This episode of Deeper Roots features performances from Count Basie, Bennie Moten, Andy Kirk & His Twelve Clouds of Joy, Kansas City Kitty, and a host of others.  Kansas City is considered (along with New Orleans, Chicago, St. Louis, and New York) one of the more popular “cradles of jazz”.   Most of the jazz musicians associated with the new jazz style in the early days came from elsewhere but got caught up in the friendly musical competitions among performers that could keep a single song being performed in variations for an entire night.  And the music of the Kansas City big bands were often composed and arranged collectively in a manner known as “head arrangements”.