Home » Jazz Articles » Book Review » Jazz Style in Kansas City

147

Jazz Style in Kansas City

Jazz Style in Kansas City
Ross Russell
Da Capo Press
1997

As Russell describes it, the Kansas City jazz scene was founded on the combination of isolation from the jazz mainstream in Chicago and New York, and a vital night life that was depression-proof and unaffected by Prohibition, protected by the corrupt political machine of Mayor Tom Pendergast. Thus a local jazz culture was free to develop in its many nightclubs, dance halls and theaters, based on regional blues and folk music styles, as well as on ragtime, whose masters Scott Joplin and James Scott flourished in Missouri.

After chapters on the economic and musical bases of Kansas City jazz, the heart of the book is a series of chapters tracing in considerable detail the lives and fortunes of many orchestras and individuals from the region. Here is pianist / composer / arranger Mary Lou Williams' account of the Coleman Hawkins / Lester Young / Herschel Evans / Ben Webster jam session: "Around four A.M. I awoke to hear someone pecking on my screen. Opened the window on Ben Webster. He was saying, 'Get up, pussycat, we're jammin' and all the pianists are tired out now. Hawkins has got his shirt off and is still blowing.'" Here is bandleader Benny Moten, preparing for his tonsillectomy by a night on the town with his surgeon and then dying under the none-too-steady knife the next morning, with Count Basie taking over the leaderless band. Here is Brunswick (later Columbia) record producer John Hammond's discovery of Count Basie, whose broadcast sounds he picked up on the short-wave radio he'd had installed in his car.

Here also are such obscure details as the KC address where George and Julia Lee worked in 1920, or the name of the gangster beaten half to death in front of drummer Jesse Price's band, who had been brought out of town just to witness this. Altogether, Jazz Style is replete with names, anecdotes and musical analysis, as will likewise be recalled by readers of Russell's later and better known biography of Charlie Parker, Bird Lives. Buster Smith and the Blue Devils, Bennie Moten, Jack Teagarden, Basie, Lester Young, Andy Kirk, Harlan Leonard, Jay McShann and Charlie Parker each get a chapter of their own, with the story ultimately moving to the New York of Harlem jam sessions and 52nd Street nightclubs as the Pendergast era ends in Kansas City.

Includes notes, discography, bibliography, index, and photographs.

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Popular

Read Take Five with Pianist Irving Flores
Read Jazz em Agosto 2025
Read Bob Schlesinger at Dazzle
Read SFJAZZ Spring Concerts
Read Sunday Best: A Netflix Documentary
Read Vivian Buczek at Ladies' Jazz Festival

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.