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Home , Andy Kirk (musician), Buster Smith, Dan Minor, Eddie Durham, Harlan Leonard, Hot Lips Page

City: The Crossroads of

Kansas City, Wilbur Harrison, 1959 • What makes different from all the other styles of Jazz and ? • Riff Based melodies and background figures • coming back to the forefront of the music • Featuring Virtuoso soloists • Driving rhythm always with a sense of motion • Use of head-: memorized structures embellished on the fly by the musicians; a sort of ensemble based improvisation. • What are the factors that allowed Kansas City Jazz to come to be? • Political/Economic factors such as a lax attitude towards prohibition • Geographical factors such as Kansas City’s central location • Musical factors such as a strong musicians union and well developed music education programs. Tickle Toe, 1940 The Early Bands

Bennie Moten’s Kansas City Orchestra 1925 Bennie Moten’s Kansas City Orchestra Vine Street Blues, 1924 • Probably the most influential bandleader in Kansas City Jazz, Pianist Bennie Moten led the most successful of the Kansas City bands. Nearly everyone who would become an important member of the Kansas City bands came though his organization at one point or another. • Early on the scene, with recording dates as early as 1923, Moten was the most established and financially successful of the early Kansas City bands, which enabled him to successfully poach talent from the other KC and territory bands, such as ’s Oklahoma Blue devils. • This included luminaries such as (just known as Bill Basie then), , , , and eventually Walter Page himself. • Hired Bill Basie to play because he was too busy with the business side of running his band to always be at the keys. Basie would play while Moten was dealing with club owners or other important money figures. • Died in 1935 from a botched Tonsillectomy, and after a short period was replaced as bandleader by Bill Basie, who soon acquired the nickname “Count” , 1932 George E. Lee and His Novelty Singing Orchestra Paseo Street, 1929 • Vocalist and Saxophonist George E. Lee’s band was the main competition for Bennie Moten’s band in the 20s. • The members of the band that would go on to the most acclaim would be his sister as a vocalist, and the pianist . Down Home Syncopated Blues, 1927 • His band was absorbed by Bennie Moten in 1933, and after a brief attempt to come back following Moten’s death in 1935 he ended up retiring from music. • His sister Julia would continue a successful music career until the 50s. Coon Sanders Nighthawks Orchestra High Fever, 1926 • Founded by Drummer Carleton Coon and Pianist Joe Sanders. • Operated from 1919 to 1932 • Highly successful white dance band, one of the pioneers of band focused radio shows. • Collapsed in 1932 with the death of Carleton Coon from a jaw infection which festered. Jesse Stone and his Blues Serenaders Boot to Boot, 1927 • Jesse Stone was a talented pianist, composer and arranger. Count Basie himself would later state in his autobiography: “Jesse Stone, as everybody knows, was one of the best arrangers in Kansas City.” • In addition to leading his own bands, Stone would move in and out of many bands in his career as an arranger and musical director: George Lee, Thamon Hayes, , even in . The previously exampled pieces from the George E. Lee band were Stone compositions. • Stone’s first professional band included a young player named , who would eventually become one of the two most influential tenor saxophone players of the era. • The Blues Serenaders were a complete show, they included a number of vaudeville style stage acts inside their very tight and rehearsed band.

