Biography
Ira E. "Buster" Moten, frequently listed in credits simply as Bus Moten, shared a family tie with the Kansas City bandleader and pianist Bennie Moten; while most accounts describe him as a brother, others have listed the connection as that of uncle, cousin, or nephew. Equally skilled on keyboards, he handled piano yet preferred the accordion—an instrument often characterized as "souped up" for its ability to generate tones closer to those of the later electric organ. His first recording sessions occurred at the close of the 1920s. He also served as manager and conductor for Bennie Moten’s ensemble and contributed original compositions, holding those roles until Bennie’s death from a botched operation in 1935. He subsequently assumed leadership of the remaining group for a brief period, yet Count Basie, the band’s resident pianist, found the arrangement unsatisfactory; before long the other musicians shifted their allegiance and became the core of Basie’s own orchestra. Moten nevertheless stayed active in the profession and briefly secured the services of Hot Lips Page. The early lineup of his band also featured Jesse Price on drums, Billy Hadnott on bass, Orville DeMoss on alto saxophone, Robert Hibbler and Dee Stewart on trumpet, and Odell West on tenor saxophone. His temperament proved volatile and ultimately costly, particularly once key players such as Page departed for stronger opportunities in cities like New York. He sustained working ensembles under the name Bus Moten & His Men through the late 1940s and into the early 1950s, issuing recordings at intervals under that billing. Although documentation remains incomplete, he appears to have died in 1956—twenty-one years after his more celebrated relative—without achieving widespread recognition despite evident instrumental ability and personal ambition. He stood among the small number of noteworthy jazz accordionists active during his period, and his vocal style bore a resemblance to that of Louis Jordan, a factor that may have further limited his visibility given Jordan’s commanding presence on the postwar scene. The music of Bus Moten & His Men remained firmly grounded in Kansas City jazz, a style that, in the years after World War II, was frequently categorized interchangeably with blues.