Cast

• Lionel Hampton
  Lionel Hampton
  Lionel Leo Hampton was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor. Like Red Norvo, he was one of the first jazz vibraphone players. Hampton ranks among the great names in jazz history, having worked with a who's who of jazz musicians, from Benny Goodman and Buddy...
  
  
• Faye Adams
  Faye Adams
  Faye Adams is an American vocalist.-Early years:She was the daughter of David Tuell, a gospel singer and a key figure in the Church of God in Christ...
  
  
• Bill Bailey
  Bill Bailey
  Bill Bailey is an English comedian, musician and actor. As well as his extensive stand-up work, Bailey is well known for his appearances on Black Books, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Have I Got News for You, and QI.Bailey was listed by The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy in...
  
  
• Herb Jeffries
• Freddie Robinson
• Amos Milburn
  Amos Milburn
  Amos Milburn was an African American rhythm and blues singer and pianist, popular during the 1940s and 1950s...
  
  
• The Larks
  The Larks
  The Larks were an African American vocal group, active in the early 1950s. They were not the same group as the Los Angeles-based Larks featuring Don Julian.-Original members:...
  
   (David Bowers, Orville Brooks and Gene Mumford)
• Sarah Vaughan
  Sarah Vaughan
  Sarah Lois Vaughan was an American jazz singer, described by Scott Yanow as having "one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century."...
  
  
• Count Basie
  Count Basie
  William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...
  
  
• Big Joe Turner
  Big Joe Turner
  Big Joe Turner was an American blues shouter from Kansas City, Missouri. According to the songwriter Doc Pomus, "Rock and roll would have never happened without him." Although he came to his greatest fame in the 1950s with his pioneering rock and roll recordings, particularly "Shake, Rattle and...
  
  
• Delta Rhythm Boys
• Martha Davis
  Martha Davis (singer)
  Martha Davis was an African American singer and pianist whose musical comedy act, "Martha Davis & Spouse", was popular in the late 1940s and 1950s.-Career:Davis was born in Wichita, Kansas, and raised in Chicago, Illinois...
  
  
• Little Buck
• Nat King Cole
  Nat King Cole
  Nathaniel Adams Coles , known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, he owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres...
  
  
• Mantan Moreland
  Mantan Moreland
  Mantan Moreland was an American actor and comedian most popular in the 1930s and 1940s.-Career:Born in Monroe, Louisiana, Moreland began acting by the time he was an adolescent, reportedly running away to join the circus...
  
  
• Nipsey Russell
  Nipsey Russell
  Julius "Nipsey" Russell was an American comedian, best known today for his appearances as a guest panelist on game shows from the 1960s through the 1990s, especially Match Game, Password, Hollywood Squares, To Tell the Truth and Pyramid...
  
  
• Cab Calloway
  Cab Calloway
  Cabell "Cab" Calloway III was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was strongly associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City where he was a regular performer....
  
  
• Ruth Brown
  Ruth Brown
  Ruth Brown was an American pop and R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, composer and actress, noted for bringing a pop music style to R&B music in a series of hit songs for Atlantic Records in the 1950s, such as "So Long", "Teardrops from My Eyes" and " He Treats Your Daughter Mean".For these...
  
  
• Leonard Reed
  Leonard Reed
  Leonard Reed was an American tap dancer, co-creator with his partner, Willie Bryant, of the famous Shim Sham Shimmy dance routine.-Early life and career:...
  
  
• Willie Bryant
  Willie Bryant
  Willie Bryant was an American jazz bandleader, vocalist, and disc jockey.Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, Bryant grew up in Chicago and took trumpet lessons to little success. His first job in entertainment was dancing in the Whitman Sisters Show in 1926...
  
  

Soundtrack

• Amos Milburn - "Bad, Bad Whiskey
  Bad, Bad Whiskey
  "Bad, Bad Whiskey" is a 1950 song by Amos Milburn. The song was initially a Maxwell Davis instrumental titled "Bristol Drive" which Amos adapted by blending in some liquid lyrics. "Bad, Bad Whiskey" became one of the most enduring "Blues-in-a-bottle" songs. The single was the last time Amos...
  
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• Bill Bailey (dancing) - "Waiting for the Sunrise"
• The Larks - "Waiting for the Sunrise"
• Nat King Cole - "Calypso Blues"
• Delta Rhythm Boys - "Dry Bones
  Dem Bones
  Dem Bones, Dry Bones or Dem Dry Bones is a well-known traditional spiritual song, used to teach basic anatomy to children. The melody was written by African-American author and songwriter James Weldon Johnson . Two versions of this traditional song are used widely, the second an abridgment of the...
  
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• Faye Adams - "Every Day"
• Martha Davis and her husband - "Goodbye Honey, Goodbye"
• Count Basie and his orchestra - "He Plays Bass in the Basie Band"
• Ruth Brown - "It's Raining Teardrops from My Eyes"
• Lionel Hampton and his band - "Jam Session"
• Cab Calloway and his orchestra - "Minnie the Moocher
  Minnie the Moocher
  "Minnie the Moocher" is a jazz song first recorded in 1931 by Cab Calloway and His Orchestra, selling over 1 million copies. "Minnie the Moocher" is most famous for its nonsensical ad libbed lyrics . In performances, Calloway would have the audience participate by repeating each scat phrase in a...
  
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• Count Basie and his orchestra - "One O'Clock Jump
  One O'Clock Jump
  "One O'Clock Jump" is a jazz standard, a 12-bar blues instrumental, written in 1937 by Count Basie, with arrangement from Eddie Durham and Buster Smith. The original recording of the tune by Basie and his band is noted for the saxophone work of Herschel Evans and Lester Young; trumpeting by Buck...
  
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• Sarah Vaughan - "Perdido"
• Big Joe Turner - "Shake, Rattle and Roll
  Shake, Rattle and Roll
  "Shake, Rattle and Roll" is a prototypical twelve bar blues-form rock and roll song, written in 1954 by Jesse Stone under his assumed songwriting name Charles E. Calhoun. It was originally recorded by Big Joe Turner, and most successfully by Bill Haley & His Comets...
  
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• Herb Jeffries - "In My Heart (There's a Song)"