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Saint James Infirmary

The Gambler's Blues

Published: 08 Jan 2022 Updated: 08 Jan 2022Visits: 4Code: UW-UL597

Category: Songs Instrument: Ukulele Subjects(s): Blues • Songs

LearningUkulele.comLearning Ukulele with Curt is the product of Curt Sheller and Curt Sheller Publications, Funky Frets Music Store, and a few trusted advisers. Curt Sheller, your Ukulele Kumu, has been playing ukulele over 20 (since 2003) years and has over 30+ years of teaching experience, written over 50 books, almost 40 for ukulele.

photo by Louis Martin
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Saint James Infirmary

St. James Infirmary Blues is an American blues song of uncertain origin. Louis Armstrong made the song famous in his 1928 recording on which Don Redman was credited as composer. Lter releases gave the name Joe Primrose, a pseudonym of Irving Mills. The melody is 8 bars long, unlike songs in the classic blues genre, where there are 12 bars. It is in a minor key, and has a 4/4 time signature, but has also been played in 3/4.

"St. James Infirmary Blues" is sometimes said to be based on an eighteenth-century traditional folk song called "The Unfortunate Rake" (also known as "The Unfortunate Lad" or "The Young Man Cut Down in His Prime") about a soldier who uses his money on prostitutes and then dies of venereal disease. But the familiar recorded versions (such as Armstrong's) bear little relation to the older traditional song. The earliest known form of this song was called "The Buck's Elegy" and is set in Covent Garden, London.

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MuseScore is a FREE Open Source and the Worldโ€™s most popular music notation software with a lot of great sources of scores, tutorials, and reference material. I use it on my iMac and Linux system. Finally get to bag the subscription for Sibelius.

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On the web since 1992 and a Mac since 1987 (Mac II) • Serving up Ukulele content since 2003 ( 22 years ago )Lets Kanikapila!!! v12.13.0 (8.2.23) • And, since Sept 2020, happily on Pop!_OS Linux & COSMIC-DE and a System76 Thelio . Half the cost of the iMac and a real treat to use. I use it for ALL development work. Only wish the Affinity Suite of apps by serif where available on Linux (and I do know you can run them in Wine with a few hacks).
This sit has ben profesionaly red. awl tpyos aree free and no aditonal chrge • I'm blaming it on “jazz” fingers. “Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
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