On September 25, 1917, W.C. Handy — 43 years old, already the best-known composer of published blues, and only now making his first records — closed a five-day Columbia run in New York with his Orchestra of Memphis. The last day’s work included a cover of “Livery Stable Blues,” the Original Dixieland Jass Band’s barnyard novelty, in which the horns neigh, crow and moo, cut for Victor seven months earlier. Handy had reason to care who owned a tune: he had sold the rights to his own “Memphis Blues” for $50 and later complained bitterly that he had been cheated. This one was about to be settled less happily for everyone. Nick LaRocca and his ex-bandmates Alcide Nunez and Ray Lopez were suing each other over its authorship in Chicago federal court, and within three weeks Judge George A. Carpenter threw out both claims, calling the piece “an old negro melody” known for many years. Columbia issued Handy’s version on A2419 regardless.
W.C. Handy (center rear, with trumpet) and his Memphis Orchestra, about 1918 — the band name under which he made his first recordings for Columbia in September 1917. Photographer unknown.
Sources: Livery Stable Blues — Wikipedia (Handy’s Orchestra of Memphis recorded it for Columbia in New York on September 25, 1917, issued as A2419 with “That ‘Jazz’ Dance”; ODJB original recorded February 26, 1917; the judge declared the tune public domain) , Handy’s Orchestra of Memphis — The Syncopated Times (session table: “Livery Stable Blues,” 9-25-1917, New York, Columbia A2419; sessions September 21–25, 1917; “the first recordings made by W.C. Handy. He was forty-three years old”) , Hart v. Graham (N.D. Ill. 1917) — Music Copyright Infringement Resource, George Washington University Law School (Judge George A. Carpenter; LaRocca vs. Nunez and Lopez; “an old negro melody, that it has been known for a great many years”; both bill and answer dismissed) , Who Wrote Those “Livery Stable Blues”? Musical Ownership in Hart et al. v. Graham — Ohio State University dissertation (depositions from September 28 to October 8, 1917; courtroom coverage October 11–12; Chicago Herald, October 13, 1917: “Judge Dismisses Case of ‘Blues’”) , The Memphis Blues — Wikipedia (Handy sold the plates and rights for $50, and “later complained bitterly that he was cheated out of the rights to his song”)
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