Jammin' allowed musicians to stretch themselves by improvising with and against each other in loosely structured ensembles. Once they finished a gig, they'd 'get off and jam.'

Working Kansas City clubs, these musicians might be scheduled to play from 8 in the evening to 4 the next morning. Bands like Andy Kirk's Twelve Clouds of Joy, Walter Page's Blue Devils, The Jay McShann Orchestra, and Thamon Hayes and the Kansas City Rockets possessed unbelievable musical talent. Lining 12th Street from Central to Highland and jam-packing the area of 18th and Vine, musicians played literally all night every night. Fortunately, the future 'Count' didn't have to look far.Įvery hotel, club, and casino-and there were hundreds of them-offered live music. At the end of its scheduled run, the group disbanded, leaving a young William Basie looking for work. For instance, in 1927, the Gonzelle White band came to town to play Kansas City's Lincoln Theater. 'During the '20s and '30s, more world-class players made Kansas City their home than anywhere else,' said Haddix. This made Kansas City a national jazz mecca. So much so that, here, even at the height of Prohibition, liquor flowed freely, and gamblers and musicians played most of the day and all of the night at 'private' clubs. But in Kansas City, mob boss Tom Pendergast, known as 'Boss Tom,' controlled the police, the politics, and essentially the entire town. Around the rest of the country, Prohibition (enacted 1919, repealed 1933) effectively ended the activity at traditional nightclubs and dance halls. World War I had ended, jobs were plentiful, and times were good. In retrospect, it seems only natural that people were lovingly loosening up and moving to the beat of this hot, new set of pulsating rhythms. While New Orleans was the birthplace of jazz, America's music grew up in Kansas City.īy the time the Roaring '20s rolled around, jazz had emerged as America's favorite dance music. Jazz, as a musical genre, was born out of a marriage of down-home blues and ragtime just after the turn of the century. 'It's a blues-based, swing style of jazz,' said Mary Ellen Farney, past president of the Kansas City Jazz Ambassadors.

Haddix, also known as Chuck 'Haddock,' is host of 'The Fish Fry,' a late-night weekend jazz show on KCUR 89.3 FM. 'As much as jazz is America's original contribution to music, Kansas City was a unique voice in jazz,' said Chuck Haddix, director of the Marr Sound Archives at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. World-class musicians such as William 'Count' Basie, Charlie 'Bird' Parker, and Orin 'Hot Lips' Page, among many others, came together to create a sound the town can call its own. Some of the greatest jazz players in all of history got their start in the clubs of Kansas City.

Kansas city jazz singers