Andy Kirk - Introduction: His Best Recordings 1929-1946

Andy Kirk (1898-1992) and his Clouds Of Joy played a major role in the development of the Kansas City big-band swing tradition, picking up where Bennie Moten left off and plowing a fertile furrow parallel to those of Count Basie, Jimmie Lunceford, and Erskine Hawkins. In 1998, the Best of Jazz label released a collection of 22 well-chosen examples of this band in its finest moments, recorded between 1929 and 1946, a period during which jazz evolved from hot to swing to bop. Read More