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Kansas City Jazz- John Hammond

February 15, 2019- Today's Kansas City Jazz Topic: John Hammond

By the beginning of 1936 the Count Basie-Buster Smith Barons of Rhythm were tearing it up nightly at the Reno Club and starting to get attention beyond the African American community.

One journalist in particular, Dave Dexter, covered jazz for the Kansas City Journal-Post.  He was a big jazz fan who immersed himself in the nightlife along 12th st. and in the 18th and Vine district. He adored the Basie band but hated the Reno Club.  He felt the band deserved better and made it his personal mission break the band on a national level. In addition to the Journal-Post, Dexter also contributed to Down Beat Magazine and began reporting on jazz happenings in Kansas City.  He also tipped off fellow Down Beat contributer John Hammond to the Basie broadcasts from the Reno Club.

Hammond was a wealthy aristocrat that loved jazz and blues and detested racial segregation and the mistreatment of African American artists.
He also had a great ear for talent discovering the likes of Billie Holiday and Charlie Christian.  Later he discovered Aretha Franklin, Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Ray Vaughan among many others. He was also heavily involved in the integration of the Benny Goodman band with Teddy Wilson and Lionel Hampton.  
While traveling cross country with Goodman he took Dexter’s advice and tuned into the Basie Reno Club broadcast on W9XBY.  At the time he was sitting in his car in the parking lot of the Congress Hotel in Chicago.

Needless to say he was blown away by what he heard and headed to Kansas City as quickly as possible.
Once there he and Dexter made the rounds and Hammond was impressed with much that he heard.  In addition to Basie he was also impressed by Joe Turner and Pete Johnson at the Sunset Club. 

Once back in New York he convinced Willard Alexander to add Basie to his roster of artists and send them on a national tour.  Before leaving Kansas City, Basie enlarged the group to a big band.  Unfortunately Buster Smith didn’t trust Hammond and decided not to go.   Basie also lost Hot Lips Page to Joe Glaser who promised he would be the next Louis Armstrong.  

While Basie was preparing to leave K.C., Dave Kapp of Decca Records snuck into town and signed him and the band to an exclusive recording contract.  It was a horrible deal for Basie but he thought Kapp was associated with Hammond and signed anyway. When Hammond found out he was furious.  He would have gotten Basie a much better deal and he wanted to be the one to introduce his new discovery to the jazz world.

They left Kansas City in November of 1936 and headed to Chicago for an engagement at the Grand Terrace Ballroom. Not to be out done by Decca, John Hammond organized a small group out of the Basie band to record for Vocalion under the pseudonym Jones-Smith Inc.  It was the world’s introduction to the brilliance of Lester Young along with the unparalleled swing of the rhythm team of Basie, Walter Page and Jo Jones.

The Kansas City sound wasn’t a secret any longer.

Kansas City Jazz- Moten is out, Basie is in

February 14, 2019- Today's Kansas City Jazz Topic: Moten is out and Basie is in

By 1932 the Kansas City scene was in full swing so Bennie Moten’s Orchestra stayed close to home. By that time Moten had added several ex-Oklahoma City Blue Devils to the band and it was at it’s musical peak. During the summer of 1933 the band opened the new Cherry Blossom club near 18th and Vine but there was trouble in the ranks and Moten was voted out as leader. They voted Bill Basie in and the band carried on.

In 1934 the Cherry Blossom band breaks up, Lester Young joins Fletcher Henderson and the key musicians reconcile with Moten.  This included Basie, Buster Smith, Jimmy Rushing, Herschal Evans and Hot Lips Page.

The band continued in dominance of the Kansas City scene until 1935 when they take an engagement in Denver and Moten stayed behind to have a routine tonsellectomy. The Doctor slips and Moten dies during the operation.

Buster Moten tries to keep the band together but by summer most of the key musicians had joined other bands.

That all changed with Basie as he was hired to put together a group to serve as the house band at The Reno Club near downtown Kansas City.
Basie was able to bring together the best of the best.  He had his pick of the musicians who had developed over the last five or six years during their regular jobs and at the nightly jam sessions.

It ended up as a 9 piece band set up as 3 reeds, 3 brass and 3 rhythm.  Basie and Buster Smith shared the billing.  Using his new nickname it became The Count Basie-Buster Smith Barons of Rhythm. The reeds included Buster Smith and Slim Freeman. The brass included Hot Lips Page and the Rhythm included Basie, Walter Page and Jo Jones. Jimmy Rushing was the vocalist.

The band broadcast late at night on station W9XBY and it was during those broadcasts that Basie’s theme song was established. 
One night as the band was playing the theme the announcer asked for the title.  The actual title  was not appropriate to say over the airwaves so they looked at the clock, saw it was one o clock and told the announcer the name was One O’Clock Jump.

