"Dex"

A Kansas City native, Dexter grew up in the northeast section, just a streetcar ride from the bustling entertainment district and numerous ballrooms in old "Kaycee." After graduation from high school, Dexter attended Missouri Valley College in Marshall, Missouri. While at Missouri Valley College, Dexter wrote sports news for The Kansas City Star. He also studied journalism at the University of Missouri-Columbia while contributing articles to Billboard, Metronome and Down Beat.

Basie & Dexter

During the summer of 1936 Dexter was hired as a reporter by the Kansas City Journal Post and continued to write for the national music publications -- including the first article about the Count Basie band at the Reno Club. Writing for Down Beat as an anonymous correspondent in July 1936, Dexter heralded the Basie band and urged "Hammond, Mills or some other musical mogul" to go to Kansas City and check out the band. Later that month, John Hammond [ 74k image ] visited Kansas City and "discovered" the Basie band.

In 1938, Dexter went to work for Down Beat in Chicago. Noted for his boundless energy, Dexter served as editor, writer, columnist, critic and record reviewer, often writing under various pseudonyms.

Dexter at work

In November of 1940, Dexter produced for the Decca label the first album of Kansas City jazz by Kansas City jazz musicians.

The six discs in the 10-inch album set, Kansas City Jazz, featured: Count Basie, Eddie Durham, Mary Lou Williams, Andy Kirk, Walter Page, Pete Johnson, Joe Turner, Buster Smith, Jimmy Rushing, Lester Young and a host of other musicians who defined Kansas City jazz.

Dexter himself contributed to the session as a songwriter -- co-composing "627 Stomp" with Pete Johnson .

Over the years, Dexter nurtured the careers of numerous Kansas City artists, prompting at least two of the city's favorite sons to pay tribute to him in song: Count Basie, with "Diggin' for Dex" and Jay McShann with
"Dexter's Blues"

Dexter at play

Dexter left Down Beat in 1942. For a brief period he wrote scripts for a network radio program featuring Jimmy Dorsey.

In 1943, he moved to California where he joined newly-established Capitol Records. As an artists and repertoire director, Dexter helped build a stable of artists for the fledgling label. During his thirty-year tenure at Capitol, Dexter was responsible for signing Peggy Lee, Woody Herman, Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra, Stan Kenton, Nellie Lutcher, Kay Starr and Nat "King" Cole. As head of International Artists and Repertoire, Dexter signed the Beatles to Capitol Records.

Listen to Chuck Haddix's interview with Dexter about the Beatles.

Dexter frequently returned to Kansas City to record the musicians he enjoyed as a youth, including Julia Lee, Jay McShann, Tommy Douglas and Jesse Price.

album cover

During the early 1960s, he produced a second album of Kansas City jazz, "KC in the 30s." Dexter also authored three books, Jazz Cavalcade, The Jazz Story and his autobiography, Playback. The Jazz Story is considered a definitive history of jazz and still serves as a text for jazz history courses.

After his retirement from Capitol in 1974, Dexter worked as a copy editor for Billboard. Dexter donated his correspondence, periodicals, books, sound recordings and photographs to the Miller Nichols Library at the University of Missouri - Kansas City in 1988. Much of the information, sound bytes and images featured in Club Kaycee is drawn from the Dexter Collection.

Dexter, Dave E., Jr.

Playback. New York: Billboard Publications, 1976.

Tiegel, Eliot.

"Dave Dexter, Jr. Dies at 74: Author/Exec Produced Top Acts." Billboard 5 May. 1990: 8.

Trussell, Robert.

"Remembering the Man Who Put KC Jazz in the Spotlight." Kansas City Star. 29 April 1990 1E

Trussell, Robert.

"UMKC Archives Gets an Infusion of Jazz." Kansas City Star. 1 January 1989 1E

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