The Oklahoma City Blue Devils was the premier American Southwest territory jazz band in the 1920s. Originally called Billy King's Road Show, it disbanded in Oklahoma City in 1925 where Walter Page renamed it. The name ''Blue Devils'' came from the name of a gang of fence cutters operating during the early days of the American West. Several prominent jazz musicians were members, including

Lester Young Lester Willis Young (August 27, 1909 – March 15, 1959), nicknamed "Pres" or "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and occasional clarinetist. Coming to prominence while a member of Count Basie's orchestra, Young was one of the most ...

, William "Count" Basie and

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/artic ...

. The Blue Devils disbanded in 1933, after which Basie recruited most of the group's members to join his group, which had begun in 1931, but then changed the name to the

Count Basie Orchestra The Count Basie Orchestra is a 16 to 18 piece big band, one of the most prominent jazz performing groups of the swing era, founded by Count Basie in 1935 and recording regularly from 1936. Despite a brief disbandment at the beginning of the 195 ...

.Dinerstein, ''Swinging the Machine'', p. 107: "Ellison grew up in Oklahoma City, the home-base of the influential territory band, the Oklahoma City Blue Devils; he was also a close personal friend of Jimmy Rushing, the band's vocalist, and a regular at their performances and jam sessions. Anchored by the bassist Walter Page, the trumpeter Oran "Hot Lips" Page, Rushing, and the tenor saxophonist Lester Young, the Blue Devils effectively merged with Bennie Moten's band in Kansas City between 1932 and 1935 to form the Count Basie Band." The 1979 film ''

The 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 ...

'' documents a musical reunion with Basie, Big Joe Turner and other figures from the history of southwestern and Kansas City jazz.

References

Bibliography

*Daniels, Douglas Henry. ''One O'clock Jump: The Unforgettable History of the Oklahoma City Blue Devils''. Boston: Beacon Press, 2006. *Dinerstein, Joel. ''Swinging the Machine: Modernity, Technology, and African American Culture Between the World Wars ''.

University of Massachusetts Press The University of Massachusetts Press is a university press that is part of the University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts a ...

, 2003. *Hentoff, Nat. ''Listen to the Stories: Nat Hentoff on Jazz and Country Music''. Da Capo, 2000. *Pearson, Nathan W. ''Goin' to Kansas City''. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987. *Russell, Ross. ''Bird Lives: The High Life and Hard Times of Charlie (Yardbird) Parker''. Da Capo Press, 1996. *Russell, Ross. ''Jazz style in Kansas City and the Southwest''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971. * Wishart, David J. (ed.) ''Encyclopedia of the Great Plains''. University of Nebraska Press, 2004. *Wolfgang, Otto.
The Early Days: How the Wild West Was Fenced In
, reprinted in ''The Cattleman'' (Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association), Aug. 1966, Vol. LIII, No. III.

External links

{{Authority control American jazz ensembles Big bands Territory bands Musical groups from Oklahoma Jazz musicians from Oklahoma Musical groups from Oklahoma City