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Last Of The Blue Devils
''The Last of the Blue Devils'', subtitled ''The Kansas City Jazz Story'', is a 1979 film documentary with notable figures from the history of Kansas City jazz starring Count Basie and Big Joe Turner. The film was produced and directed by Bruce Ricker. The film was made at a two musical gatherings of old Kansas City hands in 1974 at the Mutual Musicians Foundation, the Kansas City African-American Musician's Union, and consists largely of impromptu musical performances by Turner, Basie, Jay McShann, Jimmy Forrest, and Ernie Williams in various combinations, as well as film from a concert by the full Count Basie Orchestra at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. The ''Blue Devils'' of the title were the Oklahoma City Blue Devils a travelling band of the 1930s founded by bassist Walter Page that included Basie, Lester Young, Buster Smith and Oran "Hot Lips" Page. Many of the same musicians ended up in the Bennie Moten Orchestra which ultimately became the Count Basie band. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kansas City Jazz
Kansas City jazz is a style of jazz that developed in Kansas City, Missouri during the 1920s and 1930s, which marked the transition from the structured big band style to the much more improvisational style of bebop. The hard-swinging, bluesy transition style is bracketed by Count Basie, who in 1929 signed with Bennie Moten's Kansas City Orchestra, and Kansas City native Charlie Parker, who ushered in the bebop style in America. It has been said that while New Orleans was the birthplace of jazz, "America's music" grew up in Kansas City. Thus, Kansas City is known as one of the most popular "cradles of jazz". Other cities include New Orleans, Chicago, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and New York City. Kansas City was known for the organized musicians of the Local 627 A.F.M., which controlled a number of venues in the city. Background The first band from Kansas City to acquire a national reputation was the Coon-Sanders Original Nighthawk Orchestra, a white group which broadc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buster Smith
Henry Franklin "Buster" Smith (August 24, 1904 – August 10, 1991), also known as Professor Smith, was an American jazz alto saxophonist and mentor to Charlie Parker.Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. "," https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fsmgx (accessed October 27, 2007) Smith was instrumental in instituting the Texas Sax Sound with Count Basie and Lester Young in the 1930s. Smith played saxophone for a number of prominent band leaders including Duke Ellington and Earl Hines as well as vocalist Ella Fitzgerald. He recorded his only album as leader in 1959 and despite intending to record a follow-up, he was injured in an accident and nothing else was released. Biography Early life Smith was born and raised in Alsdorf, Texas, a small township near Telico in the outskirts of Dallas, where he attended school as a child. Smith earned the name "Buster" from his parents as a baby, as he was born as an overweight child. Buster was the third of five boys and had no sisters, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Music Of Kansas City, Missouri
Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect of all human societies, a cultural universal. While scholars agree that music is defined by a few specific elements, there is no consensus on their precise definitions. The creation of music is commonly divided into musical composition, musical improvisation, and musical performance, though the topic itself extends into academic disciplines, criticism, philosophy, and psychology. Music may be performed or improvised using a vast range of instruments, including the human voice. In some musical contexts, a performance or composition may be to some extent improvised. For instance, in Hindustani classical music, the performer plays spontaneously while following a partially defined structure and using characteristic motifs. In modal ja ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tenor Saxophone
The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while the alto is pitched in the key of E), and written as a transposing instrument in the treble clef, sounding an octave and a major second lower than the written pitch. Modern tenor saxophones which have a high F key have a range from A2 to E5 (concert) and are therefore pitched one octave below the soprano saxophone. People who play the tenor saxophone are known as "tenor saxophonists", "tenor sax players", or "saxophonists". The tenor saxophone uses a larger mouthpiece, reed and ligature than the alto and soprano saxophones. Visually, it is easily distinguished by the curve in its neck, or its crook, near the mouthpiece. The alto saxophone lacks this and its neck goes straight to the mouthpiece. The tenor saxophone is most recogniz ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Night Train (composition)
A night train is a train that rides overnight, usually conveying sleeping cars. Night Train or Nightrain may refer to: Film and television * ''Night Train'' (1959 film) (''Pociąg''), a Polish film directed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz * ''Night Train'' (1998 film), a film directed by John Lynch * ''Night Train'' (1999 film), a film directed by Les Bernstien * ''Night Train'' (2007 film), a Chinese film directed by Diao Yi'nan * ''Night Train'' (2009 film), a thriller starring Danny Glover, Leelee Sobieski, and Steve Zahn *"Night Train", the ABC Mystery Movie broadcast as the final episode of the series '' B.L. Stryker'' on May 5, 1990 Music * Night Train (band), an Australian rock band *"Night Train", a scene from the opera ''Einstein on the Beach'', composed by Philip Glass Albums * ''Night Train'' (Oscar Peterson album), a 1962 album by the Oscar Peterson Trio * ''Night Train'' (Jason Aldean album), 2012 *Night Train (Bill Morrissey album), 1993 * ''Night Train'' (EP), a 2010 EP b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shake, Rattle And Roll
