Harlem Roots: Jivin' Time

The fourth of four Storyville LPs that feature the soundtracks of soundies (three-minute films compiled for video jukeboxes in the 1940s) has quite a grab bag with performances by the Nat King Cole Trio ("Got a Penny Benny"), Red Allen, Bob Howard, Skeets Tolbert, the Musical Madcaps, Dallas Bartley's Band, Dorothy Dandridge, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Mabel Lee, June Richmond and Vania Smythe ("They Raided the Joint"). This music is historic and generally enjoyable if not exactly essential.