[Dixielandjazz] Jay McShann

[Stan Brager]

The Kansas City Star has posted the sad news that blues and jazz pianist Jay
McShann has died.

Stan
Stan Brager
.............................................................
Jazz legend Jay McShann dies

By ROBERT TRUSSELL
The Kansas City Star

Jay McShann, legendary pianist, composer and bandleader, died today at St.
Luke's Hospital.

McShann was one of the giants of Kansas City jazz and one of the last living
links to the city's fabled jazz era.

Although there was disagreement through the years regarding his birth date,
he was thought to be 90 years old.

A native of Muskogee, Okla., McShann arrived in Kansas City in 1936 and
quickly immersed himself in the city's dynamic jazz scene. The city
attracted musicians from around the country, thanks in part to its
reputation as a "wide open town" during the 1920s and '30s.

Among the players and bandleaders who emerged from the city in those days
were Count Basie, Lester Young, Big Joe Turner, Mary Lou Williams and
Charlie Parker.

McShann, in fact, made his first recordings as the leader of his own big
band in 1941 when the personnel included a young Parker, who would become a
legendary figure in his own right.

McShann recorded scores of albums during a career that spanned more than 70
years. He continued performing into the 21st century, performing in 2003 at
the Kansas City Spirit Festival, the Folly Theatre and the second annual
CODA Jazz fund concert. He performed at the Folly again in 2005, and in 2006
performed at the Gem Theatre in conjunction with the Penn Valley Jazz
Festival.

He also was featured in "Piano Blues," a documentary directed by Clint
Eastwood for the 2003 PBS series "The Blues." He was one of many noted jazz
figures interviewed for "Jazz," the 2001 Ken Burns documentary miniseries.
His most memorable appearance in a documentary remains "The Last of the Blue
Devils," a 1980 film showing a reunion of Kansas City jazz greats at their
old union hall, the Mutual Musicians Foundation.