Jay McShann
Encyclopedia
Jay McShann was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...

-nominated jump blues
Jump blues
Jump blues is an up-tempo blues usually played by small groups and featuring horns. It was very popular in the 1940s, and the movement was a precursor to the arrival of rhythm and blues and rock and roll...

, mainstream jazz
Mainstream jazz
Mainstream jazz is a genre of jazz music that was first used in reference to the playing styles around the 1950s of musicians like Buck Clayton among others; performers who once heralded from the era of big band swing music who did not abandon swing for bebop, instead performing the music in...

, and swing
Swing (genre)
Swing music, also known as swing jazz or simply swing, is a form of jazz music that developed in the early 1930s and became a distinctive style by 1935 in the United States...

 bandleader, pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...

 and singer.

During the 1940s, McShann was at the forefront of blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

 and hard bop
Hard bop
Hard bop is a style of jazz that is an extension of bebop music. Journalists and record companies began using the term in the mid-1950s to describe a new current within jazz which incorporated influences from rhythm and blues, gospel music, and blues, especially in the saxophone and piano...

 jazz musicians
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 mainly from Kansas City
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...

. He assembled his own big band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...

, with musicians that included some of the most influential artists of their time, including Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....

, Bernard Anderson
Bernard Anderson
Bernard Hartwell "Step-Buddy" Anderson was an American jazz trumpeter from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Having studied music at school under Zelia Breaux, Anderson was a professional musician by 1934, playing with the Ted Armstrong band in Clinton, Oklahoma...

, Ben Webster
Ben Webster
Benjamin Francis Webster , a.k.a. "The Brute" or "Frog," was an influential American jazz tenor saxophonist. Webster, born in Kansas City, Missouri, was considered one of the three most important "swing tenors" along with Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young...

 and Walter Brown
Walter Brown (singer)
Walter Brown was a blues shouter who sang with Jay McShann's band in the 1940s and co-wrote their biggest hit, "Confessin' The Blues"....

. His kind of music became known as "the Kansas City sound"

McShann died on December 7, 2006, at St. Luke's Hospital in Kansas City. Jay McShann was survived by his companion of more than 30 years, Thelma Adams (known as Marianne McShann), and three daughters - Linda McShann Gerber, Jayne McShann Lewis, and Pam McShann.

Biography

Nicknamed "Hootie", McShann was born James Columbus McShann in Muskogee
Muskogee, Oklahoma
Muskogee is a city in Muskogee County, Oklahoma, United States. It is the county seat of Muskogee County, and home to Bacone College. The population was 38,310 at the 2000 census, making it the eleventh-largest city in Oklahoma....

, Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...

. Musically, his education came from Earl Hines
Earl Hines
Earl Kenneth Hines, universally known as Earl "Fatha" Hines, was an American jazz pianist. Hines was one of the most influential figures in the development of modern jazz piano and, according to one source, is "one of a small number of pianists whose playing shaped the history of jazz".-Early...

' late-night broadcasts from Chicago's Grand Terrace Cafe: "When 'Fatha' [Hines] went off the air, I went to bed". He began working as a professional musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....

 in 1931, performing around Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 46th-largest city in the United States. With a population of 391,906 as of the 2010 census, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with 937,478 residents in the MSA and 988,454 in the CSA. Tulsa's...

 and neighboring Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...

.

Orchestra

He moved to Kansas City
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...

, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...

 in 1936, and set up his own big band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...

, which featured variously Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....

 (1937–1942), Al Hibbler
Al Hibbler
Albert George "Al" Hibbler was an American baritone vocalist, who sang with Duke Ellington's orchestra before having several pop hits as a solo artist. Some of his singing is classified as rhythm and blues, but he is best classified as a bridge between R&B and traditional pop music...

, Lawrence Anderson, Ben Webster
Ben Webster
Benjamin Francis Webster , a.k.a. "The Brute" or "Frog," was an influential American jazz tenor saxophonist. Webster, born in Kansas City, Missouri, was considered one of the three most important "swing tenors" along with Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young...

, Paul Quinichette
Paul Quinichette
Paul Quinichette was a jazz tenor saxophone musician. He was known as the Vice President or Vice Prez for his uncanny emulation of the breathy style of Lester Young, known as Prez. Young, who affectionately called everyone "Lady ****" , called him "Lady Q"...

