Kansas City jazz

Background#

The first band from Kansas City, Missouri, to acquire a national reputation was the Coon-Sanders Original Nighthawk Orchestra, a white group which broadcast nationally in the 1920s. However, the Kansas City jazz school is identified with the black bands of the 1920s and 1930s, including those led by Bennie Moten, Andy Kirk, Harlan Leonard, George E. Lee, Count Basie, and Jay McShann. Bennie Moten was born in Kansas City on December 13, 1893, the beginning of the story of the 1923 recording session. During his first gigs, Moten played house rent parties and brothels operating from private homes, according to long-time Kansas City native Fred Hicks. Between 1916 and 1918, Moten began performing with the drummer Dude Langford. According to Langford, " When I first met Bennie, he was playing around town, little old joints here, some of ’em just little fronts, a bar and a gambling room in the back." The success of Count Basie nationally and internationally led bookers, managers, and record producers to come to Kansas City in search of similar talent. According to Gray Giddins, Basie “is the only major jazz figure to realize his individuality by paring down his technique” because he discovered his style through a search for identity. “From his first session with Bennie Moten to those with his own band in the late 1930s, Basie could be heard in various settings responding to musical challenges as a committed ensemble player, making choices that might serve others as well”. Born in Kansas City, Kansas, Charlie Parker learned about music by spending time in the alleyways behind nightclubs that lined Twelfth Street. Due to Parker’s dubious musical reputation, Oliver Todd reluctantly allowed him to join his Hottentots band: “I tried to take him under my wing. He was very green. If you had told me then that he would be famous I wouldn’t have believed it. He had a lot to learn. He was very determined. … He worked hard.” In the 1930s, Kansas City was very much the crossroads of the United States, resulting in a mix of cultures. Transcontinental trips by plane or train often necessitated a stop in the city. The era marked the zenith of power of political boss Tom Pendergast. Kansas City was a wide open town with prohibition era liquor laws and hours totally ignored, and was called the new Storyville. Most of the jazz musicians associated with the style were born in other places but got caught up in the friendly musical competitions among performers that could keep a single song being performed in variations for an entire night. Often members of the big bands would perform at regular venues earlier in the evening and go to the jazz clubs later to jam for the rest of the night. During the 1930s, a hybrid style between Kansas City jazz and big band was the most popular form of jazz music in the United States, often being played in popular venues and ballrooms. In 1936, Kansas City’s influence overtly transferred to the national scene, when record producer John Hammond discovered Count Basie on his car radio. Pendergast was convicted of income tax fraud in 1940, and the city cracked down on the clubs effectively ending the era. Jay McShann told the Associated Press in 2003: “You’d hear some cat play, and somebody would say ‘This cat, he sounds like he is from Kansas City.’ It was Kansas City Style. They knew it on the East Coast. They knew it on the West Coast. They knew it up North and they knew it down South.” Claude “Fiddler” Williams described the scene: “Kansas City was different from all other places because we’d be jamming all night. And if you come up here … playing the wrong thing, we’d straighten you out.” Tenor saxophonist Lester Young was a hero among writers and musicians. “Known as ‘president’ of the saxophone, he gained recognition for his musical genius while playing leading swing bands of the 1930s, including the 13 Original Blue Devils and the King Oliver and Count Basie bands”. He gained recognition for his signature whistling sound and his impact on jazz has been recognized by jazz historians. Redefining the role of the tenor sax was only the first of Young’s achievements. In this way, he profoundly changed jazz melodic improvisation, offering a counterpoint to Armstrong’s hot, syncopated style. In the Southwest, a tradition of storytelling is as strong in music as it is in speech, according to bassist Gene Ramey of Kansas City. When he explained how Young dethroned Coleman Hawkins in a legendary tenor-saxophone battle at the Cherry Blossom, he noted that the Kansas City musician played more creatively.

