Kansas City Jazz

 

I Want A Little Girl

Kansas City Jazz

Decca Records 

1951

A group of dance compositions played in the "Kansas City" style by the men who originated and popularized the style.

From the back cover: Patron saints of Kansas City jazz are the late Bennie Moten, pianist and leader, who died while undergoing a tonsillectomy on April 2, 1935, and George Ewing Lee, pianist, vocalist and saxophonist, who learned music in the United States Army during he World War and who returned form military service to his birthplace, Kansas City, organized a band, and became nationally prominent in the entertainment field.

One of the earliest Kaycee jazz bands was directed by Dave Lewis, a saxophonist, who "grabbed off" the weekly jobs at a shite dance at 15th and Troost in 1920. In Lewis' unit were Leroy Maxey, the drummer who later starred with Cab Calloway on Broadway: Bill Storie, banjo: Dude Knox, pianist; Lawrence Denton, clarinet; DePriest Wheeler, trombone, and Roland Bruce, violin. Fiddles later were banned by most Kansas City musicians. "They don't ever seem to fit in," Buster Moten says.

Across the Law River, in Kansas City, Kans., Paul Banks led a popular orchestra which featured a little alto saxophonist named Jack Washington. Jack later joined Count Basie on the Missouri side and has been with him ever since. A baritone sax solo by Washington may be heard on Basie's Doggin' Around number in this collection.

George E. Lee's first band played regularly at the Lyric Hall at 18th and Lydia in the heart of Kaycee's Harlem section. His sister Julia was on piano, and sang; Bruce Redd was the drummer, and Lee himself "sent" the musicians who came around to hear him by slap tonguing a huge baritone sax. Jazz was beginning to get hold of Kaycee's colored residents. The town was beginning to jump.

By 1922 Bennie Moten had named up with Duke Lankford, the drummer, and Bailey Hancock, a singer, to form the "B.B. and D." band It was so successful that a year later he wangled a job at the Panama Club, on Forest at 18th Street, using five pieces. Willi Hall came in on drums and Thamon Hayes moved in a trombonist. Lamar Wright blew the trumpet, wooed Walter was on clarinet and george (Banjo Joe) Tall manned the banjo. By now competition between Lee and Moten was white hot. Both were making money and fighting to obtain the services of the city's beat musicians. Chauncey Downs was a third leader competing. Across the Kaw, Banks was doing well and Jesse Stone, the composer, was working steadily, too, with Booker Pittman on alto, Cag Jonson, Bud Johnson, Ben Smith, Eddie Durham and others occupying chairs in this orchestra.

Word got around fast, Down in Oklahoma and Texas and Arkansas, and throughout the great Southwest, musicians heard about the lush conditions for musicians. Hundreds headed toward the Heart of America. Most all of them found good jobs. The panic was on.

Cab Calloway was one of those who went westward. Later he took Marion Hardy' band into New York for his sensationally successful run at the old Cotton Club in Harlem, years before it was moved downtown to Broadway. James Smith, a bass man, led the original Calloway Kansas City band and Eli Logan was on sax. Harry Cooper, trumpet, and Leroy Maxey, De Priest Wheeler, and Lamar Wright went East, Too. Andy Kirk heard about the paradise for musicians and headed to Kaycee from Oklahoma withMary Lou Williams creating a sensation with her heavily rhythmic, distinctly "different" way of beating out jazz on a piano.

By 1930 Kirk's "Cloud of Joy" were competing heavily with Lee and Moten, and all the other colored orchestras. Kansas City by now had gained a well-deserved national reputation for being "wide open" and, despite the depression, was attracting entertainment-seeking visitors from all over the nation.

Jap Allen's Band with Joe Keys, Bill Little, Tommy Douglas and others went to Kansas City from Tulsa. Paul Webster, Booker Pittman, Clyde Hart, Ben Webster also were with Jape. Hart, the pianist, was on a terrific McKinney's Cotton Pickers kick and was not happy unless he was "stealing" arrangements off Cotton Pickers records.

But most importantly of all, at this time, was Walter Page's fine Blue Devils Orchestra which hit Kaycee after okaying throughout Texas and Oklahoma more successfully than any other musical group of the time. It was Page who persuaded young Bill Basie to leave the Gonzale White roadshow and join Page's band in Dallas in 1928. Basie was from Red Bank, J. J., and tired of playing panics. When he joined the Blue Devils he joined Oran ("Hot Lips") Page, Buster Smith, Joe Keys (who had left Allen), A. G. Godley and others playing in the band. "Hot Lips" and Walter were only distant relatives, as were Ben Webster, the tenor man, and Paul Webster, the trumpeter.

