This CD traces the group formed by Wilson Robinson in St. Louis from the time they arrived in New York and began playing the Cotton Club in 1925 under the leadership of Andy Preer. After Preer"s sudden death in 1927 the Cotton Club owner, Owney Madden, fired the group and brought in Duke Ellington. The group left New York to accompany Ethel Waters under the leadership of George Scott. They returned to New York sometime in 1928 with the name The Missourians and vocalist Lockwood Lewis and became the house band at the Savoy. These recordings span from 1925 until a month before the Missourians hired a new vocalist, Cab Calloway, who renamed the group Cab Calloway And His Orchestra and became the house band at the Cotton Club when Ellington left for Hollywood.