Clarence “Pine Top” Smith (June 11, 1904 – March 15, 1929) was one of the earliest pianists to recorded a boogie-woogie” piano solo. His 1928 tune “Pine Top’s Boogie Woogie” was the first recording to be labeled as such and and had a great deal of influence on all future pieces in that style. Pine Top toured the minstrel and TOBA vaudeville circuits throughout the 1920s performing with Mamie Smith and Butter Beans and Susie and other vaudeville acts. He was also a frequent solo performer at rent parties, taverns and whorehouses. Smith was accidently shot to death at a dance in Chicago in 1929.
| Title | Recording Date | Recording Location | Company |
| Big Boy They Can’t Do That (Clarence “Pine Top” Smith) |
1-15-1929 | Chicago, Illinois | Vocalion 1256 |
| I Got More Sense Than That | 1-14-1929 | Chicago, Illinois | Vocalion 1266 |
| I’m Sober Now (Clarence “Pine Top” Smith) |
1-14-1929 | Chicago, Illinois | Vocalion 1266 Brunswick 80009 B |
| Jump Steady Blues (a) (Clarence “Pine Top” Smith) |
1-15-1929 | Chicago, Illinois | Vocalion 1298 |
| Jump Steady Blues (b) (Clarence “Pine Top” Smith) |
1-15-1929 | Chicago, Illinois | Brunswick 80009 A |
| Nobody Knows When Your Down And Out (Clarence “Pine Top” Smith) |
1-15-1929 | Chicago, Illinois | Vocalion 1256 |
| Now I Ain’t Got Nothin’ At All | 1-15-1929 | Chicago, Illinois | Vocalion 1298 |
| Pine Top Blues (a) (Clarence “Pine Top” Smith) |
12-29-1928 | Chicago, Illinois | Vocalion 1245 |
| Pine Top Blues (b) (Clarence “Pine Top” Smith) |
12-29-1928 | Chicago, Illinois | Vocalion 1245 Brunswick 80009 A |
| Pine Top’s Boogie Woogie (a) (Clarence “Pine Top” Smith) |
12-29-1928 | Chicago, Illinois | Vocalion 1245 |
| Pine Top’s Boogie Woogie (b) (Clarence “Pine Top” Smith) |
12-29-1928 | Chicago, Illinois | Vocalion 1245 |
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.
