Coon Sander's Nighthawks - Kansas City Kitty (1929)

Coon-Sanders Original Nighthawk Orchestra was the first Kansas City jazz band to achieve national recognition, which it acquired through national radio broadcasts. It was founded in 1919, as the Coon-Sanders Novelty Orchestra, by drummer Carleton Coon and pianist Joe Sanders.

Coon was born in Rochester, Minnesota in 1893 and his family moved to Lexington, Missouri shortly after his birth. Sanders was born in Kansas in 1896. Sanders was known as "The Old Left Hander" because of his skills at baseball. He gave the game up in the early 1920s to make dance music his career.

The orchestra began broadcasting in 1922 on clear channel station WDAF, which could be received throughout the United States. They were broadcast in performance at the Muehlbach Hotel in Kansas City. They took the name Nighthawks because they broadcast late at night. By 1924 their fan club had 37,000 members. Fans were encouraged to send in requests for songs by letter, telephone or telegram. That move became so popular that Western Union set up a ticker tape between Sanders' piano and Coon's drums so the telegrams could be acknowledged during the broadcasts. Their song "Nighthawk Blues" includes the lines: "Tune right in on the radio/Grab a telegram and say 'Hello'."

The group left Kansas City for the first time in 1924 for a three-month engagement in a roadhouse in Chicago. The orchestra moved to Chicago the same year, where Jules Stein used the profits from a tour he booked for them to establish the Music Corporation of America, with the orchestra as its first client. The orchestra moved into the Blackhawk Hotel in Chicago in 1926. The members of the Orchestra at that time were Joe Richolson and Bob Pope, trumpets; Rex Downing, trombone; Harold Thiell, Joe Thiell and Floyd Estep, saxophones; Joe Sanders, piano; Russ Stout, banjo and guitar; "Pop" Estep, tuba; Carleton Coon, drums. In the following years, the Nighthawks performed at the Blackhawk every winter, doing remote broadcasts over radio station WGN. Their reputation spread coast-to-coast through these broadcasts and the many records they made for Victor. They undertook very successful road tours.

The orchestra later moved to New York City for a broadcast engagement at the Hotel New Yorker arranged by William S. Paley, who needed a star attraction to induce radio stations to join the Columbia Broadcasting System.

At their peak, each member of the Orchestra owned identical Cord Automobiles, each in a different color with the name of the Orchestra and the owner embossed on the rear. The Orchestra's popularity showed no signs of abating and their contract with MCA had another 15 years to run in the spring of 1932 when Carleton Coon came down with a jaw infection and died, on May 4.

Joe Sanders attempted to keep the organization going; however, without Coon, the public did not support them. In 1935, he formed his own group and played until the early 1940s when he became a part time orchestra leader and studio musician. In his later years he suffered from failing eyesight and other health problems. He died in 1965 after suffering a stroke.


Coon Sander's Original Nighthawks Orchestra - Kansas City Kitty (1929)

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Coon
• Sander's
• Nighthawks
• 1929
• 20's
• 30's

[Corrie121]

Great post.

Thanks for sharing.

[uslines]

The Nighthawks were the greatest of all the 1920's groups. Their arrangements were inspired. Can't get enough of them!. Wonder if any Airchecks (non-recording studio) tracks exist. Someone must have recorded them off the air. Thanks for your contributions.

[Bigband78]

Great version of this tune

[netcowboy]

I'm so grateful for this!

[fromthesidelines]

Recorded in Chicago on February 23, 1929; vocal by Joe Sanders.

[vendoboy]

Makes me proud to be from . . . Kansas City. Great music history.

Coon Sanders and Nighthawks -tops

[Masquerade03]

Just the way they start to play is wonderful! Thanks for bring us another Coon- Sanders'!

[bill3murr]

hooray for coon-sanders! thanks