Curtis Hitch led his band the Happy Harmonists from 1922 to 1927 in Indiana. While playing at Indiana University in Bloomington they met a young law student by the name of Hoagy Carmichael and recorded two of his songs “Bone Yard Shuffle” and “Wash Board Blues” which were Hoagy’s first recordings. Carmichael joins them at the piano.
Curtis Hitch’s Happy Harmonists were very much influenced by Bix Beiderbecke and the Wolverines who were playing a lot in Indiana at that time. Hoagy and Bix became friends when the Wolverines were playing at Indiana University. The Wolverines had recorded Hoagy’s song Riverboat Shuffle the previous year. If you listen to the piano solo in “Wash Board Blues” you recognize it has the theme from Carmichael’s later song “Lazybones“.
| Title | Recording Date | Recording Location | Company |
| Baptistown Crawl (Mays / Hitch / Neal) |
2-23-1924 | Richmond, Indiana | Gennett 5402-A Champion 15030 |
| Bone Yard Shuffle Under Direction & Accompanied by Hoagy Carmichael (Hoagy Carmichael) |
5-19-1925 | Richmond, Indiana | Gennett 3066-B Buddy 8042 |
| Cataract Rag Blues (Hampton) |
1-19-1925 | Richmond, Indiana | Gennett 5633-A |
| Cruel Woman (Hugh / McDowell / Neal) |
9-19-1923 | Richmond, Indiana | Gennett 5286-A |
| Ethiopian Nightmare (Neal / Bump) |
2-23-1924 | Richmond, Indiana | Gennett 5402-B Champion 15039 |
| Home Brew Blues (Neal / May / Rollison) |
9-19-1923 | Richmond, Indiana | Gennett 5286-B |
| Nightingale Rag Blues (Joseph Lamb) |
1-19-1925 | Richmond, Indiana | Gennett 5633-B |
| Steady Steppin’ Papa (Spindler / Rollison) |
2-23-1924 | Richmond, Indiana | Gennett 5518-A Claxtonola 40353-A Temple 544 |
| Wash Board Blues Under Direction & Accompanied by Hoagy Carmichael (Hoagy Carmichael) |
5-19-1925 | Richmond, Indiana | Gennett 3066-A Buddy 8005 Brunswick 02206 |
| Artist | Instrument |
| Jerry Bump | Trombone |
| Hoagy Carmichael | Piano, Vocals, Cornet |
| Curtis Hitch | Piano, Leader |
| Maurice Mays | Banjo |
| Earl McDowell | Drums |
| Dewey Neal | Baritone Saxophone |
| Rookie Neal | C-Melody Saxophone |
| Fred Rollison | Cornet |
| Harry Wright | Clarinet |
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.
