Mills Blue Rhythm Band
The Mills Blue Rhythm Band was an American jazz big band of the 1930s.
Band History
The band was born in 1930 in the New York City borough of Harlem; her first band leader was the saxophonist Bingie Madison. Temporarily called the formation " Coconut Grove Orchestra" and changed the name to Mills Blue Rhythm Band when Irving Mills in 1931, their manager was. It was considered one of the greatest swing bands of the 1930s and changed its name and under the names "Blue Rhythm Band ," " King Carter's Royal Flush Orchestra ", " Blue Rhythm Boys ", " Mills Music Masters ", " Harlem Hot Shots ". A short time she also acted as a support group of Louis Armstrong.
Your permanent seat had the Mills Blue Rhythm Band at the Cotton Club in New York. They played there as a substitute for Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway's orchestra when it went on tour. The drummer Willie Lynch led the band until 1931, then took over the management Baron Lee. Carroll Dickerson, Edgar Hayes, Eddie Mallory and Dave Nelson took over this task for a short time until Lucky Millinder from the end of 1933 perceived the director of the orchestra. Members included at that time, Henry " Red" Allen and Harry "Sweets " Edison (trumpet ), Buster Bailey ( clarinet), Joe Garland, Castor McCord, Crawford Wethington (tenor saxophone), Edgar Hayes and Billy Kyle ( piano ), Charlie Holmes and Tab Smith ( alto saxophone), JC Higginbotham (trombone), Lawrence Lucie ( guitar) and O'Neill Spencer (drums).
Recordings were only on October 4, 1934 for Columbia with "Out Of Dream " / " Let's Have A Jubilee", and already with the on December 5, 1934 -rehearsed, led by Lucky Millinder Ellington composition " (In My ) Solitude" could the ranking # 8 of the charts can be achieved. However managed subsequent 78s like " Dancing Dogs " (# 15), " Truckin ' " (# 11), " Dinah Lou" (# 11), "Ride, Red, Ride" (# 9), "Merry Go-Round " (# 15) this placement not more. Your latest hits for Columbia were another Ellington - piece ("In a Sentimental Mood" ) and in November 1936 Will Hudson's "Mr. Ghost Goes to Town ", an allusion to the then-popular Frank Capra film Mr. Deeds Goes to Town.
After two years she left Columbia and switched to the small Variety label, which had just been founded by Irving Mills. Brush your record here was " Jungle Madness " / " Blue Rhythm Fantasy ", recorded on 11 February 1937. From this first session came the next single, dubbed Lucky Millinder & Mills Blue Rhythm Band. Last recording session here was on July 1, 1937.
The band recorded a total of 150 pages on disk, but the lack of regular soloists never succeeded in the formation to develop a really strong identity and personal consistency as a jazz band.
In 1938, the group split up. Millinder first took over the band of Bill Doggett, until in 1940 he founded his own orchestra.