George McClennon was a dancer and novelty clarinetist who was very active in African-American theatre and vaudeville from 1910 up until his death in 1937. McClennon’s records are a very good example of a style of playing the clarinet called “gas pipe”. “Gas pipe” clarinet players used the instrument to produce all kinds of honks, growls, squeaks and effects that sounded like animal noises, laughter and so forth. This style of playing was meant to be humorous and McClennon upped the entertainment value by performing comic acrobatic dances while he played.
McClennon died in 1937 in Chicago of tuberculosis. He was the adopted son of Bert Williams and like his adopted father he often performed in blackface makeup. George McClennon earliest records were released under the name of the Harlem Trio in 1923 and 1924.
| Title | Recording Date | Recording Location | Company |
| Anyone Want To Try My Cabbage? (Andy Razaf / Fats Waller) |
5-7-1925 | New York, New York | Okeh 8236 |
| Bologny (George McClennon) |
6-11-1925 | New York, New York | Okeh 8337 |
| Box Of Blues (George McClennon) |
9-1926 | New York, New York | Okeh 8143-B |
| Cut Throat Blues (George McClennon) |
5-2-1925 | New York, New York | Okeh 8214 |
| Cotton Club Stomp (George McClennon) |
9-1926 | New York, New York | Okeh 8397-A |
| Dark Alley Blues (George McClennon) |
9-1926 | New York, New York | Okeh 8143-A |
| Disaster (Troy / Banks) |
8-1926 | New York, New York | Okeh 8406-A |
| Everybody But Me (Troy / Dowell) |
6-11-1925 | New York, New York | Okeh 8337 |
| Home Alone Again Blues (John Holmes / Fats Waller) |
5-7-1925 | New York, New York | Okeh 8236 |
| Larkin Street Blues (Heywood) |
5-2-1925 | New York, New York | Okeh 8214 |
| Michigan Water Blues (Clarence Williams) |
9-1926 | New York, New York | Okeh 8150-A |
| Narrow Escape (Easton) |
9-29-1926 | New York, New York | Okeh 8406-B |
| New Orleans Wiggle (A. J. Piron / Peter Bocage) |
9-1926 | New York, New York | Okeh 8150-B |
| Pig’s Foot Blues (George McClennon) |
8-1926 | New York, New York | Okeh 8397-B |
| Stolen Kisses (Are The Sweetest) (Williams) |
6-18-1926 | New York, New York | Okeh 8329 |
| While You’re Sneaking Out (Somebody Else Is Eazin’ In) (Dowell) |
6-18-1926 | New York, New York | Okeh 8329 |
| Artist | Instrument |
| Buddy Christian | Banjo |
| Bob Fuller | Clarinet |
| Eddie Heywood, Sr. | Piano |
| Charlie Irvis | Trombone |
| John Lindsay | Trombone |
| George McClennon | Clarinet |
| Tom Morris | Cornet |
| Clarence Williams | Piano |
| unknown | Cornet, Trombone, Banjo, Bass Brass, Piano, Drums |
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.
