Jay McShann

“The Last of the Blue Devils”

Jay “Hootie” McShann landed in Kansas City in the 1930s, and along with fellow pianist and bandleader Count Basie, established what came to be known as the Kansas City sound: blues rooted jazz driven by swinging horns laid over a powerful but relaxed rhythmic pulse.

James Columbus McShann was born in Muskogee, Okla., on Jan. 12, 1916. He learned to play piano as a young boy by tagging along with an older sister to piano lessons and imitating music he heard on the radio. One of the piano men he heard and would be influenced by was Earl “Fatha” Hines whose live broadcasts from Chicago’s Grand Terrace Hotel he would listen to. By 15, he was working with saxophonist Don Byas and other groups across the Southwest.

While traveling to Omaha in 1936, his bus stopped for two hours in Kansas City. McShann walked into a club, heard the music and never left. Within two days, he found work. He absorbed the energetic, blues-drenched style of Pete Johnson and other boogie-woogie masters, and in a city filled with now legendary musicians McShann established himself as a leading pianist and bandleader.

In 1937, he was walking past a Kansas City club when he heard an alto saxophonist who played unlike anyone he’d heard. It was 17-year-old Charlie Parker. While in McShann's band, Parker made his first recordings in the early 1940s. They had a hit in 1941 with "Confessin' the Blues," soon followed by "Hootie's Blues." For some other tunes featuring “Bird” swinging with McShann listen to “Jumpin The Blues,” “Sepian Bounce” and “Swingmatism.” The band also recorded Parker's "What Price Love," which later became one of the saxophonist's signature works under the title "Yardbird Suite”. In addition to Parker, the McShann big band included other great players as bassist Gene Ramey (1940- 44), drummer Gus Johnson (1940-42), and saxophonist Paul Quinichette (1943). Blues shouter Walter Brown was hired as the bands vocalist in 1940 and the McShann big band cut its first records in Dallas, Texas in November of 1941. This band at the time was rivaling Count Basie, as the hottest act in town.

Traveling to New York’s Savoy Ballroom in February of 1942 they did a stellar performance that was broadcast live, gaining them a huge audience in the process. Just as they seemed poised to take its place among the Swing era’s elite, WWII and the Petrillo Recording Ban put an end to the group’s rise to the top. As all commercial recording was to come to a halt in August of 1942 the Jay McShann big band made its last recordings on July 2nd. McShann himself was drafted in 1943 and served in the Army during part of World War II. After being discharged he settled in Los Angeles, where he started working with singer Jimmy Witherspoon. Between 1945 and 1950 they found success with a string of R&B flavored recordings like “Money’s Getting’ Cheaper”, “Shipyard Woman Blues”, and the huge hit in ’49 “Ain’t Nobody’s Business”. Sometime in 1950, McShann returned to Kansas City, where he owned a trash-hauling business and limousine service for a few years. Although out of the limelight he never strayed far from music. In December of 1957 he teamed once again with Witherspoon on a date for RCA Victor, after which he spent many years in relative obscurity.

Military Music: Part 1

by Monk Rowe
October 14, 2024

Jazz musicians were not exempt from service in the U.S. military. Jay McShann, John Bunch, Louie Bellson, Terry Gibbs, Clark Terry, Orrin Keepnews, George Wein, Joe Bushkin, and Bobby Johnson speak about their experiences during WWII. ...

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Album Review

Jay McShann: In Copenhagen

Read "In Copenhagen" reviewed by Chris Mosey

by Chris Mosey
June 4, 2009

Jay “Hootie" McShann was like one of those Russian dolls that you knock down and they bounce right up again. Right up until his death in 2006 at the age of 90, he was one of the jazz world's great survivors. Born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, in 1916, his spiritual and musical home was Kansas City, where he achieved his place in the history books for fronting the big band that introduced Charlie Parker to the world. It played the Apollo ...

358

Album Review

Jay McShann: Hootie Blues

Read "Hootie Blues" reviewed by Michael P. Gladstone

by Michael P. Gladstone
August 10, 2006

Okay, it is true that ninety-year-old legend Jay McShann was only 85 when he recorded this live album in early 2001 at the Montreal Bistro in Toronto, intending it for broadcast on CBC Radio. But I think it's safe to conclude that his powers haven't dimished a bit since that event.

McShann (aka Hootie) is a Kansas product who made his name in Wichita and Kansas City in the 1930s and is likely the only survivor of those ...

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Album Review

Jay McShann Trio: Hootie!

by Dave Nathan
September 1, 2000

Chiaroscuro was taping a live performance of Jay McShann's trio when lo and behold, in walked Phil Woods. Flip Phillips and David “Fathead" Newman all of whom happened to be on the S/S Norway for the 14th annual Floating Jazz Festival. The trio then lent their considerable talents to the session, with no rehearsal. Apocrypha or not, it makes for an interesting story and outstanding jazz music. The title of the album Hootie! is what McShann is known by to ...

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Album Review

Jay McShann with Duke Robillard and Maria Muldaur: Still Jumpin' The Blues

by Ed Kopp
January 1, 2000

If you're a fan of music that straddles that line between jazz and blues, Jay McShann's Still Jumpin' The Blues will hit you where you live. No one epitomizes Kansas City jump better than 83-year-old McShann, the smooth pianist and veteran band leader. McShann plays and sings with incredible energy on this charming set of tunes featuring guitarist Duke Robillard and his band, as well as sassy vocalist Maria Muldaur.McShann and Robillard are a highly compatible pair, and ...

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