On September 24, 1931, Don Redman took his newly formed orchestra into a New York studio for its first session under his own name. He had spent the 1920s as jazz’s first great arranger — Fletcher Henderson’s chief writer, then musical director of McKinney’s Cotton Pickers — and had just left to front his own band at Connie’s Inn. The tune he chose was his own: “Chant of the Weed,” an instrumental built on the whole-tone scale, the six-note ladder the impressionists liked and jazz had barely touched. There are no lyrics, so the title carries the whole drug reference, which is presumably the point. Brunswick issued it on 6211 and it reached No. 15 that December. Redman kept it as his theme for the band’s whole life, remaking it in January 1940, the year he broke the orchestra up. Discographies still cannot agree whether it is “Chant of the Weed,” “Chant of the Weeds” or “Song of the Weeds.”
Cover of Classics’ “Don Redman and His Orchestra 1931–1933” (Classics 543, 1990), the compilation that collects the September 24, 1931 Brunswick session. Used as a stand-in because no free-licensed photograph of Don Redman could be found on Wikimedia Commons or elsewhere — the only image Wikipedia carries is a frame grab from a 1933 Fleischer cartoon whose own copyright tag says it does not expire until 2029. Album cover art, copyright Classics Records, all rights reserved — this is not a Creative Commons or public-domain image.
Sources: Harlem Jazz, 1930 — Wikipedia (Brunswick album set 80036; “Chant of the Weed,” Don Redman and His Orchestra, recorded September 24, 1931; peaked at number 15 in December 1931) , Brunswick 6211 — Don Redman and his Orchestra — 1931 — Old Time Blues (recorded September 24 and October 15, 1931 in New York City, “the former being the first session by Don Redman’s newly formed orchestra under his own name”; full personnel; the “Song of the Weeds” / “Chant of the Weeds” title variants) , Don Redman — Wikipedia (Fletcher Henderson from 1923; musical director of McKinney’s Cotton Pickers from 1927 to 1931; formed his own orchestra in 1931 with a residency at Connie’s Inn; recorded for Brunswick 1931–34; disbanded the orchestra in 1940) , Don Redman — West Virginia Music Hall of Fame (“the first great arranger in jazz history”; “Chant of the Weed” as his theme song) , Don Redman, Chant of the Weed — italianpiano.com (the whole-tone / hexatonic scale, associated with Debussy and the impressionists and rare in jazz until Monk; the piece as Redman’s opening number) , Don Redman Orchestra — Chant Of The Weed — Internet Archive (the remake, recorded in New York on January 17, 1940) , The Chronological Classics: Don Redman and His Orchestra 1931–1933 — MusicBrainz (Classics, 1990; the compilation used for the cover image above)
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