Jay McShann Dies

By I Dec. 8, 2006

Pianist Jay McShann died on Dec. 7 in Kansas City, Mo. He was 90.

If the 1930s Kansas City sound is associated with rollicking boogie-woogie and full-throttle swing, then McShann was one of its greatest proponents. He was also an early employer of Charlie Parker

McShann was born in Muskogee, Okla., on Jan. 12, 1916. When he was 15 he began working for Don Byas and attended the Tuskegee Institute. He started performing in Kansas City in 1936 and formed his own sextet the following year. In 1939 his big band performed at such famous Kansas City clubs as the Century Room and Fairyland Park and had a hit with “Confessin The Blues.” The band started recording for Decca in 1941 with Parker in the alto section and was on its “Hootie Blues” recording. Tenor players who joined in the next few years included Jimmy Forrest and Paul Quinichette. McShann’s band toured regularly, although it was on hiatus while he served in the army in 1943 and 1944. After World War II, McShann’s band played often at the Savoy and other clubs on 52nd Street in New York. He led a small group with Jimmy Witherspoon in California toward the end of the decade. McShann continued to record and play in clubs, concert halls and festivals worldwide in the decades that followed. The pianist also became a living resource for jazz history and appeared in the documentaries, Last Of The Blue Devils , Hootie Blues and the Ken Burns miniseries, Jazz .

Usually leading small groups toward the end of his life, McShann’s piano style was infused with a percussive take on the blues and jazz. In his later years, his singing also developed a warm nasal tone.