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
Paul Howard’s Quality Serenaders as a name may mean little to European enthusiasts, perhaps because only one side “New Kinda Blues” was ever released outside
Doc Cook and his 14 Doctors of Syncopation worked at the Casino dance hall at the White City amusement park during the late 1920s. The amusement
Cookie’s Gingersnaps is a small group taken from Doc Cook and his Dreamland Orchestra Title Recording Date Recording Location Company Here Comes The Hot Tamale
Johnny St. Cyr (April 17, 1890 – June 17, 1966) played banjo and guitar, and was a true jazz pioneer. St. Cyr had his own
Paddy Harmon’s Dreamland Ballroom was located on the Near West Side of Chicago at the intersection of Paulina and Van Buren streets. Paddy Harmon’s was
Beatrice C. “Bee” Palmer (11 September 1894 – 22 December 1967) was born in Chicago, the third of four children born to Charles and Anna
Title Recording Date Recording Location Company Blue Grass Blues (Billy Meyers / Elmer Schoebel) 1-1924 New York, New York Paramount 20314 1645-1 Blue Grass Blues
This band, whose entire output is included here, is surely one of the most remarkable in the history of Jazz and dance music, for it
Until recently, next to nothing was known about Thelma Terry (September 30, 1901 – May 30, 1966): she played string bass in Chicago in the
Title Recording Date Recording Location Company Dixie Blues (Perry Bradford / McCoy / Hendrix) 3-13-1923 New York, New York Columbia A3878 Sugar Blues (Lucy Fletcher / Clarence
Title Recording Date Recording Location Company I Promised Not To Holler, But Hey! Hey! (Johnny Dunn) 10-30-1923 New York, New York Columbia 13004-D Jazzin’ Babies
The 1928 sessions called Johnny Dunn and his Band are interesting in that Dunn plays with three of the greats of 1920s Jazz piano, Jelly Roll Morton on the March 13th
Title Recording Date Recording Location Company Bugle Blues (Robert Kelly) 12-21-1921 New York, New York Columbia A3541 Four O’Clock Blues (Johnny Dunn / Gus Horsley) 9-21-1922
Title Recording Date Recording Location Company Daddy Change Your Mind (Frank Guarente) 1-12-1924 New York, New York Columbia 14008-D I Don’t Know I Don’t Care
Edith Wilson and trumpet player Johnny Dunn first worked together in the musical revue “Put And Take” in 1921 and then went on to perform in Lew Lesile’s
Edith Wilson (September 2, 1896 – March 31, 1981) was one of the stars of early African-American musical theatre. After working in vaudeville with her
One of the first important bassists of Jazz, Pops Foster (May 19, 1892 – October 29, 1969) was playing in bands around New Orleans as
Yes, Virginia, there was a Jabbo Smith! Jabbo had a short but exceedingly important recording career in the late 1920’s when he became the first
Title Recording Date Recording Location Company Persian Rug (Gus Kahn / Neil Morét) 3-27-1928 Camden, New Jersey Victor 21346-A ‘Sippi (1) (From “Keep Shuffin’”) (Johnson /
George Mitchell, (March 8, 1899– May 22, 1972) the gifted hard-driving cornet player on Jelly Roll Morton’s Red Hot Peppers recording sessions, deserves wider recognition and
Hardly known outside of a small Jazz coterie, this small band contrived to create an ensemble effect much like the Fletcher Henderson outfit. Charlie Johnson played
Charley Straight (January 16, 1891 – September 22, 1940) started his musical career in the early 1910’s as a solo piano player and by circa
At the request of Mayo Williams of the Brunswick Record Company of Chicago, Jabbo Smith formed his Rhythm Aces, a quintet with which he recorded
Pianist Frank Melrose (November 26, 1907 – September 1, 1941) was the younger brother of music publishers and agents Walter and Lester Melrose, who ran
