This week on JAZZ-O-RAMA: Kansas City Jazz!

Kansas City Jazz YOU CAN ALSO LISTEN & SUBSCRIBE TO JAZZ-O-RAMA oniTunes, TuneIn or Stitcher

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The Jazz-O-Rama Hour  
"Kansas City Jazz "

Produced by Joe Bevilacqua in Kansas City 
while visiting his wife Lorie Kellogg's family. 



Joe Bev presents 78 RPM Jazz 
with a  Sense of Humor, including:
Kansas City Stomps - Jelly Roll Morton's Red Hot Chilli Peppers (1926)
Yazoo Blues  - Bennie Moten's Kansas City Orchestra (1926)
Shanghai Honeymoon - Kansas City Stompers  (1929)
Swingmatism - Jay McShann and His Orchestra (1941)
Lafayette  - Orin Hot Lips Page and His Band (1940)
One O'Clock Jump - Count Basie and His Orchestra  (1942)
Kansas City Shuffle: Bennie Moten's Kansas City Orchestra (1928)
Laughing at Life- Count Basie and His Kansas City Five (1938)
Zonky - Six Men and A Girl (1940)
Magic Carpet - Eddie Durham and His Band (1940)
Bugle Blues - Count Basie and His All American Rhythm Section (1940s)
Dameron Stomp- Harlan Leonard his Kansas City Rockets (1940)
Oh, Lady Be Good - Jay McShann Combo  (1940)
Cherokee - Charlie Parker and Friends (1942)
Kansas City Farewell - Pete Johnson Blues Trio (1939)
(Listen to this 78 record at: http://youtu.be/FR7JdvINJQY)


 CLICK FOR MORE INFO


LISTEN NOW!JOE PRODUCED A
DOCUMENTARY ABOUT
LOUIS ARMSTRONG:

LIKE OLD MUSIC?
HOW ABOUT
OLD TIME RADIO?

Bennie Moten's Kansas City Orchestra was the most successful Jazz band of the Midwest. The band toured all over the country and had a top selling recording in 1927 for Victor named "South". In 1929 Count Basie of The Blue Devils joined the band, and several other members of that band soon joined Moten's Orchestra. Count Basie took over the band after Moten's death in 1935.

Bennie Moten's
Kansas City Orchestra

That year Basie formed his own jazz orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and their first recording. He led the group for almost 50 years, creating innovations like the use of two "split" tenor saxophones, emphasizing the rhythm section, riffing with a big band, using arrangers to broaden

Count Basie and the Kansas City 7

their sound, and others. Many notable musicians came to prominence under his direction, including the tenor saxophonists Lester Young and Herschel Evans, the guitarist Freddie Green, trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry "Sweets" Edison and singers Jimmy Rushing and Joe Williams. Basie's theme songs were "One O'clock Jump," developed in 1935 in the early days of his band, and "April In Paris".

Jay McShann was an American Grammy Award-nominated jump blues, mainstream jazz, and swing bandleader, pianist and singer. During the 1940s, McShann was at the forefront of blues and hard bop jazz musicians mainly from Kansas City.

Jay McShann

In 1938, Parker joined the band of pianist Jay McShann, with whom he toured around Southwest Chicago and New York. A year later, Parker traveled to Chicago and was a regular performer at a club on 55th street. Parker soon moved to New York. He washed dishes at a local food place where he met guitarist Biddy Fleet, the man who taught him about instrumental harmony. Shortly afterwards, Parker returned to Kansas City to attend his father’s funeral. Once there, he joined Harlan Leonard’s Rockets and stayed for five months. In 1939, Yardbird rejoined McShann and was placed in charge of the reed section. Then, in 1940, Parker made his first recording with the McShann orchestra.

During the four years that Parker stayed with McShann's band, he got the opportunity to perform solo in several of their recordings, such as Hootie Blues, Sepian Bounce, and the 1941 hit Confessing the Blues. In 1942, while on tour with McShann, Parker performed in jam sessions at Monroe’s and Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem. There he caught the attention of up-and-coming jazz artists like Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk. Later that year, Parker broke with McShann and joined Earl Hines for eight months.

Joe Bev

Joe Bevilacqua (Joe Bev) has been producing radio in many genres since 1971 when he was 12. At 19 in 1980, Bev became the youngest person to produce a radio show for public radio. He co-hosted The Jazz Show with Garret Gega in the early 80s, a four hour a week mix classic jazz and comedy. Bev also worked for WBGO, Jazz 88 in Newark, NJ and produced documentaries for WNYC New York Public Radio on jazz legends including Louis Armstrong, Wynton Marsalis, Count Basie, Woody Herman, Cab Calloway, and Lionel Hampton. 

The Jazz-O-Rama Hour is just one of 15 unique radio hours produced by Joe Bevilacqua (Joe Bev). They are podcast on demand free at http://www.joebev.com, and all around the world wide web.