Part 1: Life BEFORE Cab Calloway...
DePriest Edward Burl 'E.B.' Wheeler
(March 1, 1903, Kansas City, MO - April 10, 1998, New York, NY)
Trombone player in Cab Calloway’s orchestra from 1929 to 1940
“With [Reuben] Reeve’s trumpet and the Nanton-styled soloing of DePriest Wheeler, the band had quite an Ellington flavor.” This is how Steve Voce, the famous British jazz columnist, described Cab Calloway’s faithful trombonist, DePriest WHEELER, in a 1957 interview of the maestro. Now completely forgotten, although Wheeler enjoyed a certain degree of recognition in the 1930s, alongside Cab, with whom he made most of his career.
A youth in Kansas City with friends who will become his bandmates
DePriest Wheeler was born in Kansas City, Missouri and grew in St. Louis in a family led by William H. Wheeler (1867-?), minister, and his mother Lizzie (1867-?), along with three sisters and two brothers. His mother probably died when he was young, since on the 1920 Census pages, another name appears for William’s wife, Kathy (1871-?). The eldest daughter Gertrude is a teacher then.
Let’s take the opportunity in this article to clarify Wheeler’s first name, as it has been written in various forms along the years in discographies and in liner notes: that DePriest. Period. And his middle name is Edward Burl, E.B. He used to sign autographs capitalizing the “p” in DePriest, so we’ll respect this writing: DePriest E.B. Wheeler.
The Lincoln High School Band, 1920. Leroy Maxey is seated front row, left.
But we couldn't id DePriest Wheeler
During his years in Lincoln High School in Kansas City (1916-1920), DePriest was very involved in two domains: baseball (see below) and music. He met the friends who would become the core of his bandmates: Leroy Maxey, Lammar Wright, and Jimmy Smith. The father of the latter was their professor: Major N. Clark SMITH (1877-1934) who, recalled Walter Page in a 1958 interview, “taught almost everybody in Kansas City. He was a chubby little cat, bald, one of the old military men. He wore glasses on his nose and came from Cuba around 1912 or 1914. He knew all the instruments and couldn’t play anything himself, but he could teach. DePriest Wheeler, Eli Logan and LeRoy Maxey were all in school with me, although they were a few grades behind me. Major Smith really used to drill us.” Note that some of his students were Harlan Leonard, Julia Lee, Jasper Allen, Lionel Hampton, Nat King Cole, Milt Hinton, Bennie Moten, and Charlie Parker. According to Frank Driggs and Chuck Haddix in their book “Kansas City jazz: from ragtime to bebop,” “the music education program established by Watts, Glass, and Smith equipped students with a polished command of their instruments and a broad understanding of music theory, and the process created confident soloists and accomplished section players.” In fact, in the 1920 “Lincolnian,” the yearbook of Lincoln High School, Major N. Clark Smith declared about his students: “The men made a very fine appearance in their bright new uniforms, and though ‘dress does not make the man,’ they will no doubt be inspired to lead in their particular department as public entertainers.”
In 1917-1918, DePriest Wheeler (center) was president
of the Sophomore Club at Lincoln High School.
Wheeler's daughter Lila W. Duckett wrote in the early 2000s: “DePriest developed a taste for music and an early fascination for marching bands which resulted in his traveling and playing with the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus for two seasons.” This circus orchestra was famous for the quality of its music. In fact, while there was a white orchestra, the “colored contingent” was led by cornetist and bandmaster P.G. Lowery where William Thornton Blue (cl) and R.Q. Dickerson (tp) also played (read our William Thornton Blue profile).
On the above picture dated around 1916, where Lowery is second row, third from left, we believe we can spot DePriest Wheeler in the same row, second from right, holding a tuba—an instrument he will play again in his last years. The point is that we don’t know precisely when Wheeler joined the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus. On June 22, 1918 the Hagenbeck Wallace Circus suffered one of the worst tragedies in circus history known as the Hammond (Indiana) train wreck: of the 400 circus personnel aboard the train 86 died and 127 were injured. A fire spread quickly through the train burning many of the bodies and killing dozens of animals.
1920: DePriest Wheeler in the Dave Lewis (as) orchestra,
with Leroy Maxey (drums) (source: University of Kansas City)
Dave LEWIS and the Jazz Boys
Between 1918 and 1920, DePriest Wheeler played in one of the earliest jazz bands in Kansas City, Dave LEWIS’ Jazz Boys. Besides DePriest Wheeler on trombone, the 7-piece band included, Dave Lewis on alto sax, William Thornton Blue or Lawrence Denton on clarinet, Roland Bruce on violin, Walter Page on bass, Dude Knox on piano; Bill Story, banjo… and Leroy Maxey on drums and xylophone. Thornton Blue and Leroy Maxey will remain on the bandstand with DePriest for quite a time. The Jazz Boys could play large venues, like the Lyric Hall and the McHugh Dance Academy, a spacious white-only dance hall. Frank Driggs and Chuck Haddix explain: “Lewis gave up his band in 1920 after losing the engagement at the Dance Academy. The manager of the Academy, impressed by a band featuring two saxophones playing at downtown theater, asked Lewis to add another saxophone. When Lewis declined, not wanting to split the band’s meager take with another member, the manager fired the band. Discouraged, Lewis disbanded and returned to Chicago.” Yet, it could be considered as one of the first professional break for DePriest Wheeler.
