Bennie Moten was a great figure in developing larger jazz orchestras. He was one of the earliest known organizers of bands in the Midwest in the emergent years of jazz, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.
He was born and raised in Kansas City.
According to the Missouri Valley Special Collections, Moten studied piano with two of Scott Joplin’s former students. He was a good piano player, but Moten excelled as a bandleader and businessman. He was a minor politician, friendly with political boss Tom Pendergast, and controlled many of the music jobs in Kansas City.
Moten was leading his own professional ragtime trio by 1918, and he later expanded to a six-piece band. Over time, Moten’s band grew and its members included some of the greatest jazz musicians, most notably Count Basie.
The Missouri Valley Special Collections said the Bennie Moten Orchestra developed and refined the Kansas City style of big band jazz. The orchestra performed around the country and made nearly 100 recordings.
In 1935, Moten’s band traveled to Denver while he stayed in Kansas City to have his tonsils removed. Somehow, what should’ve been a routine operation went wrong and Moten died on the operating table.
After his death, the group was taken up by Moten's second pianist, Count Basie.
