Trouble in Mind [UPDATED: Bob Wills and Big Joe Turner]

"Trouble in Mind" was written in the early 1920s by the New Orleans (and later Chicago) jazz pianist Richard M. Jones.  Jones played with some of the best known musicians of his era, including King Oliver and Papa Celestine, but he was probably most important as the producer of so-called "race music" for Okeh Records. His 1924 recording of "Trouble in Mind" with vocalist Thelma LaVizzo, was followed in 1926 by Bertha Hill accompanied by Louis Armstrong, both at the bottom of this post. The Hill/Armstrong version slightly changed the melody, and it has been the model for the blues standard ever since. (More than the usual number of audio-only tracks in this post, because many of the greatest artists did not make videos of this song.)

 

This Willie McTell number (with interventions by Memphis Minnie) has more or less the same melody at a slightly different tempo. I am including it here because I have always liked the 12-string guitar.

Janis Joplin recorded this take at Jorma Kaukonen's home, with his wife typing a letter in the background:

 

Comments

[Wes Oliver]

I love this song. I first heard Bob Wills' version of it. I think Wills is an under-appreciated pioneer. Elvis and Ray Charles are both (rightly and) frequently credited with music and musical styles that crossed racial lines. Ray Charles' Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music is, for my money, one of the best albums of all time. But the sounds of Bob Wills in the 1930s and 1940s were a true melting pot of musical styles of race and cultures at a time when there was much less of an appetite for cross-pollination -- country/western meets jazz, blues, and big band. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I knew Basin Street Blues as a Bob Wills tune before I learned it was first done by Louis Armstrong.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjdQ1X2y9qU

[Steve L.]

Thanks, Wes. I added a Bob Wills clip to the post, right before Willie McTell.

I have posted some other Bob Wills music over the years, including this full post on San Antonio Rose: https://www.thefacultylounge.org/2020/06/san-antonio-rose.html .

You are right about Wills's melting pot of musical styles. The same goes for Jimmie Rodgers, who melded old time country, African American blues, gospel, jazz, and I even think I've detected a hint of klezmer in some clarinet riffs.

[Walter Effross]

And the immortal Big Joe Turner:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRM9aMNTUJI

[Steve L.]

Thanks, Walter. Added it above.