Starvation Blues, 1927 Walter Page’s Blue Devils

Blue Devil Blues, 1927 (Jimmy Rushing) • Walter Page played a multitude of Bass instruments as was common in the day, but the instrument he would most be associated with is the . He was ten when he moved to Kansas City, and was educated in music at Lincoln High School by Major Smith. • Page is commonly considered the originator of the eight beats over two bars walking bass line technique • The Blue Devils was a originally based out of Oklahoma, but would eventually be very closely associated with the early days of the Kansas City sound. The band members consisted of such aforementioned luminaries and workhorses of the to come Basie Band as , Hot Lips Page, , , Eddie Durham, Jimmy Rushing, and Bill Basie himself. Squabblin’, 1927 Local 627 The Colored Musicians Union 627 Stomp, , 1940 • Formed in 1917, The Local 627 was the African-American musician’s union, and provided both a spiritual and physical center for Kansas City musicians to congregate. • The Lincoln Theater, a popular venue with union bands, joined the Theater Owners Booking Association, known as TOBA, in 1923. TOBA was a network of theaters stretching from the East Coast to Kansas City, and headquartered in Nashville, TN. • TOBA was responsible for many of the artists getting brought into the Kansas City scene on touring circuits, including Bill Basie • In 1928, William Shaw was elected president of the Union, and created a system of discipline which improved the reliability of the local musicians and created accountability within their ranks. • Forced to merge with the Local 34, the “White” musicians union in 1970, the spirit of the 627 lives on in the Mutual Musicians Foundation. Lincoln High School and Major N. Clark Smith • Lincoln High School began just after the civil war as a preparatory school for blacks. • Until the 1950s it was the only public high school black students could attend. • Major N. Clark Smith was an influential music teacher, who instructed many of Kansas City’s most famous musicians: Walter Page, Harlan Leonard, Lamar Wright, and many more. • His influence on the music program of Lincoln High would serve to create a long lasting strength for the program that would generate many other outstanding musicians, including . • Still exists as Lincoln College Preparatory Academy, and remains a top level school nationwide, with a strong music program. The Pendergast Dynasty The Golden Era of Kansas City Jazz Tom Pendergast

• Democratic party boss in Kansas City and the surrounding counties from 1925-1939. • Born July 22nd, 1872. • Brother James was city councilman of the First Ward of Kansas City, near the river and stockyards and mostly Irish and Italian immigrants. Manual laborers were the main population. Pendergast brothers supported poor workers with food and job connections in exchange for voting for the candidates they promoted. • Became the KC superintendent of streets in 1900, and in 1910 after his brother James died, stepped in to control the First Ward. One year later, he was elected to the city council. • After prohibition, he retained control of alcohol businesses he had controlled prior to the Volstead Act (1919), but moved them to technically illegal settings. Due to control of many levels of KC politics, prohibition was never enforced in any real way. Alcohol sales were tremendously profitable because of the lack of taxation, and provided a solid foundation for the profitability of jazz venues. • One of his many political underlings was Harry S. Truman, who would of course go on to be the president of the . Pendergast would die before Truman was sworn in as president. • Indicted for tax fraud in 1939, he pled guilty to two counts of tax evasion and was sentenced to 366 days in prison. While in prison, reform agents rose to power and “cleaned up” Kansas City, leading to the end of the heyday of Kansas City entertainment. The last of the great Kansas City bands departed for New York, and the smaller, weaker bands folded. The Bands Andy Kirk and his Twelve Clouds of Joy

Until the Real Thing Comes Along, 1936 • Andy Kirk was born in Kentucky but raised in Denver, Colorado where he studied music under Wilburforce Whiteman, father of of dance band fame. • Kirk started on the tenor saxophone, but soon switched to Bass saxophone and sousaphone and would continue to play bass range instruments for the rest of his career. • The Twelve Clouds of Joy was more tightly and carefully arranged than many of the other Kansas City style bands, probably due to the educated backgrounds of Kirk and their chief composer and arranger, Mary Lou Williams • Mary Lou Williams was born in Georgia and raised in , PA. She joined the Clouds of Joy in 1929 and provided many of their most memorable compositions. Originally hired as a staff arranger at the urging of saxophonist husband John Williams, she became the lead pianist for the group when the main pianist, Marion Jackson, failed to show up for a band audition and the rest was history. • Featured Vocalist Pha Terrell.

