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correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
|
0
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https://kidsmusiccorner.co.uk/composers/jazz/count-basie/
|
en
|
Count Basie (1904–1984)
|
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en
|
https://kidsmusiccorner.co.uk/composers/jazz/count-basie/
|
Born:
21st August 1904 in Red Bank, Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA.
Count Basie’s grave in Farmingdale
Died:
26th April 1984 in Hollywood, Florida, USA.
Buried:
Pinelawn Memorial Park, Farmingdale, Suffolk County, New York.
Most famous single:
One O’Clock Jump. (See below for a video.)
Some great albums:
Basie Beginnings (1929–1932).
America’s #1 Band (1936–1952).
The Complete Decca Records (1937–1939).
Verve Jazz Masters: Count Bassie (1954–1965).
The Complete Atomic Mr Basie (1957).
For the First Time (1974).
Some interesting facts:
He was one of the greatest jazz artists of the swing era (1930s–early 1940s)! [Swing jazz uses big bands and has a strong beat. It is often very fast as well.]
His real first name was William (or Bill).
He was mostly a piano player, but sometimes played the organ.
His playing was much more relaxed than a lot of other swing piano players. He played fewer notes than many others.
His music during the swing era has a very strong rhythm section (drums and bass, or drums, bass and guitar).
His most famous single, ‘One O’Clock Jump’ was composed when his group were just messing around!
He formed the band ‘Count Basie Orchestra’ in the 1930s and led it for almost 50 years. This band is still going today!
He didn’t like school and didn’t get very far there either!
In the last years of his life he played the piano in a wheelchair.
Here is a video of the Count Basie Orchestra playing One O’Clock Jump. Count Basie is the person playing the piano.
The Count Basie Orchestra playing ‘One O’Clock Jump’
And here is a video of Count Basie and an orchestra playing Freckle Face.
Count Basie playing ‘Freckle Face’
Picture credits:
Count Basie. This is a screen capture of Count Basie at the piano from the movie “Rhythm and Blues Revue” from 1955. The image is in the public domain. Click here for the source of this image, along with the relevant copyright information.
Count Basie’s grave in Farmingdale. This photograph was taken by Scott Michaels. I have obtained permission from him to use the image here. Click here for the source of this image.
Video credits:
Count Basie Orchestra – One O’ Clock Jump. Count Basie, piano; Wardell Gray, tenor sax; Buddy DeFranco, clarinet; Clark Terry, trumpet; Freddie Green, guitar; Jimmy Lewis, bass; Gus Johnson, drums. Swing Bless You!
Count Basie Freckle Face. The person who posted this on YouTube writes: Another clip from Basie’s 1977 trip to Montreux. Freckle Face featuring Bobby Mitchell on trumpet and Butch Miles drums.
|
|||||||
correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
|
1
| 62 |
https://jazzlives.wordpress.com/2024/01/09/two-routes-to-the-same-summit-oscar-peterson-and-count-basie-with-niels-henning-orsted-pedersen-and-butch-miles-at-the-prague-jazz-festival-november-8-1974/
|
en
|
TWO ROUTES TO THE SAME SUMMIT: OSCAR PETERSON and COUNT BASIE (with FREDDIE GREEN, NIELS-HENNING ORSTED PEDERSEN, and SKEETS MARSH) at the Prague Jazz Festival, November 8, 1974.
|
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""
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2024-01-09T00:00:00
|
Comparisons are odious and eventually not very useful. So when you have pianists Oscar Peterson and Count Basie on the same stage, beaming respect at each other (with the assistance of Freddie Green, guitar; Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen, double bass, and Skeets Marsh, drums) all you can do is marvel. As I do. Peterson: OLD FOLKS / WE'LL…
|
en
|
https://secure.gravatar.com/blavatar/80412dbe49952f394f4f5599d95bd6d55685a4c4868572b5159fea46189fade2?s=32
|
JAZZ LIVES
|
https://jazzlives.wordpress.com/2024/01/09/two-routes-to-the-same-summit-oscar-peterson-and-count-basie-with-niels-henning-orsted-pedersen-and-butch-miles-at-the-prague-jazz-festival-november-8-1974/
|
Comparisons are odious and eventually not very useful. So when you have pianists Oscar Peterson and Count Basie on the same stage, beaming respect at each other (with the assistance of Freddie Green, guitar; Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen, double bass, and Skeets Marsh, drums) all you can do is marvel. As I do.
Peterson: OLD FOLKS / WE’LL BE TOGETHER AGAIN / add Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen, double bass / JUST FRIENDS / I LOVE YOU / MACK THE KNIFE / add Basie [25:45] Freddie Green, and Skeets Marsh: ROYAL GARDEN BLUES / SLOW BLUES IN G / JUMPIN’ AT THE WOODSIDE //
I note that this has been posted by several other people on YouTube, but that duplication is something to celebrate. Let us make sure that everyone devoted to jazz piano and to swing has had a chance to see this interlude and admire the five heroes onstage.
|
||||
correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
|
3
| 82 |
https://jazzhistoryonline.com/ella-fitzgerald-just-one-of-those-things-count-basie-through-his-own-eyes-eagle-rock-video/
|
en
|
ELLA FITZGERALD: “JUST ONE OF THOSE THINGS”/ COUNT BASIE: “THROUGH HIS OWN EYES” (Eagle Rock video)
|
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[
"Thomas Cunniffe"
] |
2020-09-22T18:52:30+00:00
|
Two new jazz documentaries re-examine the lives and music of Ella Fitzgerald and Count Basie. In this Video Review, Thomas Cunniffe discusses the strengths and weaknesses of both films.
|
en
|
Jazz History Online
|
https://jazzhistoryonline.com/ella-fitzgerald-just-one-of-those-things-count-basie-through-his-own-eyes-eagle-rock-video/
|
Consider the dilemma of a modern jazz documentarian: Pick a subject that is young and developing, and you end up with an unfinished portrait which you hope will be continued by a future director. Decide on an older, deceased musician and you may face shortages of archive film appearances and/or colleagues willing to talk about the subject. Or tackle a venerated master who’s been covered before and risk that your film will be designated an unnecessary addition. The filmmakers who created the documentaries newly released by Eagle Rock Video, “Ella Fitzgerald: Just One of Those Things” and “Count Basie: Through His Own Eyes”, went with the third option, trusting that their films would stand up because of the new information they discovered on their respective subjects.
