The Missourians

The Missourians started out as Wilson Robinson's Syncopators in the early 1920s and then formed their identity while operating as Andrew Preer's Cotton Club Orchestra from 1925-27, when they were the house band of the Cotton Club. The ten-piece group toured with Ethel Waters in 1927 and changed its name to the Missourians at the time, since it was no longer based at the Cotton Club. The band played regularly at the Savoy Ballroom from 1928-29 under the direction of altoist George Scott. Although they had recorded "I've Found a New Baby" under Andrew Preer's leadership in 1927 (when one of its trumpeters was Sidney DeParis), its main accomplishments were the dozen hot recordings that it made as the Missourians for RCA from 1929-30. However, the band was struggling and would have broken up were it not for Cab Calloway, who had first started working with the Missourians in 1929. Calloway hired all of the musicians as the nucleus of his orchestra in 1930 and once again they had great success at the Cotton Club. But this time the Missourians (whose name was dropped) were quite subservient to its leader, no longer having its own separate identity. And over time, one by one, the musicians were replaced by Calloway as the Missourians passed into history.