His orchestra featured the standard Kansas City style at the time: smooth sax chorus over tinkling piano and a bass drum beat.
More often than not, their pieces featured a hard stomp beat that was extremely popular in Kansas City.īy 1927, Moten's orchestra contained many names associated with Kansas City music, and included Harlan Leonard (alto sax), Jack Washington (alto and baritone sax), Ed Lewis and Lamar Wright (trumpets) and Willie McWashington (drums). They signed with Victor Records in 1926, and were influenced by the more sophisticated style of Fletcher Henderson. These OKeh sides (recorded 1923–1925) are some of the more valuable acoustic jazz 78s of the era they are treasured records in many serious jazz collections. They also showed the influence of the ragtime that was still popular in the area, as well as the stomping beat for which his band was famous. His first recordings were made (for OKeh Records) on September 23, 1923, and were rather typical interpretations of the New Orleans style of King Oliver and others. Moten started making music from an early age and developed as a pianist, pulling together other musicians in a band. The jazz standard " Moten Swing" bears his name. He led his Kansas City Orchestra, the most important of the regional, blues-based orchestras active in the Midwest in the 1920s, and helped to develop the riffing style that would come to define many of the 1930s big bands. Benjamin Moten (Novem– April 2, 1935) was an American jazz pianist and band leader born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, United States.
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