The Evolution of Jazz; 25; Kansas City, Part Two

With his band in 1932 were such outstanding names in Midwest jazz as Count Basie lives page Eddie Durham Ben Webster the tender man who later went with Duke Ellington Dan minor and Walter page tracing this band throughout a page a scrapbook that appears to have survived until 1934 with some changes in personnel. And idea pages would they say but Fletcher Henderson acquired Lester Young and personal misfortunes broke up the band after only a few months 1935 basely organized a nine piece band for the Reno beer garden in Kansas City and two years later to the New York critic John Hammond heard them on a long distance radio sat down bass he came into the jazz limelight him and induce Benny Goodman and Willard Alexander the latter was then with them CIA the powerful booking office to go to Kansas City and listen to the band. They listened advised to add a few men and the count was signed out with NCAA and became nationally known. We Bennie Moten recordings are proof enough that in its early stages Kansas City music. In the early twenties was only a crude imitation of New Orleans.

And the band shows up rather badly. In contrast to the more or less contemporary King all of a group on Gen. a man who had who were a New Orleans eye rolling rhythm arrived at with the help of banjo and tuba and a loose adaptation of New Orleans style where the distinctive features of the music. Here is a 1928 recording of the Bennie Moten band it's called tough breaks. And and. I am I am I am. I am I am I am I am.

I am I am. Even by 1920 as you can hear the New Orleans kind of instrumentation had been considerably changed. And like McKinney's cotton pickers that began in Ohio a nine hundred twenty as the Cinco jazz band the moden organization too founded stride as a big band. Not as a group of the New Orleans type though this 1928 recording still had many

of the imitations of New Orleans style. And so the musicians using Kansas City as a base found a form and idiom to suit their musical needs just as Had those of Holland. So basically influenced by the New Orleans jazz men they developed a style of their own. As you can recall from my contrast of the Louis Armstrong 12st drag with that of Count Basie. This is true not only of the Kansas City musicians but those who sort of fit into the city. And into such Kansas City bands as Benny mountains men who had played around the cabarets of Oklahoma City and Omaha and other centers of the Midwest and Southwest bands that work through the Southwest. That was Smith points out where Alphonse trends and choice the latter choice had Herschel Evans on tenor who was later to become prominent with Count Basie and trance band had a violinist F. Smith who was to become one of

the few really fluent violinists in the jazz NEA. Returning to the what may be called the Parent band.

They basically style itself underwent many changes from the 1927 28 recordings of Moten to those made in 1941 let's say by con basis. Rhythm. Was always a strong factor even when accomplished with the help of the tuba. It was the whole band that pushed in Elaan Welton's band like McKinney's had an exuberant drive to it and with its melodic sections a comparable fullness. Rich expansive ensemble found in every good band of the Midwestern playing and it's had its best McKinney's Lunsford's in any critics. It may be well to play a 1932 recording of Benny Martin's Multan swing featuring basi on piano lips page on trumpet while the page on bass and he Duren on guitar. And follow that with a much lighter recording of the same song. By the Count Bass he put it.

I am.

I am I am. I am. I am. I am.

I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am

I am I and. Here's how the interpretation evolved as played by the mature basi band. Many years later. And. Eat

me. Am. I am. I am a end. Am. Am. I am.

Am. I. As the style of the base has been developed it featured solos closely integrated with ensemble and more than any other large band kept the improvisational freedom of a small jazz units. Joe Jones drummer with basi for many years because of the empathy of the men in the band was such that he for one felt freer in the basi band than most small units many of the numbers were simple head arrangements skeleton structures on which the man then improvised. Jones said that it had really had the small band feel. Sonny Finkelstein writes that. Nowadays he brought to jazz a style and body of music less varied than Ellington's but one deeply rooted in folk and powerful and its influence on jazz. As a matter of fact I would add that no other band of the 30s or 40s was so instrumental in influencing modern jazz. Much of the power bases band and its influence came of

