Moten Swing is a 1932 jazz tune written by Bennie Moten and his nephew Buster Moten, with Eddie Durham contributing to the original project. It was recorded by Bennie Moten and the Kansas City Orchestra in 1932 and is a 32-bar AABA piece built on the chord progression of You’re Driving Me Crazy. The tune helped define the loose, riff-driven Kansas City style that would later fuel Count Basie’s famous orchestra, which took over after Moten’s death in 1935. Basie and his group recorded Moten Swing on the April in Paris album, cementing its status as a jazz standard. Over the years it has been covered by artists such as Cal Tjader, Oscar Peterson, Shorty Rogers, Kenny Burrell, and Ernie Watts, among others, noted for its strong orchestral color and catchy riffs.
