Music
John Nesbitt
1900–1935 · jazz trumpeter, arranger
Trumpeter and arranger of McKinney's Cotton Pickers who, with Don Redman, wrote the band book that made the Detroit-based orchestra a national success.
- Born
- Died
Boston, Massachusetts- Detroit years
- 1926–1931
- Field
- Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
John Nesbitt played in Lillian Jones's Jazz Hounds and with Amanda Randolph before joining William McKinney's band in 1925, while it was still based in Springfield, Ohio. He came with the group to Detroit in 1926, when Jean Goldkette brought it to the Graystone Ballroom, and stayed with McKinney's Cotton Pickers until 1931. A capable trumpet soloist, Nesbitt mattered most as an arranger. When Don Redman arrived in 1927 as musical director, Nesbitt helped him rehearse the band and shared the arranging duties; between them they built one of the finest repertoires of any big band of the era, heard on the Cotton Pickers' Victor recordings of 1928–1931. After leaving the band he wrote arrangements for the orchestras of Fletcher Henderson and Luis Russell. He died young, in Boston in 1935, and remains little known beyond specialists, though his charts helped define the Detroit band's polished, swinging sound.
Highlights
- Member of McKinney's Cotton Pickers, 1925–1931
- Co-arranger of the band's book with Don Redman
- Later arranged for Fletcher Henderson and Luis Russell
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Performed here · 1926–1931
Graystone Ballroom
Demolished · 1922–1972
The ballroom where Nesbitt played as a member of McKinney's Cotton Pickers, its house band.