Considered to have a "sweeter sound",[1] Banks's band was more popular with the white downtown audiences.
[1] Banks started out as a drummer for the Western Imperial Brass Band and then played with the pianist Andy Miller's orchestra at Eammon Hall, Kansas City.
[1] He then switched to piano and toured the Midwest before returning to Kansas City, where the Paul Banks Trio (with Clifton Banks on alto sax and Winston M. W. Holmes on clarinet) accompanied singers Lena and Sylvester Kimbrough.
[1] In 1926, Paul Banks's Syncopating Orchestra[3] had Clifton Banks on alto sax, Miles Pruitt or Ira Kinley on banjo, Robert Moody or Ben Simpson on trombone, James Everett on drums, Ed Lewis on trumpet, and Jap Allen on tuba.
Other bands competing included Andy Kirk's Twelve Clouds of Joy and Bennie Moten and His Fourteen Victor Artists.