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Kansas City blues (music)
Encyclopedia
See also Kansas City Blues
for disambiguation.
Kansas City blues is a genre of blues
music. It has spawned the Kansas City Blues & Jazz festival and the Kansas City Blues Society.
, Missouri
is known primarily for jazz
, it has also contributed to the history of and the preserverance of the blues.
Kansas City did not enter into blues history until the 1940s. Kansas City blues artists Pete Johnson
and Big Joe Turner
recorded a style of music called jump blues
, which later provided the foundation for rhythm and blues
, and later rock and roll
. Charlie Parker
dabbled in the blues in the late 1940s with his release of the hit "Now's the Time", a bebop
jazz number that gave a nod to the popularity of the blues in Kansas City, by using the familiar blues pentatonic scale and blue notes.
The blues scene in Kansas City produced Jay McShann
, Sonny Kenner, Little Hatch
and Cotton Candy and the blues was popular in small nightclubs and after-hours jam session
s. Many Kansas City musicians would finish their "paying" gigs at weddings, jazz clubs etc. and then pack up and head to the 18th and Vine-Downtown East, Kansas City
district to participate in all-night parties that would sometimes continue well into daylight. The 18th & Vine jam sessions continue today at Kansas City's Musician's Foundation. The Musician's Foundation has immunity from liquor laws, and has not changed its look since the 1940s.
]
Clarence "Sonny" Kenner spent a lifetime entertaining audiences, both in Kansas City and around the world. Born into a family of entertainers, Kenner grew up only a block away from what is now the Kansas City Musicians Foundation. During his career he shared the stage with Bob Hope
, Quincy Jones
, Red Foxx and Charlie Parker
. "I could hardly play when I was on stage with 'Bird," remembered Kenner. "I was too busy just trying to listen to him! He was a real idol of mine." Over the years Kenner became friends with Red Foxx. "We'd hang out together after shows and he would take me to all the parties. I couldn't believe all the movie stars I used to see at those things."
Little Hatch was a regionally famous Kansas City harmonica player and band leader from the 1950s until his death in 2003. Little Hatch spent decades tirelessly performing the blues all over Kansas City and the Midwest.
Cotton Candy was Kansas City's queen of the blues. She was an accomplished singer, songwriter, pianist, author, and poet. Cotton was born a New Year's Day baby in 1931. Cotton won numerous awards, including being one of the few women inducted into the Elder Statesmen of Jazz. She is a founding member of the Kansas City Blues Society, and donated her time and energy to a variety of charities.
Kansas City harmonica prodigy Brody Buster became a professional musician at the age of seven. For a short time Buster teamed up with a child street dancer and performed as a duo on Beale Street
for tips. It was there that he was discovered by B.B. King who owned a nightclub in the area. King invited the then eight year old Buster to perform at his nightclub on Beale Street, and later asked him to open his new nightclub
in Los Angeles
, called B.B. King's Blues Club. Buster became a regular at King's club in Los Angeles, where he was spotted by the cast and crew from The Tonight Show
, who invited Buster to appear on the show. Buster later performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival
hosted by Quincy Jones
, where he sat in with several of the headline acts. Today he resides in Lawrence
, Kansas
, and continues to perform at major concerts and festivals.
Kansas City Blues
Kansas City Blues may refer to::*Kansas City Blues , a 1902-1954 minor-league baseball team*Kansas City Blues , a Rugby Super League team founded in 1966*Kansas City Blues , a minor-league hockey team...
for disambiguation.
Kansas City blues is a genre 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...
music. It has spawned the Kansas City Blues & Jazz festival and the Kansas City Blues Society.
Kansas
Although Kansas CityKansas 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...
is known primarily for jazz
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...
, it has also contributed to the history of and the preserverance of the blues.
Kansas City did not enter into blues history until the 1940s. Kansas City blues artists Pete Johnson
Pete Johnson
Pete Johnson was an American boogie-woogie and jazz pianist.Journalist Tony Russell stated in his book The Blues - From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray, that "Johnson shared with the other members of the 'Boogie Woogie Trio' the technical virtuosity and melodic fertility that can make this the most...
and Big Joe Turner
Big Joe Turner
Big Joe Turner was an American blues shouter from Kansas City, Missouri. According to the songwriter Doc Pomus, "Rock and roll would have never happened without him." Although he came to his greatest fame in the 1950s with his pioneering rock and roll recordings, particularly "Shake, Rattle and...
recorded a style of music called 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...
, which later provided the foundation for rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
, and later rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
. Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....
dabbled in the blues in the late 1940s with his release of the hit "Now's the Time", a bebop
Bebop
Bebop differed drastically from the straightforward compositions of the swing era, and was instead characterized by fast tempos, asymmetrical phrasing, intricate melodies, and rhythm sections that expanded on their role as tempo-keepers...
jazz number that gave a nod to the popularity of the blues in Kansas City, by using the familiar blues pentatonic scale and blue notes.
