Bennie Moten

Bennie Moten
Bennie Moten
Background information
Birth name	Benjamin Moten
Born	November 13, 1893; Kansas City, Missouri, United States
Died	April 2, 1935 (aged 41); Kansas City, Missouri
Genres	Jazz, Kansas City jazz
Occupation(s)	Musician, bandleader
Instrument(s)	Piano
Labels	Victor, OKeh, Bluebird, HMV, RCA

Benjamin Moten (November 13, 1893 – April 2, 1935)^[2] was an American jazz pianist and band leader born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, United States.^[3]

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. The jazz standard "Moten Swing" bears his name.

^ "Bennie Moten's Kansas City Orchestra". Red Hot Jazz Archive. 27 October 2020. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
^ Sources contemporary with Moten, including the obituary notice in his hometown newspaper, the Kansas City Call, give his birthday as 13 November 1893 ("Thousands Attend Funeral for Bennie Moten," Kansas City Call, 12 April 1935, cited in Rice, M. (2002). "Break o' Day Blues: The 1923 Recordings of the Bennie Moten Orchestra". The Musical Quarterly. 86 (2): 304, note 12. doi:10.1093/musqtl/gdg010. JSTOR 3600954.; the same date is reported in a wire story reprinted later in the week in several other African-American newspapers: e.g., "Bennie Moten, Well Known Orchestra Leader, Passes", Indianapolis Recorder, 6 April 1935; and "Operation Fatal to Bennie Moten, Orchestra Leader", The Afro-American, 6 April 1935. Most reference works of the last few decades report the year of his birth as 1894, a date which seems to appear first in an essay on Kansas City jazz by Frank Driggs, "Kansas City and the Southwest" (in Hentoff, Nat; McCarthy, Albert, eds. (1957). Jazz. New York: Rinehart & Co. pp. 189–230.), and is repeated in Russell, Ross (1971). Jazz style in Kansas City and the Southwest. Berkeley: University of California Press.. Because of these two influential works, the 1894 date has become firmly embedded in modern reference works and other publications, although Driggs reportedly later admitted that it was a mistake (Rice, "Break o' Day Blues", p. 304, note 12.)
^ Colin Larkin, ed. (1992). The Guinness Who's Who of Jazz (First ed.). Guinness Publishing. p. 296. ISBN 0-85112-580-8.

[1] "Bennie Moten's Kansas City Orchestra". Red Hot Jazz Archive. 27 October 2020. Retrieved 27 October 2020.

[2] Sources contemporary with Moten, including the obituary notice in his hometown newspaper, the Kansas City Call, give his birthday as 13 November 1893 ("Thousands Attend Funeral for Bennie Moten," Kansas City Call, 12 April 1935, cited in Rice, M. (2002). "Break o' Day Blues: The 1923 Recordings of the Bennie Moten Orchestra". The Musical Quarterly. 86 (2): 304, note 12. doi:10.1093/musqtl/gdg010. JSTOR 3600954.; the same date is reported in a wire story reprinted later in the week in several other African-American newspapers: e.g., "Bennie Moten, Well Known Orchestra Leader, Passes", Indianapolis Recorder, 6 April 1935; and "Operation Fatal to Bennie Moten, Orchestra Leader", The Afro-American, 6 April 1935. Most reference works of the last few decades report the year of his birth as 1894, a date which seems to appear first in an essay on Kansas City jazz by Frank Driggs, "Kansas City and the Southwest" (in Hentoff, Nat; McCarthy, Albert, eds. (1957). Jazz. New York: Rinehart & Co. pp. 189–230.), and is repeated in Russell, Ross (1971). Jazz style in Kansas City and the Southwest. Berkeley: University of California Press.. Because of these two influential works, the 1894 date has become firmly embedded in modern reference works and other publications, although Driggs reportedly later admitted that it was a mistake (Rice, "Break o' Day Blues", p. 304, note 12.)

[LarkinJazz-3] Colin Larkin, ed. (1992). The Guinness Who's Who of Jazz (First ed.). Guinness Publishing. p. 296. ISBN 0-85112-580-8.

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