, Bernard Anderson
Bernard Anderson
Bernard Hartwell "Step-Buddy" Anderson was an American jazz trumpeter from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Having studied music at school under Zelia Breaux, Anderson was a professional musician by 1934, playing with the Ted Armstrong band in Clinton, Oklahoma...

, Gene Ramey
Gene Ramey
Gene Ramey was an American jazz double bassist.Ramey was born in Austin, Texas, and played trumpet in college, but switched to sousaphone when playing with George Corley's Royal Aces, The Moonlight Serenaders, and Terrence Holder. In 1932 he moved to Kansas City and took up the bass, studying with...

, Jimmy Coe
Jimmy Coe
James R. Coe was a jazz saxophonist.He first played in a band with Erroll "Groundhog" Grandy who mentored J. J. Johnson and Wes Montgomery...

, Gus Johnson
Gus Johnson (jazz musician)
Gus Johnson was the drummer in various jazz bands, including that of Jay McShann for many years. In the 1960s he played for saxophonist Gerry Mulligan and accompanied singer Ella Fitzgerald in her 1960 concert in Berlin...

 (1938–1943), Harold "Doc" West
Doc West
Harold "Doc" West was an American jazz drummer.West learned to play piano and cello as a child before switching to drums. In the 1930s he played in Chicago with Tiny Parham, Erskine Tate, and Roy Eldridge . Late in the 1930s he filled in for Chick Webb when Webb was unable to lead his own orchestra...

, Earl Coleman
Earl Coleman (singer)
Earl Coleman was a jazz singer.Moving to Indianapolis in 1939, he started singing with Ernie Fields and Bardu Ali...

 and Walter Brown
Walter Brown (singer)
Walter Brown was a blues shouter who sang with Jay McShann's band in the 1940s and co-wrote their biggest hit, "Confessin' The Blues"....

, among others. His first recordings were all with Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....

, the first as 'The Jay McShann Orchestra' on August 9, 1940.

Although they included both swing and blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

 numbers, the band played blues on most of its records
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...

; its most popular recording
Sound recording and reproduction
Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...

 was "Confessin' the Blues." The group disbanded when McShann was drafted into the Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

 in 1944 and, the big band era being over, he was unable to successfully restart it when he got out.

Smaller groups

After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 McShann began to lead small groups featuring blues shouter
Blues shouter
A blues shouter is a blues singer, often male, capable of singing with a band. The singer must project, or "shout", to be heard over the drums and musical instruments of the band. Blues shouting was a major pathway by which jazz music edged over into rock and roll...

 Jimmy Witherspoon
Jimmy Witherspoon
Jimmy Witherspoon was an American jump blues singer.-Early life and career:James Witherspoon was born in Gurdon, Arkansas. He first attracted attention singing with Teddy Weatherford's band in Calcutta, India, which made regular radio broadcasts over the U. S. Armed Forces Radio Service during...

. Witherspoon started recording with McShann in 1945, and fronting McShann's band, and had a hit
Hit record
A hit record is a sound recording, usually in the form of a single or album, that sells a large number of copies or otherwise becomes broadly popular or well-known, through airplay, club play, inclusion in a film or stage play soundtrack, causing it to have "hit" one of the popular chart listings...

 in 1949 with "Ain't Nobody's Business
Ain't Nobody's Business
"Ain't Nobody's Business" or "Tain't Nobody's Biz-ness if I Do" is an eight-bar vaudeville blues song that became an early blues standard. It was written in the 1920s by pianist Porter Grainger, who had been Bessie Smith's accompanist, and Everett Robbins. The song was first recorded October 19,...

." As well as writing much material, Witherspoon continued recording with McShann's band, which also featured Ben Webster
Ben Webster
Benjamin Francis Webster , a.k.a. "The Brute" or "Frog," was an influential American jazz tenor saxophonist. Webster, born in Kansas City, Missouri, was considered one of the three most important "swing tenors" along with Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young...

, until 1951, whence McShann then played in obscurity until 1969.

