Happy Feet Friday

Erskine Hawkins and his band appear in an extremely rare video (in fact, I think it's the only one the band ever made). Billed as the "20th Century Gabriel", Hawkins' specialty was ripping out in the upper register. His band was very popular, really hitting its stride in the 1940s. "Tuxedo Junction", which is best known in the version played by Glen Miller, was written and first performed by the Hawkins orchestra. Interestingly, although many big bands began breaking up after WWII, Hawkins kept his going until the early 1950s.

Here, he and his band step out with "Swinging in Harlem", from 1938.