ABSTRACT
A group of jazz musicians from the Count Basie band who made an important set of discs for Commodore on 8 Sep 1938. The artists were Buck Clayton, trumpet; Eddie Durham, trombone and electric guitar; Freddy Greene, guitar; Walter Page, string bass; Jo Jones, drums; and Lester Young. Young played a metal clarinet on most of these discs, rather than his usual tenor saxophone, showing remarkable inventiveness and facility on his second instrument. This session was also noted as the first to feature the electric guitar. The five works recorded were “Way Down Yonder in New Orleans”and “Pagin’the Devil” (featuring Page; 512), “Countless Blues” (referring to the absence of Basie, who could not play with the group for contractual reasons), and “I Want a Little Girl” (a particularly tender solo by Young; #509), and “Them There Eyes” (with a vocal by Greene; #511). There was also a Kansas City Five-the same musicians, minus Young, who did a Commodore session on 18 Mar 1938. A group of totally different membership was also called the Kansas City Five; they recorded for Pathé and Ajax in 1924 and 1925.
One of the firms affiliated with the North American Phonograph Co. from 1890 to 1893, located in Topeka, Kansas. George E. Tewksbury was president in 1890 and general manager in 1892-1893. S.S. Ott was president in 1891-1892, and general manager in 1892-1893. A.B. Poole was secretary-treasurer in 1892.
