The band had some strong ties with the New Orleans Jazz scene. Trumpet player Ernest Coycault was from Violet, Louisiana a small town about 15 miles north of the city. Coycault had played in the Peerless Orchestra and had replaced Bunk Johnson in the Superior Orchestra while living in New Orleans. In 1914 he moved to Los Angeles to join Clay’s band. Sonny Clay himself had played drums in Jelly Roll Morton’s band in Mexico and Southern California in and with Kid Ory’s Creole Orchestra in California in the early 1920s. Chicago Breakdown is one of Morton’s songs that Louis Armstrong and his Stompers also recorded in 1927. Vocalion 15641 was released under the name of Sonny Clay and his Orchestra.
| Title | Recording Date | Recording Location | Company |
| Bogloosa Blues (Sonny Clay / Wiedoeft) |
7-28-1925 | Los Angeles, California | Vocalion B 15078 |
| California Stomp (Sturdevant) |
8-26-1926 | Los Angeles, California | Vocalion B 1050 |
| Chicago Breakdown (Jelly Roll Morton) |
2-2-1926 | Los Angeles, California | Vocalion B 15254 |
| Devil’s Serenade (Sonny Clay) |
1-12-1928 | Los Angeles, California | Vocalion B 15641 |
| In My Dreams (I’m Jealous Of You) (Leon Rene / Otis Rene) |
1-12-1928 | Los Angeles, California | Vocalion A 15641 |
| Jambled Blues (Sonny Clay) |
7-28-1925 | Los Angeles, California | Vocalion A 15078 |
| Plantation Blues (Sonny Clay / Ernest Coycault) |
2-2-1926 | Los Angeles, California | Vocalion A 15254 |
| Slow Motion Blues (Sonny Clay) |
8-26-1926 | Los Angeles, California | Vocalion A 1050 |
| Artist | Instrument |
| William Blakeney | Trumpet |
| John Carson | Tenor Saxophone, Clarinet |
| Sonny Clay | Piano, Leader |
| Ernest Coycault | Trumpet |
| Leonard Davidson | Clarinet |
| Louis Dodd | Alto Saxophone, Banjo, Guitar |
| Fitzgerald | Banjo |
| Luther Graven | Trombone |
| William Griffin | Tenor Saxophone, Clarinet |
| Herman Hoy | Tuba |
| Rupert Jordan | Banjo |
| Archie Lancaster | Trumpet |
| David Lewis | Drums |
| Willie McDaniels | Drums, Kazoo |
| John Studevant | Clarinet |
| W.B. Woodman | Trombone |
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.
