Bennie Moten’s KC Orch 1931-32: The Birth of Swing

Jeff Barnhart: This month, commitments have swept Hal away and it took me about 20 seconds (actually, I’m exaggerating) to arrive at my desired substitute; he was happily available, and we’re repeating one element of our collaboration two years ago: once again, while Anne and I are performing in the UK, Mr. Dan Barrett is on a European tour!—Welcome, Mr. Barrett!! Dan Barrett: Hello, Jeff. Hello, TST readers! I was very pleased when Jeff asked me to contribute more of my thoughts about the great Bennie Moten band. I always enjoy discussing my heroes, and several cats in Moten’s aggregation certainly qualify for that title. JB: We turn our ears to the final recording sessions of Bennie Moten and his Orchestra, following up our initial collab (TST: April, 2022) on this great bandleader/pianist. Dan, I may be mislabeling Mr. Moten; by October 1929 he’d given up the piano chair to young Bill Basie, content with directing the band, at least on all the recordings released from then on. While we skimmed the cream from 49 sides in our exploration of the band’s recorded output from September 7, 1928 to October 31, 1930, we’ve only twelve sides—rendered across two recording dates—to cover this time. The band must’ve been enjoying a very busy performance/touring schedule; after their prolific output in October 1930, they only convened twice more, on April 15, 1931 and Dec