Take Two
Moten Swing
Pianist and bandleader Benny Moten was born in 1893 in Kansas City, Missouri. His first band recordings in 1923 showed the influence of King Oliver and elements of ragtime music and a stomping beat for which his orchestras became famous. The real revolution came in 1929, after he recruited Count Basie, Walter Page and 'Hot Lips' Page. Moten continued to be one of Victor's most popular orchestras through 1930. Their final session showed the early stages of what became known as the "Basie sound," four years before Basie recorded under his own name. Benny Moten died in 1935 after a failed tonsillectomy operation. Nathan W. Pearson Jr. summarized Bennie Moten's influence on Kansas City's jazz legacy: "Among Kansas City musicians . . . the city, the style, and the era of its flowering are virtually synonymous with the Bennie Moten Orchestra."
For our first 'take' of Moten Swing we go to director Robert Altman's 1996 film Jazz '34 in which musicians remember the Kansas City jazz scene and pay homage to the jazz players of the time. There are reconstructions of some of the bands from those days. "This is not so much a documentary so much as a recreation, or rather a documentary done by Robert Altman IF he had 1990s camera equipment in a 1930s Kansas City nightclub." (IMDB). In this scene from the film, Moten Swing is remembered:
To bring you a different interpretation of Moten Swing for our second 'take' we turn to the Oscar Peterson Trio who on this occasion are joined by saxophonist Sonny Stitt who plays a nice creative solo for the number. Sonny Stitt was nicknamed the "Lone Wolf" by jazz critic Dan Morgenstern because of his tendency to rarely work with the same musicians for long despite his relentless touring and devotion to the music.