The Cotton Pickers

Cotton Pickers was the generic band name that Brunswick Records used on its small jazz band recordings made in 1922-1923, 1924-1925, and again in 1929. These were intended to compete with popular dance records issued on other labels by groups such as Ladd's Black Aces, Bailey's Lucky Seven, and the Memphis Five. The earliest incarnation of Cotton Pickers was led by clarinetist Bennie Krueger and included trumpeter Phil Napoleon, trombonist Miff Mole, and pianist Frank Signorelli, all of who also appeared in The Original Memphis Five. In time practically the whole personel of the Memphis Five was brought into the ranks of Cotton Pickers, and this is the way the band stood until September of 1923 (through Brunswick 2532). It is not known why the group stopped recording for Brunswick at this point, although one might speculate Columbia (to whom the Memphis Five was contracted exclusively) got wise as to the identity of Cotton Pickers and told Phil Napoleon and company to knock it off.

Brunswick decided to revive the name in February 1924 and continued to use it until late 1925 as a pseudonym for recordings by loosely organized personnel that varied considerably from one session to another. Based on aural evidence, largely speculative evidence suggests that a small group drawn from the ranks of the New York-based Ray Miller Orchestra made recordings under the "Cotton Pickers" name during this time. At this stage the Miller band included both Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, saxophonist Frank Trumbauer, and coincidentally Miff Mole, who proved the only holdover from the earlier incarnation of Cotton Pickers. On these later Cotton Pickers sides it may be Trumbauer and Mole who see most of the action, the latter spectacularly so on "Down and Out Blues."

The final 1929 batch of Cotton Pickers records, made seemingly as an afterthought, were also thought to be coordinated by Ray Miller. By that time the hot soloists of 1925 had moved on to other things, but the last sessions features vocal choruses by Libby Holman and Dick Robertson. While the name "Cotton Pickers" may have been intended as nothing more than a generic designation for hot music from Brunswick, as you can see from the names listed above, Cotton Pickers were anything but "generic."

It should also be noted that recordings by several other dance bands were issued on a variety of other labels under the pseudonym "Cotton Pickers" and for these see The Cotton Pickers (8). Releases on Cameo Record Corporation labels (Cameo (3), Lincoln and Romeo) include:

The Whoopee Makers
Sam Lanin And His Dance Orchestra
Mills Musical Clowns
Adrian Schubert's Dance Orchestra

"Cotton Pickers" releases on Gennett were by Andy Mansfield & his Band - for these see The Cotton Pickers (7).

Releases attributed to "Cotton Pickers" or "Cotton Picker's Orchestra" on Madison (3) are believed to have been by members of the Grey Gull Records, Inc. house band.

Data provided by Discogs