Results for "Kansas City"

Mary Lou Williams

Born: May 8, 1910

Imagine a pianist playing concerts with Benny Goodman and Cecil Taylor in successive years (1977-78). That pianist was Mary Lou Williams. In a career which spanned over fifty years Mary was always on the cutting edge.

She was born Mary Scruggs in 1910 Atlanta. Her mother was a single parent who worked as a domestic and played spirituals and ragtime on piano and organ. At age three Mary shocked her by reaching up from her mother's lap to pick out a tune on the keyboard. Rather than hiring a teacher (for fear the child would lose the ability to improvise) Mary's mother invited professional musicians to their home

Charles Williams

Born: August 13, 1955

Charles D. Williams, is a native of Kansas City, Kansas. Mr.Williams has played piano for over 40 years. As a trombonist, he studied under Mr. Leon Brady at Sumner High School and supplemented this training with musical studies under the tutelage of the late Mr.Reginald Buckner. Mr.Williams was a member of the award-winning Sumner Jazz Band that also attended the Paris International Jazz festival in Paris France in 1972, and was auspiciously judged to be “the best High School Band in the World. Mr. Williams also had the pleasure of participating in the Turner House Jazz series in the 70’s – having opportunity to play with such great jazz artist as: Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Roy Ayers, Cannonball and Nat Adderley, Frank Wess, Clark Terry, Ernie Wilkins, Rich Matteson, and many more. Today, Mr

Tim Whitmer

Tim Whitmer is the prodigal son of Kansas City Jazz. He cut his “key” teeth on the likes of Jay McShann, Mary Lou Williams and Count Basie. Under the tutelage of George Salisbury he honed his own unique style and has treated audiences from all over the world to a taste of Kansas City swing jazz. When Whitmer played New York jazz clubs, the Village Voice called him “ the best swing band to come out of Kansas City since Jay McShann.” Whitmer has performed internationally at both the Lugano Jazz Festival in Italy and the Montreaux Jazz Festival in Switzerland and graced the stage of numerous national festivals. Tim Whitmer at Carnegie Hall His classical training is the basis of his broad performance skills and music writing abilities. Tim performs regularly at top jazz venues in Kansas City

Ben Webster

Born: March 27, 1909

Ben Webster was considered one of the "big three" of swing tenors along with Coleman Hawkins (his main influence) and Lester Young. He had a tough, raspy, and brutal tone on stomps (with his own distinctive growls) yet on ballads he would turn into a pussy cat and play with warmth and sentiment. After violin lessons as a child, Webster learned how to play rudimentary piano (his neighbor Pete Johnson taught him to play blues). But after Budd Johnson showed him some basics on the saxophone, Webster played sax in the Young Family Band (which at the time included Lester Young). He had stints with Jap Allen and Blanche Calloway (making his recording debut with the latter) before joining Bennie Moten's Orchestra in time to be one of the stars on a classic session in 1932. Webster spent time with quite a few orchestras in the 1930s (including Andy Kirk, Fletcher Henderson in 1934, Benny Carter, Willie Bryant, Cab Calloway, and the short-lived Teddy Wilson big band). In 1940 (after short stints in 1935 and 1936), Ben Webster became Duke Ellington's first major tenor soloist

Bobby Watson

Born: August 23, 1953

A saxophonist, composer, arranger and educator, Bobby Watson grew up in Kansas City, Kan. He trained formally at the University of Miami, a school with a distinguished and well-respected jazz program. After graduating, he proceeded to earn his "doctorate" – on the bandstand – as musical director of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. The group, created in 1955 by late legendary drummer who died in 1990, showcased a rotating cast of players, many who, like Watson, would go on to have substantial careers as bandleaders in their own right. The Jazz Messengers – frequently referred to as the "University of Blakey" – served as the ultimate "postgraduate school" for ambitious young players. After completing a four-year-plus Jazz Messengers tenure (1977-1981) that incorporated more than a dozen recordings – the most of any of the great Jazz Messengers, the gifted Watson became a much-sought after musician, working along the way with a potpourri of notable artists – peers, elder statesmen and colleagues all — including, but not limited to: drummers Max Roach and Louis Hayes, fellow saxophonists George Coleman and a younger Branford Marsalis, celebrated multi-instrumentalist Sam Rivers and trumpeter Wynton Marsalis (who joined the Jazz Messengers at least in part at the suggestion of Watson)