The Reno Club was located at 12th and Cherry.It was owned by Papa Sol Epstein who was part of the Pendergast regime.  
His connections made sure the police never raided the place.   It was a long narrow saloon that featured a cramped, oyster shell bandstand in the back. There was a floor show at 9, 12, 2 and 4.   Beer was 5 cents a glass, 10 cents for a schooner with mixed drinks costing a quarter. Prostitutes hung out inside and outside the club and worked out of rooms upstairs in the same building.

Lester Young didn’t last long with Fletcher Henderson. They wanted him to sound like Coleman Hawkins and he wanted no part of it so he left and went to Minneapolis. One night Lester heard the Basie band on the radio and contacted Basie to let him know that Slim Freeman wasn’t making it and that he was available.  Basie sent for him right away and Lester came back to Kansas City to join the band.

With the arrival of Lester Young it all came together. The band was a crystallization of all that had come before it.  It was the essence of the Kansas City style. The blues-based arrangements, the loose hard swinging rhythm  and an amazing array of creative soloists.

A Prez Day- Monday, February 18th

Blog Name:Home Page News

Blog Author:San Diego's Jazz 88.3

Posted on:February 13, 2019

ALL DAY TODAY KSDS will be celebrating a different kind of President. Join us as we salute the "PREZ," Lester Young. We will play his music throughout the day and feature rare recordings, clips, interviews and so much more. KSDS gets Prezidential- beginning at 6am. 

Kansas City Jazz- The Sunset Club

February 13, 2019- Today's Kansas City Jazz Topic: The Sunset Club
 

The Sunset Club was one of the legendary Kansas City nightspots and was located at 12th and Highland very close to the famous intersection of 12th St. and Vine. It opened in the fall of 1933 as the East Side Musicians Sunset Club.  It was also known as the Sunset Crystal Palace although there was nothing regal about it.

It was a long narrow room featuring a saloon up front and a gambling room in the back.  Beer was served in tall tin cans by the quart.  The cost was 15 cents. The club was owned by Felix Payne and managed by the popular Piney Brown.

The house band consisted of two pieces.  Pete Johnson on piano and Murl Johnson on drums. Pete’s left hand was so strong they didn’t need a bass player. The bartender was Big Joe Turner.  When the feeling hit him he would join Pete and Murl and start shouting the blues.  Felix Payne had installed a PA system for Big Joe’s use.  It was connected to a loudspeaker mounted outside the club above the door.  When Joe started shouting the blues it could be heard for blocks.   Crowds would hear Joe’s voice and flock to the club.  Joe referred to it as “calling my children home.”

Pete and Joe might start a blues which would sometimes go on for 75 choruses. Pete always had a full jigger of gin near the keyboard that he would sip on throughout the night.

Pete is immortalized in the song “Roll Em Pete.”

Piney Brown was a ladies man and gambler and a friend to all the musicians.  He took care of all the musicians by helping them however he could.  If they needed money for rent they could go to Piney. When musicians came to play they didn’t have to pay for anything.  Piney’s generosity insured there would be plenty of participants in the nightly jam sessions. Piney is immortalized by Joe Turner and His Fly Cats in the 1940 recording Piney Brown Blues:

“Yes I dreamed last night
I was standin' on 18th and vine
Yes I dreamed last night
I was standin' on 18th and vine
I shook hands with Piney Brown
An' I could hardly keep from cryin'"


San Diego Music Awards 2019

Blog Name:Home Page News

Blog Author:San Diego's Jazz 88.3

Posted on:February 12, 2019

Jazz 88.3 is proud to support the 28th Annual San Diego Music Awards, happening TONIGHT (6PM). The San Diego Music Awards started in 1991, as a way to recognize the achievements of our diverse local music community. Now in its 27th year, the San Diego Music Awards presents awards in over 20 categories, recognizing many different genres of music including Rock, Jazz, Hip Hop, Americana and World Music. Past performers include Jewel, Jason Mraz, Switchfoot, P.O.D., Sara Watkins (Nickelcreek). The San Diego Music Awards is the primary fundraising vehicle for The Guitars for Schools Program. For more information, or to purchase tickets, click here

Kansas City Jazz- Jam Sessions

February 12, 2019- Today's Kansas City Jazz Topic: Jam Sessions
 
After the stock market crash of 1929 most of the Territory Bands broke up and many of those musicians descended on Kansas City to take advantage of Pendergast’s wide open nightlife policy. After hours jam sessions started to spring up all over the district and those nightly gatherings became a way of life for the young musicians.
The jam sessions were serious business and reputations were won and lost every single night.
  
