100 years ago, as jazz was being created, regions across the U.S. were developing reputations for certain “sounds,” depending on the financial situations and on the musicians living there. There were the sophisticated sounds of Duke Ellington in Manhattan; the Chicago musicians who were influenced by the New Orleans musicians after the close of the infamous legalized, segregated vice district, Storyville, in 1917; and, later, the West Coast sound out of Los Angeles and the Central Avenue sounds of the Afro-American Community 1920-1955. There was the Western Swing phenomenon with Bob Wills out of Texas, combining country and jazz, and the blues sounds of the deep South. Although Vaudeville and later various road circuits showcased the different bands to new audiences, out of the big cities there was no internet to play everyone everywhere. Radio and juke boxes accelerated the markets. People were clamoring to hear all of it. One of the sounds that was distinct to the development of jazz and blues emanated from Kansas City.
Gangsters and jazz had always been linked, initially due to Prohibition. Speakeasies abounded, even though alcohol was prohibited from 1920 to 1933. Mobsters like Owney Madden at the Cotton Club in Harlem, Al Capone at the Green Mill in Chicago, and Mickey Cohen in LA extorted these clubs to launder illegal money. After Prohibition, they stayed in the entertainment scene and did provide flourishing employment for many musicians. But, according to my aunts, who were musicians in LA during the ’40s and ’50s, they had to ask Mickey Cohen, for example, if they could leave a club. If he wanted you to stay, you risked your life, or some lesser disagreeable outcome if you didn’t do what he wanted. I know it was true in any big city with a powerful underworld.
In Kansas City, politics came under the influence of the Pendergast era, especially in the ’30s. Tom Pendergast was an American political boss who controlled Kansas City and Jackson County, Missouri from 1925-1939. Pendergast only briefly held elected office as an alderman, but in his capacity as chairman of the Jackson City Democratic Party it allowed him to ask his large network of Irish family and friends to help with the election of politicians, in some cases with voter fraud, to hand out government contracts and patronage jobs. He became wealthy but accumulated gambling debts and eventually was convicted of income tax evasion and went to prison. Among other things, he launched the career of Harry Truman. Despite the association of organized crime, he promoted Kansas City as a wide-open town, providing jobs—legal and illegal—and creating a huge music scene for the area and for musicians. Kansas City was just far enough away from Chicago and New York to create a sound of its own. Money flowed and attracted Afro-Americans from the South and East, providing stable employment. Clubs in the 18th and Vine area flourished from early evening until dawn the next day, seven days a week. Improvisation became necessary to lengthen the material and keep the music going. Jam sessions and “cutting contests” abounded. Blues vocalists were used in big band arrangements, and the atmosphere encouraged the utmost technical inventiveness and adventure. Kansas City jazz in the ’30s was a vibrant, improvisational style, known for its bluesy riffs, driving rhythms, and jam sessions.
JULIA LEE, 1902-1958
There were many female musicians in Kansas City, who were either raised there or came there because of the freewheeling music community and the availability of work. One that was actually born in the area and raised there was Julia Lee. She was born in 1902 as jazz was just developing, hearing ragtime (Scott Joplin was from St. Louis, Missouri), stride piano and boogie woogie from the start. As a child, she performed with her father’s string trio, playing at house parties and for church socials. She began her professional career, playing piano in her brother’s band, George E. Lee & his Novelty Singing Orchestra. George Lee’s band was the biggest rival to Bennie Moten’s band, the precursor to the famous Count Basie Band. It was the training ground for many talented young musicians, including, briefly, Charlie Parker and also the young Julia Lee.
After her brother’s band disbanded in 1935, Julia began her solo career. A major figure in the blues revival following World War II, her trademark was double entendre songs, or as she put it “the songs my mother taught me not to sing.” She worked primarily in Kansas City, as she didn’t like the road life after suffering a major car crash in 1935. She had several hit records in the ’40s, including “Snatch and Grab It,” “Hurry on Down to my House Baby,” and “Sweet Lotus Blossom,” (“Sweet Marijuana Blossom,” originally), leading to a contract with Capitol Records, where she sold over half a million records. She frequently teamed up with drummer “Baby” Lovett, and the two were invited to play at the White House for fellow Kansas City native President Truman. He specifically asked her to sing “Kingsize Papa,” one of the risque songs she was famous for. These double entendre songs seem so mild now…