Introduction
Bandleader Bennie Moten pioneered the rise of Kansas City jazz in the 1920s. He did this with the help of the Kansas City Sun, a prominent weekly published in the city’s Black district, 18th and Vine. In fact, the Sun played an essential role in the rise of the city’s influential jazz scene.
African American newspapers flourished in major cities in the 1910s, fueled by the Great Migration of Black Americans from the South to the North, Midwest, and West. These publications fostered community pride by highlighting the accomplishments of Black musicians like Moten, overlooked by White newspapers.
By looking at the Sun’s articles about Bennie Moten in his early years, we gain insights into how music journalism can be a liberative practice that nurtures marginalized artists and music scenes. We see how the Sun played a key role in launching Moten’s career by showcasing him as a symbol of racial advancement. This highlights how music journalism promotes cultural democracy through its narratives.
Let’s examine the Sun’s coverage of Moten and the rise of the Kansas City jazz scene. This is a journey into the critical but invisible role played by African American newspapers during the Jazz Age.
Bennie Moten
Benjamin Moten was born in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1893. Nicknamed Bennie, the precocious child started playing the piano at an early age. In his teens, he left high school to freelance with local dance bands.
At that time, 18th and Vine was the hub of Kansas City’s Black community.
The neighborhood had a commercial core with Black-owned businesses, including the Kansas City Sun weekly newspaper, founded in 1908. The publication’s owner, Nelson C. Crews, used the Sun to advocate for racial progress and equality. Historian Daniel Coleman said:
Nelson Crews found new avenues of expression in the written word when he purchased the Kansas City Sun newspaper. Under his leadership, the Sun trumpeted a message of advancement, and its reporters covered every aspect of the Kansas City African American community.[1]
This spirit of racial uplift animated a popular Sun column, “Sparks by Starks.” Little is known about the column’s writer, Charles A. Starks, even though he documented essential episodes in the early development of Kansas City jazz.
Harmony of the Soul Above Sound
Starks, who was also a poet, revered music, as can be seen in a 1916 column about “a friend who has now departed,”
A friend and admirer, a musician who was full of feeling and heart. He knew the language of expression, knew the intense pathos of music, the harmony of the soul above sound. He has gone now. Gone! But not to mix with the dust. Genius, heart, soul sympathy, know no death. He, therefore, is learning music without discord; its science without sense; its still, peaceful, understanding; it’s divine sweetness and glory. [2]
“The harmony of the soul above sound” rang out in the churches, concert halls, and nightclubs of 18th and Vine. This music gave voice to the joys and miseries of community members, including young Bennie Moten.
Soft-Toned, Cunning, and Sensational Artists
The Jazz Age was barely underway when the Sun published its first piece on the irresistibly irresponsible music. The article, by Charles Starks, described a cutting contest between two street bands.
Called “Negro Bands in Rivalry,” it was likely the first account of jazz in the newspaper. An aspiring poet, Starks deftly wielded metaphors in his descriptions of the sonic combat:
There was the sound of rivalry as well as revelry last Monday night, when Drake and Walker’s six-piece band of jazz experts were playing down in the old 1500 block on 18th Street. Drake has some soft-toned, cunning, and sensational artists who run symphony orchestras a close second in harmony and easily out-jazz all jazzers in stirring and catchy syncopations. They had just finished a dissecting treatment of the blues … played first pianissimo [softly] and then in its loud opposite, as seemingly only Black musicians can do, when who should come thundering up the avenue but a delegation from Billy Klings! [a local Black movie house that also staged concerts] …
There was a terrible interchange of vehement artillery fire for about two minutes between the opposing forces. Trombone and cornet vying while the big bass drums spoke above the din of battle in thrilling sounds. But the enemy marched on up the street without doing any particular damage to the valiant six, who stood their ground …[3]
Stark’s visceral prose conveyed the excitement of early jazz played by competitive young musicians, specifically Black musicians. The title and text make clear the bands were engaged in battle, perhaps referencing the gallantry shown by African American troops in the First World War. This fascinating piece also contains an argument made by future critics: that jazz was in the same league as classical music.