course from its individual performers. These included at various times such outstanding musicians as Chad Collins Harry Edison and Buck Clayton on trumpet Herschel Evans Lester Young tad Smith and saxophones Dickie Wells Benny Morton Jack Washington on baritone saxophone. And a phenomenal rhythm section consisting from many years of basing himself on piano Joe Jones drums Walter page bass and Freddie Green guitar. Each of the instrumental as a remarkable performer both in his handling of the instrument and the solid quality of his musical ideas. The music offered by the Basie band was founded on blues of a more mellow and focus kind reminiscent of old spirituals and mountain dances often end or suggesting a minor key. This kind of melody defines as well as anything the essential character of when is very loosely called Kansas City jazz for it is heard not only in basi but in a fine piano pieces and arrangements of Mary Lou. And and the blues piano of Pete Johnson. Here is the Williams arrangement. I've been a

mountain's harmony blues whether Dick Ross and I tenor saxophonist. Who played with Andy Kirk for many years and was one of the influence of modern jazz clarinet Harold Baker a trumpet Theo O'Donnell a trombone Mary Lou on piano Booker T Collins bass and Ben Penn on drums Mary the Wayne's arrangement Bennie Moten is Harmony blues. I am.

Now that Williams was born in Pittsburgh 1910 she began to study piano when she was five and at seven was considered a child prodigy. Making frequent public appearances including concerts for the University of Pittsburgh. She possessed a name and still does of course a remarkable faculty for total discrimination and was able to memorize symphonies scores after hearing them. The only ones it says here and from what I've

seen of Mary's performance and performance by ear it may well be at least in part true. She studied music until she was graduated from high school as an honor student when she was 15. Shortly thereafter she broke into show business as a pianist for a vaudeville act. Two years later located in Memphis played with a dance group for four years before joining Andy cricks band in 1931. And for the next 11 years he was featured with correct being based in part in Kansas City. Since then she has devoted most of her time to original compositions arranging for many of the major orchestras. And teaching and making solo appearances both here and abroad. Mary Lou Williams more than any other musician in jazz has remained remarkably contemporary through all the phases of the evolution of jazz. She expanded into a more inventive style than any other player had before she was a master of the blues and one of the big band style. And in the early days of modern jazz she taught and encouraged youngsters like

Polonius monk and Bud Powell. And today she still can play in any idiom and none of the younger pianists is any more contemporary than she. Here is a composition she originally wrote for three pianos for herself. Felonious Monk and Bud Powell. This version recorded in 1952 is much simpler. She says in the original. It's gone. Returning to base a Finkelstein points out that his forums

were based in part on the riff. Again that repeated melodic fragment which he used with the greatest subtlety unlike some later allied band neck in the mechanizations of the ref. The basic performance is generally used to refine it solo reply or obbligato. In a manner reminiscent of old choral spirituals. The jump rhythm as he used it always has the human eye last a city which it lacks in a man of mystic treatment. Instrumental a base he was strong and the one point where Ellington had been comparatively weak. Ellington had never made much use of the solo tenor sax a condition only partially remedied by the arrival of Ben Webster. The tenor sax became a leading solo instrument in the Basie band and the other instruments tended to develop a tone and a logic style to parallel the saxophone. And so one hears a great deal of muted trumpet from Harry Edison but Clayton and Chad Collins the tone sustain and given subtle sax like inflections. And somewhat similar style was worked out independently by Frankie Newton in New York. The trombone likewise developed a new style wholly different from the explosive tailgate. It spins out

sustain melodic lines depending for their effect upon the beauty of the melody itself and upon its sudden twists and surprises. Presence of two voices. Even the rhythm section. A kind of singing style. Phil Jones gave the band a powerful underlying beat the actual sound of the drums and raged with a string tone of Green's guitar Page's bass and to become conscious of the actual presence of the drums in a very economical situation. John's team work with Lester Young Dickie Welles and other musicians and that is always a thing of beauty. This is this thing a sample of the creative uses of the big band made by countless. I

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am. I am. Will. You have been listening to the evolution of jazz. I recorded series prepared and produced by

Nat Hentoff under the auspices of Northeastern University and presented by the Lowell Institute cooperative broadcasting Council. The allegation of jazz was recorded in the Boston studios of WGBH Af-Am. This is the national educational radio network.