The blues scene in Kansas City produced Jay McShann
Jay McShann
Jay McShann was an American Grammy Award-nominated jump blues, mainstream jazz, and swing bandleader, pianist and singer....
, Sonny Kenner, Little Hatch
Little Hatch
Little Hatch was an American electric blues singer, musician and harmonica player. He variously worked with George Jackson and John Paul Drum.-Biography:...
and Cotton Candy and the blues was popular in small nightclubs and after-hours jam session
Jam session
Jam sessions are often used by musicians to develop new material, find suitable arrangements, or simply as a social gathering and communal practice session. Jam sessions may be based upon existing songs or forms, may be loosely based on an agreed chord progression or chart suggested by one...
s. Many Kansas City musicians would finish their "paying" gigs at weddings, jazz clubs etc. and then pack up and head to the 18th and Vine-Downtown East, Kansas City
18th and Vine-Downtown East, Kansas City
18th and Vine in Kansas City is internationally recognized as one of the cradles of jazz. Along with New Orleans's Basin Street, Beale Street in Memphis, 52nd Street in New York City and Los Angeles's Central Avenue - the 18th and Vine area was a midwife to the birth of a new style of jazz...
district to participate in all-night parties that would sometimes continue well into daylight. The 18th & Vine jam sessions continue today at Kansas City's Musician's Foundation. The Musician's Foundation has immunity from liquor laws, and has not changed its look since the 1940s.
Notable Kansas City blues artists
- Sonny Kenner - June 2, 1933 – January 23, 2001
Clarence "Sonny" Kenner spent a lifetime entertaining audiences, both in Kansas City and around the world. Born into a family of entertainers, Kenner grew up only a block away from what is now the Kansas City Musicians Foundation. During his career he shared the stage with Bob Hope
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
, Quincy Jones
Quincy Jones
Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...
, Red Foxx and Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....
. "I could hardly play when I was on stage with 'Bird," remembered Kenner. "I was too busy just trying to listen to him! He was a real idol of mine." Over the years Kenner became friends with Red Foxx. "We'd hang out together after shows and he would take me to all the parties. I couldn't believe all the movie stars I used to see at those things."
- Little HatchLittle HatchLittle Hatch was an American electric blues singer, musician and harmonica player. He variously worked with George Jackson and John Paul Drum.-Biography:...
- October 25, 1921 – January 16, 2003
Little Hatch was a regionally famous Kansas City harmonica player and band leader from the 1950s until his death in 2003. Little Hatch spent decades tirelessly performing the blues all over Kansas City and the Midwest.
- Cotton Candy - January 1, 1931 – December 25, 2007
Cotton Candy was Kansas City's queen of the blues. She was an accomplished singer, songwriter, pianist, author, and poet. Cotton was born a New Year's Day baby in 1931. Cotton won numerous awards, including being one of the few women inducted into the Elder Statesmen of Jazz. She is a founding member of the Kansas City Blues Society, and donated her time and energy to a variety of charities.
- Brody Buster - born August 22, 1984
Kansas City harmonica prodigy Brody Buster became a professional musician at the age of seven. For a short time Buster teamed up with a child street dancer and performed as a duo on Beale Street
Beale Street
Beale Street is a street in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee, which runs from the Mississippi River to East Street, a distance of approximately . It is a significant location in the city's history, as well as in the history of the blues. Today, the blues clubs and restaurants that line Beale Street are...
for tips. It was there that he was discovered by B.B. King who owned a nightclub in the area. King invited the then eight year old Buster to perform at his nightclub on Beale Street, and later asked him to open his new nightclub
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, called B.B. King's Blues Club. Buster became a regular at King's club in Los Angeles, where he was spotted by the cast and crew from The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show is an American late-night talk show that has aired on NBC since 1954. It is the longest currently running regularly scheduled entertainment program in the United States, and the third longest-running show on NBC, after Meet the Press and Today.The Tonight Show has been hosted by...
, who invited Buster to appear on the show. Buster later performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival
Montreux Jazz Festival
The Montreux Jazz Festival is the best-known music festival in Switzerland and one of the most prestigious in Europe; it is held annually in early July in Montreux on the shores of Lake Geneva...
hosted by Quincy Jones
Quincy Jones
Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...
, where he sat in with several of the headline acts. Today he resides in Lawrence
Lawrence, Kansas
Lawrence is the sixth largest city in the U.S. State of Kansas and the county seat of Douglas County. Located in northeastern Kansas, Lawrence is the anchor city of the Lawrence, Kansas, Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Douglas County...
, Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
, and continues to perform at major concerts and festivals.