Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email
Answers.com

Oklahoma City Blue Devils

 
Artist: Oklahoma City Blue Devils
Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Pop Artists
  • Genres: Jazz

Biography

The Oklahoma City Blue Devils, also known as Walter Page's Blue Devils, featured an all-star lineup as one of Kansas City's premier jazz bands in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The territory band is best known for breaking in a gifted young pianist named William Basie, who later gained fame as Count Basie. Other luminaries included singer Jimmy Rushing, alto saxophonist Buster Smith, trumpeteer Oran "Hot Lips" Page and, briefly, tenor saxophonist Lester Young. Page, who played bass, tuba and baritone sax, got the band together when the Billy King Road Show broke up in 1925. The band cut Blue Devil Blues in 1929, Basie's first recording; he left shortly after. The band started at nine members and grew to as many as 15, at times including James Simpson on trumpets, Eddie Durham on trombone, Willie Lewis on piano, Reuben Lynch on guitar; Edward McNeil on drums, Ernie Williams on vocals, Abe Bolar on bass, Lemuel C. Johnson] on clarinet and tenor saxophone, and [$Don Byas on tenor and alto saxophone. The band trumped nearly every opponent it faced in battle of the bands competitions, except for the older Bennie Moten band, which eventually absorbed most of the Blue Devils, including Page. The corps of the band later went on to play with Count Basie. ~ Ron DePasquale, All Music Guide
Search unanswered questions...

Enter a question here...
Search: All sources Community Q&A Reference topics

Wikipedia: Oklahoma City Blue Devils
Top
Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
Oklahoma City Blue Devils
Origin Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA
Genre(s) Big band
Years active 1920s-1930s
Former members
William "Count" Basie
Abe Bolar
Eddie Durham
Jo Jones
Oran "Hot Lips" Page
Walter Page
Jimmy Rushing
Henry "Buster" Smith
Claude Williams
Lester Young

The Oklahoma City Blue Devils was the premier Southwest territory jazz band in the 1920s.[1] Originally called Billy King's Road Show, it disbanded in Oklahoma City in 1925 where Walter Page renamed it.[2] The name Blue Devils came from the name of a gang of fence cutters operating during the early days of the American West.[3][4]

Several prominent jazz musicians were members, including Lester Young, William "Count" Basie and Buster Smith. The Blue Devils disbanded in 1933, after which Basie recruited most of the group's members to join his group, which had begun in 1931, but then changed the name to the Count Basie Orchestra.[5]

References

  1. ^ Russell, Bird Lives, p. 59: "Before attaining his majority Lester was recruited by the barnstorming Oklahoma City Blue Devils, the scourge of every band in the Southwest. The Blue Devils thrived on battles of the bands. Their reed section smothered rivals under an overwhelming torrent of sound. They were masters of the riff style. Each section bristled with solo talent. They had taken on and beaten the best bands from Kansas City, even Bennie Moten. Had not the Depression intervened, no other band could have touched them. Beginning in 1930 one star after another had left the blue Devils—Basie, Lips Page, Walter Page, Eddie Durham, Jimmy Rushing—all of them to seek employment in Pendergast's Depression-proof Kansas City."
  2. ^ Wishart, Encyclopedia of the Great Plains, p. 531: "Buster Smith's troop began in Dallas before relocating and gaining fame as the Oklahoma City Blue Devils. This legendary group included Walter Page on Base, the Influential Lester Young on tenor saxophone, blues shouter Jimmy Rushing, and the great Bill 'Count' Basie on the piano."
  3. ^ Hentoff, Listen to the Stories, p. 205: "Many of the musicians at the two gatherings that make up the film were once associated with the Oklahoma City Blue Devils, a powerfully rolling unit started by bassist Walter Page in the 1920s. It was the first big band Count Basie had ever been in. Other alumni have included Lester Young, Jo Jones, Jimmy Rushing, and Buster Smith. Page took the name of the band from the intrepid barbed-wire cutters during the range wars between farmers and cattlemen."
  4. ^ Wolfgang, "The Early Days": " 'Fence wars' began breaking out in 1882-1883. Many times individuals and even organizations of fence cutters with monikers such as the Owls, Blue Devils and Javelinas, cut miles of fence on the midnight rides."
  5. ^ Dinerstein, Swinging the Machine, p. 107: "Ellison grew up in Oklahoma City, the home-base of the influential territory band, the Oklahoma City Blue Devils; he was also a close personal friend of Jimmy Rushing, the band's vocalist, and a regular at their performances and jam sessions. Anchored by the bassist Walter Page, the trumpeter Oran "Hot Lips" Page, Rushing, and the tenor saxophonist Lester Young, the Blue Devils effectively merged with Bennie Moten's band in Kansas City between 1932 and 1935 to form the Count Basie Band."

Bibliography

  • Daniels, Douglas Henry. One O'clock Jump: The Unforgettable History of the Oklahoma City Blue Devils. Boston: Beacon Press, 2006. ISBN 0-8070-7136-6
  • Dinerstein, Joel. Swinging the Machine: Modernity, Technology, and African American Culture Between the World Wars . University of Massachusetts Press, 2003. ISBN 1-55849-383-2
  • Hentoff, Nat. Listen to the Stories: Nat Hentoff on Jazz and Country Music. Da Capo, 2000. ISBN 0-306-80982-6
  • Pearson, Nathan W. Goin' to Kansas City. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987. ISBN 0-252-01336-0
  • Russell, Ross. Bird Lives: The High Life and Hard Times of Charlie (Yardbird) Parker. Da Capo Press, 1996. ISBN 0-306-80679-7
  • Russell, Ross. Jazz style in Kansas City and the Southwest. Berkley: University of California Press, 1971. ISBN 0-520-01853-2
  • Wishart, David J. (ed.) Encyclopedia of the Great Plains. University of Nebraska Press, 2004. ISBN 0-8032-4787-7
  • Wolfgang, Otto. "The Early Days: How the Wild West Was Fenced In", reprinted in The Cattleman (Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association), Aug. 1966, Vol. LIII, No. III.

External links

Stub icon This article on a United States jazz band is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

 

Copyrights:

Artist. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Oklahoma City Blue Devils".  Read more