The Midwest Territory Bands

Walter Page's Blue Devils

Hailing from Kansas City, the Blue Devils featured top players including trombonist/arranger Eddie Durham, trumpeter Oran "Hot Lips" Page, and singer Jimmy Rushing. Though the band only recorded once, it gave Moten's band some hot competition on stages in Missouri, Nebraska and Kansas-that is, before Moten stole many of Page's musicians.

Jessie Stone's Blues Serenades

This group recorded four bluesy tunes in 1927 that cooked like crazy, with horns playing simultaneous lines of melody over loose, relaxed rhythms.

Alphonse Trent

Alphonse Trent's all-black band broke color barriers with a longstanding gig at the all-white Adolphus Hotel in Dallas during the 1920s, and reached a radio audience with live shows on a Dallas station. The eight tunes recorded by the 12-piece band are tough to find.

Dozens of other territory bands covered America's heartland with early big band jazz during the mid-'20s, but most were never recorded. To hear some of the more obscure big band jazz from the period pick up one of these compilations: Real Kansas City of the '20s, '30s & '40s (Columbia), Kansas City Legends (Jazz Archives), and Kansas City Style (Topaz).

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