From Paul de Barros’ Friday Column in The Seattle Times:
Jazz has historically flourished in cities that sanctioned and profited from vice and crime.
In Kansas City, during the 1920s and ’30s, jazz flowered under the powerful boss, Mayor Tom Pendergast, nurturing such giants as Count Basie, Joe Turner and Lester Young, to name just a few. (Later, Seattle’s Jackson Street era was a similar, if less important scene.)
During this period, 30 cabarets and ballrooms flourished within walking distance of the corner of 12th and The Paseo, a grand boulevard one block from Vine, made more famous by the lyrics of the 1959 blues/rock song “Kansas City.”
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Seattle Times