it's a speakeasy, seen?

I heard some far-out ska on the radio driving from Sussex to Dover yesterday (in New Jersey, knuckleheads) and it was new to me. Many lugubrious borns blowing low and reedy, St. James Infirmary style—like real Minnie the Moocher oily decadence territory—and stapled bodily in and through a ska beat so enormous that there was no downbeat at all just "_ UP _ UP _ UP _ UP." There were solos and everything. It sounded old. Any ideas on what it was?