The Syncopating Five got their start 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 where 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 prestigious gig at the Ambassador Hotel in Atlantic City, where Paul Whiteman rose to fame. They felt they needed a classier image and changed the band’s name to the Royal Palm Orchestra. The band was a flop and they hightailed it back to Indiana where the group broke up soon afterwards.

Title	Recording Date	Recording Location	Company
Lips	10-27-1921	Richmond, Indiana	Gennett un-numbered 11032-A
Maybe I’m Coming Back To You (Lewis / Golden)	10-27-1921	Richmond, Indiana	Gennett un-numbered 11033-A

Artist	Instrument
Vernon “Mutt” Hayes	Clarinet, Alto Saxophonet
Herb Hayworth	Banjo
Fritz Morris	Violin
Dusty Rhoades	Drums
Russell Stubbs	Piano