"St. James Infirmary Blues" | Silk Road Ensemble + Rhiannon Giddens 

She produces some of the most beautiful sounds you can hear these days. What a talented woman!

She’s absolutely magnificent. Deserves much more recognition. Multitalented.

omg girl you are really good this is how i think this song was meant to be

I came for Rhiannon Giddens. The band is jaw-droppingly good! Love the Romani quality.

A wonderful look back at an artist that is still growing and teaching us all.

She belongs to this Jazz favorite like a Silk glove on the hand of a Queen.

Riotous interpretation of heart-wrenching old blues classic and American story. It's miraculous how Rhiannon and Silk Road Ensemble re-imagined St. James Infirmary Blues. Thanks!

I can't play a tune but I can take in the beauty, Giddens voice and the music so fully and well played, Thank you.

Better all the time . She’s fabulous and her accompanists equally so. Fabulous!!

This is the third time I've listened to this video and I haven't actually watched it before, so when I saw the shakuhachi head joint attached to the metal flute I got so shook (I'm a flute player). Really interesting how it still works out :D I absolutely love this group and what they do because it shows that musicians can give back to the world in a profound and impactful way. Honestly, they contribute more to the world than a lot of people, and their music is beautifully foreign and familiar, but still so different.

Rhiannon is the most talented vocalist I know of. This music is absolutely superb. ❤️

Wonderful production highlighted by Rhiannon Giddens.

My favourite vocalist, songwriter, and multi instrumentalist, with a great group of artists. Loved the flute solo too.

And here I wanted to see comments about this video. Pity. Really just loved everything about this piece: the vocals, the instrumentals, the story. It was wonderful.

Very nicely done... She's becoming my favorite female singer...

Super tight, incredible performance! Hard work and diligence definitely required to get to this masterful level.

Since other people are busy complaining about the other video, I'll at least leave a comment about this one; This is an amazing version of this song. Well done and please do come with more

Thank you, Silk Road Ensamble with Rhiannon Giddens for this wonderful journey to musical adventure.

She's now the artistic director at Silk Road.....Pretty good audition, I guess

I like, LOVE the Gypsy Romany vibe. Roma is GOOD❤❤❤

So many versions of this song have been done. This has gypsy feel to it. Love it!

This actually reminded me so much of going to the hospital 😁 coming in and seeing the usual face but then the chaos around us like at the end, constantly busy all the time. Perfection 👍

Kudos to Michael Ward Bergman and his outstanding composition and tribute to magical musical mixes with the Romani musicians who inspired it.

Superb. Magnificent performance by Miss Giddens , fabulous instrumentation.

Good to see TED posting musical performances again!

this was the most inspiring speech on ted so far!

She sings like an angel

This is the best modern cover version that I've heard recently.

I've never heard this old standard sound anything like this before. A superb treatment, instrumentally and vocally.

She is just amazing

She's an extraordinary talent and should be much better known.

LOVE the Rumanian quality, the 7/8 meter passages, the use of the yangqin, accordion and bass, all sounding very Balkan. As is the clarinet, of course! Fantastic. Thank you.

Just plain AWESOME!

IN OTHER NEWS The video whose comment section we're in is a pretty cool fusion of music styles

Speechless... that was so good

woooooooooow. i just listened to Billy Boy Arnold version. this one is awesome

If you're here to throw your hate and disappointment about the last video comment section being deleted, I have a few things to tell you all: 1) You're being disrespectful to these amazing artists. I can't see a single comment of appreciation to this AMAZING version of a Jazz classic-cult song. 2)You're being disrespectful,pedant and closed to an institution who brings you the BEST of the high/popular/pop/music culture on the web. Before leaving your disgusted comment did you even asked yourself WHY they HAD to disable the comment section? 3)You're being disrespectful to that woman,to the people and to YOU. You're throwing hate toward a person you don't know,while being reductionist. I saw you wishing her to die,I saw you insulting her only cause you don't agree with her. I know you can do better than that. And please, don't talk about freedom of speech. If you think that freedom of speech is saying wathever you want,whenever you want to whoever you want,you clearly don't know what freedom of speech is. If you don't know how to use them,your rights mean nothing; we are in a mediatic society,and learning how to communicate is very important. One of the reasons they disabled the comment section is that you WERE NOT COMMUNICATING,YOU WERE NOT DEBATING,YOU WERE NOT DISCUSSING,YOU WERE NOT "SHARING IDEAS",YOU WERE JUST HATING,OPPRESSING AND USING YOUR RIGHTS TO HURT ANOTHER PERSON,AND YOU CAN'T DO THAT WITHOUT CONSEQUENCES IN A CIVIL SOCIETY. So Dear TED,thank you for your services and for your divulgation work.