Mary’s Idea, 1936 Harlan Leonard and His Rockets

Dameron Stomp, 1940 • Harlan Leonard and his Rockets grew out of the earlier Thamon Hayes and his Kansas City Rockets after Hayes departed the band. • Charlie Parker was fired from this band for being inconsistent. This would not be unusual. • Featured vocalist Myra Taylor, who would continue to perform as a jazz singer until her death in 2011.

I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire, 1940 The

One O’Clock Jump, 1937 • Bill Basie took over as co bandleader with Buster Smith of the remnants of the Bennie Moten band after Moten’s untimely death in 1935. This band, originally called the Barons of Rhythm, would eventually become known as the Count Basie Orchestra after Buster Smith departed for New York. • Continuing the tradition of the Moten band of collecting the best talent in the nation, Basie gathered the likes of Lester Young, Eddie Durham, , , Walter Page, Jo Jones, , Jack Washington and countless others. • The Basie band soon caught the attention of music promoter John Hammond, who had previously backed the band and helped usher them to national prominence. Hammond brought the band to New York for recording dates, and helped launch the nationwide success of the band, despite some ill-advised contractual agreements with Decca. • Picked up Guitarist in 1937 (after they had already achieved national prominence). Green’s style of rhythmic comping would be the final key to the formation of the “All American ” of Green, Page, Jones, and Basie. Green would become the most constant member of the Basie band, playing with him until Basie’s death. • After World War II the band would change away from the head arrangements of the original Kansas City sound, and create what is commonly referred to as the “New Testament Basie” band. This band would continue to be one of the only regularly performing and successful bands (along with ’s Orchestra) until Basie’s death in 1984. • The New Testament sound featured more thick and less reliance on the riff style head- arrangements of the Kansas City Days April in Paris, 1957 Union Station Kansas City 1914 The Railroad Influence 9:20 Special, 1941 • In the 1930, Kansas City served as a transportation hub. It linked several different railroad company networks in a way that few cities at the time did. These networks included Kansas City Southern, Union Pacific, Southern Pacific, Pacific, and more.

• There were many different smaller regional networks, and in order to get from one major population center to another, you frequently had to change networks. Since Kansas City was a particularly centrally located city, it served as a junction point for many of these networks.

The Last of their Kind Into the Bop Era Jay McShann

Hootie’s Blues, 1941 • Jay “Hootie” McShann was the bandleader of the last of the great Kansas City bands. • Late to arrive in Kansas City, McShann arrives in 1936 just a few years before the Pendergast era comes to a close. • Featured blues vocalist Al Hibbler. • Also featured a young alto saxophonist named Charlie Parker, who was fired for inconsistency. (Surprise!) Swingmatism, 1941 Parker Solo Sidemen of Note Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young • In 1933 Coleman Hawkins, known as Bean or Hawk, was the undisputed master of the tenor saxophone. A former Kansas City area player, he had moved on to New York City and was the star reedman for ’s band, and a member of the band during ’s stint (1924). He was, by the early thirties, the number one most influential saxophone player in the world. His sound was the sound that most everyone strived for. Yeah Man!, Fletcher Henderson,1933 - Hawkins Solo • All that changed when Coleman Hawkins came to Kansas City for an engagement with the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra in 1934. • Lester Young went to hear Coleman Hawkins play with Henderson, but for some reason Hawkins didn’t show up to the gig. Young stepped in, played Hawkins’ horn, and played it well. • Lester’s words from “Being Prez” page 27 • Some time later, Hawkins and Young would meet again in an after- hours . Mary Lou Williams recounts that Hawkins was to play with Henderson in St. Louis the next day, but he was caught up in the jam battle for so long he blew out his brand new Cadillac trying to get to the gig in time. “Yes, Hawkins was King until he met those crazy Kansas City tenor men!” Swingin’ The Blues, Count Basie Orchestra, 1936 Young Solo • Lester Young left such an impression on Fletcher Henderson, that the following year he was invited to come up to New York to take Hawkins’ chair while Bean was in Europe. Although by all accounts he played extremely well, his style was so different that he wasn’t comfortable with the Henderson band. The other reed players in the Henderson band had hassled him incessantly about not playing like Hawkins, and reportedly even Fletcher Henderson’s wife had taken to playing him recordings of Bean in order to get him to play that way. He asked to be let go, and Henderson, knowing what he had but understanding the situation, reluctantly let him go. • It was this stint in New York City that brought and Lester Young together for a musical camaraderie that would last until 1959, the year they both passed away. • He returned to Kansas City, and after bouncing around with a few bands eventually settled into the Count Basie orchestra after it became known as such, and there he would leave his longest lasting legacy. • Would eventually become known as one of the greatest saxophone players in history, and has influenced every notable saxophone player since, from Charlie Parker, to Stan Getz, to Joshua Redman, and countless others. , Count Basie Orchestra 1939 Prez and Bean in 1958 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DmtPvFa_W8