For the Ella film, director Leslie Woodhead offers a radio interview from 1963 which finds Fitzgerald discussing racial relations with DJ Fred Robbins. Her actual comments aren’t particularly revolutionary, but it was brave for Fitzgerald to make such statements on a broadcast which could be heard worldwide. Her bravery turned out to be wasted energy; someone—possibly her manager Norman Granz?—decided not to air the interview. The rest of the film includes a wide swath of Fitzgerald performances from TV and film. Most will be familiar to Fitzgerald aficionados, but one rarity is unforgettable: a version of “A House is Not a Home” with a stunning unaccompanied mid-phrase change of key which adds drama to the performance, and leaves singers with their jaws on the floor. There are a few interviewees in the film who hint that Fitzgerald worked solely by ear, but the sophisticated modulation that Fitzgerald displays here would not be possible by a singer who could not read music; it only works with a musician who understands the key relationships and can easily maneuver between them. The narration is read by British actress Sophie Okonedo, but no one is credited with writing the script. Perhaps it’s better that way, as there are numerous mistakes and omissions. Fitzgerald’s interest in scat singing and bop is placed in 1944 (without offering any evidence) instead of the more likely date of 1947 (which lines up with her tours with the Dizzy Gillespie big bands and her first extended scat recording, “Oh, Lady Be Good”). In addition to omitting Fitzgerald’s first years as a solo singer, it also leaves out her many recordings with Louis Armstrong, nearly all of her Verve albums other than the songbooks, as well as the groundbreaking 1950 Decca album which inspired the entire songbook series, “Ella Sings Gershwin” (with the exquisite accompanist Ellis Larkins). In the last half-hour, the chronology is a total mess, with the aforementioned clip of “A House is Not a Home” (dating from 1969) followed by a jump backward to the 1960 “Mack the Knife” in Berlin, and then to the 1963 Robbins interview. Woodhead and his crew fail to give Fitzgerald’s final years their proper attention, and written information about her illness and death are superimposed over grainy home movies of an ailing Fitzgerald hosting a children’s birthday party. The film is not a total loss: Will Friedwald’s breathless listing of the quotes in Fitzgerald’s “How High the Moon” scat solo is astounding, and the interviews of her adopted son, Ray Brown, Jr. give a touching perspective on Ella as a parent. Brown even sings the opening strain of “How Long Has This Been Going On?” as a tribute to his mother. Overall though, those wishing to learn more about Ella Fitzgerald would be better off watching Charlotte Zwerin’s outstanding Fitzgerald bio, “Something to Live For”.
The Basie film is much better. Producer/director Jeremy Marre builds the narrative around newly discovered letters from Basie to his wife Catherine and daughter Diane. Marre brings in several band members, jazz historians and (presumably) extended family members to fill in the gaps of Basie’s story. The letters show us a side of Basie seldom seen: a family man who deeply misses his loved ones while on the road. The scenes of Basie composing letters on the train are not particularly convincing, but when Marre cuts to Basie’s home movies, we see Basie not as a pianist and jazz icon, but as an ordinary man happily bouncing around in the swimming pool with his daughter. Diane Basie was severely disabled, unable to speak, and –according to her pediatricians—unlikely to live into adulthood. Catherine Basie taught Diane to walk and communicate, and letters from Diane’s father were usually addressed to her, even though it is not clear whether she could read them. Count Basie’s belief in human dignity greatly enhanced his abilities as a band leader. Many of his sidemen speak of that quality in reverent tones, while also noting that Basie was also a man with weaknesses and failings. However, his gambling or philandering seemed not to incur any permanent fallout. While this film does an admirable job of portraying Basie as a man and bandleader, it is less helpful about his legendary orchestras. The history of the band’s precursors, Walter Page’s Blue Devils and Bennie Moten’s Orchestra is hopelessly muddled, with the recording of “Jones Law Blues” erroneously credited to the Blue Devils, and the Moten band’s rise and fall completely missing. There is no comparison of Basie’s Old and New Testament bands, even though those groups worked on vastly different concepts. We hear mentions of Basie’s star sidemen Jimmy Rushing, Joe Williams, Lester Young and Frank Foster, but nothing about Buck Clayton, Harry Edison, Dickie Wells, Herschel Evans, Thad Jones or Freddie Green. Most surprising is the total omission of John Hammond, who discovered Basie’s Kansas City Reno Club band, brought them to New York, helped find suitable personnel (including the band’s first vocalist, Billie Holiday), tirelessly promoted them, and presented them at Carnegie Hall. While Hammond had an abrasive personality and frequently alienated his closest friends, his contribution is a vital part of Basie’s story. The film jams a lot of information into its last quarter hour, but never gets around to saying what happened to Diane Basie (a Google search reveals that she is still living in a facility in Florida).
Although there are no co-production credits on either film, I suspect that both were made in the UK. The British narration and the captions give away the secret: “[Ray Brown Jr.] sings part of his favourite Ella song” and an appearance by “Sammy Davis, Jnr.” with the Basie band. Perhaps international video rights are part of the reason why Eagle Rock is not issuing these films on physical media. The links above will take you to Amazon Video, which claims that the films both carry 5.1 surround sound; my review copy only carried traditional 2.0 stereo. Neither film includes any extra material. Amazon assures me that customers who purchase the films have the option to download them, but it was not clear to me if the files would appear on the users’ hard drive or somewhere on a cloud server. Amazon would not comment on whether the downloaded film could be copied onto a DVD or Blu-Ray disc. Those who wish to pay for copies of these films should have a physical object in exchange. Can we be absolutely sure that these downloaded items will always be available? What if our hard drive crashes? What if the rights issues change and the film cannot be legally sold or shown in certain countries? What if some penny-pinching executive decides to delete the film because it failed to sell enough copies in the previous quarter? We have seen similar instances with record companies. These companies have been entrusted with safeguarding our musical heritage, and many have fallen far below expectations. Why should we trust them to be custodians of our personal music libraries?
|
|||||
correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
|
1
| 74 |
https://www.scribd.com/document/661561197/Count-Basie
|
en
|
African American Music
|
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Count Basie - Free download as PDF File (.pdf), Text File (.txt) or read online for free. William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist and bandleader who formed the Count Basie Orchestra in 1935. Some key innovations of his band included using two "split" tenor saxophones, emphasizing the rhythm section, riffing with a big band, and using arrangers. Many famous musicians came to prominence under his leadership over the band's almost 50 year run. Basie had an early musical education and got his start performing in vaudeville and with various bands in the 1920s-1930s before forming his own successful band.
|
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|
https://s-f.scribdassets.com/scribd.ico?2ff3db32a?v=5
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Scribd
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https://www.scribd.com/document/661561197/Count-Basie
| |||
correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
|
0
| 38 |
https://www.freshsoundrecords.com/count-basie-albums/5249-broadway-and-hollywood-basie-s-way-2-lp-on-1-cd.html
|
en
|
Broadway And Hollywood... Basie's Way (2 LP on 1 CD)
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Buy Broadway And Hollywood... Basie's Way (2 LP on 1 CD) by Count Basie on Blue Sounds Store. Released by Fresh Sound Records.
|
en
|
/img/favicon.ico?1718181534
|
Blue Sounds
|
https://www.freshsoundrecords.com/count-basie-albums/5249-broadway-and-hollywood-basie-s-way-2-lp-on-1-cd.html
|
THIS PRODUCT IS NOT AVAILABLE FOR SALE IN THE U.S.
The Basie band as a unit secured a place for itself as one of the greatest and most distinctive big bands of all time. In the 30-odd years that the Basie band spent recording, the full excitement of its in-person sound was never reproduced with such clarity and accuracy as in the sessions at hand. The heft and thrust of the Basie machine are the salient features on the two albums included in this CD, comprising of Broadway and Hollywood standards with a Basie twist.
Chico OFarrill did all the arrangements, and proved that he knew how to use the powerhouse brass section, how to leave proper space for soloists, and how to let the Basie rhythm section glow with its special inner fire. Basies way has been the swinging way for generations of musicians... and here its even Basier than anything you have ever heard before.
|
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correct_death_00034
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FactBench
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1
| 23 |
https://www.elsewhere.co.nz/jazz/6930/scotty-barnhart-interviewed-2015-leading-count-basies-band-and-legacy-into-the-future/
|
en
|
SCOTTY BARNHART INTERVIEWED (2015): Leading Count Basie's band and legacy into the future
|
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[
""
] | null |
[
"Graham Reid"
] |
2015-05-11T00:00:00
|
Although the great jazz composer and
band leader Count Basie died in April 84, the band plays on.
