Bennie Moten’s Kansas City Orchestra with
Bennie Moten (seated, right), vocalist Jimmy Rushing (center), and Count Basie (seated, left)
at the Pearl Theatre, Philadelphia, c. 1931.

Courtesy of the Frank Driggs Collection.

 

“Moten Swing ”

Bennie Moten’s Kansas City Orchestra

1932

The predecessor to Count Basie’s band, Moten’s orchestra (which featured Basie on piano) injected the Swing Era with the simultaneously relaxed and raucous rhythms of Kansas City.