WALTER BARNES

Walter Barnes and his Royal Creolians were a Chicago band that played around Chicago and toured the Southern states until April 23rd, 1940 when Barnes and eight members of his band and one hundred and ninety-three other people were killed in a fire at the Rhythm Night Club in Natchez, Mississippi. In the 1920s Barnes and his Royal Creolians played long residencies at Al Capone's Cotton Club in Cicero, Illinois. from www.redhotjazz.com