The Syncopating Five (1920 - 1923)
The Syncopating Five got there start in Florida
playing dance music in hotels in Florida. Most of
the band members were from Ohio and Indiana
and they returned North and played gigs there
until the winter when they returned to Florida and
played in Georgia. In 1922 saxophonist Ray
Stillson and the then unknown cornet player Red
Nichols joined the band bringing the number of
Syncopating Fives to seven. They jokingly billed
themselves and the The Syncopating Five and
their Orchestra, and recorded under the more logical name of The Syncopating Seven.
The band went north to Chicago were Red Nichols first encountered Bix
Beiderbecke's cornet playing while Bix sat in with the Friars Society Orchestra. After
this Nichols started to model his playing after Bix's style. The Syncopating Seven
played Florida again in the wnter and then landed a prestigous gig at the Ambassador
Hotel in Atlantic City, where Paul Whiteman had rose to fame. They felt they needed
a classier image and changed the bands name to the Royal Palm Orchestra. The band
was a flop and they high tailed it back to Indiana where the group broke up soon
afterwards.
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