ArtistInfo

The Chocolate Dandies

Band, US
Jazz

The Chocolate Dandies was a name used by a number of different jazz ensembles in the United States from the 1920s into the 1940s. The name "Chocolate Dandies" originally came from a 1924 stage show written by Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle. A unit led by Don Redman was the first to record with it on the Okeh label in 1928-1929. He also recorded with McKinney's Cotton Pickers and released material with that ensemble under this name. Benny Carter had several ensembles in the 1930s which he called the Chocolate Dandies; versions of these groups continued to play into the 1940s, and counted among their members Coleman Hawkins, Max Kaminsky, Floyd O'Brien, Buck Clayton, and other members of Carter's and Fletcher Henderson's bands.

Members

	Coleman Hawkins ts 1904-1969 US
	Fats Waller p, voc 1904-1943 US
	Ben Webster ts 1909-1973 US
	Roy Eldridge tr 1911-1989 US
	John Kirby b, cb 1908-1952 US
	Benny Carter as 1907-2003 US
	Buck Clayton tr 1911-1991 US
	Al Grey tb 1925-2000 US
	George Thomas cl, ts, as *1902 US
	Chick Webb dr 1905-1939 US
	Jimmy Harrison voc, tb 1900-1931 US
	Don Redman as, voc 1900-1964 US
	Prince Robinson cl, ts 1907-1960 US
	Horace Henderson p 1904-1988 US
	Dave Wilborn bj, voc *1904 US
	Bernard Addison g 1905-1990 US
	Langston Curl tr 1899-1991 US
	Claude Jones tb 1901-1962 US
	Ralph Escudero b, tu 1898-1970 PR
	Rex Stewart tr, cor 1907-1967 US
	J.C. Higginbotham tb 1906-1973 US
	Cyrus St. Clair ssph, tu 1890-1955 US
	Todd Rhodes p 1900-1965 US
	Cuba Austin dr 1906-1961 US
	Bobby Stark tr 1906-1945 US
	Leonard Davis tr 1905-1957
	Sidney Catlett dr 1910-1951 US
	George Stafford dr 1898-1936 US
	John Simmons b 1918-1979 US
	Milton Senior cl, as
	Benny Jackson g US
	John Nesbitt tr 1900-1935 US