The Cotton Pickers, Vol. 1

During the years immediately following the First World War, a rapidly expanding phonograph industry began to target the African-American record buying public as well as a gradually increasing the number of Caucasian customers who would willingly pursue music nominally associated with African-American culture without necessarily involving African-American musicians. This lucrative formula was still in use decades later when Pat Boone emerged as the great sanitized alternative to Little Richard. Back in the early 1920s, several record companies dreamed up carefully coded names for their all-white ensembles, banking upon the light-skinned public's craving for syncopated music associated with the "Ethnic Other." This is the historical background for the Cotton Pickers, a jazzy dance band that recorded for the Brunswick label at various times during the 1920s. (The reference to cotton production, a labor-intensive enterprise that was largely fueled by the poorly compensated efforts of ex-slaves and their descendents, speaks volumes about U.S. culture during the early 20th century.) A fine collection of early Cotton Pickers recordings (1922-1925) was released by Timeless Historical in 1998. The two earliest titles on this disc ("Hot Lips" and "State Street Blues") were performed by an ensemble under the direction of Bennie Kreuger; his slap-tongue clarinet is an entertaining example of a bygone vaudevillian technique. Other players to listen for are trumpeter Phil Napoleon, C-melody saxophonist Frank Trumbauer, and pianists Frank Signorelli and Rube Bloom. But the key figure in the Cotton Pickers was trombonist Miff Mole (on tracks 5-12 he is replaced by one Charles Panelli). Idolized by Eddie Condon, this fascinating figure shows up in literally dozens of different groups throughout the period, often in the company of cornetist and trumpeter Red Nichols. Mole's participation is paramount among the many reasons for obtaining a copy of this Timeless collection. Note that the Cotton Pickers are not to be confused with the African-American band known as McKinney's Cotton Pickers. That's another story entirely, and one with direct ties to Fats Waller and Don Redman. One circumstantial link between Waller and the Miff Mole-fortified Cotton Pickers is "Got to Cool My Doggies Now," a melody that young Waller cut onto his very first player piano roll, which was released in March of 1923.