hypersongs

St. Thomas

Sonny Rollins's calypso, which the duo recorded twice.
Jim Hall & Ron Carter, from Alone Together (1973)

Sonny Rollins is the credited writer. Wikipedia says the tune is based on the traditional Bahamian folk song "Sponger Money", which became a nursery song in the Virgin Islands that Rollins's mother sang to him; Rollins believed it resembled the Danish folk song "Det var en lørdag aften". Randy Weston recorded it first as "Fire Down There" in 1955, and Rollins's version on Saxophone Colossus (1956) made it a standard.

Hall and Carter recorded it twice on record: as the opening track of Alone Together (4:44, August 4, 1972, Playboy Club) and on Live at Village West (4:27, track five, November 1982). The Village West take is repeated on Telepathy. Our upload could be either; checking its length against 4:44 and 4:27 would settle it. We found no words of Hall's on the song, and Ron Carter's interviewer names it only as a tune he has played for many years. No chart, video or covers are listed for the duo's version.

Sources

  1. St. Thomas (song), Wikipedia
  2. Alone Together (Ron Carter and Jim Hall album), Wikipedia
  3. Live at Village West, Wikipedia