None of these after hours affairs were recorded or documented but there are many legendary tales of victory and defeat that have passed down through the generations.
The most famous Kansas City jam session legend took place at The Cherry Blossom club which was a few steps north of 18th and Vine.

Coleman Hawkins was in town with Fletcher Henderson and was the undisputed king of the tenor saxophone in jazz.
Kansas City was loaded with great tenor players who had been honing their craft at these nightly cutting contests for years. The outside world hadn’t heard of them yet but they had developed into brilliant players while under the cloak of the Pendergast-controlled Kansas City nightlife.
"Hawk" usually didn’t take part in jam sessions because there was nothing for him to gain. That night was different though.  He was challenged by the local musicians and he decided to go to show them who was boss.

The session got underway around 2 in the morning with Hawk taking on all comers. The locals would try to call tunes Hawk didn’t know but he knew everything. Hawk would call hard keys and that eliminated quite a few challengers right off the bat. After a couple of hours all that was left was Hawk, Lester Young, Herman Walder, Herschal Evans and Ben Webster. The rhythm section was tired by this point so Ben Webster went and woke up Mary Lou Williams and got her to come take the piano chair. By five a.m. Herman Walder and Herschal Evans dropped out leaving just Hawk, Ben and Lester. Another hour or so went by and finally Ben dropped out leaving just Hawk and Lester.  No matter what Hawk played he couldn’t top Lester. He could call whatever key he wanted and Lester was right there and his creativity was so genius there was nothing Hawk could do. By morning Hawk finally gave up and Lester was victorious.

The Fletcher Henderson band had an engagement that night in St Louis and legend has it that Hawkins blew up the engine to his brand new Cadillac racing across Missouri to catch up with the band.

Mary Lou Williams summed it up nicely:  “Hawkins was king until he met those crazy Kansas City tenor men."

Kansas City Jazz- The 1929 Brunswick Sessions

February 11, 2019- Today's Kansas City Jazz Topic: The Brunswick Sessions
 
Other than Bennie Moten, most Kansas City groups and Territory Bands did not have much opportunity to record.
One notable exception was a 6 day series of sessions that took place in early November 1929.

Winston Holmes was a local entrepreneur who owned a music store, represented artists and produced some early recording sessions.  Eventually he started his own record company called Meritt Records. He was forced to give it up in 1927 and returned to freelance producing for other small labels in the Midwest.
In the fall of 1929 he worked a deal with Chicago based Brunswick Records to record a number of Kansas City artists.

Brunswick noticed that Ralph Peer and Victor Records had found good talent in Kansas City and wanted to get in on the action.
Brunswick executives Jack Kapp and Dick Voynow came to Kansas City in November 1929 accompanied by their supervisor of race recordings J. Mayo Williams.  
Word spread that Brunswick was in town to audition bands and singers to record for the label and they held the auditions at the Pla-Mor Ballroom which drew a large turnout of local groups and bands coming into town from the territories.

From this audition they selected Andy Kirk’s Clouds of Joy, The Oklahoma City Blue Devils and George E. Lee.

The sessions were set for November 6 through the 11th.  Since there were no recording studios in Kansas City they used WDAF radio station which was located in the Kansas City Star newspaper building.

George E. Lee’s band recorded four sides on November 6 featuring arrangements by Jesse Stone and the saxophone of Budd Johnson.
Andy Kirk recorded four sides on November 7. At the audition, Kirk’s pianist Marian Jackson failed to show, so Kirk had saxophonist John Williams send home for his wife Mary Lou. Kapp and Voynow were extremely impressed with Mary Lou and insisted that she be on the session. In addition to playing piano Mary Lou also wrote some originals to be featured on the date. These Kirk sessions introduced Mary Lou Williams to the jazz world in a big way.

On November 8, Kirk recorded one more title before giving way to the George E. Lee band once again. This time two sides were recorded to feature George’s sister Julia and the record was issued as Julia Lee accompanied by the George E. Lee Orchestra.

On November 9, the Kirk band recorded again only this time under the leadership of John Williams. The record was released as John Williams and His Memphis Stompers and once again featured his wife Mary Lou.

The November 10 date featured two sides recorded by The Oklahoma City Blue Devils. It’s unfortunate that those are the only documents of the legendary band but under the circumstances it’s lucky they were recorded at all.

Finally on November 11 Andy Kirk did two more sides including Mary Lou Williams "Froggy Bottom."

Kansas City Jazz- Thomas J. Pendergast

February 8, 2019- Today's Kansas City Jazz Topic: Thomas J. Pendergast
 
At first glance, Kansas City seems an unlikely location for the development of a unique style of jazz. It happened because of a wide open atmosphere that featured all types of entertainment and fostered every kind of vice and corruption imaginable. All of it due to the leader of an all-powerful democratic political machine-Thomas J. Pendergast.

