Kansas City Swing, the Territory Bands, and the San Francisco Revival - BEYOND CHICAGO AND NEW YORK, KANSAS CITY, Count Basie, Other Kansas City Bands, TERRITORY BANDS

Although the early history of jazz is often depicted as a move from New Orleans to Chicago and New York, other significant cities were involved in its evolution, most notably Kansas City. Many jazz groups in the 1920s, 1930s, and into the 1940s were based in smaller cities, spending time on the road, usually in the Midwest and the Southwest. These territory bands, as they were called, had strong reputations and followings in certain parts of the country, but because they did not record extensively, most were unknown outside their territories.

Both the territory bands and the Kansas City jazz scene were at their peak during the classic jazz and swing eras.

KANSAS CITY

By 1929 of all the cities outside of New York, Kansas City had the strongest and most intriguing jazz scene. Although Prohibition was in force during the 1920s, Kansas City was a wide-open city run by a corrupt government that encouraged, and profited from, bootleg liquor, gambling joints, and around-the-clock nightclubs. There was always a great need for black musicians to play at these clubs. Although the hours were long and the pay was low, the musicians appreciated the work and experience, particularly during the early Page 100  Depression years. The late-night jam sessions often went past dawn, with the top players in town battling the nationally famous greats who were passing through Kansas City.

While jazz, particularly in New York, became more sophisticated during the 1920s and 1930s, developing more complex chords, adventurous solos, and trickier arrangements, the musicians in Kansas City never lost sight of the basics, specifically the blues. A vocalist who could not sing the blues stood little chance of getting much work there. The same was true for a pianist or horn soloist. Even while creating new ideas and trying to top each other in jam sessions, a performer was doomed to failure if he lost sight of the blues.

Best known among the regular Midwestern bands of the 1920s and early 1930s was Bennie Moten’s Kansas City Orchestra. Moten was a decent ragtime-based pianist whose sextet expanded to becoming a big band in 1922 and 1923. He hired the best musicians in the city, becoming so dominant that some bands had to break up when they lost their key sidemen. Moten recorded frequently between 1923 and 1931, having a hit record with “South.” Along with playing standards and spirited originals, his band performed a fair number of blues.

For a period Moten’s main competitor was the Blue Devils, a small combo led by bassist Walter Page that included pianist Bill “Count” Basie, singer Jimmy Rushing, and trumpeter Hot Lips Page. In time, however, Moten hired all of Page’s top players, including the bassist leader. Although Moten played piano, he hired Basie because he enjoyed the younger pianist’s playing and used him on all of his recordings after October 1929.

On December 13, 1932, the Bennie Moten band made its final record, and it was quite significant. With Hot Lips Page, tenor-saxophonist Ben Webster, and Basie as key soloists, the orchestra sounded similar to Count Basie’s big band five years in the future. The clean riff-filled ensembles, the purposeful and hard swinging solos, and the use of space would become Basie trademarks. On such numbers as “Blue Room,” “Lafayette,” and “Moten Swing,” the music pointed directly towards swing, serving as a symbolic close to the classic jazz era.

Count Basie

Count Basie had originally been a stride pianist influenced by his friend Fats Waller. After a traveling show left him stranded in Kansas City in 1927, Basie decided to stay because of the very active local music scene. He joined Walter Page’s Blue Devils in 1928 and starred with Bennie Moten’s Orchestra between 1929 and 1935. After Moten died due to complications from a tonsillectomy in 1935, Basie went out on his own and soon was leading one of the top local groups.

Basie’s band had a different sound, mainly due to the rhythm section. He left a lot of space in his piano playing, having pared down the stride style to the essentials to make every note count. The timekeeping role was assumed by the 4/4 playing of bassist Walter Page, while drummer Jo Jones shifted the emphasis from the bass drum to the cymbals, giving the rhythm section a much lighter sound. After the band settled in New York in 1937, Freddie Green became the rhythm guitarist, playing quiet chords right on the beat which made the band swing even more. Even after decades away from Kansas City, Basie’s band continued to define the Kansas City sound, never losing sight of its roots.

The use of space and lighter tone was a major part of the Kansas City heritage, which had developed during the legendary late-night jam sessions. Basie’s main soloist, Lester Young, developed a floating tone on tenor that sounded as if he were playing a different instrument altogether than Coleman Hawkins, who up until the early 1940s was the dominant force on tenor saxophonists.

