KC Jazz 18th and Vine

Jazz music took root in Kansas City in the late 1920s primarily because the Chicago Musicians Union protected local jobs by denying permits for visiting bands to play for extended periods. This caused the Kansas City Jazz style to develop separately from the more-established Chicago sounds. Kansas City was a thriving jazz location as the city’s industry exploded and brought in jobs, which brought people who would need to be entertained. 1920 saw many jazz musicians traveling to Kansas City from New Orleans. The Kansas City of the early 1920s was almost totally segregated (Brown, 1978). There was an incredible demand for jazz musicians in the white dance halls and the black clubs. Many of the hotels and restaurants in Kansas City were utilizing jazz bands for entertainment and employment in the area was virtually guaranteed for musicians. There were more than 60 jazz clubs in a six-block area near Twelfth Street and Eighteenth Street in the Paseo area. Eighteenth Street and Vine Street, which was in the center of the African-American community, was also a hot spot for jazz. This is where the jazz artists would conduct all-night jam sessions, after working their day jobs until 2 a.m., which would lead to the creation of the tradition within Kansas City Jazz of improvisation (Pearson, 1994).

Early bandleaders, such as Bennie Moten and later Count Basie, created an original style by fronting brass and wind instrument sections and keeping the arrangements basic (Russell, 1983). This allowed for the music to be played from memory more easily. Kansas City also pushed jazz music into larger and larger bands which were part of the trend that would end with the Big Bands of the 1940s.