Kansas City Lightning (44 page)

Walter Page's Blue Devils, the Oklahoma City band that rivaled Moten's organization in the early 1930s. This 1931 iteration of the band included bassist and bandleader Page (front row center, with trumpet), trumpeter Oran “Hot Lips” Page (front row, third from right), and saxophonist Buster Smith (back row, second from right), who became Charlie's mentor.

Courtesy of the Frank Driggs Collection at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Reno Club “spook breakfast” ad courtesy University of Missouri/Kansas City Special Collections and the Club Kaycee website, http://library.umkc.edu/spec-col/club-kaycee/JAZZSPOT/spook_01.htm.

The Reno Club on Twelfth Street and Cherry, November 1936. The Bus Moten band, led by Bennie's nephew (left), is in attendance, Hot Lips Page at the microphone.
An invitation to the “spook breakfasts” at the Reno. Count Basie presiding.

Courtesy of the Frank Driggs Collection at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

By 1938, Count Basie and his Orchestra had made it to New York. Here they are at the Famous Door on Fifty-Second Street that July: (left to right) Walter Page, Jo Jones, Freddie Green, Count Basie, Benny Morton, Herschel Evans, Buck Clayton, Dicky Wells, Earl Warren Ed Lewis, Harry Edison, Jade Washington, and Lester Young.

Courtesy of the Frank Driggs Collection at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Jack Johnson, whose tenure as Heavyweight Champion of the World was complicated by his disregard for other people's opinions.

Courtesy of the Frank Driggs Collection at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Joe Louis, who cut a different figure when he claimed the title thirty years later, on the night Charlie and Rebecca were engaged.

Courtesy of the Frank Driggs Collection at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Four saxophonists who paved the way for Charlie Parker (above and following): Coleman Hawkins

Courtesy of the Frank Driggs Collection at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Lester Young

Courtesy of the Frank Driggs Collection at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Chu Berry

Courtesy of the Frank Driggs Collection at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Buster Smith, Charlie's mentor

Courtesy Llew Walker at the Bird Lives website, www.birdlives.co.uk.

Bandleader and saxophonist Tommy Douglas

Courtesy of the Frank Driggs Collection at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Trumpeter Roy Eldridge

Courtesy of the Frank Driggs Collection at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Pianist Art Tatum