Initially, they mainly provided backup music for jazz and blues singers, such as Johnny Temple, Rosetta Howard, and Frankie Jaxon, for Decca Records.
Kansas Joe McCoy (guitar, vocals) and his brother Papa Charlie McCoy (guitar, mandolin) were from Mississippi; Herb Morand (trumpet, vocals), John Lindsay (bass), and Odell Rand (clarinet; 1905 – 22 June 1960)[5] were from New Orleans; Horace Malcolm (piano), Freddie Flynn (drums) and Pearlis Williams (drums) were from Chicago.
[4] Led by Morand and Joe McCoy, the main songwriters, the group initially provided instrumental backing to Williams's stable of artists, including Frankie Jaxon, Rosetta Howard, and Johnny Temple.
[4] The band was not considered the most innovative group of the time, and many of their original works dealt with sex, drugs and alcohol, which may have prevented its music from being more widely available.
However, as a small group playing entertaining music primarily for dancing, they are considered an important contributor to 1930s jazz, and their early riff-based style would help pave the way for Louis Jordan's small-group sound a few years later, rhythm and blues, and later rock and roll.