The Kings of Jazz that recorded four titles on the rare Autograph label in Chicago in 1924 are hardly worth their title, let it be admitted. Lee Collins and Roy Palmer are good enough, but neither of the reedmen are adequate; particularly does this apply to Alex Poole.Jelly Roll Morton is the only rhythm man, but even he is almost powerless to move the band along – it is hopelessly overbalanced with four front-line men to one pianist. Fish Tail Blues is the same melody as Sidewalk Blues but it’s performance is not comparable to the superb Victor recording of the later title, albeit infested with extranea such as klaxon horns, police whistles and shouts of abuse!
Taken from the book Recorded Jazz: A Critical Guide by Rex Harris and Brian Rust.<
| Title | Recording Date | Recording Location | Company |
| Fish Tail Blues (Jelly Roll Morton / Lee Collins) | 9-1924 | Chicago, Illinois | Autograph 606-A |
| High Society (Palmer) | 9-1924 | Chicago, Illinois | Autograph 606-B |
| Tiger Rag (Nick LaRocca) | 9-1924 | Chicago, Illinois | Autograph 607-B |
| Weary Blues (Artie Matthews) | 9-1924 | Chicago, Illinois | Autograph 607-A |
| Artist | Instrument |
| Balls Ball | Clarinet |
| Lee Collins | Cornet |
| Jelly Roll Morton | Piano |
| Roy Palmer | Trombone |
| Alex Poole | Alto Saxophone |
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.