The B. B. and D. Orchestra
A year after Stark announced jazz had come to 18th and Vine, 25-year-old Bennie Moten formed his first band, the B. B. and D. Orchestra. It was named for the first initials of Moten, vocalist Bailey Hancock, and drummer Dude Langford, who co-managed the band with Moten. “Privately, they referred to themselves as ‘Big, Black and Dirty,’” according to Frank Driggs and Chuck Haddix, authors of Kansas City Jazz: From Ragtime to Bebop.[4]
Before Moten formed the band, drummer Langford had seen him “playing around town, little old joints here, some of ’em just little fronts, a bar and a gambling room in the back.”[5] These were the clubs of the 18th and Vine commercial district, becoming known for their jazz bands.
Bennie Moten’s band established a home base at the Labor Temple, a five-story brick building in the district that housed various labor union organizations. The B. B. and D. Orchestra began playing gigs for Black and White audiences.
Moten developed his skills over the next two years by booking gigs with social groups like the Elks and YMCA, who sponsored social dances.
My Jazz Soul
Although the Kansas City Sun had not yet published anything about Bennie Moten, the newspaper increasingly wrote about jazz as Kansas City became one of its centers. The start of prohibition in 1920 helped spread jazz because the speakeasies that followed hired dance bands.
In the fall of 1920, Charles Stark wrote an elegiac column called “My Jazz Soul,”
I am no better than the musical atmosphere under which I breathe. For what inspires like music? It is elixir to my soul; wine to a heart that yearns; fire to a sense of motion such as the mad dance, the dance of dances.
Oh yes, I know something of the pure cold tones of the so-called classic. It satisfies an ideal, but like all else that’s human, it comes with a mood. Likewise, the sacred psalms enrapt with glow so elevating that wings of heaven seemed to hover near, and that I, poor soul! – I am about to know translation from this lowly state forever and forever.
But what is this that makes me feel so humanly human, delightful, glorious, abandoning all cares that worry and turn human experience gray when we are yet young and should see through the youthful lens of green? IT MUST BE MY JAZZ SOUL! Ah! to drink this in. The sweet spell, the charm of swinging around on time with the music, stepping to the exact beat of the drum, the plang of the piano, the moan of saxophone, and, most lately, the exhorting appeal of the singer – all mixed in the frenzy of the exhilarating noise. Again, it must be my jazz soul![6]
A beautiful expression of experiencing jazz with the senses and emotions.
Kansas City Jazz
As Black jazz thrived in 18th & Vine, the term “Kansas City jazz” came to be associated with White bands. The Kuhn-Chaquette Orchestra was one of the first to gain attention, but it was the Coon-Sanders Original Nighthawk Orchestra that popularized “Kansas City jazz” nationwide through radio broadcasting.
But Bennie Moten utilized every means the city had to promote his band, including radio. Kansas City acquired its first two radio stations in 1922. One of these was WHB, which began to broadcast live concerts the following year. In March 1923, Moten made his radio debut on the station with a new band.
A Real representative colored orchestra
Charles Starks listened and reported:
It was the first time that a real representative local colored orchestra was heard, and the impression was great – [jitter]bugs phoning from long distances for encores and special numbers … Roland Bruce’s violin solo “Love Will Find a Way” was superbly rendered. After playing this number with the fine appreciation of a virtuoso, Bruce furnished the bugs with a jazz whimsicality of the same, which relieved a strong background of beauty. Woody [Walder] with his clarinet virtually cleaned up in his specialty when they played the famous “Saint Louis Blues,” while Eli Logan’s saxophone work was heard with delight at all times.
Benny Moten was distinctly successful in the role of director and presided over the wonderful grand piano at his disposal. His accompaniment of Bruce’s violin solo was pleasingly correct. Bill Hall, the peppery trap drummer, took “Running Wild” seriously enough to actually run wild, but was always on time with stick and symbol. His roles and crashes were pointed and enlivening. …[7]
Moten changed the band’s name to reflect their new gig:
Starks took pride in the success of a Black orchestra and advanced the Sun’s goal of bringing attention to African American success stories. Moten finally caught the Kansas City Sun‘s attention, which it demonstrated three months later.
