Red Hot Jazz Archive

Redhotjazz.com was a pioneering website during the “Information wants to be Free” era of the 1990s. In that spirit we are recovering the lost data from the now defunct site and sharing it with you.
Most of the music in the archive is in the form of MP3s hosted on Archive.org or the French servers of Jazz-on-line.com where this music is all in the public domain.
Files unavailable from those sources we host ourselves. They were made from original 78 RPM records in the hands of private collectors in the 1990s who contributed to the original redhotjazz.com. They were hosted as .ra files originally and we have converted them into the more modern MP3 format. They are of inferior quality to what is available commercially and are intended for reference purposes only. In some cases a Real Audio (.ra) file from Archive.org will download. Don’t be scared! Those files will play in many music programs, but not Windows Media Player.

Fats Waller and his Rhythm

Late in 1932 Fats Waller hired Phil Ponce as manager. Ponce promptly negotiated a contract with WLW, a powerful Cincinnati radio station which was heard throughout the Midwest.

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Fats Waller and his Orchestra

There may have been confusion within the original Red Hot Jazz Archive about this group. It seems likely these sides were actually labeled Fats Waller,

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James Price Johnson (1891-1955)

As a boy, James P. Johnson studied Classical music and Ragtime. He started playing professionally in a sporting house, and then progressed to rent parties,

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James P Johnson 1921

Jimmy Johnson’s Jazz Boys

Title Recording Date Recording Location Company Carolina Shout (James P. Johnson) 10-1921 New York, New York Arto 9096 Artist Instrument James P. Johnson Piano Unknown

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Johnson’s Jazzers

Title Recording Date Recording Location Company Can I Get It Now? (Perry Bradford) 6-18-1928 New York, New York Columbia 14247-D Skiddle-De-Scow (Perry Bradford) 6-18-1928 New

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Jimmy Johnson and his Band

Title Recording Date Recording Location Company Fare Thee Honey Blues (Perry Bradford) 3-5-1929 New York, New York Columbia 14417-D Put Your Mind Right On It

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Jimmy Johnson and his Orchestra

Title Recording Date Recording Location Company After Tonight New York, New York Vocalion 4768 Chicago Blues (Biese / Altiere / Williams) 6-18-1928 New York, New

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Charleston Chasers

The Charleston Chasers recording sessions were often a pseudonym for Red Nichols Five Pennies, but the name was used by Columbia for various other outfits including

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The Triangle Harmony Boys

The Triangle Harmony Boys

The Triangle Harmony Boys were an African-American band from Montgomery, Alabama. Title Recording Date Recording Location Company Canned Heat Blues (Bridges / McMath) 7-7-1927 Birmingham,

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Cornell Collegians

The Collegians

Prior to his stint with the great Jean Goldkette band, slide trombonist Speigle Willcox was with the Al Deisseroth Orchestra in 1920, and then with

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Ted Weems and his Orchestra 1929

Ted Weems and his Orchestra

Ted Weems was a popular mid-western bandleader who started his band in 1923 while attending the University of Pennsylvania. Around 1925 he moved his band

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Luis Russell’s Heebie Jeebie Stompers

Title Recording Date Recording Location Company Dolly Mine (Luis Russell / Paul Barbarin) 11-17-1926 Chicago, Illinois Okeh 8454-A Plantations Joys (Luis Russell) 11-17-1926 Chicago, Illinois Okeh 8424

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Luis Russell

Lou and his Gingersnaps

Lou And His Gingersnaps was a pseudonym for the Luis Rusell Orchestra. Title Recording Date Recording Location Company Broadway Rhythm (Joffe) 9-13-1929 New York, New

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Luis Russell (1902-1963)

Luis Russell (August 5, 1902 – December 11, 1963) was a native of Panama, but after winning $3000 in a lottery in 1919, he moved

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