Bennie Moten（Bennie Moten）

乐队简介

人们记得Bennie Moten往往是因为贝西伯爵管弦乐队（Count Basie），因为他设立的坎萨斯市管弦乐队（Moten's Kansas City Orchestra）是贝西伯爵管弦乐队的前身。但Moten的成就远胜于此。他是一个很好的钢琴演奏者，演奏以拉格泰姆（ragtime）风格为主。他领导着他的那支管弦乐队，使它成为二十年代当地最优秀的乐队，也成为坎萨斯市爵士乐演奏的典范。

实际上Moten的乐队是强势的，以至于最后它吞并了许多竞争者的乐队，包括Walter Page的蓝魔（Blue Devils）乐队。蓝魔乐队的许多成员，最后成为了Moten的乐队成员，嗯，包括William Basie（就是后来设立Count Basie乐队的那个钢琴手）。

Moten的乐队原来是一个六重奏的组合，组建于1922年。1923年，乐队推出了他们的首张唱片。1923到1925年间，Moten最受欢迎的是那首“south”。1926到1932年间，Moten的管弦乐队为了Victor公司而录制了几张唱片。虽然Moten的管弦乐队最初的成员中，并没有很出名的人，但后来加入他乐队的人中不乏优秀的音乐家：比如偶尔在乐队中演奏一下手风琴的Moten的哥哥BUCHER Moten；比如萨克斯Harlan Leonard， Jack Washington；比如喇叭手和吉他手Eddie Durham；比如歌手Jimmy Rushing；比如喇叭手“热嘴唇”oran Page（Hot Lip Page）和1929年之后加入的钢琴手Count Basie。Count的演奏风格深受Moten的影响。从那时开始，乐队唱片中的钢琴部分，都是由Count演奏的，Moten只是在俱乐部的现场表演中弹奏一两段。

Bennie Moten最著名的一张专辑，也是他的最后一张专辑。从1932年12月13日的录制的这10首歌中，我们惊讶的发现它们和Count Basie五年后的一张专辑非常的类似。

除了Hot Lips Page，Durham， Washington和Basie，那时的乐队还包括了Ben Webster，Eddie Barefield和Walter Page，其中的一个亮点是初次登场的“Moten Swing。”

1935年Moten在扁桃体切除手术中不幸逝世。Buster Moten暂时接管了Moten的乐队，但乐队中许多顶尖的成员，终于离开了乐队，跟随像Lester Young这样的优秀音乐家一起加入了Count Basie的贝西伯爵管弦乐队。

Scott Yanow文

perfectstring译

Bennie Moten is today best-remembered as the leader of a band that partly became the nucelus of the original Count Basie Orchestra, but Moten deserves better. He was a fine ragtime-oriented pianist who led the top territory band of the 1920s, an orchestra that really set the standard for Kansas City jazz. In fact it was so dominant that Moten was able to swallow up some of his competitors' groups including Walter Page's Blue Devils, most of whom eventually became members of Moten's big band. Moten 出生 his group (originally a sextet) in 1922 and the following year they made their first recordings. Among Moten's 1923-25 sides for Okeh was the original version of his greatest hit "South." During 1926-32 Moten's Orchestra recorded for Victor and, although none of his original musicians became famous, the later additions included his brother Buster on occasional jazz accordion, Harlan Leonard, Jack Washington, Eddie Durham, Jimmy Rushing, Hot Lips Page and (starting in 1929) Count Basie. So impressed was Moten by Moten's playing that Count assumed the piano chair for recordings from that point on (although in clubs Moten would generally play a feature or two). The most famous Bennie Moten recording session was also his last, ten songs cut on December 13, 1932 that find the ensemble strongly resembling Basie's five years later. In addition to Hot Lips Page, Durham, Washington and Basie, the band at that point also starred Ben Webster, Eddie Barefield and Walter Page and one of the highpoints was the debut of "Moten Swing."

Tragically Bennie Moten die in 1935 from a botched tonsillectomy operation. Buster Moten briefly took over the band, but many of its top members (along with some important additions like Lester Young) eventually gravitated towards Count Basie. — Scott Yanow