I only clicked on this because I recognised it as a song that Hugh Laurie sings - but this lady's got quite a voice!

It is D❤️NE ‼️Heavens angel soothes each soul.

She has a wonderful voice. Also, the instrumentalists are very skilled 😊

Best version ever!

Wow. That was amazing.

This recreation of st james infirmary is a piece of history

Well if don’t hear , after two years , no one liked. This than it’s a sad state of affairs she the one . That’s really good , voice of change

Love this!

Great job SRE ! Rhiannon was very entertaining :) I think even Louis was tappin' his toe.

A superb presentation. Great voice and interpretation.

splendid

I like the duo performance by Rhiannon Giddens and Tom Jones better. It's shorter and mostly vocal but very good. Tom Jones was around 75 at that performance.

Love the touch o' klezmer !

Im here to listen to a cover of St.James Infirmary Blues that i havent heard, My favourite being Cab Calloways 1941 number

Beautiful 😫💘

Great performance of a great song. Two things: her voice is even better than I thought it was. And the words to this song are just so strange.

Ted talk needs to promote this artist

there are so many very delicious very different versions of this song great example here if anyone can name a song that can meet all 3 criteria so many so delicious + so different in its multitude of versions I'll be grateful for the gift of being pointed in that (or those) other song(s) direction to tour that multitude too several days this year I've spent an hour or so just listening to the variety of ways various people deliver this masterpiece beautifully

Guys, your song is amazing, I love it the use of somewhat obscure instruments is great and I love the sound you made, I know you worked so hard on creating this song and practising it over and over and sorry that people can't have a discussion about the content of the video in question, but anyway not here to judge or to hate. Great job!

Exciting

I wish Louie could be here to sing with her

Chills love it ❤️🙏❤️

... sublime..

god bless them wait you already did thank you!

amazing

this and the hot sardines>?

DAYUM, I like.

Great version. Fun to pick apart some of the confusion coming from the split narrative. On the one hand, we have the narrator who goes to the infirmary to see his "baby" and she is, of course, dead. Then he goes to his doctor who says she is lonely before the narrator returns to the infirmary. Then he goes to Old Joe's Bar where Old Joe McKennedy picks up the narrative. And here it becomes strange because Old Joe McKennedy says that he was the best man she'd ever had and she'll never find anyone better wherever she is. Yet the original narrator says that she was his "baby." One explanation is suggested in the long history of the song. St James Infirmary is speculated to have been a place for people with venereal disease and the woman in the song is referenced as a prostitute in some versions of the song. This might explain why both men have an attachment to her, why one of them is planning for his funeral, and why the concluding line says that he has the St. James Infirmary blues.

I keep expecting it to break into Foggy Mountain Breakdown!!

Everything multicultural is fabulous, especially the Silk Road Ensemble.of course they would work with her.

10 out of 10 !!!

solar wind ♥

cool klezemer blues jazz fusion.

yes

C O O L !

wow

Concordo I agree

Estupendo Maravilha

Balkan vibes :)

great video 👌👌👌

God bless her

st. james klezmer

nina simone and pride

why the hates?

Do yourself a favor and look up Jack Teagarden and His version of this song. It does Not sound like a song from Fiddler on the Roof because it's not supposed to.

do any of these people actually live along the silk road?

Could someone identify the musicians?

Betty boop's version is still the best

sugar has nothing on this

I remember 45 years ago hearing a version of this a bit different. The other person was described not as deceased but confined in a asylum for their drinking and drug abuse. Cant recall who did it, or found it again.

I thought Cab Calloway popularized this tune?

Dommage,cette interprétation de cette chanson »blues »transformée en klezmer,i hâte!!

Great music - hate the exaggerated movements.

35 seconds ago

flute-guy looked like a Spanish bruce lee to me xD

I just love Cab Calloway. This version is certainly interesting, but it lacks the atmosphere I love about this fantastic song. I definitely prefer Calloway's version.

Even such music goddess as Rhiannon with her magical voice could not save this andeavor from total collaps and pretentiousness, hard to bear. Much better is version Rhiannon plus Tom Jones

Покойницкий клезмер.

This was interesting, but, Cab Calloway's version was certainly better since it had much more of an atmosphere, especially in Betty Boop cartoon. Also, I'm pretty sure this song got much more popular because of Cab Calloway.

.................................................... Any comments about this video?

some of those instruments just don't belong there. nice voice though.

Where's Yo-Yo Ma and/or Hugh Laurie?