Pendergast rose to power by 1911 when he took over for his brother who had been in charge before him. He immediately formed alliances with powerful figures within the county and set up several legitimate businesses including the T.J. Pendergast Wholesale Liquor Company, The Ready-Mix Concrete Company and the purchase of the Jefferson Hotel in downtown Kansas City.

He also gained control over the entire city government including politicians, law enforcement and judges. Under his control numerous nightspots opened throughout the city all run by gangsters on the Pendergast payroll.

When prohibition came into law it was ignored by Pendergast and his associates. The Pendergast Wholesale Liquor Company was unaffected as the bootleg alcohol flowed freely. This helped establish over one hundred entertainment venues of all types.   This created lots of jobs for musicians and they flocked to Kansas City to take advantage of the opportunity.

To hide much of this illegal activity Pendergast presented a different face to the average Kansas Citian by creating programs that fed the poor and helped the community.  He created a public works program that built many buildings and highways and put many people to work.  At a result his Ready Mix Concrete Company prospered.

When the stock market crashed in 1929 it didn’t have much of an effect on the nightlife scene in K.C. either. Pendergast saw to it that things carried on as normal. This drew even more musicians to town which enhanced the local jazz scene immeasurably. 

To maintain this type of power, Pendergast’s Kansas City became one of the major crime centers of the United States including the Union Station Massacre in 1933 and the Bloody Election of 1934.
  
The machine was finally broken up in 1939 when Pendergast was indicted for income tax evasion. It was the end of the last great political machine in the U.S. and the beginning of the end of one of the most important jazz centers of all time.

Kansas City Jazz- Territory Bands

February 6, 2019- Today's Kansas City Jazz Topic: Territory Bands
 
During the 1920s, while Bennie Moten and George E. Lee reigned supreme in Kansas City there were more than 100 bands working throughout the mid-western territories.

Each band was associated with a larger city and had staked out their territory within that particular region and protected their turf very seriously.  If you wanted to play in another band’s territory you had to get permission from the home band to do so.  

For example, if Bennie Moten wanted to play in Oklahoma City he had to get permission from the Oklahoma City Blue Devils.

This led to many battles of bands that featured the visiting band taking on the home team. It was a gunslinger mentality with both bands shooting it out to establish superiority and build reputation. Usually the band with the best arrangements and the best soloists were the winners.

The territory ranged from Minnesota and the Dakota’s to the North, south to Texas, East to Denver and West to St. Louis.
They traveled by bus and car and played a variety of roadhouses, hotels, outdoor amusement parks and local halls and lodges.
It was rough conditions and low pay.   The bands usually had a commonwealth set up where everyone shared the profits equally.  
They played night after night in very high pressure situations leading to the development of many great jazz soloists.  

Most of these bands never recorded and the few that did only recorded one or two records for small independent companies.
Some of the important bands included:  Gene Coy’s Happy Black Aces, Boots and His Buddies, The Jeter-Pillars Plantation Orchestra, Alphonso Trent, Art Bronson’s Bostonians, Jesse Stone and His Blues Serenaders, T Holder’s Clouds of Joy, Zach Whytes Chocolate Beau Brummels, The St. Louis Crackerjacks and the most legendary and feared of all;  The Oklahoma City Blue Devils.

It all came to a halt in 1929 when the stock market crashed and the Great Depression began.  The financial hardship made it impossible for the bands to continue to travel.
Since Kansas City was right in the middle of the territories and since Kansas City had plenty of work for musicians, many of the leaders and sidemen descended on the local scene adding to an already vibrant atmosphere.

The membership roles of Local 627, the black musician’s union, swelled from 87 members in 1927 to 347 by 1930.
With so many seasoned musicians in town, the stage was set for a musical explosion unlike anything before or since.

The Mission Bay Preservationists go to Japan in 2019!

Blog Name:Home Page News

Blog Author:San Diego's Jazz 88.3

Posted on:February 5, 2019

The Mission Bay Preservationists, from Mission Bay High School, are known as one of the finest traditional youth jazz bands in the country and have played prestigious gigs like Preservation Hall, WWOZ Radio, The Old U.S. Mint Performance Hall in New Orleans, The House of Blues and here at the KSDS, Jazz 88.3 studios. In April of 2019 they will be headed back to Yokohoma, Japan to perform and are raising money for their trip. The Japanese Friendship Concert Series takes place at Balboa Park's Japanese Friendship Garden and is held on the 2nd and 4th Thursday of each month (through April). All monies raised will go towards travel and accommodations for the trip. Click here to support them!