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Ralph Escudero

Ralph Escudero is largely forgotten now, but deserves to be better remembered. It was his meticulous sense of time that kept the intricate arrangements of such swinging big bands as McKinney's Cotton Pickers and the Fletcher Henderson band from falling apart. By age 12, he was already playing the Double Bass. Subsequently, under the auspices of the New Amsterdam Musical Association, he moved to New York city, where, during 1920-'21, his first recordings were backing vocalists Ethel Waters and Lucille Hegamin. While working a gig with the Wilbur Sweatman Orchestra (at the Howard Theatre in Washington, D. C.), bandleader Fletcher Henderson, heard him and recruited him on the spot. He stayed with Henderson through 1926. In late 1926, he started working with 'McKinney's Cotton Pickers', a band then being drilled to perfection by the great Don Redman, and he remained with the Cotton Pickers for 5 years, appearing on many of their recordings. Subsequently, Escudero worked with Jazz drummer Kaiser Marshall, playing the tuba in his band the Bostonians, and still later toured with W.C. Handy's blues combo. Into the late 1930s, he alternately lived in both New York and Los Angeles but returned to Puerto Rico where he remained active as a jazzman through the 1960s.


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