With such lack of precision in the dates of Wheeler’s early career, let’s jump to the group with more certainty:
1924: Wilson Robinson Syncopators
R.Q Dickerson (with the beard), Wilson Robinson, Earres Prince, Leroy Maxey, Andrew Brown,
unidentified (on top), unidentified (above the drum), De Priest Wheeler (holding the hat),
Jimmy Smith (pointing), Eli Logan
Wilson Robinson’s Syncopators in 1923
In the fall of 1922, St. Louis violinist Wilson Robinson organized his own formation: first baptized Robinson’s Midnight Syncopators then Wilson Robinson’s Bostonian Orchestra. Drummer Lige Shaw recounts in a 1954 article for Record Changer, “We had Wilson Robinson, violin; Ozzie Schoffner, piano; Emmet Matthews, sax who was later with Fats Waller; Hershel Parks, trombone; Everett White, writer of tunes, trumpet; Cecile White, bass; Emma Julia Keene, vocal.” They toured Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, and Missouri until the program was canceled “due to the conduct of some of the members of the band.” The Syncopators came back to St. Louis to reorganize and rehearse. “I left them before they became the Missourians due to DePriest Wheeler, a trombone player whom I recommended. Wheeler brought a new drummer, LeRoy Maxey, with him and successfully nosed me out.”
Those mysterious insights lead us to believe that DePriest joined the “new” Wilson Robinson Syncopators during Spring 1923, along with Earres Prince (p), Andrew Brown (cl), Eli Logan and Davy Jones (sax), Louis Metcalf (who will soon leave) and R.Q. Dickerson (tp), Charles Stamp (bj), Jimmy Smith (b) and Leroy Maxey on drums who joins the aggregation in May. The orchestra, consisting of many friends from high school, is now ready to tour the Pantages circuit.
The Kansas City Times, July 7, 1923
The success comes quickly, when during summer, for a week in Kansas City they’re one of the bands of the “Grand Opera vs. Jazz” opposite the Newman Concert Orchestra, conducted by Leo F. Forbstein. Variety (July 19, 1923) states:
“The introduction of the act was played behind a full stage drop, showing a huge watermelon; the drop proved a transparency which disclosed the nine players seated in front of another melon, this time the picture being that of the rich red melon heart. The band consists of the following instrumentation — piano, violin, banjo, trombone, cornet, two saxophones and drums. The boys dress as plantation field hands, and their selections range from the old familiar tunes of the Old South, to the raggy, jazzy things of the present day, and they can play either kind. Each is a soloist and the work of the banjo picker and the drum artist brought them hearty applause. For the closing number the bunch presented a burlesque on a Negro camp meeting, with the cornet player as the preacher and the others as the jumping, shouting and praying congregation. It was well worked up and the cornet fairly talked. The old saying, ‘Give a colored Performer a little applause and he’ll work himself to death’ proved true with this act, and they were generous with their encores and extra numbers.”
Wilson Robinson Syncopators in "On the Old Plantation"
Now “all by themselves,” they keep on touring with their own show “On the Old Plantation”: Indiana, Kansas, Chicago, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Canada, Seattle, Vancouver, Victoria… arriving on the West Coast in January 1924: Portland, San José, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego. Then back way East on the Orpheum theater circuit: Dallas, Houston, Utah, Nebraska, Indiana, Missouri, Ohio, Illinois, etc.
You can always count on the promoters’ imagination to emphasize the artists they’re representing. Here’s a sample for the Wilson Robinson’s Syncopators over 1 year:
- “Ten Jazzmaniacs of Melody who Broadcast Syncopation Harmony and Jazz” (April 1923)
- “A negro jazz band that combines present day jazz with the sweet music of Plantation Days.” (June 1923)
- “A New York Jazz Band of Darkies of the ‘Shuffle Along’ Type. A sensation brought direct from New York, where they have been a riot! You never heard Jazz played like they do it!” (June 1923)
- “Direct from Chicago Theatre, Presenting a repertoire of toe tickling, tantalizing musical numbers” (September 1923)
- “Give your feet a syncopated treat! Let ‘Em Toddle to the Toe Teasin’ Tunes Of Robinson’s Syncopators” (October 1923)
- “Darktown’s own jazz band” (October 1923)
- “10 colored boys from Dixie—they’re HOT, stopping the show every day!” (April 1924)
An early ad for the new Cotton Club floorshow, with its new orchestra
(Women's Wear, December 13, 1924)
From the Cotton Club to... the Cotton Club
The tour culminated at the end of 1924, when on November 29 they succeed Ruby Mason and His Syncopators, under a new name for this special place, The Cotton Club Jazz Fiends at the Cotton Club in Harlem! In January, for the revue “Brownskin Vamps” they change their name for “The Cotton Club Syncopators” and eventually for “The Cotton Club Orchestra.” And on January 6, 1925, the band records their first 2 tunes for Columbia: Down and Out Blues, and Snag ́’Em Blues.
