Clarence Williams’ Blue Five were a series of recording sessions that featured some of the best Jazz musicians and Blues singers of the early 1920s. Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, Coleman Hawkins and Bubber Miley all were featured as soloists, and Blues singers such as Sippie Wallace, Margaret Johnson, Virginia Liston and Williams’ wife, Eva Taylor all contributed vocals.
Louis Armstrong was playing in New York with Fletcher Henderson at the time these recordings were made. Clarence Williams obviously understood Louis’ greatness more than Henderson and featured him on 21 of these songs.
| Title | Recording Date | Recording Location | Company |
| Achin’ Heart Blues (Clarence Williams / Clarence Johnson / Spencer Williams) |
8-27-1923 | New York, New York | Okeh 4966-B |
| Baby, I Can’t Use You No More (Sippie Wallace) |
11-28-1924 | New York, New York | Okeh 8212-A |
| Black Snake Blues (Victoria Spivey / Lonnie Johnson) |
4-14-1927 | New York, New York | Okeh 8465 |
| Cake Walking Babies From Home Vocal Chorus by Eva Taylor (Clarence Williams / Chris Smith / Henry Troy) |
1-7-1925 | New York, New York | Okeh 40321-A |
| Cast Away (Clarence Williams / Clarence Todd / Spencer Williams) |
3-4-1925 | New York, New York | Okeh 40330 |
| Coal Cart Blues (Louis Armstrong / Lil Hardin Armstrong) |
10-8-1925 | New York, New York | Okeh 8245-B |
| Get It Fixed (Clarence Williams) |
12-15-1925 | New York, New York | Okeh 8267-B |
| Early In The Morning (Billy Higgins / W. Benton Overstreet) |
10-17-1924 | New York, New York | Okeh 8187-B |
| Everybody Loves My Baby (But My Baby Don’t Love Nobody But Me) Vocal Chorus by Eva Taylor (Jack Palmer / Spencer Williams) |
11-6-1924 | New York, New York | Okeh 8181-A |
| House Rent Blues (DeKoven / Thompson) |
11-14-1923 | New York, New York | Okeh 8171-A |
| I’m A Little Blackbird Looking For A Bluebird (From The Musical Review, “Dixie To Broadway”) Vocal Chorus by Eva Taylor (Grant Clarke / Roy Turk / George W. Meyer / Arthur Johnson) |
12-17-1924 | New York, New York | Okeh 40260-A |
| I’ve Found A New Baby (Jack Palmer / Spencer Williams) |
1-22-1926 | New York, New York | Okeh 8286 73957-A |
| I’ve Found A New Baby (Jack Palmer / Spencer Williams) |
1-22-1926 | New York, New York | Okeh 8286-B 73957-B |
| I’ve Got The Yes! We Have No Banana Blues (Lew Brown / James F. Hanley / Robert King) |
11-10-1923 | New York, New York | Okeh 4927 |
| Just A Cotton Picker’s Blues (Clarence Todd) |
12-1924 | New York, New York | Okeh 8204 |
| Just Wait ‘Til You See My Baby Do The Charleston (Clarence Todd / Clarence Williams / Rosseau Simmons) |
10-6-1925 | New York, New York | Okeh 8272-A |
| Kansas City Man Blues (Clarence Williams / Clarence Johnson) |
7-30-1923 | New York, New York | Okeh 4925-A |
| Livin’ High (Maceo Pinkard) |
10-6-1925 | New York, New York | Okeh 8272-B |
| Mandy, Make Up Your Mind (From The Musical Review, “Dixie To Broadway”) Vocal Chorus by Eva Taylor (Grant Clarke / Roy Turk / George W. Meyer) |
12-17-1924 | New York, New York | Okeh 40260-B |
| Mean Blues (Billy Symthe / Art Gilham) |
11-14-1923 | New York, New York | Okeh 40006-A |
| New Orleans Hop Scop Blues (George W. Thomas) |
10-1923 | New York, New York | Okeh 4975-A |
| Of All The Wrongs You’ve Done To Me (Leyton / Smith / Davell) |
11-6-1924 | New York, New York | Okeh 8181-B |
| Oh Daddy! Blues (Oh Daddy! You Won’t Have No Mama At All) (William Russell / Ed Herbert) |
11-10-1923 | New York, New York | Okeh 4993-B |
| Old Fashioned Love (From The Musical Comedy “Runnin’ Wild”) (James P. Johnson / Cecil Mack) |
10-1923 | New York, New York | Okeh 4993-A |
| Old Folks Shuffle (Clarence Williams / Fats Waller) |
4-14-1927 | New York, New York | Okeh 8465 |
| Papa-De-Da-Da (Clarence Williams / Clarence Todd) |
3-4-1925 | New York, New York | Okeh 8215-A |
| Picking On My Baby (Jones / Reynolds) |
1-7-1925 | New York, New York | Okeh 40330 |
| Pile Of Logs And Stone (Called Home) (Maceo Pinkard) |
1-22-1926 | New York, New York | Okeh 8286-A |
| Santa Claus Blues (Charley Straight / Gus Kahn) |
10-8-1925 | New York, New York | Okeh 8245-A |
| Shake It Down (Charlie Jackson) |
12-15-1925 | New York, New York | Okeh 8267-A |
| Shreveport Blues (A.F. Potter) |
11-10-1923 | New York, New York | Okeh 40006-B |
| Squeeze Me (Clarence Williams / Fats Waller) |
10-26-1925 | New York, New York | Okeh 8254-A |
| ‘Tain’t Nobody’s Bus’ness If I Do (Porter Grainger / Everett Robbins) |
10-1923 | New York, New York | Okeh 4966-A |
| Temptation Blues (Reed) |
12-1924 | New York, New York | Okeh 8204 |
| Texas Moaner Blues (Clarence Williams / Fae Barnes) |
10-17-1924 | New York, New York | Okeh 8171-B |
| Wild Cat Blues (Clarence Williams / Thomas Wiley) |
7-30-1923 | New York, New York | Okeh 4925-B |
| You Can’t Shush Katie (Harry White / Henry Creamer / Harry Warren) |
10-26-1925 | New York, New York | Okeh 8342-A |
| You’ve Got The Right Key, But The Wrong Keyhole (Ed Green) |
10-17-1924 | New York, New York | Okeh 8173-A |
| Artist | Instrument |
| Ed Allen | Cornet |
| Louis Armstrong | Cornet |
| Buster Bailey | Clarinet, Soprano Saxophone |
| Sidney Bechet | Clarinet, Soprano Saxophone, Contrabass Sarrusophone |
| Floyd Casey | Drums |
| Buddy Christian | Banjo |
| Coleman Hawkins | Tenor Saxophone |
| Arville Harris | Clarinet, Alto Saxophone |
| Otto Hardwick | Alto Saxophone |
| Leroy Harris | Banjo |
| Charlie Irvis | Trombone |
| Margaret Johnson | Vocals |
| Virginia Liston | Vocals |
| Bubber Miley | Cornet |
| Don Redman | Clarinet, Alto Saxophone |
| Cyrus St. Clair | Tuba |
| Eva Taylor | Vocals |
| Aaron Thompson | Trombone |
| Clarence Todd | Vocals |
| Sippie Wallace | Vocals |
| Clarence Williams | Piano |
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.
