Kansas City Jazz - A Little Evil Will Do You Good - Con Chapman
The Clouds of Joy and the Lady Who Swung the Band
Kansas City Jazz - A Little Evil Will Do You Good - Con Chapman
Con Chapman [+]
Music writer
Con Chapman is the author of Rabbit’s Blues: The Life and Music of Jonny Hodges (Oxford University Press, 2019), winner of the 2019 Book of the Year Award by Hot Club de France, and a 2020 Certificate of Merit for Best Historical Research from the Association for Recorded Sound Collections. His writing on jazz has appeared in The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, Syncopated Times, and Brilliant Corners, among other publications.
Description
Andy Kirk’s band grew out of Terrence Holder’s Dark Clouds of Joy, and it was the first Kansas City-based group to achieve national prominence. Known for their “sweet” sound, the most noteworthy musician to emerge from their ranks was Mary Lou Williams, who as her play became more experimental began to chafe at the tight rein that Kirk imposed on his musicians in order to maintain their popularity. She would eventually leave him despite his group’s success to explore more innovative musical territory with musicians such as Thelonious Monk that would develop into bebop.