The Count Basie Orchestra, an 18-piece
recording and touring ensemble touring New Zealand this month (see dates here), is keeping Basie's sometimes
boisterous, frequently moving and always swinging music alive and out
there.
Although band members and leaders have
changed down the decades,... - SCOTTY BARNHART INTERVIEWED (2015): Leading Count Basie's band and legacy into the future by Graham Reid
|
en
|
https://www.elsewhere.co.nz/favicon.ico
|
Elsewhere by Graham Reid
|
https://www.elsewhere.co.nz/jazz/6930/scotty-barnhart-interviewed-2015-leading-count-basies-band-and-legacy-into-the-future/
|
Although the great jazz composer and band leader Count Basie died in April 84, the band plays on.
The Count Basie Orchestra, an 18-piece recording and touring ensemble touring New Zealand this month (see dates here), is keeping Basie's sometimes boisterous, frequently moving and always swinging music alive and out there.
Although band members and leaders have changed down the decades, the orchestra uses Basie's original charts, is faithful to the legacy, still has players Basie hired, has picked up numerous accolades and this year celebrates the 80th anniversary of the first band William Basie formed in Kansas City.
The current leader is Grammy-winning trumpeter and educator Scotty Barnhart – who joined the band in 93 and was appointed musical director 18 months ago – and he's in no doubt he's helming a popular and important group.
“We still sell out halls, clubs and private engagement because jazz orchestra's just sound good. And this is the Count Basie Orchestra after all,” he laughs.
So Scotty, are you with the orchestra at the moment?
I am down in Florida teaching, I'm an associate professor here at Florida State University part time so I'm finishing my semester teaching and go back home to LA on Tuesday.
I lecture here too so do you have fit the orchestra around the margins of your teaching commitments?
Yeah. Being part time is good though, although a semester is 16 weeks I only have to do part of that so I can still travel. If I'm not on the road I'd just be at home in LA so I'd rather be here teaching because I really enjoy it.
You took over 18 months and you were an insider having been in the band for a very long time, what was the biggest challenge for you shifting into this new role?
I pretty much had my finger on the pulse but I had to assess where we were musically and the direction we had been heading. That needed to be altered a bit. I knew we had to get back to playing certain things that we hadn't been playing for a while in a certain way.
I've been studying the music of Count Basie intently for 40 years now, every facet of this orchestra and every instrument. That is what I would normally be doing anyway, so when I became the leader I was able to really stand in front of the orchestra and listen to what was happening. We just had to make a few small adjustments and a couple of personnel changes, but they were all for the best of the orchestra.
So there was nothing that shocked me about taking the role.
I knew even before I became leader what we needed to be doing.
When you were shoulder-tapped was there any trepidation about what you were getting in to?
Not at all, I kinda knew this was going to happen for the last 15 years and it was a matter of the timing being right. So we, myself and the management, had been preparing for it for a long time and it was dream come true.
It was one that I wanted and, not being arrogant, I knew I could be great at it because I have studied this music and I wanted to make sure the orchestra remained and sounded like the Count Basie Orchestra, and not some pick-up band or tribute band.
I wanted people to have one listen and say, 'Oh that's the Count Basie Orchestra, like it's always been.'
The line you have to walk is you need be respectful of the music and replicate it to a degree but you just can't duplicate it.
Not at all. We have the exact same charts but they approached freshly every single day. We play April in Paris every night for example, there are certain tunes we have to play every time, but every time it is new because the solos are all improvised. So that in itself elevates the arrangement every time we play it. Because now it is a new statement made by the people improvising on it.
The bass line is never the same, the bassist is improvising on the chord changes. He doesn't have notes written out for him to play. And the same thing with the drums. He has a guide but doesn't have an exact way he's supposed to play on the cymbals, for example.
So every night every song is fresh and new. That in itself is the challenge, and it's what keeps it exciting for us, making it fresh like that every time.
If we had the people playing the same solo eery night that would be a problem, that would make things stale real quick.
It wouldn't be jazz for a start.
Not at all. But also every hall is different and every audience is different and we feed off that. That becomes part of our energy and that too keeps it new and exciting.
You said you wanted to bring certain pieces back into the repertoire that hadn't been played for a while. This is a huge catalogue of music available to you, so have you been changing the repertoire regularly?
Yeah. There are certain things we have to play every night like our theme song, One O'Cock Jump, Lil' Darlin', April in Paris and My Shining Star for example. There are maybe 10 or 15 or so we rotate in and out that we have to get to often, but of course we have new things in all the time.
As matter of fact I'm waiting on Quincy Jones' manager to call me back to let me know if I can come pick up charts that Quincy wrote for the band back in the Sixties that I'd like to get back in. There are some Sam Nestico charts we haven't played since the Seventies too, we put those back in.
When we come to New Zealand we will have a huge library with us. Every set list I make up is different, so over a period of three or four nights we won't have to repeat anything other than those few we really have to, those the audience expects.
And there are people like myself and others in the orchestra who are arranging new pieces. I'm working on three arrangements right now to bring on the tour so we have new things we can play.
There are new vocal charts for our singer.
And who is that?
That is Carmen Bradford.
Still Carmen? She's been with the band for what, about 30 years?
Yeah, she's still with us and comes out as often as she can. She joined in 1983.
The Basie bands went through very different periods and styles, was there a particular period when you first started listing that you gravitated to because you liked it.
There were two which got me simultaneously. One was the Chairman of the Board album from the late Fifties.
And the record On the Road which was from '78-'79 when they were live in Switzerland.
Then I got hold of Kansas City Suite, the Bennie Carter music which was also from about '58-'59.
Those periods are what got me into the band and from the late Seventies, the way the band was playing with John Clayton on bass, they had a particular weight to the sound and the way they would play certain things.
But I enjoy all periods of the band but initially it was those two periods which got my attention. It was unlike any other big band I'd ever heard, and I was listening to all of them, Ellington, all of them.
But there was something about the Basie orchestra which made you really feel good, made you want to grab your horn and get up and play with them.
Well, it was a band that could swing.
That's right, and we still are. You can trust me on that one.
I understand seeing Wynton Marsalis play was quite an epiphany for you. What was it that impressed you?
I was a senior in high school and I knew that music was my life's passion but I just didn't know what I was going to do, or how I was going to do something with it. I didn't know what, until I saw him on The Johnny Carson Show which was hosted by Bill Cosby that night.
I'd heard his name, a friend told me there was this young trumpeter player who was double-tonguing in his solos. Double-tonguing is really difficult to do let alone improvising while they were doing that. I heard that maybe four or five months before I actually saw him, and then I thought 'That's the guy I heard about' so I sat down and watched.
And I had never seen anyone in my life play the trumpet that cleanly and with that much fire. As soon as I saw that I just knew that was what I was supposed to be doing, there was absolutely no question in my mind after that. Not at all.
Luckily I met him in London just two months after I saw him on television and I sat right in front of him as he played two sets at Ronnie Scotts. I was five feet away from him and that cemented everything. We met and talked and became friends, and we are friends to this day. We've recorded together, toured together . . . We talk as often as we can.
