Bennie Moten

piano, conductor · 1893–1935 · Kansas City (Missouri)

He led the Kansas City Orchestra from 1923, which recorded for Okeh and then, from 1926, for Victor, and in 1929 recruited Count Basie, Walter Page, and Hot Lips Page. His orchestra, the main blues-based regional orchestra in the Midwest, developed the riff-based playing that marks the big bands of the 1930s.

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Styles

• Kansas City

Landmark tracks

• Moten Swing (1932)
• Toby (1932)

Sources

• Source

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