After producer John Hammond heard the Basie band in a 1936 broadcast from Kansas City, he persuaded Basie to take the band east. Despite growing pains from quickly expanding to thirteen pieces from nine, the Count Basie Orchestra was one of the hottest big bands of 1937 and, even with personnel changes along the way, ranked near the top for the next dozen years. Basie’s theme song, “One O’Clock Jump,” and “Jumpin’ at the Wood-side” became standards, Billie Holiday sang with the orchestra in 1937, and other important sidemen included trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry “Sweets” Edison, trombonist Dickie Wells, singers Jimmy Rushing and Helen Humes, and tenor-saxophonist Herschel Evans, whose hard tone contrasted with that of Young. The Basie band’s reliance on blues and riffing originals became the epitome of swing. When Evans’ death in 1939 left a void, tenor-saxophonist Buddy Tate filled in for ten years, and Young’s departure in 1940 opening up a position filled at times by tenors Don Byas, Illinois Jacquet, Lucky Thompson, and Paul Gonsalves. Other later soloists included altoist Tab Smith, trombonist Vic Dickenson, and trumpeter Clark Terry.

The Basie orchestra, which was nationally famous by 1938, remained popular, but money problems resulted in the orchestra reluctantly breaking up in 1949. Basie led a septet for two years, featuring Terry, clarinetist Buddy DeFranco, and tenor-saxophonist Wardell Gray, before re-entering the big band world with a new orchestra in 1952. Although including few alumni from the 1940s, other than Page 102  Freddie Green and trumpeter Joe Newman, the band retained the Basie Kansas City sound even with more tightly arranged ensembles and more modern soloists than before. With its 1954 recording of “April in Paris,” the band had a new hit. The following year’s addition of singer Joe Williams was a major coup. His version of “Everyday I Have the Blues” was quite popular, proving him to be a superb blues singer even though he preferred ballads. The new Basie orchestra caught on so well that it is still active today.

In the 1950s its main soloists were trumpeters Joe Newman and Thad Jones and tenors Frank Foster and Frank Wess, but the ensemble sound and the arrangements were more significant than any individual stars. That has been an important factor in the band’s longevity; as major soloists gradually left the band, the Basie Kansas City sound still remained the same. There have been features along the way for the passionate tenor of Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, trombonist Al Grey, drummer Butch Miles, and tenor-saxophonist Jimmy Forrest among others, but even when these were absent, the Basie orchestra never stopped swinging. In fact Count Basie’s death in 1984 did not stop the band either, and it has continued touring the world ever since as jazz’s number one swinging institution.

Other Kansas City Bands

Although Bennie Moten and later Count Basie were the most famous regular bands in Kansas City, they had their competitors. George E. Lee’s Singing Orchestra was popular in the 1920s, most notable for featuring pianist-singer Julia Lee, George’s sister. By 1929 Andy Kirk’s Twelve Clouds of Joy was a major band, particularly due to the piano solos and arrangements of Mary Lou Williams. Kirk’s band made its debut recordings in 1929 and 1930. Although not documented at all from 1932 to 1935, the orchestra continued to evolve and worked steadily in Kansas City. In 1936 they were signed to the Decca label, traveled east to New York, and had its biggest hit, a vocal ballad “Until the Real Thing Comes Along” that featured Pha Terrell’s high-note vocal. The band’s best performances were the instrumental arrangements by their pianist Mary Lou Williams, a brilliant and always modern player. Also quite impressive was tenor-saxophonist Dick Wilson. After Wilson died from tuberculosis in 1941 and Williams left the band, it quickly declined. The 1944 edition featured Howard McGhee and Fats Navarro on trumpets playing early bebop, but that band barely recorded, and a few years later the Kirk Orchestra faded into history.

Following Count Basie and Andy Kirk, pianist Jay McShann had the last important Kansas City big band. McShann was part of the Kansas City jazz scene by the mid-1930s and formed his big band in 1937. Although his orchestra was excellent, it will always be best remembered as an important musical home for the young altoist Charlie Parker. In 1940 McShann brought the orchestra to New York, and in 1941 and 1942 they recorded for Decca. The label typecast McShann’s orchestra as a blues band, especially after “Confessin’ Page 103  the Blues,” which featured Walter Brown’s vocal, became a hit. Unfortunately many of the band’s more swing-oriented arrangements were not recorded. The McShann Orchestra lasted until 1944 when the leader was drafted. Since then Jay McShann has led combos and been featured as a pianist and singer who loves the blues but can also play hard-driving swing too.

