Inexplicably omitted from Ken Burns' monumental "Jazz" series was a little group that made the uneasy transition from Ragtime to Jazz in an unlikely area of the Midwest, creating their own distinctive genre in the process. Kansas City had its Kansas City Sound, Chicago had the Chicago School, and Peoria, Illinois... well, Peoria had the Tin Pan Alley Katz... This was a loose-knit little group whose driving force was the Kamiko Sisters, Miko and Kiko -- Kiko on drums, trombone and banjo, Miko on pan-pipes and lead vocal. Background harmony was provided by a constantly-shifting trio of local talent, or lack of same.

The Alley Katz closed out a surprising number of Peoria nightspots, including Nate's Cellar, Benny's Sub-Cellar and Blackie's Dungeon... in fact, just about every club they played closed immediately afterward. The Alley Katz were unusual chiefly in that they made the switch from Ragtime to Jazz in the late 1930s, 20 years after everyone else had. This may explain why their distinctive sound never generated great public enthusiasm.

The group never had a settled base, often being forced to practice in the open air, much to the annoyance of nearby insomniacs. Turnover in the chorus was frequent due largely to casualties from thrown boots and other objects. About 1938, after their bass singer was nailed by a cast-iron bookend during a riff of "Meowlancholy Baby" in one of these al fresco rehearsals, this unusual little group finally disbanded.

Miko and Kiko accepted the end of their musical careers with aplomb, instead going into Vaudeville--apparently unaware that Vaudeville had also ended 20 years before -- under the stage name "The Leather Kittens." This second career was spectacularly successful, although the clubs they played thereafter were more likely to be closed down by the vice squad than by indignant jazz fans.

A young Peoria District Attorney, under orders to discourage vice by making an example of the Kittens, went undercover to investigate them, and failed to emerge for some time. When he was finally recognized by an associate and dragged back into public view, the young idealist declined to prosecute the Kamiko sisters, for either their first or their second avocations... pointing out even though they never got paid for their musical gigs, still they were professional musicians, so they couldn't be suppressed as a public nuisance... and even through they did get paid in their second avocation, they didn't charge for guys they liked, so they could hardly be classified as professional pros... for which reasonable conclusion he was fired and the Kamiko sisters vanish from the public record... another small but fascinating footnote in the history of America’s native art form, Jazz.