What is Kansas City Jazz?

Information about Kansas City Jazz

Kansas_City_jazz
Stylistic origins: blues, New Orleans jazz, ragtime
Cultural origins: 1920s
Typical instruments: piano, saxophone, trumpet, double bass, drums
Mainstream popularity: 1930s and 1940s
Enlarge picture
Memorial to Charlie Parker at the American Jazz Museum at 18th and Highland in Kansas City


Kansas City Jazz is a style of jazz that developed and flourished in Kansas City, Missouri and the surrounding Kansas City Metropolitan Area during the 1930s and marked the transition from the structured big band style to the musical improvisation style of Bebop. The hard-swinging, bluesy transition style is bracketed by Count Basie who in 1929 signed with the Bennie Moten's Kansas City Orchestra and Kansas City native Charlie Parker who was to usher in the Bebop style in the 1940s. According to a Kansas City website, "While New Orleans was the birthplace of jazz, America's music grew up in Kansas City". [1]

Background

The first band from Kansas City to acquire a national reputation was the Coon-Sanders Original Nighthawk Orchestra, a white group which broadcast nationally in the 1920s. However, the Kansas City jazz school is identified with the black bands of the 1920s and 1930s.

Kansas City in the 1930s was very much the crossroads of the United States resulting in a mix of cultures. Transcontinental trips at the time whether by plane or train often required a stop in the city. The era marked the zenith of power of political boss Tom Pendergast. Kansas City was a wide open town with liquor laws and hours totally ignored and was called the new Storyville. Most of the jazz musicians associated with the style were born in other places but got caught up in the friendly musical competitions among performers that could keep a single song being performed in various variations for an entire night.

Often members of the big bands would perform at regular venues earlier in the evening and go to the jazz clubs later to jam for the rest of the night.

Claude Williams described the scene:

Kansas City was different from all other places because we'd be jamming all night. And [if] you come up here ... playing the wrong thing, we'd straighten you out.[2]


Clubs were scattered throughout city but the most fertile area was the inner city neighborhood of 18th Street and Vine.

Among the clubs were the Amos 'n' Andy, Boulevard Lounge, Cherry Blossom, Chesterfield Club, Chocolate Bar, Dante's Inferno, Elk's Rest, Hawaiian Gardens, Hell’s Kitchen, the Hi Hat, the Hey-Hay, Lone Star, Old Kentucky Bar-B-Que, Paseo Ballroom, Pla-Mor Ballroom, Reno Club, Spinning Wheel, Street's Blue Room, Subway and Sunsetx.

Style

Kansas City jazz is distinguished by the following musical elements:
  • A preference for a 4/4 beat over the 2/4 beat found in other jazz styles of the time. As a result, Kansas city jazz had a more relaxed, fluid sound than other jazz styles.
  • Extended soloing. Fueled by the non-stop nightlife under Mayor Pendergast, Kansas City jam sessions went on well past sunrise, fostering a highly competitive atmosphere and a unique jazz culture in which the goal was to "say something" with one's instrument, rather than simply show off one's technique. It was not uncommon for one "song" to be performed for several hours, with the best musicians often soloing for dozens of choruses at at a time.
  • So-called "head arrangements". The KC big bands often played by memory, composing and arranging the music collectively, rather than sight-reading as other big bands of the time did. This further contributed to the loose, spontaneous Kansas City sound.
  • A heavy blues influence, with KC songs often based around a 12-bar blues structure, rather than the 8-bar jazz standard.
  • One of the most recognizeable characteristics of Kansas City jazz is frequent, elaborate riffing by the different sections. Riffs were often created - or even improvised - collectively, and took many forms: a) one section riffing alone, serving as the main focus of the music; b) one section riffing behind a soloist, adding excitement to the song; or b) two or more sections riffing in counterpoint, creating an exciting hard-swinging sound. The Count Basie signature tunes One O'Clock Jump and Jumpin' at the Woodside, for example, are simply collections of complex riffs, memorized in a head arrangement, and punctuated with solos. Glenn Miller's famous swing anthem "In the Mood" closely follows the Kansas city pattern of riffing sections, and is a good example of the Kansas City style after it had been discovered by the rest of the world.

