"Chinatown, My Chinatown" is a popular song written by
William Jerome
William Jerome Flannery, September 30, 1865 – June 25, 1932) was an American songwriter, born in Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York of Irish immigrant parents, Mary Donnellan and Patrick Flannery. He collaborated with numerous well-known composers a ...
(words) and
Jean Schwartz (music) in 1906 and later interpolated into the musical ''Up and Down Broadway'' (1910).
[Ruhlmann, ''Breaking Records'']
p. 31
The song has been recorded by numerous artists and is considered an early jazz standard.
Composition
Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley was a collection of music publishers and songwriters in New York City that dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It originally referred to a specific place: West 28th Street ...
songwriters Jean Schwartz and William Jerome began their partnership in 1901, and collaborated successfully for more than a decade. They composed many popular songs together, including million-sellers "Mister Dooley" and "Bedelia". "Chinatown, My Chinatown" is considered their biggest hit, but it did not catch on when they wrote it in 1906, and the musical revue it was added to in 1910, ''Up and Down Broadway'', was not especially successful. By the time "Chinatown, My Chinatown" became a national hit in 1915, the two were no longer collaborating.
The melody of the song uses pentatonicism, while the harmonies employ many parallel fourths and fifths, a common
exoticist technique of the time based on Western stereotypes of Chinese and other East Asian musics. Through these musical techniques as well as racist lyrics, the song participates in the history of
Orientalism
In art history, literature and cultural studies, Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects in the Eastern world. These depictions are usually done by writers, designers, and artists from the Western world. In particular, Orientalist p ...
.
The original tempo of the song was slow; later it was adapted to a
fox-trot
The foxtrot is a smooth, progressive dance characterized by long, continuous flowing movements across the dance floor. It is danced to big band (usually vocal) music. The dance is similar in its look to waltz, although the rhythm is in a tim ...
tempo, reflecting the popularity of the dance. Still later, jazz musicians played the song at a "
hot jazz
Dixieland jazz, also referred to as traditional jazz, hot jazz, or simply Dixieland, is a style of jazz based on the music that developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century. The 1917 recordings by the Original Dixieland Jass Band ( ...
" tempo.
Recording history
"Chinatown, My Chinatown" has been recorded by numerous artists. Several recordings in late 1914 presaged its popularity in 1915 when the
American Quartet with
Billy Murray had a number one record on
Victor
The name Victor or Viktor may refer to:
* Victor (name), including a list of people with the given name, mononym, or surname
Arts and entertainment
Film
* ''Victor'' (1951 film), a French drama film
* ''Victor'' (1993 film), a French shor ...
, and
Grace Kerns
Grace Miriam Kerns (August 27, 1879Some sources give her birth year as 1880 (her grave stone) or 1886 (her death certificate); however, she appears in her family's household as a child under one year of age in the 1880 Federal Census returns. ( ...
and
John Barnes Wells also had a popular recording on
Columbia.
The same year, Columbia also released a version by
Prince's Orchestra
Charles Adams Prince (1869 – October 10, 1937) was an American conductor, bandleader, pianist and organist known for conducting the Columbia Orchestra and, later, Prince's Band and Orchestra.''Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound'', p. 860. He m ...
, in a one-step medley with
Alabama Jubilee and
Sam Ash
Sam Ash (born Samuel Ashkynase) was a violinist, teacher, and entrepreneur, best known as the founder of the Sam Ash Music Store.
Life and career
Early life
Ashkynase was born to Moishe and Mottle Ashkynase in a small town in Austria-Hungary ...
recorded an abbreviated version of it for the Columbia-affiliated, bargain-priced
Little Wonder Records
Little Wonder Records was a United States budget record label from 1914 through 1923. The label was known for producing one-sided records with abbreviated versions of songs at a very low price.
History
Little Wonders were manufactured by the Colu ...
. At least 25 jazz recordings of the song were done between 1928 and 1942; seven were recorded in 1935 alone.
Fletcher Henderson
James Fletcher Hamilton Henderson (December 18, 1897 – December 29, 1952) was an American pianist, bandleader, arranger and composer, important in the development of big band jazz and swing music. He was one of the most prolific black musi ...
,
Louis Armstrong
Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several era ...
,
Louis Prima, and
Lionel Hampton
Lionel Leo Hampton (April 20, 1908 – August 31, 2002) was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, and bandleader. Hampton worked with jazz musicians from Teddy Wilson, Benny Goodman, and Buddy Rich, to Charlie Parker, Charles M ...
were among the many jazz artists who recorded this song in the 1930s. Its recording history is one of the elements that qualifies it as an early
jazz standard
Jazz standards are musical compositions that are an important part of the musical repertoire of jazz musicians, in that they are widely known, performed, and recorded by jazz musicians, and widely known by listeners. There is no definitive lis ...
.
[Crawford & Magee, ''Jazz Standards'']
p. ix
See also
*
List of pre-1920 jazz standards
Notes
References
Citations
Bibliography
*Birnbaum, Larry. ''Before Elvis: The Prehistory of Rock 'n' Roll''. Rowman & Littlefield (2013). .
*
Crawford, Richard; Magee, Jeffery. ''Jazz Standards on Record, 1900–1942: A Core Repertory''. Chicago: Center for Black Music Research Columbia College (1992).
*Garrett, Charles Hiroshi. ''Struggling to Define a Nation: American Music and the Twentieth Century''. University of California Press (2008). .
*Goldmark, Daniel. ''Tunes for 'Toons: Music and the Hollywood Cartoon''. University of California Press (2005). .
*Harrison, Max; Fox, Charles; Thacker, Eric; and
Stuart Nicholson Stuart Nicholson may refer to:
* Stuart Nicholson (footballer) (born 1987), English footballer
* Stuart Nicholson (jazz historian) (born 1948), British jazz historian, biographer, music journalist, music critic, and academic
* Stuart Nicholson (org ...
. ''The Essential Jazz Records: Modernism to Postmodernism''. A&C Black (2000). .
*Harvey, Adam. ''The Soundtracks of Woody Allen: A Complete Guide to the Songs and Music in Every Film, 1969–2005''. McFarland (2007). .
*Hoffmann, Frank. ''Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound''. Routledge (2004). .
*Jerome, William; Schwartz, Jean. "Chinatown, My Chinatown" (sheet music). New York: Jerome H Remick & Co. (1910).
*Magee, Jeffrey. ''The Uncrowned King of Swing: Fletcher Henderson and Big Band Jazz''. Oxford University Press (2004). .
*Moon, Krystyn R. ''Yellowface: Creating the Chinese in American Popular Music and Performance, 1850s–1920s''. Rutgers University Press (2005).
*Reinhart, Mark S. ''Chet Atkins: The Greatest Songs of Mister Guitar''. McFarland (2014). .
*Ruhlmann, William. ''Breaking Records: 100 Years of Hits''. Routledge (2004). .
*Tyler, Don. ''Hit Songs, 1900–1955: American Popular Music of the Pre-Rock Era''. McFarland (2007). .
External links
"Chinatown, My Chinatown" 1914 recording by the American Quartet with Billy Murray, at the Library of Congress National Jukebox
"Chinatown, My Chinatown" 1928 recording by Art Gillham, at the Internet Archive, Audio Archive
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1910 songs
1932 singles
1910s jazz standards
Songs with lyrics by William Jerome
Songs with music by Jean Schwartz
Articles containing video clips