McKendrick, “Big Mike” (actually, Reuben Michael)
McKendrick, “Big Mike” (actually, Reuben Michael)
McKendrick, “Big Mike” (actually, Reuben Michael), jazz guitarist, banjoist, singer; brother of Gilbert “Little Mike” McKendrick; b. Paris, Tenn., 1901; d. Chicago, March 22, 1965. He worked on and off for several years with Oscar “Bernie” Young in the 1920s, with Edgar Hayes’s Eight Black Pirates (April-May 1927), Dave Peyton (summer 1927), again with Bernie Young (1928 to spring 1930), and with Tiny Parham in 1929. He worked with Jerome Carrington’s Orch. (early 1931), then from spring 1931 until March 1932 and again in 1933. He also acted as band manager for Louis Armstrong. McKendrick led his own band in the 1930s; he also worked with Erskine Tate (1934), Zutty Singleton, and Cleo Brown (1934–35). He continued to lead his own band, and also worked regularly in duo with Ikey Robinson. During the 1950s and early 1960s, he subbed in Franz Jackson’s band, and worked with clarinetist Brian Shanley’s Band (early 1962), then spent a long spell as house musician at Jazz Ltd., Chicago, until early 1965, when he was hospitalized, suffering from a circulatory ailment.
—John ChiltonWho’s Who of Jazz/Lewis Porter