Jay McShann

Blues musician Jay McShann was born in Muskogee, OK, in 1916. As a young man he taught himself to play the piano. At 20 years of age he moved to Kansas City, MO, and secured gigs playing in the city's jazz clubs and lounges. He normally played with a quartet, but in 1938 he expanded that to a seven-piece band, expanding it again to an 11-piece ...