The arrival of Count Basie’s orchestra in New York had revitalized the swing era by infusing the mainstream of jazz with two specific aspects of Kansas City jazz, a much lighter rhythm section and more of an emphasis on the blues. Charlie Parker’s period with Jay McShann and training in Kansas City prior to being the leader of bebop resulted in the blues becoming a significant part of even the most complex bop tunes in the late 1940s.

Even though the Kansas City jazz scene declined with the discovery and relocation of most of its top players, it has continued to have an influence on jazz to the present day.

TERRITORY BANDS

Although most of the main jazz innovators gravitated to large cities to gain the most exposure, have opportunities to play with their peers, and hopefully make a decent living, the smaller cities and rural areas also had a demand for danceable jazz music from 1920 to 1945. This was the prime era of the territory bands.

The surviving recordings of the territory bands that were fortunate enough to be documented demonstrate some regional differences in the 1920s and 1930s and a wide range of quality. Typically the territory bands comprised up-and-coming talents who usually left the ensemble after a short time to venture to one of the big cities, veterans from earlier eras, local legends who had no desire to live in New York or Chicago, and lesser players who probably would not have made it in one of the famous bands. In general the territory bands were between two and five years behind the pacesetting bands of New York and Chicago, the musicianship and quality of the instruments was rougher with shakier intonation, and soloists ranged from inspired to weak. Still, the best territory bands had their own charm and special personality.

Most of the key American cities in the Midwest, South, and West had one or two top territory bands by the late 1920s. Texas was home for the Don Albert band, the highly rated Alphonse Trent Orchestra from Dallas, Boots and His Buddies, and the Troy Floyd Orchestra. Omaha, Nebraska, featured frequent appearances from Red Perkins’ Dixie Ramblers, Hunter’s Serenaders, and the sadly unrecorded Nat Towles Orchestra. Other notable ensembles were Miami’s Ross De Luxe Syncopators, Milwaukee’s Grant Moore, Kansas’ Art Bronson’s Bostonians, Denver’s George Morrison, Memphis’ Snooks and His Memphis Stompers, Ohio’s Chubb-Steinberg Orchestra, Birmingham, Alabama’s Carolina Cotton Pickers, St. Louis’ Original St. Louis Crackerjacks, Hot Springs, Arkansas’ Original Yellowjackets, and the Midwest’s Zach Whyte’s Chocolate Beau Brummels and Jeter-Pillars Club Plantation Orchestra. Of the many Page 104  undocumented bands from this era, drummer Speed Webb’s orchestra is the major omission. Texas pianist Peck Kelly, leader of Peck’s Bad Boys, was famous for his refusal to make records, though he was later captured on some private sessions cut in the 1950s.

By the mid-1940s, territory bands were on their way out, mainly due to the rise of radio, the increase in record sales, and the growth in mass communication. Those factors helped to erase most, but not all, regional differences in jazz music. Radio offered free entertainment and gave listeners and local musicians continuous opportunities to hear the major bands. Shortly after Benny Goodman caught on, there were scores of new orchestras formed that played in a similar style; the same thing happened when Count Basie hit it big and when Glenn Miller became a national sensation. As time went on, the territory bands declined in importance due to the sheer quantity of major swing bands and the general urbanization of the United States. It was no longer considered acceptable for territory bands to lag behind the major jazz groups, not when radio brought the most modern swing bands into the home on a regular basis.

During their peak years, however, the territory bands brought exciting entertainment to rural and isolated areas, serving an important purpose.

WESTERN SWING

Swing was so big by the mid-1930s that it was played everywhere, not just in the major metropolitan areas. Often overlooked in jazz history books, the variation of swing called Western Swing was performed in the Southwest, primarily Texas and Oklahoma. A fusion between early country music and jazz of the 1920s and 1930s, Western Swing featured country musicians playing jazz on fiddle, guitar, mandolin, banjo bass, and other string instruments, often adding piano and a few horns. Their repertoire was jazz standards that often sounded quite different in this context, Western ballads, and unusual material.

