Bennie Moten’s KC Orch: The Final Four Recordings

Jeff Barnhart: Dan, we have the pleasure of discussing the final four sides the Bennie Moten Orchestra recorded on Dec. 13, 1932, in Camden, NJ. Our discussion has thus far been almost as scintillating to me as the music itself, and I’m sure this entry will prove the same. Not only a feast for the ears, the Herculean output of this single-day session is a testimony to the strength of the human spirit, as well as that of the music that feeds it. Count Basie, in his autobiography Good Morning Blues (as dictated to author Arthur Murray), recounts the scene leading up to that marathon session. In the depths of the Depression, the band had just completed a long, dusty and ultimately frustrating road trip. Moten’s band had incurred debt in a date at Philadelphia’s Pearl Theater, was losing its bus, and arrived starving at the session. Only after the twelve (!) masterfully played (and recorded) tunes were completed did they sit down to a meal provided by a local promoter; the repast consisted of rabbit stew and greens and was served on a pool table! With the exhaustion and hardship they’d endured, its remarkable anything came out of this date, let alone one of the most swinging and significant recording sessions in jazz history. The power of hot music, my friend! We start with a tune that was already a warhorse by 1932, “Milenberg Joys.” Dan Barrett: Hello, jazz fans and th