Their new Cotton Club Revue starting in March and lasting until June affords them several recording opportunities: with Edith Wilson, Lucille Hegamin under the alias of “The Dixie Daisies”, and under their own name.
June 1925: the alto sax player Eli Logan dies. He is replaced by Walter Thomas (who is NOT Walter ‘Foots’ Thomas) and later George C. Scott.
1926: The Cotton Club Orchestra with their new leader, Andrew Preer (center, holding the sheet music)
From left to right: DePriest Wheeler, Leroy Maxey, Andy Brown, Harry Cooper, Earres Prince,
Andrew Preer, David Jones, Jimmy Smith, R.Q. Dickerson, Charlie Stamps, Unidentified
1926 starts with a new Cotton Club floor show, where they alternate with Jonah Dickenson’s band. For the next revue “Brownskin Vamps Summer Edition,” the Cotton Club management provides them a new leader in the person of Andy Preer. But they also record under the direction of George McClennon under the pseudonym Jazz Devils (August and September 1926).
On February 3, 1927 the band enters the Gennett studio in New York and record “I’ve Found a New Baby,” “Andy Preer and the Cotton Club Orchestra” written on the label.
The next revue “Breezy Moments in Harlem” starts in April but on May 21, Andrew Preer dies, probably of tuberculosis. The orchestra’s sousaphone player, Jimmy Smith, becomes the new leader but he’s more accustomed to remain in the back of the bandstand. The new Cotton Club revue “Dan Healy’s Blushing Browns” from July to winter 1927 is another success… But, once again, the management of “The Aristocrat of Harlem” wants some new names. And they choose Duke Ellington to replace the “old” Cotton Club Orchestra starting December 4. And a new history starts for Ellington, the Cotton Club and jazz in general!
The Original Cotton Club Orchestra on a short tour with Ethel Waters in “Africana.”
What do early birds do in winter? They migrate to Florida! Like the Cotton Club orchestra who stays in Tampa during January. People in Cleveland, New York, Pittsburgh, and Chicago applaud them in February and March.
After a poor opening in the first week due to a lack of reservations, starts what would remain among the most important souvenirs of DePriest Wheeler: Earl Dancer’s revue “Africana” starring Ethel Waters. Sustained by six musicians from the pit orchestra, the Cotton Club Orchestra starts a tour with the singing star – and her husband, Earl Dancer who manages the company. Things won’t go smoothly, despite “four pianos going on and off stage,” an “exhibition of a woman cornet player [Loraine Faulkner or Dijow Jones] who is almost the best bet of the evening” (St. Louis Globe Democrat, April 30, 1928), the “company has been experiencing difficulty in being routed because of its policy of using race staff as far as possible.” In a segregated America, where balconies are “reserved for colored people,” this isn’t unexpected. Worse, “13 members of the Cotton Club Boys Orchestra had struck for a week’s pay in advance without success. The cast was cut from 60 to 42 members.” (Afro American, May 12, 1928).
Then began a series of shows canceled at the last minute, in St. Louis, in Milwaukee… The revue will continue its route sans the Cotton Club Orchestra!
The "Original" Cotton Club Orchestra: DePriest Wheeler, Lammar Wright, Jimmy Smith, R.Q. Dickerson,
Leroy Maxey, Andy Brown, Morris White, George C. Scott, Earres Prince, David Jones
(from DePriest Wheeler's archives at the Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University)
For three full months (May-July), the aggregation is staying at the famous Dreamland Café in Chicago, an 800-person-capacity dance floor and “one of the brightest spots on the South Side”. The success is big enough to have band even broadcasting every night from midnight to 1 am. “RO [R.Q.] Dickerson, De Priest Wheeler, Lamar [Lammar] Wright, Leroy Maxey, Andrew Brown, Walter Thomas, George Scott, Eris [Earres] Prince, Morris White, Arthur Boyd, leader” (Chicago Defender, May 26, 1928). As explained in our article about Leroy Maxey, Arthur Boyd was a “long hair” musician from New York who earlier played in the famous Negro Swing Quartet led by Felix Weir. The band will get rid of him at the end of July.
