One of America's most prominent musicians of the 1940s, Louis Jordan was a singer, a baritone and alto sax player, a clarinetist, and a bandleader. From 1942 to 1951, he had 18 number one hits on the R&B chart and was one of the biggest African-American box office draws in the country, besides being an important figure and role model in black popular entertainment. His music reflected his African-American roots while appealing to both black and white audiences. His combo, Louis Jordan and the Tympany Five helped to define the shuffle boogie rhythm as well as "jump," a term first used in jazz and later in rhythm and blues, that referred to the instrumentation of trumpet, alto and tenor sax, piano, bass, and drums. The innovative Jordan was the first jazz musician to make a short film based on one of his popular hit songs ("Caldonia...