The popularity of jazz musicians by black artists has seen particularly high levels of progress in Kansas City throughout history. "For a brief time, from the late 1920s through the late 1930s, Kansas City was a mecca for black jazz musicians from the Midwest and Southwest. Some of the amazing music is the result of healthy competition and collegiality that grew between musicians with significantly different backgrounds and styles. Among the musicians who marked the Kansas City sound then were Bill "Count" Basie, Bennie Moten, Lester Young, Eddie Durham, Jesse Stone, Walter Page, Oran "Hot Lips". " Page, Mary Lou Williams, Eddie Barefield, Henry "Buster" Smith, Ed Lewis, Jimmy Rushing, Joe Turner, Pete Johnson, Jay McShann, Claude "Fiddler" Williams, Dick Wilson and Charlie Parker It's an extraordinary role for a relatively small town period,” (Pearon 182). Considering these individuals, it is evident that the most significant time period in Kansas City's history, regarding the spread of black jazz music, is the 1920s and 1930s. One of the musicians most indirectly responsible for helping the spread of black jazz music in Kansas City is Bill "Count" Basie, a figure who "deserves to be [known by] anyone who claims to have more than a passing interest in the historical development of jazz" (Dunford 321). He was “the most important pianist and most important bandleader to emerge from Kansas City…” (Richards). "Basie, unlike most other musicians in the area, was not originally from the Midwest. Originally from New Jersey, he got stuck in Kansas City when the touring band he was with broke up. Then he played accompanist for a while in silent films theaters until he joined the Blue Devils in 1928 and Bennie Moten's Kansas City Orchestra in 1929. When Moten's group disbanded in 1932, its core musicians, including Walter Page and drummer Jo Jones, became the nucleus of the Count Basie Orchestra is a second important individual regarding the advancement of black jazz music in the history of Kansas City. "A Bennie Moten ensemble had existed since the early 1920s. And in 1924, on his third recording date and with his staff expanded from six to eight, he had his first hit in a piece called "South." Indeed, a stylistically updated 1928 remake of Moten's "South," featuring ten instrumentalists - two trumpets, one trombone, three reeds and four rhythms - could be found on Southern and Southwest jukeboxes as late as late. forties" (Williams 172).