Detroit Free Press, November 12, 1928:
one of the last time the Cotton Club Orchestra is billed with this name...
Now associated with the dance duet Herbert Brown & Naomi McGraw (whom they first met in 1926 in a Cotton Club revue), the Cotton Club Orchestra leaves Chicago for touring until November 1928 in what was called then the “junior Orpheum Circuit:” Indiana, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, and the state of New York…
In December 1928, the Cotton Club Orchestra, then without front man, landed in New York back from their tour. Their fame brought them straight to the Savoy Ballroom where the eager management associated them with one of their house star musicians: Lockwood Lewis (read our full-length profile), from Fess Williams’ Royal Flush Orchestra. Alto sax player and occasional singer, Lockwood Lewis was the personality the Missourians needed upfront to emerge in front the demanding and challenging Harlemite audience. They had to be tested first by touring the East Coast until April 1929.
The Missourians: DePriest Wheeler is third from the left.
The Missourians, before Cab Calloway
When the Cotton Club Orchestra comes back to New York, a marketing move ensues: they change their name to the Missourians. Probably because the management of the Cotton Club couldn’t bear having a competing band who had its name while a successful Duke Ellington had to emerge as THE star of the Cotton Club.
New York Age, dated May 1, 1929
The Savoy Management had to promote a big event on its Lenox Avenue ballroom: the “North and South Jazz Battle” on May 8, 1929.
The North:
- Duke Ellington and his Cotton Clubbers (now you figure out the need to change the name of the band to avoid confusion)
- Fess Williams and his Royal Flush Orchestra
- Charlie Johnson and his Small’s Paradisers
The South:
- Johnson’s Happy Pals from Richmond,
- Ike Dixon and his Southerners from Baltimore,
- The Missourians (personnel for this date: R.Q. Dickerson, Lammar Wright, Andrew Brown, G.W. Scott, Morris White, Earres Prince, James Smith, Leroy Maxey “are the original Cotton Club orchestra”) led by Lockwood Lewis.
In front of 4,000 “Savoyites”, some sources say that the Missourians win the favors of the audience. But, more importantly, they were noticed by Duke and some of his musicians, like Johnny Hodges. In his Jazz Oral History Project interview, Walter Foots Thomas proudly states: “The Missourians could cut any band that played in the Savoy. I don’t care who they was. You could bring them White bands in there, the big bands; by the time they got though playing their little Jazz, they was the favorite.”
Throughout the summer of 1929, Lockwood Lewis led the Missourians at the Savoy Ballroom, where they shared the stage with Fess Williams’ orchestra during June and July, followed by Johnson’s Happy Pals in August. The group maintained a regular radio presence, broadcasting twice weekly on Tuesdays and Fridays over WAUC from what was known as the “home of happy feet.”
The season’s most significant developments were the band’s inaugural recording sessions for Victor Records in New York, now performing under their new moniker with Lewis at the helm. A second recording session took place in August, both of which are thoroughly examined in our Lockwood Lewis profile. From mid-September through late November, the Missourians embarked on tours beyond New York, periodically returning for single-night performances in Harlem.
Market Street Stomp, Recorded by The MIssourians, on June 3, 1929
An October 10, 1929 article in the Philadelphia Tribune captured Lewis’s appeal: “Lockwood Lewis who has won such widespread popularity as the singing, entertaining and clowning director of Fess Williams’ Band, is director of the Missourians and promises to let you have all he’s got and to send you home feeling ‘just too bad’.”
So, what went wrong? Why did Cab Calloway suddenly appear? As we already wrote in our Lockwood Lewis profile: “Things are becoming hard to untangle then, since no press article, ledger and no trustful testimony confirms or even announces what really happens with the relationship between Lockwood Lewis and the Missourians. Cab tries to fit in with the band; the mob gets involved. And many mistakes, errors or cloudy memories have been repeated since. Now, it’s time for The Hi De Ho Blog to try to write an (almost) accurate version of the story.”
The brand new destroyed Plantation Club
(Daily News, January 17, 1930)
Everything’s explained with details and pictures in the quoted article. Here’s our sum-up: a new venue, the Plantation Club opened in Harlem on December 18, 1929, featuring Lockwood Lewis and the Missourians as the house band. This luxurious venue, with its opening ceiling and modernistic decor, was designed to rival the Cotton Club. However, on January 16, 1930, the club was violently destroyed by ten men who systematically wrecked the dance floor, smashed 150 mirrors, destroyed instruments, and shredded costumes. This attack was likely ordered by Cotton Club owner Owney Madden to eliminate competition. Fearing for his safety after this mob warning, Lockwood Lewis fled New York for his hometown Louisville. Young Cab Calloway, who had left the Alabamians months earlier and was then touring with the Hot Chocolates, then seized the opportunity to become the new leader of the Missourians—probably with the insistence of the mob...
