McKinney's Cotton Pickers
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McKinney's Cotton Pickers were an United States jazz band founded in 1926 by William McKinney, who expanded his 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. Aiding Redman with arrangements and rehersals with the band was the talented trumpeter-arranger John Nesbitt. 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.