Big Joe Turner

Born: May 18, 1911

“The Boss of the Blues”

Providing an essential link between the blues and rock 'n' roll, Big Joe Turner is best remembered for his classic 1954 hit "Shake, Rattle and Roll," one of the pioneering songs of rock 'n' roll. Although Turner enjoyed his greatest recorded success with Atlantic Records between 1951 and 1956, rock 'n' roll was actually his second (or third) successful musical career.

He started out as an important member of the burgeoning Kansas City jazz scene and helped popularize boogie woogie in the late '30s with pianist Pete Johnson. He also pursued an influential career as one of the most potent blues shouters of the '40s. He was one of the few jazz and blues singers of his generation to become popular with the teenage rock 'n' roll audience. After spending the '60s in relative obscurity, Big Joe Turner returned to jazz and blues, singing on the Pablo label with the likes of Count Basie and Jimmy Witherspoon.

Charlie Parker

Born: August 29, 1920

The only child of Charles and Addie Parker, Charlie Parker was one of the most important and influential saxophonists and jazz players of the 1940’s. When Parker was still a child, his family moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where jazz, blues and gospel music were flourishing. His first contact with music came from school, where he played baritone horn with the school’s band. When he was 15, he showed a great interest in music and a love for the alto saxophone. Soon, Parker was playing with local bands until 1935, when he left school to pursue a music career. From 1935 to 1939, Parker worked in Kansas City with several local jazz and blues bands from which he developed his art

Hot Lips Page

Born: January 27, 1908

Known as a scorching soloist and powerful vocalist, Oran “Hot Lips” Page was one of the Midwest's top trumpet players. Oran Thadeus Page was born in Dallas, Texas, on January 27, 1908. Page's mother, a schoolteacher and musician, taught him the basics of music when he was a child. By the age of twelve he could play the clarinet, saxophone, and trumpet. He joined a local youth band, led by drummer Lux Alexander, which played at local venues around Dallas. Page attended Corsicana High School and Texas College (in Tyler), and worked for a time in the oilfields. He began his professional touring career when he joined "Ma" Rainey's band in the 1920s

Bennie Moten

Born: November 13, 1894

Kansas City jazz, a hard-swinging, blues-based musical style that flourished in the 1920s and '30s, is one of the greatest contributions to the uniquely American art form of jazz. Of the countless musicians and bandleaders who played at nightclubs, ballrooms, social clubs, and all-night jam sessions in the 18th & Vine district during that golden era, none embodied Kansas City jazz more than Bennie Moten. Moten was born and raised in Kansas City, where he studied piano with two of Scott Joplin's former students. While Moten was considered to be a good, but not exceptional, piano player, he excelled as a bandleader and businessman

Benny Moten

Born: November 30, 1916

No relation to Kansas City pianist-bandleader Bennie Moten, Benny Moten was a solid and supportive bassist for decades. He began seriously playing professionally in 1941 and Moten's many musical associations included Hot Lips Page, Jerry Jerome, Henry "Red" Allen (1942-49 and off and on during 1955-65), Eddie South, Stuff Smith, Arnett Cobb, Ella Fitzgerald, Wilbur DeParis' New New Orleans Band (1956-57 including a tour of Africa), Buster Bailey, Roy Eldridge and Dakota Staton (1961-63), among many others. Moten recorded with most of the above players (although never as a leader) and was active musically until virtually the end of his life