Research Catalog

Kansas City jazz : from ragtime to bebop-- a history

Title
Kansas City jazz : from ragtime to bebop-- a history / Frank Driggs and Chuck Haddix.
Author
Driggs, Frank.
Publication
New York : Oxford University Press, 2005.

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TextRequest in advance ML3508.8.K37 D75 2005Off-site

Details

Additional Authors
Haddix, Chuck.
Description
xi, 274 pages, 32 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations; 24 cm
Summary
"In this history, Frank Driggs and Chuck Haddix range from ragtime to bebop and from Bennie Moten to Charlie Parker to capture the golden age of Kansas City jazz. Readers will find a vibrant portrait of old Kaycee itself, back then a neon riot of bars, gambling dens, and taxi dance halls, all ruled over by Boss Tom Pendergast, who had transformed a dusty cowtown into the Paris of the Plains. We see how this wide-open, gin-soaked town gave birth to a music that was more basic and more viscerally exciting than other styles of jazz, its singers belting out a rough-and-tumble urban style of blues, its piano players pounding out a style later known as "boogie-woogie." We visit the great landmarks, like the Reno Club, the "Biggest Little Club in the World," where Lester Young and Count Basie made jazz history and Charlie Parker began his musical education in the alley out back. And of course the authors illuminate the lives of the great musicians who made Kansas City swing, with engaging profiles of jazz figures such as Mary Lou Williams, Big Joe Turner, Jimmy Rushing, and Andy Kirk and his "Clouds of Joy."" "Here is the definitive account of the raw, hard-driving style that put Kansas City on the musical map. It is a must read for everyone who loves jazz or American music history."--BOOK JACKET.
Subject
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (p. [237]-258) and index.
ISBN
0195047672 (alk. paper)
LCCN
2004063568
OCLC
  • ocm57002870
  • SCSB-5175295
Owning Institutions
Columbia University Libraries