Aftermath

Kansas City influence overtly transferred to the national scene in 1936 when record producer John H. Hammond launched his career by discovering Kansas City talent starting with Count Basie.

Pendergast was to be convicted of income tax evasion in 1940 and the city cracked down on the clubs effectively ending the era.

Beginning in the 1970s Kansas City has attempted to celebrate the heritage by taking off the rough edges for family friendly environments. In the 1970s, the city tried to create a jazz enclave in the River Quay area on the Missouri River in the City Market neighborhood. Three of the clubs were bombed during a mob war that ultimately also led to the demise of mob influence of Las Vegas casinos that was depicted in the movie Casino.

In 1981 114 people died in the Hyatt Regency walkway collapse in an attempted recreation of the jazz scene during a tea dance.

In 1996 Kansas City native Robert Altman released the film Kansas City depicting the Kansas City jazz era.

In 1997 the American Jazz Museum opened in the 18th and Vine neighborhood with a mission of celebrating Kansas City's jazz heritage.

Musicians

Literature

  • Ross Russell, Jazz Style in Kansas City and the Southwest, University of California Press, Berkeley 1971, ISBN 0520018532
  • Nathan W. Pearson, Jr., Goin' to Kansas City. University of Illinois Press, Urbana, Il. 1988, ISBN 0252064380
  • Nathan W. Pearson, Jr., Political and Musical Forces That Influenced the Development of Kansas City Jazz. In: Black Music Research Journal Vol. 9, (2) (1989), pp. 181-192
  • Frank Driggs & Chuck Haddix, Kansas City Jazz: From Ragtime to Bebop--A History, ISBN 9780195307122

References



 •  • [ e]
The Kansas City Area
History • Architecture • Downtown • Economy • Barbecue • Jazz • Fountains • Broadcast • Film • Neighborhoods • The Metro • Sports
Jazz | Jazz genres Acid jazz - Asian American jazz - Avant-garde jazz - Bebop - Crossover jazz - Dixieland - Calypso jazz - Chamber jazz - Cool jazz - Free jazz - Gypsy jazz - Hard bop - Jazz blues - Jazz-funk - Jazz fusion - Jazz rap - Latin jazz - Mainstream jazz - Mini-jazz - Modal jazz - M-Base - Nu jazz - Smooth jazz - Soul jazz - Swing - Trad jazz - West Coast jazz Other topics Musicians - Jazz standard - Jazz royalty - Jazz band - Big band - Jazz (word)
Blues is a vocal and instrumental form of music based on the use of the blue notes and a repetitive pattern that most often follows a twelve-bar structure. It emerged in African-American communities of the United States from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants,
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New Orleans Jazz can refer to:
  • Utah Jazz - a professional National Basketball Association franchise that used to exist in New Orleans as the New Orleans Jazz.
  • Dixieland - a style of jazz music.

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Ragtime (alternately spelled Rag-time) is an American musical genre which enjoyed its peak popularity between 1899 and 1918. It has had several periods of revival since then and is still being composed today.
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A musical instrument is a device constructed or modified with the purpose of making music. In principle anything that, produces sound, and can somehow be controlled by a person playing it, can serve as a musical instrument.
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piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by striking steel strings with felt hammers that immediately rebound allowing the string to continue vibrating at its resonance frequency.
..... Read more.
The saxophone (colloquially referred to as sax) is a conical-bored instrument of the woodwind family.

It is usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece like the clarinet.
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trumpet is a musical instrument in the brass family. The trumpet has the highest register in the brass section; a standard B flat trumpet has a range comparable to the B flat cornet, a piccolo trumpet is an octave higher.
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double bass (also known as the contrabass, string bass, upright bass, bull fiddle, or simply bass) is the largest and lowest pitched bowed string instrument used in the modern symphony orchestra.
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The drum is a member of the percussion group that can be large, technically classified as a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with parts of a player's body, or with some
..... Read more.
Jazz is an original American musical art form that originated around the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in and around New Orleans.

