mention Brahms, Chopin, and Mahler. Comedy also plays an integral role: 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. The only other version that comes close to incorporating comedy is James Brown's, though primarily because the music video is set in a church where Brown plays the pastor to a congregation of fun-loving dancers. Even taken on its own, the James Brown version has a touch of lightheartedness, 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 irony inherent in its radical reworking of the song.

In a more traditional New Orleans swing jazz version featuring Jewel Brown, Louis Armstrong again sings the vocal lead. However, in this version Armstrong plays trumpet for the first few measures, establishing "Saints" as a classic New Orleans piece. The trumpet carries the lead melody while the clarinet adds harmonics, creating the multilayered effect typical of the genre. The interplay between trumpet and clarinet in this version mirrors the interplay between Armstrong and Kaye in theirs — a musical conversation in question-and-answer format that is captivating, engaging, and quintessentially jazz. After the initial instrumental introduction, Armstrong calls out for vocals and invites audience participation.

Jewel Brown enters about a quarter of the way through the song, first adding background harmonics before turning her voice into a lead instrument, enriching the performance with scat. For a few bars, all the musicians join in on background vocals as well. The song shifts and changes every few bars: when Jewel first starts singing, the feel is traditional gospel, but it veers toward bebop and swing jazz as she transforms her voice into a scatting instrument. This version is the most musically complex of the four.

During her most powerful contributions, Jewel Brown takes center stage while all other instruments drop out except for the drums and bass. Yet she never sings the main vocal lead — a female lead in "Saints" is rare indeed. Even as Brown does her best to upstage Satchmo, who holds his ground, this creates a potent stage dynamic. Armstrong, clearly the leader and main vocalist, nonetheless allows Jewel to bring the song to life with her rich vocal styling. The version also features several instrumental solos typical of a jazz piece; even the trombone player gets a solo. The band consists of drums, stand-up bass, trombone, clarinet, and Armstrong on trumpet. Like the Danny Kaye version, this recording is lively and cheerful and encourages audience engagement. It is a mid-tempo version, but one that is difficult to listen to without moving.

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, making this a purely instrumental rendition. It also incorporates some bluegrass phrasing, as the violin is played in "fiddle" style rather than in the classical manner that Armstrong and Kaye invoke. Jazz drums and bass, not shown on screen, provide some background rhythm, but otherwise this down-tempo rendition of "Saints" lacks the soul and spirit that make the song so memorable.