There were four major galaxies in the early jazz universe, and three of them - New Orleans, Chicago, and New York - have been well documented in print. But there has never been a serious history of the fourth, Kansas City, until now.

In this colourful history, Frank Driggs and Chuck Haddix range from ragtime to bebop and from Bennie Moten to Charlie Parker to capture the golden age of Kansas City jazz. Readers will find a vibrant portrait of old Kaycee itself, back then a neon riot of bars, gambling dens, and taxi dance halls, all ruled over by Boss Tom Pendergast, who had transformed a dusty cowtown into the Paris of the Plains. We see how this wide-open, gin-soaked town gave birth to a music that was more basic and more viscerally exciting than other styles of jazz, its singers belting out a rough-and tumble urban style of blues, its piano players pounding out a style later known as 'boogie-woogie''. We visit the great landmarks, like the Reno Club, the 'Biggest Little Club in the World', where Lester Young and Count Basie made jazz history and Charlie Parker began his musical education in the alley out back. And of course the authors illuminate the lives of the great musicians who made Kansas City swing, with engaging profiles of jazz figures such as Mary Lou Williams, Big Joe Turner, Jimmy Rushing, and Andy Kirk and his 'Clouds of Joy'.

CONTENTS:
1. Tales From Tom's Town
2. Carrie's Gone to Kansas City
3. Get Low-Down Blues
4. The Territories
5. Blue Devil Blues
6. Moten's Swing
7. Until the Real Thing Comes Along
8. Roll 'Em Pete
9. Hootie's Blues

FRANK DRIGGS is a recognised authority on Kansas City jazz. A former record executive with both Columbia and RCA Victor Records, he now runs the premiere agency for jazz photographs and has co-authored a pictorial history of jazz.

CHUCK HADDIX is the Director of the Marr Sound Archives at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. A native of Kansas City, he hosts a weelend programme on KCUR FM called "Fish Fry." His writing has appeared in Down Beat and Living Blues Magazine.

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