The Original Dixieland Jass Band (ODJB) was a Dixieland jazz band that made the first jazz recordings in early 1917. Their "Livery Stable Blues" became the first jazz record ever issued. The group composed and recorded many jazz standards, the most famous being "Tiger Rag". In late 1917, the spelling of the band's name was changed to Original Dixieland Jazz Band.
Gustave Edwards was an American composer, songwriter and film director. He also was a vaudevillian, organised his own theatre companies and was a music publisher.
Harry Rubenstein, known professionally as Harry Ruby, was an American pianist, composer, songwriter and screenwriter, who was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970. He was married to silent film actress Eileen Percy.
"Minnie the Moocher" is a jazz-scat song co-written by American musician Cab Calloway and first recorded in 1931 by Calloway and his orchestra, selling over a million copies. "Minnie the Moocher" is most famous for its nonsensical ad libbed ("scat") lyrics. In performances, Calloway would have the audience and the band members participate by repeating each scat phrase in a form of call and response, eventually making it too fast and complicated for the audience to replicate.
William Denight Cobb was an American lyricist and composer. He and a partner, Ren Shields, produced several popular musicals and musical comedies in the early 20th century. Cobb also had a long-run collaboration with Gus Edwards.
Children's music or kids' music is music composed and performed for children. In European-influenced contexts this means music, usually songs, written specifically for a juvenile audience. The composers are usually adults. Children's music has historically held both entertainment and educational functions. Children's music is often designed to provide an entertaining means of teaching children about their culture, other cultures, good behavior, facts and skills. Many are folk songs, but there is a whole genre of educational music that has become increasingly popular.
Arthur Francis Collins was an American baritone who was one of the pioneer recording artists, regarded in his day as "King of the Ragtime Singers".
Byron George Harlan was an American singer from Kansas, a comic minstrel singer and balladeer who often recorded with Arthur Collins. The two together were often billed as "Collins & Harlan".
"Carolina in the Morning" is a popular song with words by Gus Kahn and music by Walter Donaldson, first published in 1922 by Jerome H. Remick & Co.
"When the Saints Go Marching In", often referred to as simply "The Saints", is a traditional black spiritual. It originated as a Christian hymn, but is often played by jazz bands. One of the most famous jazz recordings of "The Saints" was made on May 13, 1938, by Louis Armstrong and his orchestra.
"Pretty Baby" is a song written by Tony Jackson during the Ragtime era. The song was remembered as being prominent in Jackson's repertory before he left New Orleans in 1912, but was not published until 1916.
"Red River Valley" is a folk song and cowboy music standard of uncertain origins that has gone by different names, depending on where it has been sung. It is listed as Roud Folk Song Index 756 and by Edith Fowke as FO 13. It is recognizable by its chorus :
"Cocaine Blues" is a Western swing song written by Troy Junius Arnall, a reworking of the traditional song "Little Sadie." Roy Hogsed recorded a well known version of the song in 1947.
Moe Jaffe was a songwriter and bandleader who composed more than 250 songs. He is best known for six: "Collegiate", "The Gypsy in My Soul", "If I Had My Life to Live Over", "If You Are But a Dream", "Bell Bottom Trousers", and "I'm My Own Grandpa".
"Sweet Home Chicago" is a blues standard first recorded by Robert Johnson in 1936. Although he is often credited as the songwriter, several songs have been identified as precedents. The song has become a popular anthem for the city of Chicago despite ambiguity in Johnson's original lyrics. Numerous artists have interpreted the song in a variety of styles.
"Saturday Night Fish Fry" is a jump blues song written by Louis Jordan and Ellis Lawrence Walsh, best known through the version recorded by Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five. The recording is considered to be one of the "excellent and commercially successful" examples of the jump blues genre.
Lord Byron of Broadway (1930), also known as What Price Melody?, is an American Pre-Code musical drama film, directed by Harry Beaumont and William Nigh. It was based on a best selling book by Nell Martin, which "was widely praised by critics as an extremely true and amusing romance of stage life." It was filmed in black and white with two-color Technicolor sequences.
"Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" is a popular Christian hymn written in 1907 by Ada R. Habershon with music by Charles H. Gabriel. The song is often recorded unattributed and, because of its age, has lapsed into the public domain. Most of the chorus appears in the later songs "Can the Circle Be Unbroken" and "Daddy Sang Bass".
"How Blue Can You Get" is a blues song first recorded by Johnny Moore's Three Blazers in 1949. It is a slow twelve-bar blues that jazz critic Leonard Feather and his wife, Jane Feather, are credited with writing. The song has been recorded by several blues and other artists. It was a hit for B.B. King in 1964 and became a staple of his live shows.
