Bennie Moten’s K.C. Orch: The Final Years, Part 2

Jeff Barnhart: You loyal followers of hot music and the dissection thereof will rejoice that musician and musicologist Dan Barrett again joins me with great insights, anecdotes, and expertise to continue our exploration of the final recording session of the Kansas City titan Bennie Moten and his Orchestra, featuring the pianistics of the Kid from Red Bank (NJ): the as-yet uncrowned Count Basie (at the time, still young Bill Basie). You casual dippers-of-ear-and-eye mustn’t fret; as with any good series, you need not have taken in the first installment to enjoy the second—although it (along with every article, review, cartoon and rant published herein) is perpetually available online to the general betterment of members of the discerning class. Between the band’s April 1931 recording and the one from December 13, 1932, so much happened stylistically in the band. Part of this change was brought about by a significant shift in personnel. Trombonist Thamon Hayes left the Moten group in 1931 (taking with him almost half the band including trumpeters Ed Lewis and Booker Washington, reedsmen Harlan Leonard and Herman “Woody” Walder, and brass bassist Vernon Page) to form Thamon Hayes’ Kansas City Rockets. Undeterred, Moten flipped the script, switching banjoist Leroy Berry permanently over to guitar and replacing tubist Vernon with Walter Page, former bandleader of The Blue D