Barnes led his own bands from the early 1920s in addition to playing with Detroit Shannon and his Royal Creolians.
[1] When the club caught fire, he had the group continue playing the song "Marie" in order to keep the crowd from stampeding out of the building.
[1] The band that took the stand at the Rhythm Club on April 23 consisted of Paul Stott, Calvin Roberts, James Cole, John Reed, Jesse Washington, John Henderson, Clarence Porter, Harry Walker, Arthur Edwards, Walter Brown, and Juanita Avery.
All of the band's members, except for drummer Walter Brown and bassist Arthur Edward, were among the 201 victims of the fire.
[4] Jo Jones, drummer with the Count Basie Orchestra at the time, related in an interview how arrangements were made to hire one of Barnes' tenor saxophone players, to whom Jones only referred to by the nickname of "Pimpy," as a replacement for Herschel Evans, effective after completing one last tour with Barnes.