A Revelation
The Sun assigned an article to Moten, a review of a visiting jazz orchestra. “Moten Likes Morrison’s Musicians” referred to the band of African-American musician George Morrison, an acclaimed violinist from Colorado. Although a trained classical musician, Morrison pursued jazz and formed a world-renowned orchestra after growing weary of the racism in White symphonies.
Moten praised the band:
The music furnished by Morrison’s Orchestra of Denver, Colorado, was a revelation to me … I like the way each musician has been trained to the importance of harmony effects blended in both loud or soft playing. I have tried hard to reach this attainment with my own orchestra, and while we have some success in this direction, we feel that Mr. Morrison has made much greater strides.[8]
It’s rare for a musician to publicly state that another artist is better than they are. Instead of feeling jealous, Moten took a lesson:
Mr. Morrison is to be further complimented for his ability to retain as good a degree of melodic expression with nine pieces in his orchestra as one ordinarily can do with five. Here is something that Kansas City lovers of good music must begin to consider – an augmented orchestra, something on the order of this Denver troupe. It has long been my ambition to do this.[9]
In publishing the Moten article, the Sun demonstrated the bandleader’s ability to write analytically as well as lead a band. This put him in the company of the Black intelligentsia of the 1920s, sparked by the Harlem Renaissance. Black newspapers touted this movement as evidence of racial advancement despite Jim Crow barriers.
Winston Holmes
Another example of this progress was Winston Holmes, a 44-year-old Black piano repairman who opened the first music store in 18th and Vine. The Sun published a profile of Holmes in 1921, praising him for his experience and entrepreneurship and noting he was the first African American to open a music store in Kansas City.
Holmes repaired musical instruments and sold records from his shop, including recent discs by blues singer Mamie Smith for OKeh Records.
The Smith recordings sparked a national blues craze and revealed a new market for records within the African American community. In 1922, OKeh began a new series of recordings for this market titled “race records.” Black newspapers like the Sun promoted race records through advertising and articles.
For the Sun, Holmes exemplified an ambitious Black business owner who furthered racial advancement. This can be seen in a news brief entitled “Progressive Progress,”
When Winston Holmes opened a music store… little did the public, or he for that matter, realize the enormity of the enterprise which he had launched, yet as the weeks passed, he found himself on a steady march of progress undreamed of in such short time. The music lovers of the Kansas Cities rallied to his support in a manner that is highly representative of a new spirit among Race supporters of Race enterprises.[10]
This passage illuminates the Sun’s dedication to uplifting “The Race,” America’s African American community. Note the phrase “Kansas Cities,” plural, referring to the division of the city’s Black and White communities under Jim Crow segregation laws. Despite these laws, there was a “new spirit” in Black neighborhoods, such as 18th and Vine, which became incubators of businesses and cultural movements in the 1920s.
OKeh Records
Winston Holmes blended social activism and music. For instance, he was president of the local Universal Negro Improvement Association and arranged for a speech by its founder, Marcus Garvey. Another example, Holmes helped produce a musical, “Whispering Hope,” about a young Black man’s resistance to the Ku Klux Klan. The Sun covered these and his other efforts to combat racism.
However, music was the focus of Holmes’ life. He became the Midwest regional distributor for Black Swan Records, the first label owned and run by African Americans: music publisher Harry Pace and composer-musician W.C. Handy. In one of his ads for the company, Holmes declared, “When you buy a Black Swan record, you buy the only record made by colored people.”[11]
Holmes’ relationship with OKeh went further. He scouted local musical talent and arranged recording sessions. In the summer of 1923, Holmes made history by organizing an audition of two Kansas City vocalists with OKeh’s recording director, Ralph S. Peer. A Kansas City native, Peer traveled the country for OKeh seeking blues and country musicians. He became one of the crucial figures in American recording history.
Holmes set up an audition for Peer to hear two Kansas City blues singers, Ada Brown and Mary Bradford. Vocalists need a backing band, and the Moten band was recruited. Holmes held the audition in a back room of his music store.
