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Andy Kirk led one of the swing era's essential bands, a group that emerged in Kansas City in 1929 in the heated Kansas City milieu of the Walter Page and Bennie Moten bands. An essential component of Kirk's success was the presence of Mary Lou Williams, who helped define the band's style, both as a pianist and composer. This CD surveys the Kirk band from 1929 to 1940 with some special emphasis on Williams's compositions. There are five tracks from 1929-30, the first phase in the band's recording career. Like many other groups of the time, it was simultaneously developing sectional play and the ability to swing. The first track, "Mess-a-Stomp," was Williams's first recorded arrangement, and the shifting parts show the influence of Jelly Roll Morton. After a six-year break in which Kirk's band did not record, they emerge as a full-blown and fluid swing band on Williams's "Walkin' and Swingin'." One of the band's most popular numbers, it's just one of this CD's high points. "Little Joe from Chicago," with Williams's great boogie-woogie piano and a band vocal, and the rocking "Dunkin' a Doughnut," both from 1938, show Williams as one of the swing era's most reliable riff specialists. Along with tenor saxophonist Dick Wilson, she's also one of the band's genuinely distinguished soloists. --Stuart Broomer
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