12/20/2023 0 Comments Kansas city jazz street![]() ![]() ![]() Many Blacks were eager to escape both de facto and legal Jim Crow practices while still more, mostly sharecroppers, were compelled to migrate due to a boll weevil infestation of cotton fields. Cities throughout the North and Midwest experienced similar population booms as millions of African-Americans fled the Deep South, a phenomenon known as the Great Migration. From 1910 to 1930, the Black population nearly doubled, swelling from 25,000 to almost 50,000. Kansas City's African-American community experienced a series of paradigmatic shifts during this period, as well. Jazz culture, particularly within African-American community, was able to flourish because the political and socio-economic conditions supported and sustained it. Though Pendergast had no discernible active interest in or engagement with Kansas City’s burgeoning jazz culture, the economic vitality his corrupt regime afforded Kansas City provided the incubation necessary for the development of its vibrant artistic community. During Pendergast's regime, there were at least 120 nightclubs and over 300 bars in the “wide-open” city but there was not one felony conviction for violation of prohibition statutes. “Boss” Pendergast, maintained his powerful political base by openly tolerating, even enabling, the gangsters, gamblers and pimps who relied on nightclubs, taverns and dance halls for their livelihood – venues that regularly hired promising, inventive musicians to keep the crowds entertained. The chairman of the Jackson County Democratic Club, Thomas J. Throughout the twenty years prior to Moten’s death, Kansas City was able to avoid many of the economic calamities wrought by the Great Depression on the rest of the nation. The convergence of three significant socio-economic and geo-political factors led to the cultivation Kansas City jazz: the expansion of a muscular, manipulative (and, ultimately, corrupt) political power structure, the emergence of a large, unified African-American community rooted in Southern mores and the systematic development of young, innovative artists. Situated outside of the cultural mainstream, both figuratively and literally, Kansas City was well positioned to have a distinctive musical style evolve and mature organically, unfettered by artistic proclivities prevalent in New York and Los Angeles. Jay McShann, Walter Page, Count Basie and Charlie Parker all found their voices in “Kay Cee.” Many who stood on the sidewalks as the funeral cortege crawled by wept openly.” During Moten’s tenure, Kansas City had grown from a small, dusty town into a swinging artistic hotbed, home to talented performers who would later become dominant, iconic forces synonymous with the Kansas City jazz brand. As the Kansas City Call reported, “Many who were unable to gain entrance into the church formed a line on both sides of the street for blocks to view the procession as it passed. One of the most prominent members of his community, Moten was given the largest, most elaborate funeral the city had seen in twenty years. In the spring of 1935, the setting of Carter’s Way, Kansas City’s African-American community mourned the loss of respected jazz band leader Bennie Moten. ![]()
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