McKinney's Cotton Pickers - I'd Love It, 1929

McKinney's Cotton Pickers - I'd Love It (Redman /Hudson), Bluebird 1929

NOTE: McKinney's Cotton Pickers were an American jazz band founded in Detroit in 1926 by a jazz drummer William McKinney, who expanded his group "Synco Septet" to ten pieces. In 1927 Don Redman left Fletcher Henderson's orchestra to become the Cotton Pickers' musical director and he assembled a band which rivalled Henderson's and Duke Ellington's. His band included musical celebrities, like James P. Johnson (piano), Benny Carter (clarinet, alto saxophone), Coleman Hawkins (clarinet, tenor saxophone) or Fats Waller (piano, celeste). Between 1927 and 1931, they were one of the most popular African-American bands and many of their Victor records were best sellers. In 1931 Redman left to form his own band and was replaced by Benny Carter. The Cotton Pickers disbanded in 1934, unable to make money during the Depression.