"Cakewalking Babies From Home," Clarence Williams Blue Five (1925)

Featuring Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet, the Blue Five are a 1920s supergroup. And Williams, leading the way, a Harlem Renaissance pianist, songster, music producer, impresario par excellence, is no slouch. (Also, his great grandson, Clarence Williams III, is Linc from the Mod Squad and Prince's tortured artist dad in Purple Rain, so there's that too.) "Cakewalking..." jumps you, unaware, then bowls you over, strutting with this wild, swaggering ensemble exuberance, duelling soloists, Eva Taylor stomping around like a mad Madame, a banjo jamming the downbeat. It is New Orleans hot jazz in its imperial NYC form. And it's such an explosion of colors it has to be some kind of sonic muse to classic Warner Bros. Cartoons. The Jazz Age confidence, humor, the joie de vivre are awesome.