Music of Missouri

In the 1990s, St. Louis area band Uncle Tupelo blended punk, rock, and country-influenced music styles with raucous performances and became pioneers of alt-country.

Howard Wight Marshall, historian has been active in the preservation of this art form and has published several full length volumes on the topic.

Country blues singer and songwriter Lottie Kimbrough was born in West Bottoms, Kansas City, Missouri.

[1] Jazz artists from Missouri include Dixieland jazz and ragtime clarinetist, composer, and bandleader Wilbur Sweatman; trumpeter, saxophonist, accordionist, and bandleader Charlie Creath; bebop saxophonist and composer Charlie Parker; tenor saxophonists Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, and Jimmy Forrest; pianist and bandleader Bennie Moten; trumpeters Shorty Baker, Clark Terry, Louis Metcalf, and Baikida Carroll; violinist Eddie South; alto saxophonist, arranger, and composer Lennie Niehaus; saxophonist, clarinetist, arranger, composer, and bandleader Oliver Nelson; clarinetist Pee Wee Russell; double bassist Wendell Marshall; trombonists Joseph Bowie and Melba Liston; alto saxophonists Luther Thomas and Jimmy Woods; saxophonist and composer Ahmad Alaadeen; guitarists Grant Green,[2] Pat Metheny, and Norman Brown (Louisiana); drummer Phillip Wilson; organists Wild Bill Davis, Milt Buckner, and Charles Kynard; jazz fusion and smooth jazz musician Bob James ; and singers Anita O'Day[3] and R&B singer Oleta Adams.

[5] Kansas City jazz is a riff-based and blues-influenced sound developed in jam sessions in the crowded clubs of the 18th and Vine neighborhood.

Due to this musical legacy, U.S. Representative Emanuel Cleaver said 18th and Vine is America's third most recognized street after Broadway and Hollywood Boulevard.

[8] Ann Peebles, Fontella Bass,[9] Angela Winbush, Barbara Carr, David Peaston, Jackie Ross, Reggie Young, Oleta Adams, Akon and SZA were from Missouri.

[10] Chuck Berry, Ozark Mountain Daredevils, James Pankow, Michael McDonald, and Sheryl Crow were from Missouri.

Tech N9ne from Kansas City helped popularize the chopper rap style in the late 1990s and co-founded the Strange Music label.

The town's popularity grew in the 1980s when a number of prominent country stars moved to the area, including Boxcar Willie, Sons of the Pioneers, and Roy Clark.

[11] Other national country music TV programs originating from Springfield included Five Star Jubilee and Talent Varieties.

[14] Other country singers from Missouri include Sara Evans, Chris Janson, Ferlin Husky, David Nail, and Billy Yates.

[15] At the same time, Chicken Truck, an original outlaw country rock band, featuring Brian Henneman and drummer Mark Ortmann, was giving memorable performances in clubs such as Cicero's.

Their success led to appearances on Late Night with Conan O'Brien performing one of their original songs and being featured in a comedic sketch.

Nathaniel Rateliff was born in St. Louis and grew up in Hermann before initially relocating to Colorado to work with an evangelical ministry, after which he left religion and began pursuing music professionally.