Walter Page's Blue Devils

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Walter Page's Blue Devils was a territory band, an orchestra that toured its own region, in this case the area around Oklahoma City and Wichita in Kansas. The bassist Walter Page founded the group in 1925, after Billy King's Road Show, with which he had toured the United States, had broken up. That road show already featured the later Basie musicians Jimmy Rushing and Count Basie. The band lasted six years, from 1925 to 1931. Page led it from behind the bass and also played baritone saxophone. His nickname was Big 'Un.

Music and breakthrough

Over the years the band included names that would later shape jazz: Count Basie, Jimmy Rushing, Buster Smith, Lester Young and Hot Lips Page. Only two recording sessions of the group exist. In 1929 it recorded a handful of numbers in Kansas City for Vocalion, including Blue Devil Blues. On it Page plays first tuba, then double bass and finally baritone saxophone.

Influence

Page was eager to measure his band against the orchestra of Bennie Moten from Kansas City. Moten avoided a direct contest and preferred to buy away individual musicians with high wages. Basie and Eddie Durham left in 1929, shortly afterwards Rushing, and eventually Page himself. Beset by money worries, booking problems and a conflict with the musicians' union, he had to hand over the leadership to others. Page then played with Moten and later with Basie. The Blue Devils show how the swing of Kansas City grew out of touring orchestras in the Southwest, full of riffs and a solid rhythm.

Listening