"Shake, Rattle and Roll" is a song, written in 1954 by Jesse Stone (usually credited as Charles Calhoun, his songwriting name). The original recording by Big Joe Turner is ranked number 127 on the ''Rolling Stone'' magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Background In early 1954, Ahmet Ertegun of Atlantic Records suggested to Jesse Stone that he write an up-tempo blues for Big Joe Turner, a blues shouter whose career had begun in Kansas City before World War II. Stone played around with various phrases before coming up with "shake, rattle and roll". Nick Tosches, ''Unsung Heroes of Rock 'n' Roll'' (2nd ed. 1991), page 12-21. (Stone used his real name for ASCAP songs, while using the pseudonym "Charles Calhoun" for BMI-registered songs, such as "Shake, Rattle and Roll"). However, the phrase had been used in earlier songs. In 1910, vaudeville performer "Baby" Franklin Seals published "You Got to Shake, Rattle and Roll", a ragtime tune about gambling with dice, in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chains Of Love (Ahmet Ertegun Song)
"Chains Of Love", a 12-bar blues, was written by Doc Pomus (a.k.a. Jerome Solon Felder). Background Pomus who sold the copyright to Ahmet Ertegun in 1950 for $50.00 (referencing Doc Pomus and his family). Since Ertegun owned the copyright from that point forward, he had legal right to claim the song as his own which he did using the pseudonym "A. Nugetre". Big Joe Turner recording The first recording by Big Joe Turner (as Joe Turner) was in 1951, reaching number 2 on the US ''Billboard'' R&B chart.. Turner's version was his first success on the Atlantic label established by Ertegun. Popular cover versions *In 1956, the song was covered by Pat Boone, whose version made no. 10 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. *Another commercially successful version was by Bobby Bland, whose recording reached no. 9 on the R&B chart and no. 60 on the Hot 100 in 1969.Whitburn, ''Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-1995'', p.35 *American country music artist Mickey Gilley released this song in Octob ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Honey Hush
"Honey Hush", is a blues song, written by Big Joe Turner (although he assigned the copyright to his wife, Lou Willie Turner), recorded in May 1953 in New Orleans, Louisiana, and released that August by Atlantic Records. It was a number-one song on ''Billboard's'' Rhythm and Blues chart for eight weeks. Recording Turner, a big Kansas City blues shouter, had been spending all of his time out on the road, while Atlantic's Ahmet Ertegun was getting nervous that his backlog of Turner recordings was running low. When Turner was near New Orleans, Ertegun insisted that he make some recordings. Atlantic's New Orleans recording studio was fully booked, so Turner recorded some sides in the studio of local radio station WDSU. He did not have his own band, but was able to round up the trombonist Pluma Davis and his band, the Rockers, as well as the boogie rhythm pianist, James Tolliver. Other musicians on the recording included Dimes Dupont on alto saxophone and Warren Hebrew on tenor sax ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
One O'Clock Jump
"One O'Clock Jump" is a jazz standard, a 12-bar blues instrumental, written by Count Basie in 1937. Background The melody derived from band members' riffs—Basie rarely wrote down musical ideas, so Eddie Durham and Buster Smith helped him crystallize his ideas. The original 1937 recording of the tune by Basie and his band is noted for the saxophone work of Herschel Evans and Lester Young, trumpet by Buck Clayton, Walter Page on bass, and Basie himself on piano. The song is typical of Basie's early riff style. The instrumentation is based on " head arrangements" where each section makes up their part based on what the other sections are playing. Individuals take turns improvising over the top of the entire sound. Basie recorded "One O'Clock Jump" several times after the original performance for Decca in 1937, for Columbia in 1942 and 1950 and on a number of occasions in the fifties. "One O'Clock Jump" became the theme song of the Count Basie Orchestra. They used it to close e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bennie Moten
Benjamin Moten (November 13, 1893 – April 2, 1935) was an American jazz pianist and band leader born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, United States. He led his Kansas City Orchestra, the most important of the regional, blues-based orchestras active in the Midwest in the 1920s, and helped to develop the riffing style that would come to define many of the 1930s big bands. The jazz standard "Moten Swing" bears his name. Career Moten started making music from an early age and developed as a pianist, pulling together other musicians in a band. His first recordings were made (for OKeh Records) on September 23, 1923, and were rather typical interpretations of the New Orleans style of King Oliver and others. They also showed the influence of the ragtime that was still popular in the area, as well as the stomping beat for which his band was famous. These OKeh sides (recorded 1923–1925) are some of the more valuable acoustic jazz 78s of the era; they are treasured records in man ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oran "Hot Lips" Page
Oran Thaddeus "Hot Lips" Page (January 27, 1908 – November 5, 1954) was an American jazz trumpeter, singer, and bandleader. He was known as a scorching soloist and powerful vocalist. Page was a member of Walter Page's Blue Devils, Artie Shaw's Orchestra and Count Basie's Orchestra, and he worked with Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith and Ida Cox.Thedeadrockstarsclub.com Retrieved April 30, 2019. He was one of the five musicians booked for the opening night at Birdland with in 1949. Life and career Oran Thadeus Page was born in |
