(Note: I'm a big jazz fan, but this era is neither my favorite nor my strong suit, so, yeah, take these recommendations with a grain of salt.)

At that point, jazz wasn't really an album medium, so you'll have a lot of compilations. Louis Armstrong's Hot Fives and Sevens is very highly-regarded, and I also like Benny Goodman's small groups of the time, which featured Lionel Hampton and Gene Krupa. Ooh, and Cab Calloway ('Are You Hip to the Jive?' is a good compilation) and Louis Jordan are both high-energy, proto-hepcat singers, and highly recommended if you're into that kind of thing. And I love early Dizzy Gillespie, though it might be less swing and more bebop than you're really looking for.

Just instrumentalists or vocals too? Cab was good. Jack Teagarden. Duke Ellington and Count Basie, definitely. Bessie Smith. Joe "King" Oliver. Jelly Roll Morton. Fats Waller. Also there are amazing things like Jazz Sous l'Occupation -- jazz that french musicians played during Nazi occupation which was completely inspired by 20's/30's jazz.

I could give you more of an earful, but I have to go see a man about a dog.*

*(No, I'm not going to buy whiskey, I'm just late for language class.)

BTW, because I sing it, I've studied jazz for a long time & own a LOT of it. Feel free to shoot me an e-mail if I can help you further.

Pretty much what miss lynnster said.

Primarily what I'm looking for is both the vocals and the music. I love the silly (read: clever) lyrics and the boom-sh-boom sound. That frenetic, army of horses crashing around bumpadumpadump sound.

Plus the crooning. God Loves the crooning, like way early Bing Crosby etc.

Buddy Bolden, Bunk Johnson, Clarence Williams, and Art Tatum, for whom Fats Waller would get up from the piano, whenever he could, to get Tatum to play. The great, essential Sidney Bechet, sometimes accompanied by the The New Orleans Feetwarmers. Benny Carter. The Paul Whiteman Orchestra (Paul Whiteman gave Bix one his first decent jobs. He was also the guy that commissioned a young George Gershwin to write Rhapsody in Blue. You oughta getta know Whiteman.) Billie Holiday, Bessie Smith, and Billy Eckstine, if you want to hear crooning, crying, growling, shouting pre-40's vocals. Teddy Wilson, Jimmy Yancy, Albert Ammons, Meade "Lux" Lewis, and the Father of the Blues, Himself, W.C. Handy. Scott Joplin is worth reaching back to hear, and though his forte was rags, without rags, there'd be no stride, and without stride, there'd be no jazz. Coleman Hawkins, and The Original Dixieland Jass Band (later changed its name to The Original Dixieland Jazz Band).

Or just knock yourself out at The Red Hot Jazz Archive.