St. Louis Blues

W. C. Handy

Key

G

Time

C

Tempo

♩=92

AO focus

AO3

Form

12-bar blues + 16-bar habanera contrast section. Handy's most-recorded composition; one of the first commercially-published blues songs. Written in the form Handy heard in informal performances in Mississippi Delta clubs.

Teaching points

• 12-bar blues form — I-I-I-I, IV-IV-I-I, V-IV-I-I (with chord substitutions). The skeleton of every blues since
• Habanera middle section — Cuban-influenced rhythmic pattern in the central strain. Discuss New Orleans as a cross-cultural port
• AO3: blues form as the foundation of jazz — every jazz musician studies the 12-bar harmonic skeleton