Kansas City

Kansas City was a vanguard of jazz and big bands during the 1920s and 1930s, with hotels providing dining and dancing to the more sophisticated white audiences. At the Baltimore Hotel, Jack Teagarden played his trombone. Ben Pollack's Orchestra and Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra alternated between the Bellerive Hotel. And the Coon-Sanders Band did a live radio broadcast on station WDAF at the Muehlebach. With the influx of hotels and ballrooms, jobs for big bands and small combo groups were plentiful.

Kansas City's black community had many theaters where black bands would perform to all-black audiences. These included the New State Theater, the Eblon Theater, the Lincoln Theater and the Panama Theater.

Entertainment for the theaters included the talents of blues singers, "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, Jimmy Rushing and Ida Cox, each with their own bands or small groups. Also appearing at these theaters were Joe "King" Oliver, Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, Benny Moten and Andy Kirk.

Kansas City musicians both black and white, enjoyed the heyday of the 1920s and 1930s. In addition to the hotels and theaters, night clubs were abundant. In one district of the city alone, there were over fifty night clubs. Throughout the city, there were hundreds of night clubs providing music.

Benny Moten's six-piece band could be heard at the Panama Club. Blues pianist Roy Searcy played alternately at the Rendezvous Club, the El Capitan Club and Bernie's Cocktail Lounge. The Novelty Club had a band that consisted of Count Basie, Walter Page, Jo Jones, Hot Lips Page and Lester Young.

However, the Sunset Club, the Subway Club and the Reno Club served a different purpose for jazz musicians. It was at these clubs the musicians unwind after their regular working hours by participating in all-night "jam" sessions. The clubs would hire a good house band which usually consisted of a piano, bass and drums, and the rest of the music would be provided by the musicians who came in with their various instruments and played for their own entertainment.

At jam sessions, black and white musicians played together. There were no color barriers here. Musicians respected each other's talents. At any given night, the best jazz musicians in Kansas City joined together and "jammed." Some of the names were, Lester Young, Ben Webster, Charlie Parker, Benny Goodman, Coleman Hawkins, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Count Basie and a host of others. The club owners took delight in these jam sessions, because it brought the people in to listen and buy drinks.

As jazz grew in popularity in Kansas City, so did the size of the bands. In the early 1920s, the bands usually consisted of a cornet, clarinet, trombone and a rhythm section of piano, drums, banjo and tuba.