McShann later became popular as a singer as well as a pianist, often performing with violinist Claude Williams
Claude Williams (musician)
Claude "The Fiddler" Williams was an American jazz violinist and guitarist.Williams was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, in 1908, and by 10 he had learned to play guitar, mandolin, banjo and cello. Upon hearing Joe Venuti play, he was inspired to take up the violin...

. He continued recording and touring through the 1990s. Well into his 80s, McShann still performed occasionally, particularly in the Kansas City area and Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

 where he made his last recording ['Hootie Blues'] in February 2001 after a recording career of 61 years.

Influence

On one of their earliest albums, Five by Five (a UK EP) and 12x5 (a US LP) (both 1964), The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...

 recorded a cover of "Confessin' the Blues", a song McShann had co-written with Walter Brown
Walter Brown (singer)
Walter Brown was a blues shouter who sang with Jay McShann's band in the 1940s and co-wrote their biggest hit, "Confessin' The Blues"....

 in the 1940s.

Crime-fiction writer Elmore Leonard
Elmore Leonard
Elmore John Leonard Jr. , better known as Elmore Leonard, is an American novelist and screenwriter. His earliest published novels in the 1950s were westerns, but Leonard went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thrillers, many of which have been adapted into motion pictures.Among his...

 featured McShann as a character in his 2005 novel, The Hot Kid
The Hot Kid
The Hot Kid is a novel written by popular, contemporary crime-fiction author Elmore Leonard. It was released in 2005.-Plot summary:This fictional story is set during The Great Depression and follows the career of Carl Webster, a crack shot, well respected, and mannerful lawman who killed his first...

.

Honors

  • Blues Hall of Fame
    Blues Hall of Fame
    The Blues Hall of Fame is a listing of people who have significantly contributed to blues music. Started in 1980 by the Blues Foundation, it honors those who have performed, recorded, or documented blues.-1980:*Big Bill Broonzy*Willie Dixon*John Lee Hooker...

    .
  • Pioneer Award of the Rhythm and Blues Foundation
    Rhythm and Blues Foundation
    The Rhythm and Blues Foundation is an independent American nonprofit organization dedicated to the historical and cultural preservation of rhythm and blues music....

    .
  • Paris All-Star Blues (A Tribute to Charlie Parker) - Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance - Nominee, 1991 Grammy Awards
  • Goin' to Kansas City - Best Traditional Blues Album - Nominee, 2003 Grammy Awards.

Discography

  • 1954: Kansas City Memories - The Jay McShann Orchestra with Charlie Parker, Walter Brown
    Walter Brown (singer)
    Walter Brown was a blues shouter who sang with Jay McShann's band in the 1940s and co-wrote their biggest hit, "Confessin' The Blues"....

    , Al Hibbler
    Al Hibbler
    Albert George "Al" Hibbler was an American baritone vocalist, who sang with Duke Ellington's orchestra before having several pop hits as a solo artist. Some of his singing is classified as rhythm and blues, but he is best classified as a bridge between R&B and traditional pop music...

     and Paul Quinichette
    Paul Quinichette
    Paul Quinichette was a jazz tenor saxophone musician. He was known as the Vice President or Vice Prez for his uncanny emulation of the breathy style of Lester Young, known as Prez. Young, who affectionately called everyone "Lady ****" , called him "Lady Q"...

     (DECCA)

  • Please go to http://www.allmusic.com/artist/jay-mcshann-p7110/discography for Discography.

External links

  • [ Jay McShann biography] on Allmusic
  • Interview of McShann from 1987 NPR
    NPR
    NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...

     Fresh Air rebroadcast December 8, 2006 (RealAudio
    RealAudio
    RealAudio is a proprietary audio format developed by RealNetworks and first released in April 1995. It uses a variety of audio codecs, ranging from low-bitrate formats that can be used over dialup modems, to high-fidelity formats for music. It can also be used as a streaming audio format, that is...

     and Windows Media
    Windows Media
    Windows Media is a multimedia framework for media creation and distribution for Microsoft Windows. It consists of a software development kit with several application programming interfaces and a number of prebuilt technologies, and is the replacement of NetShow technologies.The Windows Media SDK...

     formats)
  • Memorial page at Kansas City Star
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