Tag: McKinney’s Cotton Pickers

From the Studio #85 – A Precious Little Thing Called Love – The tune that comes from my studio today was written by Lou Davis and J. Fred Coots. I first heard it by McKinney’s Cotton Pickers, and later I discovered the one by Annette Hanshaw, among other vocal versions (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Studio #70 – Sing You Sinners – This song was composed by W. Franke Harling, with lyrics by Sam Coslow in 1930. As you see on the sheet cover, it was also featured in a movie later called “I’ll Cry Tomorrow.” (The film has a fine original jazz score beside this.) It has a rather dramatic verse (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Studio #69 – I Wished on the Moon – Today I play and sing a song from 1935 that was recorded by Bing Crosby, Red Allen, and Teddy Wilson with Billie Holiday that same year. It’s by Ralph Rainger with lyrics by the American poet Dorothy Parker (1893–1967). I give you the lyrics here: (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Studio #68 – Nobody’s Sweetheart – Here is jam on tune that seems to have been there always. Still I don’t play it very often. It was one of the first that I learned and I think that I have a recording somewhere from my first meeting with two guys that I came to play lot with. It happened in a cellar and (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Studio #47 – If I Could Be with You –
This song has been in my mind always, it seems, but more precisely since I, as a teenager, heard it with McKinney’s Cotton Pickers as sung by their saxophone player George Thomas. He had (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #227 – Miss Hannah – This record that I bought second-hand has Coleman Hawkins signature on the back of the sleeve. Thus, I feel like choosing a tune where he is featured on the record that otherwise has two different sides. On the first (…) read more and listenread more and listen

From the Record Shelves #188 – Beedle Um Bum – This is one of the first LPs that I bought in my life, and it is still one of the best. I had seen it in a shop, and when I had saved up the money I went back. This was in the 1960s, and I was naive when I was shocked because (…) read more and listenread more and listen