Hitch's Happy Harmonists band members: Arnold Abbe on banjo, Haskell L. Simpson (1902-1990) on tuba, Earl McDowell on drums, Curtis A. Hitch (1897-1988) on piano, Maurice B. May (1901-1957) on tenor sax, Fred A. Rollison (1905-1973) on cornet, and Harry Wright on sax and clarinet. According to Evansville at the Bend in the River, "The 1920s atmosphere was steeped in jazz, and many bands popped up in Evansville. [This band] performed regularly in Evansville and often on the Indiana University campus in Bloomington. The band assured itself a niche in musical history when it became the first to record the works of a young Bloomington composer named Hoagy Carmichael."