Peer liked what he heard. The Bennie Moten band and the vocalists recorded eight sides for OKeh on September 10, 1923. Satisfied with the results, Peer brought the ensemble to Chicago for another session. Kansas City jazz historians Driggs and Haddix wrote:
The OKeh sessions introduced … the Moten band, and, by association, Kansas City Jazz, to the national audience. Realizing the significance of the occasion, Moten billed his band as the Kansas City Orchestra.[12]
Spreading the Word
Several African American newspapers published announcements about Moten’s recording contract with OKeh. For example, the Kansas City Advocate wrote:
Kansas City is coming to the front in musical productions with phonograph records. In the last few weeks, six numbers have been placed on the market in both Kansas Cities.
Two of these record numbers are by Benny Moten’s Orchestra, “Crawdad Blues” and “Elephant Wobble.”[13]
The Afro-American said:
Benny Moten’s Kansas City Orchestra, one of the best-known jazz combinations in the Middle West, is now an exclusive OKeh recording organization … Benny Morton’s orchestra journeyed from Kansas City to Chicago for the express purpose of making recordings for Okeh Records.[14]
Meanwhile, the Moten band continued its association with Holmes and played gigs in Kansas City. The Sun covered it all:
Kansas City Negros who are blessed with talent running along musical lines might well feel proud of one of the race in the person of Winston Holmes, proprietor of the Winston Homes Music Company … [This] representative of the Sun had the pleasure of witnessing one of the most pleasing sights he has ever seen at Unity Inn … Benny Moten’s Orchestra … rendered a program that was worthy of the best talent in the land. The program was arranged through the energy and enterprise of this business and race enthusiast.[15]
This piece shows how music and racial activism intertwined in the Sun’s articles.
Colored Devotees of Terpsichorean Delight
Even in its advertisements, the Sun presented the Moten band as an exemplar of racial progress. For instance, a March 1924 ad read:
Society is demanding higher standards in all its social phases. Benny Moten and his musical cohorts have raised the standard of dance pleasure and announced the lease of the big hall located at 15th and Paseo for the indulgence of colored devotees of terpsichorean light. This is indeed the hall of halls with every up-to-the-moment convenience for patrons. ‘Mid these luxurious surroundings you will want to attend every event pulled off in this real emporium of pleasure. With the best possible dance floor, the best installed acoustics for carrying the best music, a good time is assured at all times.[16]
The Paseo Hall became a central hub for Black entertainment in Kansas City. The ad announces that Moten took over management of this formerly White establishment in 1924.
The announcement illustrates how the spirit of racial advancement imbued advertisements in Black newspapers like the Sun. In this example, the Sun promoted emerging musicians in the local scene by advertising their performances. The ad expresses pride in Black-run venues offering upscale entertainment for the 18th and Vine community.
For the neighborhood, the Kansas City Sun championed racial progressivity. Unfortunately, before the year was over, that voice went silent.
End of an Era
The Sun ceased publication in 1924. Its editor, Nelson C. Crews, passed away the previous year, and the paper likely struggled in his absence. But during its 16-year run, the Sun admirably served Crews’ mission of fostering racial pride by highlighting the achievements of Kansas City African Americans such as Bennie Moten.
Although Moten lost his coverage in the Sun, he picked up coverage in other African American newspapers, including the Chicago Defender. The Okeh singles brought Moten nationwide coverage as race records became more popular. After securing a contract with Victor Records in 1926, his fame grew.
Moten’s band pioneered Kansas City jazz throughout the 1920s. The orchestra moved from the New Orleans style of the OKeh sides to a hard swinging, riff-driven sound influenced by Southwestern blues bands.
The addition of powerhouse pianist William James “Count” Basie in 1929 took things up another notch. Moten’s Kansas City Orchestra developed a driving, bluesy sound driven by Walter Page’s walking bass lines. They became one of Victor’s most popular recording artists.
A Cool Drink of Water
When Bennie Moten’s whirlwind touring schedule brought him home to Kansas City, the Black community welcomed him as a returning hero. And a new African American newspaper, the Kansas City American, was there to spread the joy. When the Moten band played Kansas City in the fall of 1928, a journalist for the American wrote:
What a cool drink of water on a desert is to a dusty, hot throat, so is the return of the enchanting strains of Benny Moten’s Recording Orchestra to the dance fans and music lovers of both Kansas Cities and community. After a nine month’s absence filling numerous big engagements and following in the footsteps of such orchestras as Paul Whiteman, Fletcher Henderson, Guy Lombardo and Ted Weems, they come home wearing the same crown as these orchestras having played in the same dance palaces and broadcasting over the same radio stations in pomp and glory. Their rhythmic, melodious harmony, played in tuneful, soothing notes, captivated the East, where they could have remained for unlimited engagements.
