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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZKANSAS CITY JAZZRegional centres and territory bands have always revitalized American popular music and introduced new strains; the Big Band Era began in '35 with Benny Goodman playing a style that had already been developed by black bandleaders Don Redman and Fletcher Henderson to a high degree of smooth sophistication: they wrote arrangements for dancers which had to swing if they were well played. In 1937 Count Basie came East from Kansas City and upset the applecart, playing a looser, blues-based style that had enough sophistication, but also retained more basic jazz values: the band was packed with great soloists and did not depend so much on arrangers; it could not only make up 'head' arrangements on the bandstand or at a rehearsal, but as Basie put it in his autobiography, the amazing thing was that they could play it the same way the next night. Jimmy Blanton, Charlie Christian and many other musicians of great importance came from the Midwest or the Southwest, for which K.C. was the most important regional centre because of its political corruption: Tom Pendergast ran the town from the '20s until '38 when he was indicted for income tax fraud. Neither prohibition of alcohol nor its repeal made any difference to K.C., nor indeed did the Depression: 20 or 30 night clubs operated all the way through (while Pendergast went to bed at nine each night). Musicians were not highly paid but they could work around the clock, and the town was a hot-house for jazz talent. The Coon/Sanders Nighthawks were a popular white band who became famous broadcasting from K.C. in the early years; the band of Bennie Moten from '23-32 was the most prolifically recorded of all territory bands; Harlan Leonard worked for Moten, later emerged with his Rockets; Basie took over remnants of Moten's band. Vocalists from K.C. included Julia Lee, Walter Brown, Basie's Jimmy Rushing; other important bands were Andy Kirk's Clouds of Joy with pianist/composer Mary Lou Williams, and that of Jay McShann, whose band included Brown and Charlie Parker: the spirit of the K.C. style, with its blues content and the influence of Basie sidemen Lester Young and Jo Jones, then Parker took elements of Kansas City jazz into bop, thence into 'modern' jazz down to today. Singing bartender Big Joe Turner later had early rock'n'roll hits; composer-arranger Jesse Stone came from the K.C. era and remained important in R&B and soul well into the 1960s. Ross Russell's Jazz Style In Kansas City And The Southwest '71 is a valuable survey; Robert Altman was from Kansas City and directed a film on the subject mid-'90s. See entries for individuals, and Jazz for more on territory bands. |