McKendrick, Little Mike (actually, Gilbert Michael)
McKendrick, Little Mike (actually, Gilbert Michael)
McKendrick, Little Mike (actually, Gilbert Michael), jazz banjoist, guitarist, singer; brother of Reuben Michael “Big Mike” McKendrick; b. Paris, Term., c. 1903; d. Chicago, early 1961. Raised in Pad-ucah. His father, Gilbert Sr., was a violinist who doubled trombone. In the early 1920s “Little Mike” and his four brothers, Reuben Michael (guitar and banjo), Richard Michael (trombone), Daniel Michael (violin), and James Michael (piano), all moved to Chicago. To the utter confusion of discographers they all, at one time or another, worked as Mike McKendrick. “Little Mike” was with Hughie Swift’s Orch. in the mid-1920s, then with Doc Cooke before joining Joe Jordan’s Sharps and Flats. He briefly led his own band in Chicago, then went to Europe with Eddie South in 1928. “Little Mike” left South in Europe (c. 1931) and for the next eight years worked with own international band, mainly in France and Spain. During the late 1920s he was temporarily absent from the music scene after being involved in a shooting incident with Sidney Bechet. He returned to the U.S. in October 1939, worked briefly in N.Y., then returned to Chicago where he formed his own international trio; he continued to lead his own band through the 1950s.
—John Chilton (Who’s Who of Jazz)/Lewis Porter