Jay McShann; Helped Shape Kansas City Jazz, Blues Sound

Jay McShann, whose robust, blues-flavored style of jazz piano helped shape the Kansas City sound of the 1930s, and who launched the career of jazz great Charlie Parker, died Dec. 7 at St. Luke's Hospital in Kansas City, Mo. He was admitted to the hospital Nov. 27 for a respiratory ailment. His age is a matter of some dispute, but most reliable sources say he was 90.

After learning piano in his native Oklahoma and performing across the Southwest early in his career, Mr. McShann came upon Kansas City's vibrant music scene in the mid-1930s. He found a rowdy town whose lax moral code created an ideal environment for nightclubs and musicians.

"See, the town was wide open," Mr. McShann told the Chicago Tribune in 1991. "Now when a town is wide open, all the chicks are gonna be there, the pimps are gonna be there, you know what I mean? And then that makes everything happen, because you could get action any time of day or night, and the music joints were open practically all the time, till 5, 6 in the morning."

In a city filled with now-legendary musicians -- Count Basie, Lester Young, Mary Lou Williams and Big Joe Turner -- Mr. McShann established himself as a leading pianist and bandleader.

Mr. McShann, nicknamed "Hootie," began his career as a fleet-fingered pianist in the mode of Thomas "Fats" Waller and Earl "Fatha" Hines. In Kansas City, he absorbed the energetic, blues-drenched style of Pete Johnson and other boogie-woogie masters. Mr. McShann worked in the same lively vein for the rest of his 75-year career, which continued until months before his death.

In 1937, he was walking past a Kansas City club when he heard an alto saxophonist who played unlike anyone else. It was the 17-year-old Parker.

Working with Mr. McShann's band, Parker made his first recordings in the early 1940s, already showing signs of the speedy elaborations that became the foundation of bebop, the style that would revolutionize jazz.

With Parker playing in the background, Mr. McShann had a hit in 1941 with "Confessin' the Blues," soon followed by "Hootie's Blues." He also recorded Parker's "What Price Love," which later became one of the saxophonist's signature works under the title "Yardbird Suite."

"Yardbird," often shortened to "Bird," was Parker's celebrated nickname, which he received while working with Mr. McShann. Driving to a job in Lincoln, Neb., Mr. McShann recalled in a 1999 interview, his car struck a chicken.

"Charlie yelled, 'Back up. You hit a yardbird!' He got out of the car and got it and carried the chicken on into Lincoln."

Parker had it cooked and ate it all in one sitting.

James Columbus McShann was born in Muskogee, Okla., probably on Jan. 12, 1916. He tagged along with an older sister to piano lessons and imitated music he heard on the radio. By 15, he was working with saxophonist Don Byas and other groups across the Southwest.