Charlie Johnson - Charleston is The Best Dance After All

It is a shame this fantastic jazzband is - so unjustly - almost totally forgotten today. This small outfit created an ensemble effect somehow in Fletcher Henderson's style. Charlie Johnson played at Small's Paradise Club in Harlem on and off from approximately the mid-twenties to mid-thirties. Prominent musicians were Sidney de Paris (trumpet); Jimmy Harrison (trombone); Ben Whittet (clarinet); Cyrus St. Clair (tuba), and of course the great Cladys 'Jabbo' Smith (cornet). This might be cited as some of the best recorded Harlem Jazz of the late twenties. In particular, this fabulous side was waxed in 1928.