Overview

Jazz has been called "America's only original art form.
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Kansas City, Missouri

Flag
Seal
Nickname: "City of Fountains" and "Heart of the Nation"
Location in Jackson, Clay, Platte, and Cass Counties in the state of Missouri.
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Kansas City, MO-KS

Common name: Kansas City Metropolitan Area
Largest city
Other cities Kansas City, Missouri
 - Overland Park
 - Kansas City, KS
 - Independence
 - Olathe
 - Lee's Summit

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big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with playing jazz music and which became popular during the Swing Era from the early 1930s until the late 1940s, although there are many big-bands around nowadays.
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This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims.
Please help Wikipedia by adding references. See the for details.
This article has been tagged since October 2007.

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Bebop or bop is a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos and improvisation based on harmonic structure rather than melody. It was developed in the early and mid-1940s. It first surfaced in musicians' argot some time during the first two years of the Second World War.
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William "Count" Basie (August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer.

Commonly regarded as one of the most important jazz bandleaders of his time, Basie led his popular groups for almost fifty years.
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Bennie Moten (November 13 1894 – April 2, 1935) was a noted American jazz pianist and band leader born in Kansas City, Missouri.

He led the Kansas City Orchestra, the most important of the itinerant, blues-based orchestras active in the Midwest in the 1920s, and helped
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For other persons of the same name, see Charles Parker.


Charles "Bird" Parker, Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955) was an American jazz saxophonist and composer.
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The Coon-Sanders Original Nighthawk Orchestra was the first Kansas City jazz band to achieve national recognition, which it acquired through national radio broadcasts. It was founded in 1919, as the Coon-Sanders Novelty Orchestra, by drummer Carleton Coon and pianist Joe Sanders.
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Thomas Joseph Pendergast (July 22, 1873 – January 26, 1945) controlled Kansas City and Jackson County, Missouri as a political boss. "Boss Tom" Pendergast gave workers jobs and helped elect politicians during the Great Depression, becoming wealthy in the process.
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Storyville was the prostitution district of New Orleans, Louisiana from 1897 through 1917.

Locals usually simply referred to the area as The District. The nickname Storyville
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Claude "The Fiddler" Williams (February 22, 1908 – April 26, 2004) was an American jazz violinist and guitarist.

Williams was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, in 1908, and by 10 he had learned to play guitar, mandolin, banjo and cello.
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An inner city is the central area of a major city. In the United States, United Kingdom and Ireland, the term is often applied to the poorer parts of the city centre and is sometimes used as a euphemism with the connotation of being an area, perhaps a ghetto, where people are less
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Location: Kansas City, MO

Architect: Multiple
Architectural style(s): Colonial Revival, Italianate, Mission/spanish Revival
Added to NRHP: September 09, 1991

NRHP Reference#: 84004142 [1]
MPS:
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B-side(s) "John's Idea"
Released 1937
Recorded July 7, 1937, New York, NY
Genre Jazz
Length 3:02
Label Decca
1363
Writer(s) Count Basie
Eddie Durham (arr.)
Buster Smith (arr.
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citation, footnoting or external linking.
This article is about the jazz musician. For the college basketball coach, see Glen Miller (basketball coach).

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John Henry Hammond, Jr. (December 15, 1910–July 10, 1987) was a record producer, musician and music critic from the 1930s to the early 1980s. In his service as a talent scout, Hammond became one of the most influential figures in 20th Century popular music.
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IMDb profile

Casino is a 1995 film directed by Martin Scorsese, based on the book of the same name by Nicholas Pileggi and Larry Shandling. Robert De Niro stars as Sam "Ace" Rothstein, a top gambling handicapper who is called by the Mob to oversee the
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Hyatt Regency hotel walkway collapse was a major disaster that occurred on July 17, 1981 in Kansas City, Missouri, killing 114 people and injuring more than 200 others during a tea dance. At the time it was the deadliest structural collapse in U.S. history.
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A tea dance or thé dansant is an afternoon or early evening dance. The function evolved from the concept of the afternoon tea and is a common cultural reference in early 20th century fiction, as a staple of genteel society notably in resort towns such as Brighton.
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