These Plantation Orchestra sides were made in London by the Pike Davies Orchestra which was an African-American jazz band that supported Florence Mills and Edith Wilson in Charles B. Cochran’s production of Lew Leslie’s musical revue “Blackbirds”. This show premiered at Alhambra Theatre in New York and then moved to London’s Pavilion Theatre where it played for 276 performances. Florence Mills health was failing at this time and she was forced to withdraw from the show she died the following year after returning to New York.
| Title | Recording Date | Recording Location | Company |
| Arabella’s Wedding Day (from C.B. Cochran’s “Black-Birds” Revue) (W.H. Meyer) |
12-1-1926 | London, England | Columbia 4238 |
| For Baby And Me (from C.B. Cochran’s “Black-Birds” Revue) (W.H. Meyer) |
12-1-1926 | London, England | Columbia 4238 |
| Silver Rose (from C.B. Cochran’s “Black-Birds” Revue, London Pavillion) (W.H. Meyer) |
12-1-1926 | London, England | Columbia 4185 |
| Smiling Joe (from C.B. Cochran’s “Black-Birds” Revue, London Pavillion) (W.H. Meyer) |
12-1-1926 | London, England | Columbia 4185 |
| Artist | Instrument |
| Jessie Baltimore | Drums |
| Bill Benford | Bass Brass |
| Pike Davis | Trumpet, Leader |
| Randolph Dunbar | Clarinet, Alto Saxophone |
| Johnny Dunn | Trumpet |
| Maceo Jefferson | Banjo |
| Casey Jones | Trombone |
| Ralph Jones | Violin |
| Nelson Kincard | Clarinet, Alto Saxophone |
| George Rickson | Piano |
| George Smith | Violin |
| Alonzo Williams | Tenor Saxophone |
Redhotjazz.com was a pioneering website during the "Information wants to be Free" era of the 1990s. In that spirit we are recovering the lost data from the now defunct site and sharing it with you.
Most of the music in the archive is in the form of MP3s hosted on Archive.org or the French servers of Jazz-on-line.com where this music is all in the public domain.
Files unavailable from those sources we host ourselves. They were made from original 78 RPM records in the hands of private collectors in the 1990s who contributed to the original redhotjazz.com. They were hosted as .ra files originally and we have converted them into the more modern MP3 format. They are of inferior quality to what is available commercially and are intended for reference purposes only. In some cases a Real Audio (.ra) file from Archive.org will download. Don't be scared! Those files will play in many music programs, but not Windows Media Player.
