Coon-Sanders Orchestra

about

Coon-Sanders Original Nighthawk Orchestra was the first Kansas City jazz band to achieve national recognition, which it acquired through national radio broadcasts. It was founded in 1919, as the Coon-Sanders Novelty Orchestra, by drummer Carleton Coon and pianist Joe Sanders. Coon was born in Rochester, Minnesota in 1893 and his family moved to Lexington, Missouri shortly after his birth. Sanders was born in Kansas in 1896. Sanders was known as "The Old Left Hander" because of his skills at baseball. He gave the game up in the early 1920s to make dance music his career. The orchestra began broadcasting in 1922 on clear channel station WDAF, which could be received throughout the United States. They were broadcast in performance at the Muehlbach Hotel in Kansas City. They took the name Nighthawks because they broadcast late at night (11:30pm to 1:00am). By 1924 their fan club had 37,000 members. Fans were encouraged to send in requests for songs by letter, telephone or telegram. That move became so popular that Western Union set up a ticker tape between Sanders' piano and Coon's drums so the telegrams could be acknowledged during the broadcasts. Their song "Nighthawk Blues" includes the lines: "Tune right in on the radio/Grab a telegram and say 'Hello'." The group left Kansas City for the first time in 1924 for a three-month engagement in a roadhouse in Chicago. The orchestra moved to Chicago the same year, where Jules Stein used the profits from a tour he booked for them t

top songs

albums

▥

Roaring 20's Revue Vol. 1

▥

Jazz Age Chronicles Vol. 11: The Song Hits of 1928

▥

Dance! Dance! Dance! Vol. 5: Popular Dances of the 1920s

▥

72000 VICTOR -22972

▥

Jazz Mad, Vol. 1: Hot Dance, Jazz & Instrumental Blues 1925-1930

▥

Dance! Dance! Dance! (Popular Dances of the 1920s, Vol. 5)

▥

Dance! Dance! Dance! 1920s, Vol. 2: Victor Recording Artists

▥

The Song Hits of 1928 (Jazz Age Chronicles, Vol. 11)

▥

Vol. 1

That Devilin' Tune: A Jazz History (1895-1950), Vol. 1 (1895-1927)

▥

Collection 1921-32

▥

Vol. 2

similar artists