In the 1950’s, in downtown Memphis, Tennessee, Beale Street was the center of activity. During the weekday, it was a place of commerce. On Saturday evenings, BB. King, Rufus Thomas, and Ike Turner played the blues and jazz for the crowds that flocked to this street to hear their music. In the painting, the Jive dancers are both observers and participants in the Saturday night’s entertainment.

— Tim Moseley, 2008

According to Wikipedia,

In the early 1900s, Beale Street was filled with many clubs, restaurants and shops, many of them owned by African-Americans.

In 1903, Mayor Thornton was looking for a music teacher for his Knights of Pythias Band and called Tuskegee Institute to talk to his friend, Booker T. Washington, who recommended a trumpet player in Clarksdale, Mississippi named W. C. Handy. Mayor Thornton contacted Handy, and Memphis became the home of the musician who created the "Blues on Beale Street". Mayor Thornton and his three sons also played in Handy's band.