So that I what happened. I saw somebody my age pretty much playing the trumpet that cleanly. First and foremost, I always wanted to be a great trumpeter. It could have been anybody who inspired me but it happened to be him, we connected right away and I knew he would be a very important part of my development.
As a trumpeter in the Count Basie Orchestra you are part of a great lineage: Buck Clayton, Harry Edison, Joe Newman, Thad Jones, Clark Terry . . . When you got the gig did you feel a lot of pressure on you because of the heritage you were entering?
Yeah. I knew about it. But there wasn't any pressure, only on the first night and the first solo. I had to stand in front of the Count Basie band and improvise a solo. I'm sure everybody that's ever been in band will tell you this, but when that band comes in behind you and they are supporting you, it's like they lift you off your feet.
It was unbelievable to me to hear that sound and feel it underneath you like that. After that I couldn't get enough of it, and I still can't.
I'm aware of people like Sweets Edison and Hot Lips Page and Sonny Cole, Pete Meager . . . great trumpeters. And we still have great trumpeters today playing.
You also run your own quartet and sextet.
Yes I do, I'm trying to do more but I am so busy teaching and the orchestra but I want to finally get it so I can play more with them regularly, because I love to play. I love all of it equally, and the teaching.
So life worked out Scotty?
Yeah man, I'm lucky to have my passion be the focus of my life. I'm teaching jazz trumpet to jazz musicians and playing with the greatest jazz orchestra in the world in my opinion. I'm playing and swinging and keeping this music going. I could not be a more fortunate guy.
I used to think the days of big bands were over because of the sheer economics of trying to keep them going. But not true?
There is still a demand for it and we still sell out halls and clubs and private engagement where we play. Orchestras just sound good, and this is the Count Basie Orchestra.
It's like the New York Philharmonic, that's how I look at it. They started 150 something years ago but they continue to attract the best musicians, play the best music and have the best conductors. That's why they continue to this day.
They get the best of what they need, and that's what we do.
We try to get the best musicians we can, we play some of the best music ever and it's timeless and has been tested. But also I remind the guys we have to play for people to make the people happy, make them feel good and make them want to come back.
We can't just play for us, all the cerebral things we understand and get a kick out of playing. We have to play a simple beautiful ballad like Li'l Darlin' because maybe people remember it from when they got married, or we play Blue and Sentimental and remind people that blues comes from the church and we play things that show the virtuosity of the band.
We play the same things the band always did, and we have a balanced set list to cover certain soloists an eras of the orchestra.
So everybody leaves the concert satisfied. Audience and artists.
|
||||
correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
|
2
| 76 |
https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/national-international/natl-maria-cole-wife-of-nat-king-cole-dies-at-89-2/1907954/
|
en
|
Maria Cole, Widow of Nat King Cole, Dies at 89
|
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2012-07-12T04:15:38
|
Maria Hawkins Cole, widow of jazz crooner Nat “King” Cole and mother of singer Natalie Cole, has died in South Florida after a short battle with cancer. She...
|
en
|
NBC Connecticut
|
https://ots.nbcwpshield.com/qa/national-international/natl-maria-cole-wife-of-nat-king-cole-dies-at-89-2/2142825/
|
Maria Hawkins Cole, widow of jazz crooner Nat "King" Cole and mother of singer Natalie Cole, has died in South Florida after a short battle with cancer. She was 89.
A representative of the family confirmed that she died Tuesday at a Boca Raton hospice, surrounded by her family.
Before and after marrying the famed singer and piano player, Maria Cole had her own long singing career, performing with greats such as Count Basie and Duke Ellington.
Born in Boston in 1922, she lived as a child in North Carolina after her mother died, according to a statement from the family. She later moved to New York to pursue a music career
According to her family, Ellington heard recordings of Maria Cole singing and hired her as a vocalist with his orchestra. She stayed with him until 1946 when she began soloing at the city's Club Zanzibar as an opening act for the Mills Brothers. There she met Nat "King" Cole.
The two were married in 1948 by then-U.S. Rep. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. at Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church.
Maria Cole traveled and performed with her husband throughout the '50s. After her husband died from cancer in 1965, Maria Cole created the Cole Cancer Foundation.
Her children, Natalie, Timolin and Casey Cole, said in a joint statement, "Our mom was in a class all by herself. She epitomized, class, elegance, and truly defined what it is to be a real lady. ... She died how she lived — with great strength, courage and dignity, surrounded by her loving family."
At the time of her death Maria Cole lived in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. Private services will be held in Glendale, Calif.
|
|||||
correct_death_00034
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FactBench
|
0
| 18 |
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/1664/count-basie
|
en
|
1984) – Find a Grave Gedenkstätte
|
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[] | null |
Jazz Musician. He was one of the greatest bandleaders of all-time, epitomizing the jazz of south-western America. He rose to fame after taking over Bennie Moten's band in 1935. His second great band, from the 1950s onwards, relied more on arrangements, typically from Neil Hefti and Ernie Wilkins. As a pianist Basie...
|
de
|
/assets/images/fg-icon.svg
|
https://de.findagrave.com/memorial/1664/count-basie
|
Es gibt ein Problem mit Ihrer E-Mail bzw. Ihrem Passwort.
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correct_death_00034
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FactBench
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1
| 54 |
https://www.gainesville.com/story/entertainment/2024/03/14/whats-happening-sunday-assembly-sing-into-spring-ordinary-days/72925280007/
|
en
|
What's Happening: 'Jazz Up Spring,' 'Misery,' High Springs Art Walk
|
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] | null |
[
"Gainesville Sun"
] |
2024-03-14T00:00:00
|
Your 10-day forecast for March 15-24 includes \
|
en
|
The Gainesville Sun
|
https://www.gainesville.com/story/entertainment/2024/03/14/whats-happening-sunday-assembly-sing-into-spring-ordinary-days/72925280007/
|
MARCH 15
“JAZZ UP SPRING”: The Santa Fe Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Combo will celebrate the work of jazz trail blazers Duke Ellington and Count Basie in the annual “Jazz Up Spring” concert at 7:30 p.m. March 15 in the Jackson N. Sasser Fine Arts Hall at the Northwest Campus of Santa Fe College, located at 3000 NW 83rd St. Tickets are $15 for adults; $9 for seniors, students, children and military service members; and free to SF students, faculty and staff with college ID cards. Tickets are available from the Fine Arts Hall box office at 395-4181 or online from Showpass at showpass.com/jazz-up-spring-2. The 15 students in the Jazz Ensemble and the eight students in the Jazz Combo will alternate music by the two composers throughout the concert. On the program are Ellington’s “Take the ‘A’ Train” and Neal Hefti’s “Li’l Darlin,” composed for the Count Basie Orchestra. A guest vocalist will perform on Ellington’s “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore.”
MARCH 15 THROUGH MARCH 17
“MISERY”: “Misery” follows successful romance novelist Paul Sheldon, who is rescued from a car crash by his “No. 1 fan,” Annie Wilkes, and wakes up captive in her secluded home. While Sheldon is convalescing, Wilkes reads his latest book and becomes enraged when she discovers the author has killed off her favorite character, Misery Chastain. Wilkes forces Sheldon to write a new “Misery” novel, and he quickly realizes Wilkes has no intention of letting him go anywhere. The irate Wilkes has Sheldon writing as if his life depends on it — and it does. Catch a performance at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays plus 2 p.m. Sundays through March 17 at the Acrosstown Repertory Theatre, located at 3501 SW Second Ave., Suite O. Tickets are $25 for general admission; and $20 for students, seniors, military and teachers. For more information, or to purchase tickets online, visit acrosstown.org.