The writer then listed the engagements on the band’s recent tour, touting achievements such as being the first Black band to play at a White New York college prom. This was the democratizing effect of Black swing music in the 1920s, winning over White listeners whose idea of jazz was the sweetened sounds of Guy Lombardo and other lower-melanated bandleaders.
Conclusion
Bennie Moton died in April 1935, after a botched tonsillectomy. He just missed seeing the swing idiom he helped create become a national pastime.
In summer 1935, the Benny Goodman band responded to an unresponsive audience in Palomar, California, with a blast of swing fury as culturally consequential as the Jimi Hendrix Experience playing the National Anthem at Woodstock. For the next decade, swing jazz ruled America.
After Moten’s death, Count Basie formed a band from the remnants of the Moten group and brought Kansas City jazz to its largest audience ever. By then, Black jazz musicians like Basie had a coterie of journalistic advocates in mainstream newspapers and magazines like DownBeat.
Unfortunately, Moton did not live long enough to gain the recognition that many Black jazz artists like Basie, Cab Calloway, and Duke Ellington received during the swing era. During the swing craze, African American musicians no longer relied solely on Black newspapers for coverage.
The coverage of jazz in African American publications prior to the swing era offers a unique and invaluable insight into the social context that influenced early Black jazz. The Kansas City Sun‘s texts featuring Bennie Moten illuminate the reciprocal relationship between the newspaper, the bandleader, and the 18th and Vine community. Through these texts, we learn that the significance of early African American jazz transcended mere aesthetics; it played a crucial role in shaping a community’s identity during a perilous time in its history.
Read my book The Life and Writings of Ralph J. Gleason to learn about a Count Basie jam session that blew the doors off a 52nd Street club in the 1930s.
Notes
[1] Nelson C. and James Crews Civil Rights Pioneers Nelson (1866-1923), James (1859-1946)
By Daniel Coleman https://kchistory.org/islandora/object/kchistory%253A115256
[2] Charles A. Starks, “Sparks by Starks,” Kansas City Sun, April 22, 1916: 8.
[3] [Charles] Starks, “Negro Bands in Rivalry,” Kansas City Sun, July 28, 1917: 1.
[4] Frank Driggs and Chuck Haddix, Kansas City Jazz: From Ragtime to Bebop – A History (Oxford University Press, 2005): 43.
[5] Frank Driggs and Chuck Haddix, Kansas City Jazz: From Ragtime to Bebop – A History (Oxford University Press, 2005): 43.
[6] Charles A. Starks, “Sparks from Starks,” Kansas City Sun, Sept. 25, 1920: 8.
[7] Charles A. Starks, “Radio Bugs Hear Jazz Fit by Moten’s Orchestra,” Kansas City Sun, March 24, 1923: 6.
[8] Bennie Moten, “Moten Likes Morrison’s Musicians,” Kansas City Sun, June 2, 1923: 1.
[9] Bennie Moten, “Moten Likes Morrison’s Musicians,” Kansas City Sun, June 2, 1923: 1.
[10] Uncredited, “Progressive Progress,” Kansas City Sun, Aug. 20, 1921: 6.
[11] Advertisement, Kansas City Sun, Sept. 16, 1922: 5.
[12] Frank Driggs and Chuck Haddix, Kansas City Jazz: From Ragtime to Bebop – A History (Oxford University Press, 2005): 47.
[13] Uncredited, “Kansas City Record Artists,” Kansas City Advocate, Nov. 23, 1923: 1.
[14] Uncredited, “New Orchestra for Okeh,” Afro-American, Nov. 30, 1923: 5.
[15] Uncredited, “A Man Who Does Things,” Kansas City Sun, Feb. 9, 1924: 4.
[16] Advertisement, “First Time Colored People Use This Fine Hall,” Kansas City Sun, March 22, 1924: 8.
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