Kansas City Blues

Kansas City blues is the swinging, jazz-inflected urban blues that flourished in Kansas City during the 1930s, built on riffing horn sections, walking bass lines and rolling boogie-woogie piano. Developed in the clubs of the 18th and Vine district under the Pendergast machine's permissive nightlife, it favoured head arrangements, extended solos and a relaxed, propulsive swing over strict twelve-bar orthodoxy. Its emblematic voices were blues shouters such as *Big Joe Turner*, who sang unamplified over full bands, and pianists and bandleaders including *Pete Johnson*, *Jay McShann* and *Count Basie*, whose orchestra carried the style to national fame.