Dedicated to the performance and preservation of Traditional Jazz in Austin and Central Texas

Listening to Traditional Jazz
in an Internet World

Classical jazz is not mainstream music, and hasn’t been since the end of the Big Band Era mid-1940s. It is a rare occasion when you find it on commercial radio or TV. That means that when we aren’t going to ATJS concerts and other venues to hear jazz performed live, we are listening to recordings.

Sources of jazz recordings have varied over the years. At one time you could go to a record store, such as The Record Bar, Sam Goody’s or Tower Records to see what they had in stock. Mail order houses have now become Internet vendors, but Amazon, GHB and Jazzology continue to furnish recorded jazz, although the format tends to be downloads or CDs rather than the old vinyl LP. You can also build your jazz CD collection by purchasing them from bands at ATJS concerts.

In recent years new sources of jazz have appeared. These allow you to sample an amazing library of historical and contemporary traditional jazz on your computer. A great site for music of all kinds is YouTube. For those who have never gone there, this is a website full of recordings and videos covering a very wide range of subjects. Music is well represented. Many historical jazz recordings have been posted.

Here is a suggested listening list. This will give you a good handle on early recorded jazz. Enter either the band name, the tune title or both into the Search box and good things should pop up.

 

Bands

Tunes to Sample

   

Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five/Seven

Potato Head Blues; Once in a While

Barbecue Joe and his Hot Dogs

Tar Paper Stomp (inspiration for In the Mood)

Bix Beiderbecke and his Gang

Old Man River, Sorry, At the Jazz Band Ball

Bucktown Five (early Muggsy Spanier group)

Buddy’s Habits, Mobile Blues, Really a Pain, Hot Mittens

California Ramblers Charleston, (great 20s jazz-oriented dance band)

I Ain’t Got Nobody, Third Rail, Crazy

Chocolate Dandies

Birmingham Breakdown

Coon-Sanders Nighthawks (early radio orchestra)

Here Comes My Ball and Chain, Rhythm King, I Ain’t Got Nobody, Roodles

Jean Goldkette and his Orchestra

Dinah, My Pretty Girl

Fletcher Henderson and his Orchestra

Shanghai Shuffle (early Louis Armstrong solo), Down South Camp Meeting, Hop Off, Stockholm Stomp

Jelly Roll Morton and his Red Hot Peppers (perhaps the purest New Orleans Jazz ever recorded)

Black Bottom Stomp, The Chant, Sidewalk Blues, Doctor Jazz, Steamboat Stomp, Shreveport Stomp, Kansas City Stomps, Grandpa’s Spells

Phil Napoleon and his Orchestra

Five Pennies

King Oliver and his Dixie Syncopators

Deep Henderson, Wa Wa Wa

King Oliver and his Orchestra
(catch Jimmy Archey on trombone)

Too Late, Edna, Mule Face Blues, Stingaree Blues

Quintet of the Hot Club of France (the first really good foreign jazz band)

Ain’t Misbehavin’, Avalon, Lily Belle May June, Sweet Sue, I Saw Stars, Honeysuckle Rose

Red and Miff’s Stompers (stars Miff Mole, the first great jazz trombone soloist)

Stampede, Alabama Stomp, Hurricane

Luis Russell and his Orchestra

Saratoga Shout

Cecil Scott and his Bright Boys (the only four recordings they made)

Lawd Lawd, In A Corner, Bright Boy Blues, Springfield Stomp

 

Alphonse Trent and his Orchestra

Nightmare, Saint James Infirmary Blues

Frank Trumbauer and his Orchestra (more Bix Beiderbecke recordings)

Borneo, In a Mist

Joe Venuti and his Blue Four/Six
(fabulous group)

Mug of Ale, Hiawatha’s Lullaby, Raggin’ the Scale, Four String Joe, Sweet Lorraine

Clarence Williams and his Orchestra

Bimbo, Bottomland, Bozo, Shootin’ the Pistol, Midnight Stomp, Jingles, Shake Em Up

Wolverine Orchestra (first records by Bix Beiderbecke)

Fidgety Feet, Jazz Me Blues, Riverboat Shuffle, Copenhagen, Tia Juana, Susie, Sensation, Royal Garden Blues, Oh Baby, Big Boy

This is a sampling of early recorded jazz. Listeners accustomed to today’s high fidelity may find the recording quality a bit annoying until you get used to it. Early recordings were acoustical, and while the better ones are fairly clear, the range of frequencies is not recorded well. Electrical recording techniques came along in the mid-1920s, and while some of them sound harsh the fidelity is better. The best recordings of the era, generally those from Victor (the forerunner of RCA Victor) sound surprisingly lifelike. Try a 1926 cut from Jelly Roll Morton and his Red Hot Peppers.

One of the advantages of YouTube is that anyone with MP3s or a video camera can record and post items. This has resulted in some truly wretched material that should never see the light of day. However, one finds some very good jazz recordings, some of which have not been commercially released. As with much of the Internet you must sift through the chaff to find the jewels, but the jewels are there for you to find. Some are videos, some are recordings with slide shows, and others are recordings with a single slide.

Since many YouTube entries represent contemporary material, you can find many of the bands which play ATJS concerts or play in local clubs. You can listen to the Mission City Hot Rhythm Cats (the December ATJS band), Thrift Set Orchestra, Silver Creek Jazz Band, the East Side Dandies, the Swinging Strings, Giant City Jazz, the Jazz Pharaohs, White Ghost Shivers and the Chaparral Dixielanders. Recent ATJS special bands who are on YouTube include the Jim Cullum Jazz Band, Connie Jones and his Crescent City Jazz Band, Tim Laughlin and his New Orleans Jazz All-Stars and Ed Polcer.

Here are a few additional historical jazz recordings not listed above that you may wish to try on YouTube.

Happy listening! This is a drop in the proverbial jazz recordings bucket, but if you like one track by an artist, you can try a few others.

 

Bands

Tunes to Sample

   

Henry “Red” Allen

Rosetta, Wild Man Blues

Coleman Hawkins

Body and Soul

Pee Wee Russell

If I Had You, Out of Nowhere

Ruby Braff

When My Sugar Walks Down the Street

 

Here are some YouTube suggestions by local jazz fan Roger Moon.
His list is actually much longer than this.

Bands or Artist

Tunes to Sample

   

Adrian Rollini

Davenport Blues

Andrews Sisters

Rum and Coca-Cola

Annette Henshaw

Loveable and Sweet

Artie Shaw

Begin the Beguine

Bessie Smith

Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out

Big Bill Broonzy

Trouble in Mind

Bing Crosby

Brother Can You Spare a Dime?

Bob Crosby and the Bobcats

Big Noise From Winnetka

Bob Wills

San Antonio Rose

Billie Holiday

What a Little Moonlight Can Do

Bunk Johnson

Panama

Cab Calloway

Minnie the Moocher

Duke Ellington

Mood Indigo

Fats Waller

Honeysuckle Rose

Firehouse Five Plus Two

Pagan Love Song, Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives to Me

Henry Busse

Hot Lips, Plenty of Money and You, Wang Wang Blues

Jack Teagarden

Stars Fell on Alabama

Louis Armstrong

Dippermouth Blues

Tommy Dorsey

Song of India

Ukulele Ike (Cliff Edwards)

I’ll See You in My Dreams