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
Although Jelly Roll Morton’s name was on this record, he does not play on it (or is at least inaudible). The record was released as
Title Recording Date Recording Location Company Clorinda (1) (Donald Heywood) 10-1927 New York, New York Pathe Actuelle 36729 Perfect 14910 Clorinda (2) (Donald Heywood) 10-1927 New York,
Victoria Spivey (October 15, 1906 – October 3, 1976) got her start in music at age twelve when she began playing piano in a movie
Title Recording Date Recording Location Company Chicken Ala Swing (Carl Kress / Dick Mcdonough) 2-16-1937 New York, New York Brunswick 7885 Danzon (Carl Kress / Dick Mcdonough)
Carl Kress (October 20, 1907 – June 10, 1965), along with Eddie Lang, can be considered THE founding father of jazz guitar. While Lang pioneered
Pianist and band leader Alphonso Trent was born October 24, 1902 in Fort Smith, Arkansas. (A death certificate and draft card correct many sources which
Title Recording Date Recording Location Company After You’ve Gone (Henry Creamer / J. Turner Layton) 3-5-1930 Richmond, Indiana Gennett 7161 Black And Blue Rhapsody (Madison)
Ethel Waters (October 31, 1896 – September 1, 1977) was one of the most popular African-American singers and actresses of the 1920s. She moved to
Blues singer Edna Hicks (October 14, 1891 or 1895 – August 16, 1925) was born in New Orleans and was the half-sister of Lizzie Miles and
Jelly Roll Morton (October 20, c. 1890 – July 10, 1941) was the first great composer and piano player of Jazz. He was a talented
Thanks to the enterprise of Victor Recording Company in 1927, when they took a roving recording microphone around the south and mid-west of America, we
Lee Collins is one of the underrated and lesser-known New Orleans trumpet players, of whom Danny Barker has said that he was a sweetheart of Albertine McKay in
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
Lee Collins (October 17, 1901 – July 3, 1960) got his start on the trumpet playing with brass bands in New Orleans as a teenager.
The Memphis Jug Band was one the popular jug bands of the 1920s and 1930s. The leader of the band was Will Shade who played
Ross Gorman rose to prominence in Paul Whiteman‘s Orchestra and is probably best remembered today for his original playing of the opening clarinet solo in George Gershwin’s Rhapsody
In 1923, a 16 year old teenager named Roger Wolfe Kahn (October 19, 1907 – July 12, 1962) bought the Arthur Lange Orchestra. He was
Jean Goldkette (March 18, 1893? – March 24, 1962) emigrated from France to the United States in 1911. [Brief synopsis of possible years of birth.]
Annette Hanshaw (October 18, 1901 – March 13, 1985) was a popular singer and radio star of the 1920s and early Thirties who had many
The Red Heads sessions predated Red Nichols and his Five Pennies, but was basically the same group. Title Recording Date Recording Location Company A Good Man
The older of the two Dorsey brothers Jimmy Dorsey (February 29, 1904 – June 12, 1957) was a child prodigy who began his musical career
Cornet player Muggsy Spanier (November 9, 1901 – February 12, 1967) was a member of the famed Austin High Gang and fell for jazz the minute
Phil Napoleon (2 September 1901 – 1 October 1990) was a classically trained trumpet player, but he turned his back the concert hall and formed
Miff Mole (March 11, 1898 – April 29, 1961) started his musical career playing violin and accompanying silent pictures on the piano, but later he
