McKinney's Cotton Pickers

[Lazaro Vega]

They were a phenomenal black swing band in Detroit in the late 1920's that sounded like a group from the 1930's; and they had a special chemistry that made their ensemble playing amazingly tight, even while navigating the original forms and passages constructed by trumpeter/arranger John Nesbitt. Unfortunately, the were called McKinney's Cotton Pickers, and for some reason management wouldn't let them out of Detroit to build a national reputation. The band held forth at the Graystone Ballroom in Detroit after 1927, often taking the stage before and after the Jean Goldkette Orchestra in a rare simpatico of the races in the Klan poisoned environment of the Motor City in the 20's. Please join us after 10 p.m. tonight for one of the most critically under-rated bands of jazz, McKinney's Cotton Pickers, via http://www.bluelake.org/radio.html.

[jazzbo]

Yes a great band I've been enjoying for years. The Frog releases are very good, though the Chronogical Classics releases are also quite good, iirc.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Yeah - I put one of their cuts in one of my BFTs. Fabulous band. I only have the Frogs, not the Classics.

MG

[Lazaro Vega]

I have that RCA single, The Band That Don Redman Built. Would like to pick up more from a complete point of view, though it seems after '29 they weren't recorded as the band that was playing in Detroit, and after 30 became a different animal all together.

[AllenLowe]

if you can find it, the French Black and White double LP has great sound.