One of the first jazz big bands to form outside New York was in Detroit during the Paradise Valley days. This band was McKinney’s Cotton Pickers. They were formed in Ohio by drummer William McKinney as the Synco Septet in 1922. Four years later, they were in Detroit where McKinney expanded the band to 10 pieces and brought in a new drummer, Cuba Austin, so he could concentrate on managing the band. As McKinney’s Cotton Pickers, they were signed to Victor (to become RCA-Victor in 1929) and were very popular from 1927 through 1931. McKinney envisioned his band rivaling anything in New York but to achieve this, he knew he would have to get someone from New York to train up the band so he contacted Don Redman. Redman gladly came to Detroit and began writing the band’s arrangements with the help of the band’s brilliant trumpeter, John Nesbitt. Redman also played sax and clarinet in the band as well as singing some of the numbers. In addition to Redman, Austin and Nesbitt, the other members were Prince Robinson, George Thomas, Dave Wilborn, Todd Rhodes, Ralph Escudero, Claude Jones, Milton Senior and Langston Curl.
When Redman took over the band, there was an influx of impressive New York jazzmen joining the band in Detroit including Benny Carter, James P. Johnson (pianist who wrote “Charleston”), Fats Waller, Coleman Hawkins, Sydney de Paris, Quentin Jackson, Doc Cheatham, Rex Stewart and many others. The Cotton Pickers are largely the reason there was a Paradise Valley in Detroit with one jazz club after another lined along Hastings Street. The king of the Detroit jazz clubs was the Paradise Theatre. Every black jazz and blues talent either lived in Detroit or spent great amounts of time there. The Gotham Hotel was the favorite spot for this talent. Sammy Davis, Jr. used to rent out an entire floor when he came through. Duke Ellington spent a great deal of his off-time in Detroit and always stayed in the same room at the Gotham. The switchboard operator of the hotel was Marla Gibbs later known as Florence the maid on the TV series
The Jeffersons. Gibbs’ father, Chester Rentie, was the honorary mayor of Paradise Valley. B. B. King married in Detroit and Charlie Parker’s wife was from Inkster, a suburb just outside Detroit. Bluesman John Lee Hooker moved to Detroit and started his recording career there in the late 40s. Paradise Valley gave birth to Baker’s Keyboard Lounge, the oldest operating jazz club in the world which is still going.
McKinney’s Cotton Pickers from a 1930 recording on RCA-Victor:
McKinney's Cotton Pickers "BABY WON'T YOU PLEASE COME HOME" (1930) - YouTube
Another Redman-Nesbitt arrangement from 1928:
McKinney's Cotton Pickers(USA)It's a precious thing called love..1928 - YouTube
Redman stayed with the band until 1931 and then Benny Carter took over as arranger. The Depression hit Detroit harder than anywhere else in the country (Detroit was, in fact, known as “the epicenter of the Depression”) and the orchestra was hard put to survive. By 1934, McKinney’s Cotton Pickers were no more (another source states that they stayed together until 1945). There was also a band called the Chocolate Dandies who used many of the same personnel as McKinney’s band but they were strictly a studio band and never toured. Again, Redman did their original arrangements but was then taken over by Benny Carter. The Dandies recorded in New York.
The Chocolate Dandies - Star Dust - New York, 13.10. 1928 - YouTube
A new McKinney’s orchestra was formed in the 1970s that used Redman’s original arrangements. While the Cotton Pickers did not have the arsenal of soloists found in Fletcher Henderson’s orchestra, their numbers demonstrated the prowess of Don Redman and Benny Carter as arrangers. We are fortunate to have their recordings because they represented a regional band that existed in every part of the United States at that time but most of whom evaporated without a trace after the Depression. Only those that had recording contracts with major labels have left something behind for posterity. The Cotton Pickers are one of those very few bands.
Pianist Todd Rhodes would go onto found Todd Rhodes and His Toddlers in the Detroit area. Rhodes also gave us bassist James Jamerson who played bass on 95% of the Detroit-era Motown hits as one of the Funk Brothers and whose bass playing was a huge influence on Paul McCartney, Jack Bruce, Victor Wooten, Flea and others (Jamerson continued to play in a small combo with Rhodes even after becoming a Funk Brother). Rhodes and the Toddlers also gave us “Blues for the Red Boy” in 1949, recognized as an early rock and roll classic and which Alan Freed used as the theme music for his legendary Moon Dog rock and roll radio program. Rhodes worked with Detroit rocker Hank “The Twist” Ballard and made the career of Chicago blues singer LaVern Baker when she moved to Detroit to front the band. Although Rhodes brought up a number of musicians heard on Motown recordings, he never appeared on a Motown song himself (contrary to some assertions) and died in 1965.
Todd Rhodes - Blues For The Red Boy - YouTube