MARCH 15 THROUGH APRIL 21
“ANTARCTIC DINOSAURS”: Step back in time and discover life beneath the ice in “Antarctic Dinosaurs.” Today, Antarctica is a forbidding land of snow and ice, but 200 million years ago it was a lush, wooded habitat where dinosaurs thrived. Uncover the history of the world’s southernmost continent and the unique species that have called it home in this interactive, family friendly experience at the Florida Museum of Natural History. Rare fossils, touchable casts and interactive models bring the past to life while showcasing Antarctica’s distinctive dinosaur species. Examine a reconstructed forest, and encounter the early plants and animals that flourished in the once-green environment. Experience the extraordinary work that goes into digging for fossils with real equipment and a recreated quarry. Learn about the important research taking place in this frigid landscape and how it informs future changes to the world’s climate. This is a bilingual exhibit available in English and Spanish. Tickets are $10 for adults; $9 for Florida residents, seniors and non-UF college students; $7 for ages 3-17; and free for ages 2 and younger, UF students and museum members. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday. It is located at 3215 Hull Road. For more information, visit floridamuseum.ufl.edu or call 846-2000.
MARCH 16
DOWNTOWN HIGH SPRINGS ARTWALK: The seasonal Art Walk events return to historic downtown High Springs from noon to 5 p.m. March 16, featuring 15 to 20 local artists and makers situated on the sidewalks of downtown. Downtown High Springs also offers many eclectic restaurants and shops showcasing High Springs’ walkable, charming, small-town hospitality they have become famous for. This seasonal event is an opportunity for local artisans and artists to demonstrate and display their talents and offer their works for sale in front of storefronts throughout the downtown area. Participating merchants will offer specials and sales during the event. For more information, call Unique Notions at 318-5719 or Lanza Gallery and Art Supplies at 474-1049. The downtown High Springs Facebook page also has more information at facebook.com/downtownhighsprings.
MARCH 17
SUNDAY ASSEMBLY: Sunday Assembly Gainesville will feature guest speaker Donna Waller, now retired professor emerita of history and political science at Santa Fe College. She taught courses in American political history and honors classes, and she continues to teach there and at other venues. She also is active in the League of Women Voters. The title of her talk is “State Legislatures: Ours and Theirs.” Music will be provided by Sunday Assembly musicians. Sunday Assembly Gainesville is a secular congregation that celebrates life at 11 a.m. the third Sunday of each month. The group will meet at the Pride Center located in the Springhill Professional Center, 3850 NW 83rd St., Suite 201. It also is possible to attend via zoom. Sunday Assembly Gainesville is a chapter of the Global Secular Sunday Assembly Movement. For more information, visit sagainesville.weebly.com or email [email protected].
MARCH 21
“SING INTO SPRING”: The Santa Fe Singers will be joined by the Santa Fe Guitar Ensemble and the Voices Rising Community Chorus for the annual “Sing Into Spring” concert at 7:30 p.m. March 21 in the Jackson N. Sasser Fine Arts Hall at the Northwest Campus of Santa Fe College, located at 3000 NW 83rd St. Tickets are $15 for adults; $9 for seniors, students, children and military service members; and free to SF students, faculty and staff with college ID cards. Tickets are available from the Fine Arts Hall box office at 395-4181 or online from Showpass at showpass.com/sing-into-spring-2. According to organizers, this year’s concert is loosely themed around care for the Earth and for each other. The program includes songs that span centuries and different vocal styles. Featured music ranges from “El Grillo” (“The Cricket”), likely written by Josquin des Prez in the 1500s, to “Under the Sea,” Alan Menken and Howard Ashman’s song from “The Little Mermaid,” a 1989 Disney animated film. Earth, Wind and Fire’s popular “September” is included, as is “The Storm is Passing Over” by Charles Albert Tindley, an African American Methodist minister and gospel music composer whose composition “I’ll Overcome Someday” is credited as the basis for the Civil Rights anthem “We Shall Overcome.” The combined choirs will close the concert with Brian Tate’s “We Are One,” an anthem adapted from Bible verses in Deuteronomy that carry a message of love and caring. For more information about “Sing Into Spring,” call 395-5296.
MARCH 22 THROUGH APRIL 14
“ORDINARY DAYS”: Experience the beauty of simplicity and the extraordinary in the ordinary with “Ordinary Days,” the newest production from the Gainesville Community Playhouse. This intimate and introspective musical follows the lives of Deb, a graduate student who loses the notebook that contains all of her notes for her thesis somewhere on the streets of New York; Warren, a struggling artist and professional cat sitter who finds the notebook; and Jason and Claire, a couple inching toward marriage who can’t seem to completely figure each other out. Through a series of chance encounters and unexpected connections, their individual stories begin to intersect, revealing the profound impact that everyday encounters can have on our lives. Catch a show at 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays March 22 through April 14 at the Gainesville Community Playhouse, located at 4039 NW 16th Blvd. Tickets are $24 for general admission, $20 for seniors and $12 for students. For more information, visit gcplayhouse.org.
MARCH 23
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In this episode, we take a brief look at the most recent headline obituaries and touching condolences, including contemporary Christian singer Mandisa,...
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In this episode, we take a brief look at the most recent headline obituaries and touching condolences, including contemporary Christian singer Mandisa,...
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Count_Basie
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Count Basie
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Count_Basie
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American jazz musician and composer (1904–1984)
Musical artist
William James "Count" Basie ( ; August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984)[1] was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. In 1935, he formed the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and their first recording. He led the group for almost 50 years, creating innovations like the use of two "split" tenor saxophones, emphasizing the rhythm section, riffing with a big band, using arrangers to broaden their sound, his minimalist piano style, and others. Many musicians came to prominence under his direction, including the tenor saxophonists Lester Young and Herschel Evans, the guitarist Freddie Green, trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry "Sweets" Edison, plunger trombonist Al Grey, and singers Jimmy Rushing, Helen Humes, Thelma Carpenter, and Joe Williams. As a composer, Basie is known for writing such jazz standards as Blue and Sentimental, Jumpin' at the Woodside and One O'Clock Jump.
