Perhaps, the two 'territories' that were most musically notable were Texas and Kansas City. Do you know that there are TWO Kansas City's? One in Kansas and one in Missouri. Yes, they abut - just a state line running through the middle. A chap by the name of Tom Pendergast was the "boss" of the political machine that ran Kansas City (Missouri half) until around 1939 when he went to prison for tax evasion.

Kansas City, encouraged by the corrupt political machine of Boss Tom Pendergast, with it's benign tolerance of after-hours drinking and gambling joints, became legendary as a place for really swinging music and some truly intense 'cutting' sessions. Musicians with fine reputations (earned elsewhere) often found themselves up against their peers who were likewise passing through. They were also confronted with strikingly talented unknown local sidemen. In time these local musicians moved on; some into obscurity, others to become legends of jazz.

Bennie Moten's Band is perhaps the most widely known, due in large part to Count Basie assuming the leadership upon Moten's untimely, early death. But there were many other great bands in town, including:

Jap Allen                     Thamon Hayes
Andy Kirk                    Terrence T. Holder
Jeter-Pillars Band       George Lee
Harlan Leonard           Clarence Love
Jay McShann             George Morrison
Jesse Stone               Alphonso Trent

Curiously, a great many of the individual musicians who established their reputations in Kansas City were not local, but were from out of town (mostly Texas). These included:

Buddy Anderson         Fred Beckett
Buck Clayton              Harry 'Sweets' Edison
A.G. Godley                Peanuts Holland
Gus Johnson              Jo Jones
Snub Mosely              Oran 'Hot Lips' Page
Walter Page               Jesse Price
Carl 'Tatti' Smith         Ben Thigpen
Dickie Wells               Mary Lou Williams

Two notable musicians From Kansas City were Singer "Big Joe" Turner and pianist Pete Johnson, both Kansas City Born and raised. All through the 1920s, Pete played in various KC cafes including Piney Brown's Sunset Cafe, where he met Big Joe who was bartending at that time. In 1938, both Big Joe and Pete came to New York City and were both heard in the Spirituals to Swing Concert (1938) in New York's famed Carnegie Hall.
The list of Non-Kansas Citians becomes even more impressive when one adds the saxophone players who were from out of town. These were men such as:

Arnett Cobb               Eddie Barefield
Henry Bridges            Herschel Evans
Budd Johnson           Buster Smith
Tab Smith                  Buddy Tate
Earle Warren              Dick Wilson
Lester Young

The only two Kansas City residents I can add to the list are:

Charlie Parker              Ben Webster

There were stylistic differences in the music that set Kansas City apart from the rest of the country. Bands in Kansas City, as well as elsewhere in the Southwest, relied more heavily on the 12 Bar Blues structure. They very often used loose 'head' arrangements, created in rehearsals or often on the bandstand just before 'show' time. These arrangements had lots of 'solo space', and utilized a subtle, free-flowing rhythmic drive that tended to show off the soloist to best advantage. This music, closely associated with Kansas City and exemplified by the early Basie Band, eventually became part of the great Swing Era, and of what writer Stanley Dancer would later term the 'mainstream' of Jazz.

As an epilog, it should be noted that great Jazz was being played in many other cities. One area, for example, would be Indianapolis, IN, especially along Indiana Avenue, where Black musician could find work. From the 1930s to the '50s, good "Black" Jazz could be heard nightly in the dance halls and clubs along "The Avenue". Venues such as Danny's Dreamland, the Walker Casino, Elks Club, Trianon Ballroom, Cotton Club, Pat Riley's, the Blue Eagle, and the British Lounge, served as training for many Black entertainers beginning their careers. Among these stars were J. J. Johnson, Carl Perkins, Slide Hampton, Virgil Jones, Wes Montgomery, Leroy Vinegar, Freddie Hubbard, James Spaulding, Larry Ridley, and Dave Baker. The Montgomery brothers, Wes, Monk, and Buddy, learned their craft in Indianapolis, and each later became a star in his own right. Noble Sissle, of Indianapolis, had a great career of his own, and also teamed with Eubie Blake composing, and playing, music for such successful musicals as "The Chocolate Dandies". Ragtime composer Russell Smith, who directed his own orchestra in Indiana, later joined Sissle in New York as a performer.

With the start of the 1950s, many venues became racially integrated, and Black musicians could then find work outside of "The Avenue".

Trombonist "Speed" Webb was a hoosier too, born in Peru, Indiana (1906). Still, he found his first success in Detroit, MI. The young pianist Art Tatum toured briefly with Speed, as did another young pianist, Teddy Wilson. "Speed" had a band that surely rivaled those of Duke Ellington and Fletcher Henderson.

Still another 'hoosier' is Jack Purvis, the Kokomo-born artist who allegedly fled from the police over rooftops in southern France, climbed the Alps barefoot, ran guns in Mexico, and , from 1929 to 1935, recorded a number of trumpet solos.

And, it just wasn't Indianapolis, we have to look at the great Jazz being played in Detroit, Cleveland, Los Angeles, and many other cities during the 1920s to '50s.