An article in the Times Union dated July 30, 1941, offered a peek inside a very popular Swing Era jazz joint - the Hollywood Tavern.

With a byline by DeWitt Schuyler, the article relays Schuyler's experience as he ventured into the club one day to talk to a few musicians.

He first spoke with Billy Douglas, who the author had heard had played with the famous Roy Eldridge. Yes, he played with him, and with Teddy Hill, at Harlem's Savoy Ballroom opposite Chick Webb in 1936.

He then spoke with "Smilin' Gus Robinson" who played with Jelly-Roll Morton in Chicago.

Then, he recounts, a fellow by the name of Sam Davis joined the conversation.

Davis was born in New Orleans, where he just happened to play with some of the kings of early jazz - He, too, played with Jelly-Roll. But he also hung around with musicians who were in on the very ground floor of development of jazz.

Schuyler walks in to a random club in downtown Albany, in 1941, and discovers connections from the Hollywood band back to the origins of jazz in New Orleans and Chicago.