Biography[edit]
Early life and education[edit]
William Basie was born to Lillian and Harvey Lee Basie in Red Bank, New Jersey.[2][3] His father worked as a coachman and caretaker for a wealthy judge. After automobiles replaced horses, his father became a groundskeeper and handyman for several wealthy families in the area.[4] Both of his parents had some type of musical background. His father played the mellophone, and his mother played the piano; in fact, she gave Basie his first piano lessons. She took in laundry and baked cakes for sale for a living. She paid 25 cents a lesson for Count Basie's piano instruction.[5][6]
The best student in school, Basie dreamed of a traveling life, inspired by touring carnivals which came to town. He finished junior high school[7] but spent much of his time at the Palace Theater in Red Bank, where doing occasional chores gained him free admission to performances. He quickly learned to improvise music appropriate to the acts and the silent movies.[8]
Though a natural at the piano, Basie preferred drums. Discouraged by the obvious talents of Sonny Greer, who also lived in Red Bank and became Duke Ellington's drummer in 1919, Basie switched to piano exclusively at age 15.[5] Greer and Basie played together in venues until Greer set out on his professional career. By then, Basie was playing with pick-up groups for dances, resorts, and amateur shows, including Harry Richardson's "Kings of Syncopation".[9] When not playing a gig, he hung out at the local pool hall with other musicians, where he picked up on upcoming play dates and gossip. He got some jobs in Asbury Park at the Jersey Shore, and played at the Hong Kong Inn until a better player took his place.[10]
Early career[edit]
Around 1920, Basie went to Harlem, a hotbed of jazz, where he lived down the block from the Alhambra Theater. Early after his arrival, he bumped into Sonny Greer, who was by then the drummer for the Washingtonians, Duke Ellington's early band.[11] Soon, Basie met many of the Harlem musicians who were "making the scene," including Willie "the Lion" Smith and James P. Johnson.
Basie toured in several acts between 1925 and 1927, including Katie Krippen and Her Kiddies (featuring singer Katie Crippen) as part of the Hippity Hop show; on the Keith, the Columbia Burlesque, and the Theater Owners Booking Association (T.O.B.A.) vaudeville circuits; and as a soloist and accompanist to blues singer Gonzelle White as well as Crippen.[12][13] His touring took him to Kansas City, St. Louis, New Orleans, and Chicago. Throughout his tours, Basie met many jazz musicians, including Louis Armstrong.[14] Before he was 20 years old, he toured extensively on the Keith and TOBA vaudeville circuits as a solo pianist, accompanist, and music director for blues singers, dancers, and comedians. This provided an early training that was to prove significant in his later career.[15]
Back in Harlem in 1925, Basie gained his first steady job at Leroy's, a place known for its piano players and its "cutting contests". The place catered to "uptown celebrities", and typically the band winged every number without sheet music using "head arrangements".[16] He met Fats Waller, who was playing organ at the Lincoln Theater accompanying silent movies, and Waller taught him how to play that instrument. (Basie later played organ at the Eblon Theater in Kansas City).[1] As he did with Duke Ellington, Willie "the Lion" Smith helped Basie out during the lean times by arranging gigs at "house-rent parties", introducing him to other leading musicians, and teaching him some piano technique.[17]
In 1928, Basie was in Tulsa and heard Walter Page and his Famous Blue Devils, one of the first big bands, which featured Jimmy Rushing on vocals.[18] A few months later, he was invited to join the band, which played mostly in Texas and Oklahoma. It was at this time that he began to be known as "Count" Basie (see Jazz royalty).[19]
Kansas City years[edit]
The following year, in 1929, Basie became the pianist with the Bennie Moten band based in Kansas City, inspired by Moten's ambition to raise his band to match the level of those led by Duke Ellington or Fletcher Henderson.[20] Where the Blue Devils were "snappier" and more "bluesy", the Moten band was more refined and respected, playing in the "Kansas City stomp" style.[21] In addition to playing piano, Basie was co-arranger with Eddie Durham, who notated the music.[22] Their "Moten Swing", which Basie claimed credit for,[23] was an invaluable contribution to the development of swing music, and at one performance at the Pearl Theatre in Philadelphia in December 1932, the theatre opened its door to allow anybody in who wanted to hear the band perform.[24] During a stay in Chicago, Basie recorded with the band. He occasionally played four-hand piano and dual pianos with Moten, who also conducted.[25] The band improved with several personnel changes, including the addition of tenor saxophonist Ben Webster.
When the band voted Moten out, Basie took over for several months, calling the group Count Basie and his Cherry Blossoms. When his own band folded, he rejoined Moten with a newly re-organized band.[26] A year later, Basie joined Bennie Moten's band, and played with them until Moten died in 1935 from a failed tonsillectomy. The band tried to stay together but failed. Basie then formed his own nine-piece band, Barons of Rhythm, with many former Moten members including Walter Page (bass), Freddie Green (guitar), Jo Jones (drums), Lester Young (tenor saxophone) and Jimmy Rushing (vocals).
The Barons of Rhythm were regulars at the Reno Club and often performed for a live radio broadcast. During a broadcast the announcer wanted to give Basie's name some style, so he called him "Count". It positioned him with Earl Hines, as well as Duke Ellington.
Basie's new band played at the Reno Club and sometimes were broadcast on local radio. Late one night with time to fill, the band started improvising. Basie liked the results and named the piece "One O'Clock Jump".[27] According to Basie, "we hit it with the rhythm section and went into the riffs, and the riffs just stuck. We set the thing up front in D-flat, and then we just went on playing in F." It became his signature tune.[28]
John Hammond and first recordings[edit]
At the end of 1936, Basie and his band, now billed as Count Basie and His Barons of Rhythm, moved from Kansas City to Chicago, where they honed their repertoire at a long engagement at the Grand Terrace Cafe.[29] Right from the start, Basie's band was known for its rhythm section. Another Basie innovation was the use of two tenor saxophone players; at the time, most bands had just one. When Young complained of Herschel Evans' vibrato, Basie placed them on either side of the alto players, and soon had the tenor players engaged in "duels". Many other bands later adapted the split tenor arrangement.[30]
In that city in October 1936, the band had a recording session which the producer John Hammond later described as "the only perfect, completely perfect recording session I've ever had anything to do with".[31] Hammond first heard Basie's band on the radio and went to Kansas City to check them out.[32] He invited them to record, in performances which were Lester Young's earliest recordings. Those four sides were released on Vocalion Records under the band name of Jones-Smith Incorporated; the sides were "Shoe Shine Boy", "Evening", "Boogie Woogie", and "Oh Lady Be Good". After Vocalion became a subsidiary of Columbia Records in 1938, "Boogie Woogie" was released in 1941 as part of a four-record compilation album entitled Boogie Woogie (Columbia album C44).[33] When he made the Vocalion recordings, Basie had already signed with Decca Records, but did not have his first recording session with them until January 1937.[34]
By then, Basie's sound was characterized by a "jumping" beat and the contrapuntal accents of his own piano. His personnel around 1937 included: Lester Young and Herschel Evans (tenor sax), Freddie Green (guitar), Jo Jones (drums), Walter Page (bass), Earle Warren (alto sax), Buck Clayton and Harry Edison (trumpet), Benny Morton and Dickie Wells (trombone).[35] Lester Young, known as "Prez" by the band, came up with nicknames for all the other band members. He called Basie "Holy Man", "Holy Main", and just plain "Holy".[36]
Basie favored blues, and he would showcase some of the most notable blues singers of the era after he went to New York: Billie Holiday, Jimmy Rushing, Big Joe Turner, Helen Humes, and Joe Williams. He also hired arrangers who knew how to maximize the band's abilities, such as Eddie Durham and Jimmy Mundy.
