McKinney’s Cotton Pickers were an American jazz band, originally based in Detroit, Michigan and led by Bill McKinney. Between 1927 and 1931, they were one of the most popular African American bands. Many of their records for Victor were bestsellers.

In 1927, Fletcher Henderson’s arranger and saxophone player Don Redman was invited to become the Cotton Pickers’ musical director.

For most of it’ts existence, the lineup contained four saxes (two altos, and two tenors, all doubling on clarinet), three trumpets, two trombones, piano, banjo, tuba and drums. Many scores also contains chimes/”glockenspiel” or vibraphone. In Claus’ transcriptions these are added to the drum and/or the piano part.

During his stay with McKinney’s Cotton Pickers, Don Redman also made some recordings with a group called the Chocolate Dandies. It had a substantial overlap in musicians with the Cotton Pickers and used the same lineup of instruments (in particular, four saxes and tuba). It is not unlikely that McKinney’s Cotton Pickers did play these arrangements at gigs etc. Claus transcribed a few of these which are included here. The name “the Chocolate Dandies” was used by several other constellations and Claus made several more transcriptions of these. They can be found on the Chocolate Dandies page.

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