Help me find Aunt Hagar please

Cafe Society
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Jazz pianists - I need help!
Years ago my dad had a great old piano book of some jazz songs that’s since got lost. :frowning: Anyway, it had an arrangement of ‘Aunt Hagar’s Blues’ written by Fats Waller which I’d love to get again but I’ve had no luck trying to find it. It was in F major and had a lot of large chords in the left hand (difficult for me - I used to roll them). I’ve tried searching sheet music sites on google to no avail. I’d need to have a look at the first page to check if it’s the right one before I’d purchase but I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to get it here in Ireland.

If anyone can help I’d be very grateful. I have an old photocopy at home but it’s faded so much you can barely even read it and some of the corners of the sheets are ripped off so there are a few ‘lost chords’. I should really get around to transcribing it before it’s too late. Anyway, ideally I’d like to get a new copy and maybe one for my dad as well so if anyone can help/advise me I’d be very grateful. Thanks.

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“Aunt Hagar’s Blues” is by W. C. Handy; I think Handy Brothers still exists in some sort of fashion.

Here’s a place where you can find it in a bound collection:

Sheet Music Company – Early Jazz Standards
>http://www.sheetmusicco.com/pianoguitar/sheetmusic171597.html

Hope this helps.

your humble TubaDiva
Let the congregation join me.

PS Get one for you and one for your Dad; it’s a nice gift, not expensive, and you’re legit, which is always best.

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Thanks TubaDiva.

Only thing is that while I see that the song wasn’t written by Fats Waller, it’s a particular piano arrangement of his that I’m looking for with some really nice embellishments and thick chords. Don’t know if this one will be the same arrangement. Anyway. I’ll keep searching.

I’d say that my dad must have bought the book in the '60s in his piano-playing days or maybe even earlier. It also had the St. Louis Blues in it though I don’t know whose arrangement that was. It was in G and easier than Fats Waller’s version of Aunt Hagar’s Blues so I can still play that one from memory.

That’s a handy site though. Will keep the link.

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YoudNeverGuess, does the copied page that you have give the name of the book that it was taken from? I’m not a musician, but I am pretty good at tracking down old books of all types.

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Hi MisterThyristor ,

I looked at it last night. It’s REALLY badly faded and getting almost impossible to read but at the bottom of the page it says ‘Copyright Robbins Corporation New York, 1920’ and then again: ‘Copyright Robbins Corporation New York, 1921’. (I don’t get how it was copyrighted twice but that’s what it says anyway. Will do some more googling but it’s strange how it seems to have disappeared into the ether.

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The only thing I’ve been able to find so far is a book called:

(from WorldCat)

W.C. Handy’s collection of blues :
words and music complete.
W C Handy
English Musical Score : Printed music 1 score (36 p.) ; 31 cm.
New York : Robbins-Engel, 1925

When I looked it up on Bookfinder, I came up with:

W.C. Handy’s Collection of Blues: words and music complete

Publisher: NY Robbins Music Corp. n.d. (1930s?); Large-size booklet, saddle-stapled, 36pp, age-darkened, some tears. Includes Aunt Hagar’s Blues, Beale Street Blues, Darktown Reveille (sic), Joe Turner Blues, Ole Miss Blues, St. Louis Blues, Sundown Blues, Basement Blues, Yellow Dog Blues. Line ads for Famous Negro Spirituals, Ukelele Ike’s Comic Song Book.

This was selling for about $16.

There was no info about the arranger.

Let me know if you find more details about the name of the book, or if you want more info about copies of this one.

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Oh, and I did manage to find a picture of the cover of the book here, maybe it will stir up some memories?

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Wow! That is impressive. It looks like that’s the book. I did find a listing for that book in a university library on Google this morning and thought that could well be the one. The cover looks different, I think my Dad’s one had a blue (appropriate :slight_smile: ) cover. I’d definitely like info on getting copies of this.

My Dad has loads of old sheet music that he bought secondhand when he was a student in the 60s. I’m going to talk to him this weekend about preserving it properly. I’m sure it’s all crumbling away in the attic. This search brings it home to me how rare these things can be!

Thanks - this is great! :cool:

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It looks like there are 3 copies available, at differing conditions and prices:

  1. Priced at $16.20 USD – here.

  2. Priced at $20 USD – here.

  3. Priced at $40 USD – here. (This is the copy shown in the picture I linked to earlier.)

All of the above are also available through other connections if ABEbooks is not convenient (i.e. if they don’t accept your credit card or whatever).

To look at the other sources, and to check in the future to see if other copies become available, just go to Bookfinder and type in “W C Handy’s collection” (without the quotes) in the “Title” box.

Good luck!