New York City and the swing years[edit]
When Basie took his orchestra to New York in 1937, they made the Woodside Hotel in Harlem their base (they often rehearsed in its basement).[37] Soon, they were booked at the Roseland Ballroom for the Christmas show. Basie recalled a review, which said something like, "We caught the great Count Basie band which is supposed to be so hot he was going to come in here and set the Roseland on fire. Well, the Roseland is still standing".[38] Compared to the reigning band of Fletcher Henderson, Basie's band lacked polish and presentation.[39]
The producer John Hammond continued to advise and encourage the band, and they soon came up with some adjustments, including softer playing, more solos, and more standards. They paced themselves to save their hottest numbers for later in the show, to give the audience a chance to warm up.[40] His first official recordings for Decca followed, under contract to agent MCA, including "Pennies from Heaven" and "Honeysuckle Rose".[41]
Hammond introduced Basie to Billie Holiday, whom he invited to sing with the band. (Holiday did not record with Basie, as she had her own record contract and preferred working with small combos).[42] The band's first appearance at the Apollo Theater followed, with the vocalists Holiday and Jimmy Rushing getting the most attention.[43] Durham returned to help with arranging and composing, but for the most part, the orchestra worked out its numbers in rehearsal, with Basie guiding the proceedings. There were often no musical notations made. Once the musicians found what they liked, they usually were able to repeat it using their "head arrangements" and collective memory.[44]
Next, Basie played at the Savoy, which was noted more for lindy-hopping, while the Roseland was a place for fox-trots and congas.[45] In early 1938, the Savoy was the meeting ground for a "battle of the bands" with Chick Webb's group. Basie had Holiday, and Webb countered with the singer Ella Fitzgerald. As Metronome magazine proclaimed, "Basie's Brilliant Band Conquers Chick's"; the article described the evening:
Throughout the fight, which never let down in its intensity during the whole fray, Chick took the aggressive, with the Count playing along easily and, on the whole, more musically scientifically. Undismayed by Chick's forceful drum beating, which sent the audience into shouts of encouragement and appreciation and casual beads of perspiration to drop from Chick's brow onto the brass cymbals, the Count maintained an attitude of poise and self-assurance. He constantly parried Chick's thundering haymakers with tantalizing runs and arpeggios which teased more and more force from his adversary.[46]
The publicity over the big band battle, before and after, gave the Basie band a boost and wider recognition. Soon after, Benny Goodman recorded their signature "One O'Clock Jump" with his band.[47]
A few months later, Holiday left for Artie Shaw's band. Hammond introduced Helen Humes, whom Basie hired; she stayed with Basie for four years.[48] When Eddie Durham left for Glenn Miller's orchestra, he was replaced by Dicky Wells. Basie's 14-man band began playing at the Famous Door, a mid-town nightspot with a CBS network feed and air conditioning, which Hammond was said to have bought the club in return for their booking Basie steadily throughout the summer of 1938. Their fame took a huge leap.[49] Adding to their play book, Basie received arrangements from Jimmy Mundy (who had also worked with Benny Goodman and Earl Hines), particularly for "Cherokee", "Easy Does It", and "Super Chief".[50] In 1939, Basie and his band made a major cross-country tour, including their first West Coast dates. A few months later, Basie quit MCA and signed with the William Morris Agency, who got them better fees.[51]
On February 19, 1940, Count Basie and his Orchestra opened a four-week engagement at Southland in Boston, and they broadcast over the radio on February 20.[52] On the West Coast, in 1942 the band did a spot in Reveille With Beverly, a musical film starring Ann Miller, and a "Command Performance" for Armed Forces Radio, with Hollywood stars Clark Gable, Bette Davis, Carmen Miranda, Jerry Colonna, and the singer Dinah Shore.[53] Other minor movie spots followed, including Choo Choo Swing, Crazy House, Top Man, Stage Door Canteen, and Hit Parade of 1943.[54] They also continued to record for OKeh Records and Columbia Records.[55] The war years caused a lot of members turn over, and the band worked many play dates with lower pay. Dance hall bookings were down sharply as swing began to fade, the effects of the musicians' strikes of 1942–44 and 1948 began to be felt, and the public's taste grew for singers.
Basie occasionally lost some key soloists. However, throughout the 1940s, he maintained a big band that possessed an infectious rhythmic beat, an enthusiastic team spirit, and a long list of inspired and talented jazz soloists.[56]
Los Angeles and the Cavalcade of Jazz concerts[edit]
Count Basie was the featured artist at the first Cavalcade of Jazz concert held at Wrigley Field on September 23, 1945, which was produced by Leon Hefflin Sr.[57] Al Jarvis was the Emcee and other artists to appear on stage were Joe Liggins and his Honeydrippers, The Peters Sisters, Slim and Bam, Valaida Snow, and Big Joe Turner.[58] They played to a crowd of 15,000. Count Basie and his Orchestra played at the tenth Cavalcade of Jazz concert also at Wrigley Field on June 20, 1954. He played along with The Flairs, Christine Kittrell, Lamp Lighters, Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five, Ruth Brown, and Perez Prado and his Orchestra.[59]
Post-war and later years[edit]
The big band era appeared to have ended after the war, and Basie disbanded the group. For a while, he performed in combos, sometimes stretched to an orchestra. In 1950, he headlined the Universal-International short film "Sugar Chile" Robinson, Billie Holiday, Count Basie and His Sextet. He reformed his group as a 16-piece orchestra in 1952. This group was eventually called the New Testament band. Basie credited Billy Eckstine, a top male vocalist of the time, for prompting his return to Big Band. He said that Norman Granz got them into the Birdland club and promoted the new band through recordings on the Mercury, Clef, and Verve labels.[60] By 1956, Basie's recordings were also showcased by Ben Selvin within the RCA Thesaurus transcription library.[61] The jukebox era had begun, and Basie shared the exposure along with early rock'n'roll and rhythm and blues artists. Basie's new band was more of an ensemble group, with fewer solo turns, and relying less on "head" and more on written arrangements.
Basie added touches of bebop "so long as it made sense", and he required that "it all had to have feeling". Basie's band was sharing Birdland with such bebop musicians as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Miles Davis. Behind the occasional bebop solos, he always kept his strict rhythmic pulse, "so it doesn't matter what they do up front; the audience gets the beat".[62] Basie also added flute to some numbers, a novelty at the time that became widely copied.[63] Soon, his band was touring and recording again. The new band included: Paul Campbell, Tommy Turrentine, Johnny Letman, Idrees Sulieman, and Joe Newman (trumpet); Jimmy Wilkins, Benny Powell, Matthew Gee (trombone); Paul Quinichette and Floyd "Candy" Johnson (tenor sax); Frank Wess (tenor sax and flute); Marshal Royal and Ernie Wilkins (alto sax); and Charlie Fowlkes (baritone sax).[64] DownBeat magazine reported: "(Basie) has managed to assemble an ensemble that can thrill both the listener who remembers 1938 and the youngster who has never before heard a big band like this."[65] In 1957, Basie sued the jazz venue Ball and Chain in Miami over outstanding fees, causing the closure of the venue.[66]
In 1958, the band made its first European tour. Jazz was especially appreciated in France, The Netherlands, and Germany in the 1950s; these countries were the stomping grounds for many expatriate American jazz stars who were either resurrecting their careers or sitting out the years of racial divide in the United States. Neal Hefti began to provide arrangements, including "Lil Darlin'". By the mid-1950s, Basie's band had become one of the preeminent backing big bands for some of the most prominent jazz vocalists of the time. They also toured with the "Birdland Stars of 1955", whose lineup included Sarah Vaughan, Erroll Garner, Lester Young, George Shearing, and Stan Getz.[67]
In 1957, Basie the live album Count Basie at Newport. "April in Paris" (arrangement by Wild Bill Davis) was a best-selling instrumental and the title song for the hit album.[68] The Basie band made two tours in the British Isles and on the second, they put on a command performance for Queen Elizabeth II, along with Judy Garland, Vera Lynn, and Mario Lanza.[69] He was a guest on ABC's The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, a venue also opened to several other black entertainers. In 1959, Basie's band recorded a "greatest hits" double album The Count Basie Story (Frank Foster, arranger), and Basie/Eckstine Incorporated, an album featuring Billy Eckstine, Quincy Jones (as arranger) and the Count Basie Orchestra. It was released by Roulette Records, then later reissued by Capitol Records.
