Kansas City’s jazz history roots run deep. Kansas City’s jazz scene began in the 1920′s, but really took off during 1930′s prohibition. During that era, the city was mostly run by Tom Pendergast, the Democratic Boss of Jackson County. Under Pendergast, the city was an economic oasis in the heart of the country, a mecca for musicians searching for work. It was the wildest city in America at the time, filled with brothels, bars gambling dens, and party bands in Kansas City and the surrounding area.
Prohibition simply never existed in this city. Notorious mobsters like Pretty boy Floyd, and Baby Face Nelson roamed without worry in its nightclubs. Johnny Lanzia, Pendergast’s silent ally-“the Al Capone of Kansas City-” screened all potential candidates for the police force for any who seemed above reproach. Policemen could be seen all day rolling dice alongside civilian customers in the gambling businesses that lined 12th street.
The musicians who came to be identified with the Kansas City jazz style came from everywhere, to work and revel in the freedom that the city afforded. Bill “Count” Basie came from Red Bank, New Jersey. Mary Lou Williams was born in Georgia and raised in Pittsburg. Jay McShann came from Muskogee, Oklahoma. What they had in common was a distinctly southwestern way of dealing with the blues.
Kansas City jazz featured an irresistible joyous beat, syncopated conversations between the reed and brass sections that recalled the old call and response of the Sanctified Church, and an abiding fondness for the saxophone. Different from much of the other commercial swing at the time, this jazz was built mostly from head arrangements. Musical ideas or riffs were rarely written down, but provided the foundation for jazz musicians to improvise over.
Competition between KC musicians ran very deep. Claude “Fiddler” Williams recalled, “For some reason, this city was different from all the other cities because we’d jam all night. If you come up here and played the wrong thing, we’d straighten you out.” “Regardless of how much anybody played or where they were from, when they came here they found out how little they were playing,”said Mary Lou Williams. Trumpet player Buck Clayton compared KC musicians to gunfighters. He recalled that Lips Page used to slip notes under the hotel-room door of visiting trumpet players that said, “Meet me tonight at such-and-such a club.”
The Pendergast political machine collapsed after Tom Pendergast was indicted on tax evasion, reform elements took over and cabarets and nightclubs shut down. Jobs for musicians eventually dried up and the bands took to the road. By 1942, with the advent of World War II, many of the musicians had been drafted into the military. Finally, by 1944, the great Kansas City jazz era had slowed down, but it didn’t totally die out. Jazz still thrives in the city today.
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