![]() This city of fountains, forever is memorialized in blue notes, not only by its notable artists, but also in songs like Jim Jackson’s “Kansas City Blues.” This rich history is fervently preserved by the Kansas City Blues Society, founded, in part, by Cotton Candy. When Major League Baseball established a Triple-A team for the New York Yankees in Kansas City, it was named the Kansas City Blues. The area of 18 th and Vine was a hopping locale and the social center for folks of color for decades and a regular hangout for Kansas City Monarchs players, when they weren’t on the field for the great Negro League team that brought several championships to town. Jazz legends like Count Basie and Charlie “Bird” Parker were regular performers. Several musicians found fame in the Kansas City blues scene and names such as Big Joe Turner, Jay McShann, Julie Lee, Little Hatch, Cotton Candy (known as Kansas City’s queen of the blues) and Bennie Moten became legendary. One of the more notorious areas for blues musicians was the 18 th and Vine District, where all-night parties went well into the day. Strongly influenced by its jazzy predecessor, Kansas City blues music resonated in illicit nightclubs, cabarets and speakeasies. Rooted in the Deep South, blues music made its debut in the Kansas City area in the 1930s and 40s. The slow twang of heartache and love, failure and success, never-ending journeys and awaited homecomings has long entranced the souls of Kansas Citians. ![]()
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