Kansas City Style Jazz 1920 s and 1930

Kansas City Style Jazz 1920 s and 1930 s Michael Tucker Presents Kansas City Jazz The presentation will show Kansas City Style Jazz evolved, the different largely ensembles that were forgotten, a comparison to Harlem the lower side in the last chapter, and finally the talent of Count Basie and Bennie Moten.

The Swing of Things Economic factors played a key role in drawing many key performers to Kansas City was a wide open at the time ran by a politically corrupt boss by he name of Tom Pendergrast. Kansas City like Harlem offered a hospitable environment with most of the social vices in life.

The Social Side of things in Kansas City One News paper columnist explained after visiting the City during the Pendergast years, advised readers of the news paper “if you want to see some sin, forget about Paris and go to Kansas City. ”

The Reno Club much like the Cotton Club in Harlem Count Basie entertained ! Beer was five cents, Scotch was fifteen cents, Marijuana sold at three sticks for a quarter, and a trip up the steps was two dollars in cost. Duke Ellington and the cotton club ran much in the same fashion in the lower end of Harlem. The rent parties stick out to me in significance to chapter 4. Both of these clubs provided social enterainment.

Kansas City Jazz The elements of jazz in Kansas City were: the blues tradition f the Southwest, the big band sounds of the Northeast, and the nformal jam session ethos of Harlem. Each of these different tyles were transformed in its Kansas City form. The orchestrations favored by New York arrangers was pared own and it gave way to a simpler riff-based charts. These quas minimalist textures of Kansas City Jazz imparted a looser eeling to the music. This allowed big band performances to etain the hot ethos of the after hours jam sessions we talked bout in chapters 3&4

The Count Basie band Kansas City Jazz life demanded a relax swing , with a subtle undercurrent urgency and the Count Base band delivered this kind of relaxed swing.

Count Base Band continued Gliding over the powerful 4/4 bass lines of Walter Page, drummer Jo Jones was able to adopt a more open sound, relying less on the insistent pulsations of the bass drum, so prominent in the work of earlier jazz percussionists instead employing his high hat as the primal heartbeat of the band. The result was a staccato sound, a more continuous pulse, a shimmering layer of percussion.

The role of the Piano in the Kansas City swing Era • During this time the role of the piano changed. Instead of evoking the ground rhythm with a steady four-to-a-bar-stride, the keyboard now offered accent, fills, and asides, this became one partner in a conversation, not a long-winded orator declaiming first principles. Jazz Pioneer filled this void perfectly, that comping piano sound. The Count stands out as the best and most remembered and loved of the Kansas City pioneers.

Before Count Basie arrived Before Count Base arrived there was Bennie Moten a Kansas City native that studied piano with two of Scott Joplin's pupils. He had initiated a decade-long recording career in 1923. Moten fronted one of the first black jazz bands to record anywhere. Moten's work was in the blues form in which his band recorded eight numbers in the bands first session in September 1923.