The Blue Devils were an early Kansas City Jazz band, several members of this band would go on to and play in Bennie Moten’s Kansas City Orchestra and the Count Basie Orchestra. The founder of the Blue Devils was Walter Page. The band started in Oklahoma City in 1925. The Blue Devils played in the Southwest and travelling by car played small clubs and dance halls. In 1928 Jimmy Rushing and Bill “Count” Basie joined the band, and would play with them until the following year when Bennie Moten lured Basie away from the band.

Shortly after Basie’s departure, Durham quit and later Rushing and Lips Page would also join Bennie Moten’s Kansas City Orchestra. The Blue Devils regrouped and hired Lester Young and Druie Bess, but Moten ended up absorbing most of the Blue Devils, even including Walter Page.

After a series of misadventures in 1933, The Blue Devils found themselves stranded in Virginia, without instruments or money. They hopped a freight train back to St. Louis. Moten ended up hiring the remnants of the band, including Lester Young. After Moten’s death in 1935, Count Basie took over the Kansas City Orchestra.

Title	Recording Date	Recording Location	Company
Blue Devil Blues (Stoval)	11-10-1929	Kansas City, Missouri	Vocalion 1463
Squabblin’ (Count Basie)	11-10-1929	Kansas City, Missouri	Vocalion 1463

Artist	Instrument
Alvin Borroughs	Drums
Walter Page	Tuba
Hot Lips Page	Tumpet
Reuben Lynch or Thomas Owens	Guitar
Ted Manning	Alto Saxophone
Dan Minor	Trombone
Reuben Roddy	Tenor Saxophone
Jimmy Rushing	Vocals
James Simpson	Tumpet
Buster Smith	Clarinet, Alto Saxophone
Charlie Washington	Piano

Goin’ To Kansas City, by Nathan W. Pearson, Jr, University of Illinois Press, 1994