In 1932 singer Milton Brown and fiddle player Bob Wills were part of the Fort Worth Doughboys quartet that recorded two numbers at the first Western Swing recording session. Brown went out on his own later that year, forming Milton Brown and His Musical Brownies, the first fulltime Western Swing band. They were quite popular and recorded prolifically from 1934 to 1936. A very promising career ended when Brown died after falling asleep while driving.

With Brown’s passing, Bob Wills became the undisputed leader of Western Swing. After leaving the Light Crust Doughboys in 1933, he formed his Texas Playboys, a band comprising a piano, guitar, banjo, steel guitar, bass, drums, and a horn section plus two fiddles including Wills. After the band caught on in Oklahoma and Texas, its fame became nationwide. Wills expanded the group to become an eighteen-piece big band by 1940, performing a mixture of pure country music, ballads, and swinging jazz. By 1940 there were dozens of other top-notch Western Swing bands in the Southwest, including Bill Boyd’s Cowboy Ramblers, the Tune Wranglers, Jimmie Revard’s Oklahoma Playboys, Page 105  Cliff Bruner’s Wanderers, the Modern Mountaineers, Adolph Hofner’s Texans, and Hank Penny’s Radio Cowboys. Although the style dropped in popularity by the 1950s, Spade Cooley and Bob Wills kept the idiom alive for many years, and it has been occasionally revived, most notably by Asleep at the Wheel in the 1970s.

Western Swing was a rare instance where swing music was played with a southern accent.

SAN FRANCISCO JAZZ

At the same as the territory bands were bridging the gap between classic jazz and swing, in San Francisco a revival movement brought back the freewheeling jazz of the 1920s two decades later. Swing-oriented big bands completely dominated the musical landscape by the late 1930s, but not all young musicians wanted to be part of orchestras, playing arrangements and waiting for their brief solos. In San Francisco, trumpeter Lu Watters led an important movement that looked backwards rather than ahead.

After a period playing with swing orchestras in San Francisco, Lu Watters desired to play more spontaneous music that was based in the past, so in 1939 he founded the Yerba Buena Jazz Band. It was one of the very first revival bands, as opposed to groups featuring veterans playing in the style that they had helped originate years earlier. With Bob Scobey on second trumpet, trombonist Turk Murphy, and clarinetist Bob Helm, Watters had a solid front line to his octet. Although King Oliver’s 1923 Creole Jazz Band was the original role model, the Yerba Buena Jazz Band also performed vintage songs by Jelly Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong plus their own originals. Watters and his musicians were based at the Dawn Club in San Francisco from 1939 to 1942, took a hiatus during World War II, and were at their best after regrouping in 1946. The Yerba Buena Jazz Band was based at Hambone Kelly’s in El Cerrito from 1947 until Watters broke up the group in 1950. He retired shortly afterwards, other than a brief comeback in 1963, feeling that he had made his contribution to jazz history, to pursue other interests.

The music of Watters’ sidemen who went out on their own, trombonist Turk Murphy and trumpeter Bob Scobey, is considered part of the San Francisco jazz tradition although it differed, with both of their units only having one trumpet and Scobey’s rhythm section actually playing in four beats rather than the two-beat music of Yerba Buena band. Bob Scobey was with Watters from 1940 to 1942 and 1946 to 1949 before forming his own Frisco Jazz Band. During the 1950s Scobey worked regularly, often using banjoist Clancy Hayes, another alumnus of the Yerba Buena Jazz Band, on vocals. While many Dixieland musicians take occasional vocals without impressing anyone, with his strong voice Hayes was one of the best singers of the Dixieland movement. Scobey’s career was cut short when he died of cancer in 1963 at the age of forty-six.

Trombonist Turk Murphy had a much longer career. He left Watters’ band in 1947, forming his own group that often did not utilize drums and had a lighter feel than the Yerba Buena Jazz Band. Always based in San Francisco and with a home base at Earthquake McGoon’s starting in 1960, Murphy’s group featured many obscure gems in its repertoire, clean ensembles, and some excellent trumpeters in Don Kinch, Bob Short, and Leon Oakley. Until Turk Murphy’s death in 1987, his band was considered an institution on the Dixieland circuit.

Other San Francisco-style groups have appeared on the scene since the passing of Watters, Scobey, and Murphy, keeping the vintage style fresh and exciting.