The Washboard Rhythm Kings 1931 to 1933 (aka. Washboard Rhythm Boys, Georgia Washboard Stompers from 1934 to 1935, Alabama Washboard Stompers 1930 to 1932) were a loose aggregation of jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 performers, many of high calibre, who recorded as a group for various labels between about 1930 and 1935.

The band played goodtime swinging music, featuring spirited vocals, horns, a washboard player and occasionally kazoo, and were popular around the time of the Great Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

. They mostly covered current hits from other artists.

Their personnel varied considerably between sessions, with guitarist Teddy Bunn

Teddy Bunn

Teddy Bunn was a top-rated American blues and jazz guitarist in the 1930s.Theodore Bunn was born in Freeport, New York in 1909. Twenty years later in 1929 he began recording with Duke Ellington as a guest performer. From 1929 to 1931, he played with The Washboard Serenaders...

 a regular member from 1930 to 1931. Later recordings included singers Leo Watson

Leo Watson

Leo Watson was an American jazz vocalese singer, drummer, trombonist and tiple player born in Kansas City, Missouri, perhaps best known as a band member of The Spirits of Rhythm which included guitarist Teddy Bunn...

 or Steve Washington, washboard player and vocalist Bruce Wiley Robinson, trumpeters Valaida Snow

Valaida Snow

Valaida Snow was an African American jazz musician and entertainer.She was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Raised on the road in a show-business family, she learned to play cello, bass, banjo, violin, mandolin, harp, accordion, clarinet, trumpet, and saxophone at professional levels by the time...

 and Taft Jordan

Taft Jordan

Taft Jordan was an American jazz trumpeter, heavily influenced by Louis Armstrong....

, and clarinetist Ben Smith.

Their 1932 recording of "Tiger Rag

Tiger Rag

"Tiger Rag" is a jazz standard, originally recorded and copyrighted by the Original Dixieland Jass Band in 1917. It is one of the most recorded jazz compositions of all time.-Origins:...

" has been cited for its "wild, informal feel" as an early precursor of rock and roll - see Origins of rock and roll

Origins of rock and roll

Rock and roll emerged as a defined musical style in the United States in the early to mid 1950s. It derived most directly from the rhythm and blues music of the 1940s, which itself developed from earlier blues, boogie woogie, jazz and swing music, and was also influenced by gospel, country and...

. Their music was also highly influential on the skiffle

Skiffle

Skiffle is a type of popular music with jazz, blues, folk, roots and country influences, usually using homemade or improvised instruments. Originating as a term in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century, it became popular again in the UK in the 1950s, where it was mainly...

music of the 1950s and later.