• Born and raised in Kansas City, Ben Webster would learn his craft there but make his name playing with the Duke Ellington Orchestra from 1935 to 1943, and most famously as one of the key elements of the 1940-1942 period known as the Blanton-Webster band. • Nicknamed “the Brute” for his heavy sound, he was also very capable of nuanced and gentle tone when desired. Cotton Tail, Duke Ellington, 1940 Webster Solo Buster Smith • Henry “Buster” “Professor” Smith was one of the great and players of the swing era. • Rose to fame in the Blue Devils, and was the co-bandleader with Basie of the Barons of Rhythm (Moten band) • Mentored Charlie Parker and was one of the few people that could get any reliability out of him. Parker was apparently afraid of letting Smith down. • Recorded only one album as bandleader in 1959.

Kansas City Riffs, 1959 Jo Jones • Jo Jones was the preeminent Kansas City drummer of the day, playing with the Blue Devils, and later Count Basie from 1934 to 1948. • One of the early adopters of keeping time on the hi-hat cymbals instead of the .

• Famously once threw a cymbal at Charlie Parker in a jam session for being terrible. Parker left to practice and came back better. Things I left Out

• Kansas City had a large number of venues that were critical in the development of the scene such as: Paseo Hall, Pla-Mor Ballroom, Reno Club, Subway Club, El Torreon Ballroom, Lincoln Theater, Eblon/Cherry Blossom Club. Some of these venues could fit thousands of dancers at a time, rivaling and exceeding the limits of even places like the Savoy in Harlem. • There were so many fantastic musicians that came out of Kansas City that I simply don’t have time to detail in a two hour class. Many of these musicians left such a sparse historical record of their music that it is hard to present them musically or contextually in this setting. • There is a resurgence in the popularity of Kansas City jazz happening in the music world, and in Kansas City specifically. For a long time References

• Basie C. Good Morning Blues, The Autobiography of Count Basie. Da Capo Press; 2002. • Crouch S. Kansas City Lightning, The Rise and Times of Charlie Parker. Harper; 2013. • Driggs F, Haddix C. Kansas City Jazz, From to --A History. Oxford University Press; 2006. • Gelly D. Being Prez, The Life & Music of Lester Young. Oxford University Press; 2007 • Kirk A. Twenty Years on Wheels. A&C Black; 1995. • Russell R. Jazz Style in Kansas City and the Southwest. Univ of California Press; 1971. • Schuller, Gunther. The Swing Era. Oxford University Press; 1989. • http://library.umkc.edu/spec-col/local627/index.htm • http://www.allmusic.com/ • http://www.redhotjazz.com/ • http://www.kcpublicschools.org/Page/1016 • http://www.cprr.org/Museum/RR_Development.html#1L • http://www.r2parks.net/ • Special thanks to, and in memory of . Historical Presentations on Jazz and Swing

Slides Available at https://swingbarons.com/documents

By Adam Lee MA Music Education NEw York university PhD student Jazz Studies University of Pittsburgh

To arrange a presentation of music History at your event, contact me at [email protected]