Redhotjazz.com was a crown jewel of the early internet. Starting in the mid ’90s it made the offline discographies and biographies of early jazz available to the online public. It also hosted thousands of audio files donated by people who were digitizing their 78 RPM record collections, making many obscure recordings available for the first time. This all started long before Youtube and even before Wikipedia was much more than an idea.
We are duplicating the content of the Red Hot Jazz Archive from a snapshot saved in Archive.org’s Wayback Machine. Keeping with both the original intent and mission of Redhotjazz.org everything will be publicly available outside of our paywall. For ease of use we are improving each entry to meet the norms of the phone friendly modern internet.
The downloadable music files are mostly MP3s but some are in the ancient Real Audio (.ra) format. Rather than opening a new tab so you can stream or download them the Real Audio files will immediately download when you click them. Don’t be frightened. You don’t need Real Audio player to play them but they won’t work on Windows Media Player. We recommend the free and open source VLC player.
For more information read: About the Archive
Frank Guarentesīs World Known Georgians were playing in Switzerland during the months of March through November of 1926. These Records where only released in Switzerland
The Georgians The Georgians were a subset of the Phil Specht Orchestra. Specht had a gig at the Hotel Alamac in New York City in
Title Recording Date Recording Location Company Um-Ta-Da-Da-Da (McPhail) 6-28-1927 St. Paul, Minnesota Black Patti 8038 Artist Instrument Bob Butler Vocals Doc Cheatham? Cornet Tiny Parham?
Title Recording Date Recording Location Company Alexander, Where’s That Band? (Tiny Parham) 12-1926 Chicago, Illinois Paramount 12441-A Mojo Strut (Tiny Parham) 12-1926 Chicago, Illinois Paramount
Title Recording Date Recording Location Company Loveless Love (Handy / Koenig / Williams) 4-1927 Chicago, Illinois Paramount 12483 Oh Daddy (William Russell / Ed Herbert)
Title Recording Date Recording Location Company Mister Man (Part 1) (Charlie Jackson / Clarence Williams) 4-1925 Chicago, Illinois Paramount 12275-A Mister Man (Part 2) (Charlie Jackson / Clarence Williams)
A special thanks to James Gallup for his help with the recordings on this page. Title Recording Date Recording Location Company A Little Bit Closer
Tiny Parham is a vastly underrated Chicago bandleader of the 1920s. He cut 38 sides for Victor between 1928 to 1930 under the name of Tiny
Title Recording Date Recording Location Company Black Cat Hoot Owl Blues (Ma Rainey / Thomas A. Dorsey) 6-1928 Chicago, Illinois Paramount 12687-A Deep Moaning Blues (Ma
Lovie Austin and her Blues Serenaders accompanied dozens of Blues singers in the 1920s, but none as famous as the “Mother of the Blues”, Ma Rainey. Tommy Ladnier contributes
Title Recording Date Recording Location Company Chicago Mess Around (Lovie Austin) 8-1926 Chicago, Illinois Paramount 12380-B Paramount 14030-B Don’t Shake It No More (Thomas A.
Title Recording Date Recording Location Company Charleston Mad Vocal Chorus – Priscilla Stewart (Lovie Austin) 4-1924 Chicago, Illinois Paramount 12278 2094-1 Charleston Mad Vocal Chorus
Paramount advertised this beautiful record as a new, sensational and different souvenir record claiming it was first record to feature a picture of artist on
Ma Rainey and Papa Charlie Jackson teamed up for this record in 1928. Title Recording Date Recording Location Company Big Feeling Blues (Ma Rainey / Davis) 10-1928 Chicago, Illinois
When it comes to the discussion of blues and jazz throughout the early part of the twentieth century, there are bound to be crossovers, musicians
These sessions feature the great Ma Rainey accompanied by many of the best African-American jazz musicians of the 1920s. All of the New York sessions feature members
Thanks to Ted Weir for his help with this page. Title Recording Date Recording Location Company Aunt Hagar’s Children Blues (W.C. Handy) 6-1922 New York,
Flecther Henderson and his Orchestra played at the Club Alabam on West 44th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues in New York for about six
Tim Brymn and his Black Devil Orchestra were an all African-American 70 piece musical unit that represented the 350th Field Artillery Regiment during World War
This multimedia presentation of the music of Lt. James Reese Europe was made possible by the permission and cooperation of the following parties: Written by
These were some of the first records issued by Black Swan. “Blind Man Blues” and “Sing ‘Em For Mamma, Play ‘Em For Me” is the first
In the first quarter of the 20th century (1900–1925), the great migration of the African-American people took shape. They left their rural, country, backwoods habitats
The Dixie Stompers was a pseudonym for the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra. Thanks to Bob Palmer for his help with this page. Title Recording Date Recording Location
Some of these titles were also released as by the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra. Also See: Fletcher Henderson (1897-1952), and Fletcher Henderson: Profiles in Jazz. Title Recording