Musicans were everywhere. Pete Johnson, pianist, and Joe Turner, blues shouter, teamed up and were at their bast a 4 o'clock in the morning when musicians got off work and dropped around to gulp beer from large tine cans selling for a nickel-pay when served. Hot crawfish, chitlins, barbecued ribs and dime-a-drink whiskey were on tap at all times. Everyone had money, and no one tired to save it. The town was jumping. Jazz was king.

Moten's death in 1935 stared the decline. Walter Page had long since abandoned his Blue Devils to join Bennie, along with "Hot Lips" Page, Basie and most of the other Devils. Basie took over most of the Moten band after Bennie's death. In 1936 both Basie and Kirk were taken east. That left a hole in the town's jazz set-up. Repeal of prohibition also had its effect. Kansas City didn't attract free-spending visitors as it had. Slowly, musicians realized that the halcyon days were only a memory. Pete Johnson and Joe Turner went east. Margaret (Countess) Johnson, a promising pianist not unlike Mary Lou williams in her appearance and style, died suddenly. Harlan Leonard took over in Moten's place, Buster Moten organized his own band, Jay McShann came in from Muskogee and formed a small jump unit, Woodie and Herman Walter combined talents, Julia Lee, Baby Lovett, Bill Saunder, Tommy Douglas, Clarence Love, Dee Stewart and Thamon Hayes all key going. But the beak had been reached. Kansas City jazz had been born, had brown into maturity and had slumped off into senility.

Pete Johnson' Band - Pete Johnson, piano; Oran "Hot Lips" Page, trumpet; Don Stovall, alto; Dan Byas, tenor; Eddie Barefield, alto; Abe Bolar, bass; A.G. Godley, drums; John Collins, guitar. Recorded November 11, 1940. Arrangement by Pete Johnson

Joe Turner And His Fly Cats - Joe Turner, vocal; Pete Johnson, piano; "Hot Lips" Page, trumpet; Abe Bolar, bass; John Collins, guitar; A. G. Godley, drums. Recorded November 11, 1940. Arranged by Turner and Johnson in the studio.

Mary Lou Williams' Orchestra - Mary Lou Willians, piano; Dick Wilson, tenor; Ed Inge, clarinet; Harold Baker, trumpet; Theodore Donnelly, trombone; Booker Collins, bass; Ben Thigpen, drums. Recorded November 18, 1940. Arrangement by Mary Lou Williams

Andy Kick's Clouds Of Joy - Andy Kirk, front; Mary Lou Williams, piano; Booker Collins, bass; Floyd Smith, guitar; Ben Thigpen, drums; Henry Wells, Theodore Donnelly, trombones; Harry Lawson, Harold Baker, Clarence Trice, trumpets; Rudy Powell, John Harrington, altos; Richard (Dick) Wilson, Ed Inge, tenors. Recorded November 7, 1940. Arrangement by Mary Lou Williams.

"Hot Lips" Page's Orchestra - "Hot Lips" Page, trumpet; Pete Johnson, piano; John Collins, guitar; A.G. Godley, drums; Abe Bolar, bass; Don Stovall, Eddie Barefield, altos; Don Byas, tenor. Recorded November 11, 1940. Arrangement by Eddie Durham and Page.

Count Basie's Orchestra - Count Basie, piano; Jo Jones, drums; Freddie Green, guitar; Walter Page, bass violin; Earl Warren, Ronald (Jack) Washington, altos; Herschel Evans, Lester Young, tenors; Ed Lewis, Bobby Moore, Buck Clayton, trumpets; George Hunt, Dan Minor, Eddie Durham, trombones; Jimmy Rushing, vocalist. Recorded August 9, 1937. Arrangement by Eddie Durham and Skippy Martin.

Eddie Durham's Orchestra - Eddie Durham, electric guitar; Buster Smith, alto; Willard Brown, alto; Lem C. Johnson, tenor; Joe Keys, trumpet; Conrad Frederick, piano; Averil Pollard, bass; Arthur Herbert, drums. Recorded November 11, 1940. Arrangement by Eddie Durham.

Stomp - Pet Johnson's Band

Piney Brown Blues - Joe Turner

Baby Bear

Harmony Blues - Mary Lou Williams and Her Kansas City Seven

The Count

Twelfth Street Rag - Andy Kirk and His Clouds Of Joy

South

Lafayette - Oran "Hot Lips" Page

Good Morning Blues - Vocal chorus by James Rushing

Doggin' Around - Count Basie

Moten's Swing

I Want A Little Girl - Eddie Durham