The brand of jazz that developed in the Kansas City area from the late 1920s to the late 1930s is recognized as both a distinct stylistic variation within the larger genre and a transitional stage between earlier forms of African-American music, such as ragtime and blues, and more modern forms, up to and including bebop. Kansas City's brand of jazz has been described as "the most straightforward and direct style which has been developed outside New Orleans," by Hugues Panassié and Madeleine Gautier in their Dictionary of Jazz. Kansas City jazz has inspired the creation of a museum and has been the subject of a feature-length film, Robert Altman's 1996 Kansas City.

The first comprehensive work on the subject in over 15 years, this book draws on new research to delve deeper into the music of the American Midwest that evolved into Kansas City jazz, and includes profiles of individual musicians who developed very different styles within or beyond the framework of this sub-genre. Kansas City Jazz focuses on the broader themes and the stories of the major personalities whose individual talents came together to create the larger whole of Kansas City's distinctive brand of jazz.