"Hokum Boys" was the billing (or part of the billing) of multiple

jazz band A jazz band (jazz ensemble or jazz combo) is a musical ensemble that plays jazz music. Jazz bands vary in the quantity of its members and the style of jazz that they play but it is common to find a jazz band made up of a rhythm section and a ...

s (typically, just studio grouping of musicians) active in 1920s and 1930s. The hokum subgenre of

blues music Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

got its name from these bands. "Hokum", originally a

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

term used for a simple performance bordering on vulgarity, but hinting at a smart

wordplay Word play or wordplay (also: play-on-words) is a literary technique and a form of wit in which words used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement. Examples of word play include puns, phone ...

, was first used in a billing of a

race record Race records were 78-rpm phonograph records marketed to African Americans between the 1920s and 1940s.Oliver, Paul. "Race record." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. 13 Feb. 2015. They primarily contained race music, comprising various Afri ...

for Tampa Red's Hokum Jazz Band ( Tampa Red and

Georgia Tom Thomas Andrew Dorsey (July 1, 1899 – January 23, 1993) was an American musician, composer, and Christian evangelist influential in the development of early blues and 20th-century gospel music. He penned 3,000 songs, a third of them gospel, inc ...

). After releasing a big hit, "

It's Tight Like That "It's Tight Like That" is a hokum or dirty blues song, initially recorded by Tampa Red and Thomas A. Dorsey, Georgia Tom on October 24, 1928. The 10" Gramophone record, shellac disc single was released by Vocalion Records in December 1928. A succe ...

", with

Vocalion Records Vocalion Records is an American record company and label. History The label was founded in 1916 by the Aeolian Company, a maker of pianos and organs, as Aeolian-Vocalion; the company also sold phonographs under the Vocalion name. "Aeolian" was ...

(and its sequel) in 1928, the musicians went on to

Paramount Records Paramount Records was an American record label known for its recordings of jazz and blues in the 1920s and early 1930s, including such artists as Ma Rainey, Tommy Johnson and Blind Lemon Jefferson. Early years Paramount Records was formed in 19 ...

where they were called The Hokum Boys. Other recording studios joined the fray using similarly named ensembles. The groups continued into the 1930s, with Big Bill Broonzy joining forces with Georgia Tom as Famous Hokum Boys on records for the

American Record Corporation American Record Corporation (ARC), also referred to as American Record Company, American Recording Corporation, or ARC Records, was an American record company. Overview ARC was created in January 1929 by Louis G. Sylvester, president of Scran ...

, joined occasionally by Frank Brasswell, Mozelle Anderson, and possibly Arthur Petties. Personnel of the bands varied, and identification of many musicians is speculative. The list of session musicians includes Bob Robinson, Banjo Ikey Robinson, Alex Hill,

Casey Bill Weldon William "Casey Bill" Weldon (February 2, 1901 or December 10, 1909 – September 28, 1972) was an American country blues musician. Some details of Weldon's life are unconfirmed. According to some sources, he was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, an ...

, Blind Blake, Aletha Dickerson,

Jimmy Blythe James Louis Blythe (May 20, 1901 – June 14, 1931) was an American jazz and boogie-woogie pianist and composer. Blythe is known to have recorded as many as 300 piano rolls, and his song "Chicago Stomp" is considered one of the earliest examples ...

Teddy Edwards Theodore Marcus Edwards (April 26, 1924 – April 20, 2003) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Biography Edwards was born in Jackson, Mississippi, United States. He learned to play at a very early age, first on alto saxophone and then ...

, Washboard Sam, and Black Bob. Ikey Robinson, Alex Hill, and

Cecil Scott Cecil Scott (November 22, 1905 in Springfield, Ohio – January 5, 1964 in New York City) was an American jazz clarinetist, tenor saxophonist, and bandleader. Scott played as a teenager with his brother, drummer Lloyd Scott. They played together ...

were billed as Hokum Trio.

References

Sources

* * * * * Jazz ensembles {{band-stub