Style#

Kansas City jazz is distinguished by the following musical elements: * A preference for a 4 feel (walking) over the 2-beat feel found in other jazz styles of the time. This gave Kansas City jazz a more relaxed, fluid sound than previous jazz styles. * Extended soloing. Fueled by the non-stop nightlife under political boss Tom Pendergast, Kansas City jam sessions continued until later than sunrise, fostering a highly competitive atmosphere and a unique jazz culture in which the goal was to “say something” with one’s instrument, rather than simply show off one’s technique. It was not uncommon for one “song” to be performed for several hours, with the best musicians often soloing for dozens of choruses at a time. * So-called “head arrangements”. The Kanzas City (KC) big bands often played by memory, composing and arranging the music collectively, rather than sight-reading as other big bands of the time did. This further contributed to the loose, spontaneous Kansas City sound. * A heavy blues influence, with KC songs often based around a 12-bar blues structure, rather than the 32-bar AABA standard (although Moten Swing is in this AABA format). * One of the most recognizable characteristics of Kansas City jazz is frequent, elaborate riffing by the different sections. Riffs were often created or improvised collectively, and took many forms: one section riffing alone as the main focus of the music; one section riffing behind a soloist, adding excitement to the song; or two or more sections riffing in counterpoint, creating a rousing, complex sound. The Count Basie signature tunes “One O’Clock Jump” and “Jumpin’ at the Woodside”, for example, are mainly collections of riffs, memorized in a head arrangement, and punctuated with solos. Glenn Miller’s famous swing anthem “In the Mood” closely follows this Kansas City pattern of riffing sections, perhaps exemplifying how, by the late 1930s, the style had gone on to influence the larger musical world.

Selected discography#

Early jazz and swing era music: *Various artists, The Real Kansas City of the 20’s, 30’s & 40’s, Columbia/Legacy (1996) *Various artists, Jazz - Kansas City Style, Topaz Jazz/Pearl (1996) *Various artists, The Cradle of Jazz, The International Music Co. (2000) 2CD *Various artists, Kansas City Jazz 1924-1942, Frémeaux & Associés France (2005) 2CD

Legacy#

Jazzoo is an annual charity fundraiser for the Kansas City Zoo, dedicated to Kansas City jazz. In 2011, Jazzoo was one of the nation’s largest charity fundraisers, raising over $800,000.

Bibliography#

• Amber R. Clifford-Napoleone. 2018. Queering Kansas City Jazz: Gender, Performance, and the History of a Scene. Expanding Frontiers: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
• Burns, Ken 1953-, and Geoffrey C. Ward. Jazz: A history of America’s music. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000.
• Chuck Haddix. 2013. Bird : The Life and Music of Charlie Parker. Music in American Life. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
• Daniels, Douglas Henry. “Lester Young: Master of Jive.” American Music 3, no. 3 (1985): 313–28. https://doi.org/10.2307/3051473
• Frank Driggs and Chuck Haddix, Kansas City Jazz: From Ragtime to Bebop–A History New York: Oxford University Press, 2006,
• Gelly, David. Icons of jazz: A history in photographs, 1900-2000. Thunder Bay Press, 2000.
• Gunther Schuller, The Swing Era: The Development of Jazz, 1930-1945 (The History of Jazz, Vol. 2), New York: Oxford University Press, 1991
• Haddix, Chuck. Rags to Be-bop: the Sounds of Kansas City Music, 1890-1945. Text by Chuck Haddix. Kansas City, Mo.: University of Missouri at Kansas City, University Libraries, Marr Sound Archives, 1991. Without ISBN
• Kathy J. Ogren. 1992. The Jazz Revolution : Twenties America and the Meaning of Jazz. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Nathan W. Pearson Jr., Goin’ to Kansas City. Urbana, Il.: University of Illinois Press, 1988,
• Nathan W. Pearson Jr., Political and Musical Forces That Influenced the Development of Kansas City Jazz. In: Black Music Research Journal Vol. 9 (2), (1989), pp. 181–192
• Rice, Marc. “Prelude to Swing: The 1920s Recordings of the Bennie Moten Orchestra” American Music 25, no. 3 (2007): 259–81. https://doi.org/10.2307/40071662
• Ross Russell, Jazz Style in Kansas City and the Southwest, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1971,
• Ted Gioia. 2011. The History of Jazz. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Tucker, Mark. “Count Basie and the Piano That Swings the Band.” Popular Music 5 (1985): 45–79. http://www.jstor.org/stable/853283
• Williams, Martin. “Jazz: What Happened in Kansas City?” American Music 3, no. 2 (1985): 171–79. https://doi.org/10.2307/3051634