Got the clips.

Separating out the jazz style in which these were done, I hear a chord progression and melody very similar to "Down By the Riverside." Taking just the melody and the pitch intervals, it sounds more like a white spiritual (TO ME), a name applied to songs very different from "Negro Spirituals."

Also separating out the jazz style in which these were done, it also sounds like the text pattern and pitch pattern of some minstrel songs I have heard, which were constructed, in some cases, to mimic what was then known of spirituals but which often had this happy-happy sound.

Now, onto style considerations. The stylistic difference between minstrel music and this jazz stlye is a much shorter road to travel than the road we could imagine if we were to assume it started as a lament in the mouth of a poor, hardworking field slave, and then someone jazzed it up later, and several other bands copied that exact same jazz approach. From spirituals to blues to jazz is a little more likely than straight from spirituals to jazz, so I would wonder if there is a blues tune like this one out there.

Unless someone else knows a spiritual that spawned gospel versions like these great, upbeat jazzy pieces-- or a blues song that links to this-- I would think it is probably not a spiritual. I could be wrong-- there are parts of the South whose music I don't know well including New Orleans. I do not know how New Orleans music may bave intermixed with slave music, or what may have grown there from a base in the spirituals.

It's a fun piece, though! I may take the sung part and slow it down just the tiniest bit for a congregationally-sung church song. I did that once with a minstrel piece known as Gideon's Band, and a little text adjustment to fit better in a church setting. But still quite upbeat and percussive.

~Susan