Probably the best white jazz/danceband from the 1920's.
It had major, influental people like Bix Beiderbecke, (cornet) Frank Trumbauer (C-melody) and Steve Brown (bass) among it members.
In 1926, (year of this footage) according to Rex Stewart in his book Jazz Masters of the '30's, this band defeated the Fletcher Henderson band in the Roseland Ballroom. A fact confirmed by both Benny Carter and Don Redman. They repeated it a year later, and according to the stories the Henderson prepared a lot better then, and it was a close call. Carter started to emulate the beauty of sound and perfect intonation of Trumbauer into his own playing after this, as Lester Young would do later. This band was also very forward looking in the sence it was one of the first to record with double bass. Steve Brown must be given a lot of credit, he was probably the most swinging bass player on record in 1926, when he started recording, and also the first to record slap bass solos.
Nothing needs to be said about Bix. Oh yes, Armstrong in the end was THE better jazz trumpet player, but Armstrong loved Bix (and vice versa) and they were friends. When later in 1928 Bix became a major attraction with the Paul Whiteman organisation, Louis visited one concert and went backstage (very rare for him) to see his collegue. Later that night they were jamming together at Louis regular gig.
Jazz history too often is told in stories of white musicians as opposed to Afro-American. As if it were 2 complete seperate worlds. This is quite wrong. Oh yes, on most official stages they were not allowed to perform together, but that stopped nobody to listen to each others records, or to jam private or in Harlem. In fact, Jazz is a mixture, composed of different elements that came together in the USA.
The (original private) footage was first posted onto KZfaq by Lindyhoppers. Please check their Chanell! We combined it with the music from these musicians from the same period.