The vocalist on this session is the white Frank Marvin [alias Sonny Woods]. Marvin was one of the most recorded singers of the era, with bot...

Here's another post with  trumpeter  Bill Moore ,  a light-skinned black man who played in hundreds of recording sessions, as far back a...

This is one of the most well-known early interracial sessions.  NORK was composed of very able musicians, many of whom went on to have long,...

Here's the Jimmie Rodgers-Louis Armstrong recording I promised some posts ago, with the bonus of Lil Armstrong on piano. The Armstrongs ...

Putney Dandridge                               Putney Dandridge was a piano player, vocalist and showman, in the style of Cab Calloway.  You...

Seger Ellis Seger Ellis had an interesting career. He was a piano player and good enough to be recorded as a soloist. He performed on radio ...

Fats Waller, as I've noted, was a key player in early interracial sessions. On this recording, he's teamed up with a pop singing sta...

Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, dancer of reknown, appears on several early 1930's records with Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington and Don Redman. ...

Jimmie Rodgers, called  "The Singing Brakeman" and "America's Blue Yodeler"  was one of the seminal early country mu...

This is a pretty well-known session, which features a bunch of jazz musicians at the top of the heap. Bubber Miley is the black representati...

The best known example of an early integrated group in jazz was that of Benny Goodman , with Teddy Wilson and then Lionel Hampton. It's ...

The Dodds brothers-Johnny on clarinet and drummer Warren (Baby) were two of the most influential players in early jazz. Their careers includ...

This is one of those recording sessions whose history is somewhat confusing. The question here is, which of two powerhouse Detroit bands pla...

Ethel Waters was one of the great early blues-vaudeville-jazz singers. She did a number of interracial recordings from the late 1920's ...

Call it jugband jazz . We have the prolific pianist, composer, singer, producer Clarence Williams and Clarence Todd, a vocalist who also p...

Today, March 31 (1908), is Red Norvo's birthday-an appropriate time to post a session Norvo led that featured pianist Teddy Wilson. Wils...

Bessie Smith earned her title as Empress of the Blues. She managed to be both powerful and able to express a wide range of emotion. Clarence...