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The Oklahoma City Blue Devils was the premier American Southwest territory jazz band in the 1920s. Originally called Billy King's Road Show, it disbanded in Oklahoma City in 1925 where Walter Page renamed it. The name Blue Devils came from the name of a gang of fence cutters operating during the early days of the American West.
15. Jan. 2010 · blue devils. The Oklahoma City Blue Devils began circa 1923–24 in Kansas City as Billy King's Road Show, a traveling vaudeville troupe. While trombonist Ermir "Bucket" Coleman had nominal control of the band, Walter Page masterminded the musical arrangements.
12. Feb. 2007 · The Oklahoma City Blue Devils were a territorial band with a legendary reputation among musicians in the Southwest. Starting in 1923 accompanying Billy King’s road show, “Moonshine,” at the Aldridge Theatre in Oklahoma City, they also performed for white and African American audiences from Texas to the Dakotas until stranded in ...
18. Nov. 2021 · The Oklahoma City Blue Devils were a pioneer band with a legendary reputation among musicians in the Southwest. The band was established in 1923, accompanying Billy King’s road show, “Moonshine,” at the Aldridge Theatre in Oklahoma City.
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Oklahoma City Blue Devils was a band formed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. They were the premier American Southwest territory jazz band in the 1920s.
There are conflicting reports as to the orchestra's formation. Some records place its origins from Billy King's Road Show, which disbanded in Oklahoma City in 1925 and state that, following its disbandment, Walter Page reformed the group and named it the Oklahoma City Blue Devils. While the Blue Devils were undoubtedly based out of Oklahoma City, records show their first public appearances were in Kansas City, as early as 1922.
The name Blue Devils came from the name of a gang of fence cutters operating during the early days of the American West.
Several prominent jazz musicians were members, including Lester Young, William "Count" Basie and Henry "Buster" Smith. After a patch of particularly bad luck in 1933 the "Blue Devils" found themselves stranded in Virginia, without any instruments or money, and had to hop a freight train back to St. Louis. Bennie Moten sized this opportunity to add fresh talent to his "Kansas City Orchestra" and hired the group's remaining members.
After Moten's death in 1935, Basie recruited most of the group's members to join his group, the Count Basie Orchestra. The Count Basie Orchestra continues performing today as a ghost band.
The 1979 film The Last of the Blue Devils documents a musical reunion with Basie, Big Joe Turner and other figures from the history of southwestern and Kansas City jazz.
Bandleaders
•? Coleman — 1924
•Willie Lewis — 1925-?
•Walter Page — 1925-1930
•Bennie Moten — 1929-1929
•James Simpson — 1931-1933
Oklahoma City musician and bandleader Hart Wand published the first blues on sheet music with "Dallas Blues" in March 1912; legendary territory band the Oklahoma City Blue Devils stormed through Muskogee, Tulsa, and Oklahoma City with Jimmy Rushing shouting the blues through a megaphone over the Blue Devils' blazing horns; and seminal Delta ...
The Oklahoma City Blue Devils, also known as Walter Page's Blue Devils, featured an all-star lineup as one of Kansas City's premier jazz bands in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The territory band is…. Read Full Biography.