Later that year, Basie appeared on a television special with Fred Astaire, featuring a dance solo to "Sweet Georgia Brown", followed in January 1961 by Basie performing at one of the five John F. Kennedy Inaugural Balls.[70] That summer, Basie and Duke Ellington combined forces for the recording First Time! The Count Meets the Duke, each providing four numbers from their play books.[71]
During the balance of the 1960s, the band kept active with tours, recordings, television appearances, festivals, Las Vegas shows, and travel abroad, including cruises. Some time around 1964, Basie adopted his trademark yachting cap.[72]
Through steady changes in personnel, Basie led the band into the 1980s. Basie made a few more movie appearances, such as in the Jerry Lewis film Cinderfella (1960) and the Mel Brooks movie Blazing Saddles (1974), playing a revised arrangement of "April in Paris". In 1982 Basie and his orchestra were the featured entertainment for the 50th Anniversary celebrations of the Pittsburgh Steelers at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.[1]
Basie was a Prince Hall Freemason as a member of Wisdom Lodge No. 102 in Chicago as well as a Shriner.[73]
Marriage, family and death[edit]
Basie was a member of Omega Psi Phi fraternity. On July 21, 1930, Basie married Vivian Lee Winn, in Kansas City, Missouri. They were divorced sometime before 1935. Some time in or before 1935, the now single Basie returned to New York City, renting a house at 111 West 138th Street, Manhattan, as evidenced by the 1940 census. He married Catherine Morgan on July 13, 1940, in the King County courthouse in Seattle, Washington. In 1942, they moved to Queens. Their only child, Diane, was born February 6, 1944. She was born with cerebral palsy and the doctors claimed she would never walk. The couple kept her and cared deeply for her, and especially through her mother's tutelage, Diane learned not only to walk but to swim.[74] The Basies bought a home in the new whites-only neighborhood of Addisleigh Park in 1946 on Adelaide Road and 175th Street, St. Albans, Queens.[75] On April 11, 1983, Catherine Basie died of heart disease at the couple's home in Freeport, Grand Bahama Island. She was 67 years old.[76] Daughter Diane Basie died October 15, 2022, of a heart attack.[77]
Count Basie died of pancreatic cancer in Hollywood, Florida, on April 26, 1984, at the age of 79.[1]
Singers[edit]
Basie hitched his star to some of the most famous vocalists of the 1950s and 1960s, which helped keep the Big Band sound alive and added greatly to his recording catalog. Jimmy Rushing sang with Basie in the late 1930s. Joe Williams toured with the band and was featured on the 1957 album One O'Clock Jump, and 1956's Count Basie Swings, Joe Williams Sings, with "Every Day (I Have the Blues)" becoming a huge hit. With Billy Eckstine on the album Basie/Eckstine Incorporated, in 1959. Ella Fitzgerald made some memorable recordings with Basie, including the 1963 album Ella and Basie!. With the New Testament Basie band in full swing, and arrangements written by a youthful Quincy Jones, this album proved a swinging respite from her Songbook recordings and constant touring she did during this period. She even toured with the Basie Orchestra in the mid-1970s, and Fitzgerald and Basie also met on the 1979 albums A Classy Pair, Digital III at Montreux, and A Perfect Match, the last two also recorded live at Montreux. In addition to Quincy Jones, Basie was using arrangers such as Benny Carter (Kansas City Suite), Neal Hefti (The Atomic Mr Basie), and Sammy Nestico (Basie-Straight Ahead).
Frank Sinatra recorded for the first time with Basie on 1962's Sinatra-Basie and for a second studio album on 1964's It Might as Well Be Swing, which was arranged by Quincy Jones. Jones also arranged and conducted 1966's live Sinatra at the Sands which featured Sinatra with Count Basie and his orchestra stayed at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas at Sinatra's request. In May 1970, Sinatra performed in London's Royal Festival Hall with the Basie orchestra, in a charity benefit for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Sinatra later said of this concert "I have a funny feeling that those two nights could have been my finest hour, really. It went so well; it was so thrilling and exciting".[78]
Basie also recorded with Tony Bennett in the late 1950s. Their albums together included In Person and Strike Up the Band. Basie also toured with Bennett, including a date at Carnegie Hall. He also recorded with Sammy Davis Jr., Bing Crosby, and Sarah Vaughan. One of Basie's biggest regrets was never recording with Louis Armstrong, though they shared the same bill several times.[79] In 1968, Basie and his Band recorded an album with Jackie Wilson titled Manufacturers of Soul.[80][81]
Legacy and honors[edit]
Count Basie introduced several generations of listeners to the Big Band sound and left an influential catalog. Basie is remembered by many who worked for him as being considerate of musicians and their opinions, modest, relaxed, fun-loving, dryly witty, and always enthusiastic about his music.[82] In his autobiography, he wrote, "I think the band can really swing when it swings easy, when it can just play along like you are cutting butter."[83]
In Red Bank, New Jersey, the Count Basie Theatre, a property on Monmouth Street redeveloped for live performances, and Count Basie Field were named in his honor.
Received an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music in 1974.[84]
Mechanic Street, where he grew up with his family, has the honorary title of Count Basie Way.
In 2009, Edgecombe Avenue and 160th Street in Washington Heights, Manhattan, were renamed as Paul Robeson Boulevard and Count Basie Place. The corner is the location of 555 Edgecombe Avenue, also known as the Paul Robeson Home, a National Historic Landmark where Count Basie had also lived.
In 2010, Basie was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.
In October 2013, version 3.7 of WordPress was code-named Count Basie.[85]
In 2019, Basie was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.
Asteroid 35394 Countbasie, discovered by astronomers at Caussols in 1997, was named after him.[86] The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on November 8, 2019 (M.P.C. 118220).[87]
6508 Hollywood Blvd in Hollywood, California is the location of Count Basie's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Representation in other media[edit]
Jerry Lewis used "Blues in Hoss' Flat" from Basie's Chairman of the Board album, as the basis for his own "Chairman of the Board" routine in the movie The Errand Boy.
"Blues in Hoss' Flat," composed by Basie band member Frank Foster, was used by the radio DJ Al "Jazzbeaux" Collins as his theme song in San Francisco and New York.
In Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), Brenda Fricker's "Pigeon Lady" character claims to have heard Basie in Carnegie Hall.
Drummer Neil Peart of the Canadian rock band Rush recorded a version of "One O'Clock Jump" with the Buddy Rich Big Band, and has used it at the end of his drum solos on the 2002 Vapor Trails Tour and Rush's 30th Anniversary Tour.
Since 1963 "The Kid From Red Bank" has been the theme and signature music for the most popular Norwegian radio show, Reiseradioen, aired at NRK P1 every day during the summer.
In the 2016 movie The Matchbreaker, Emily Atkins (Christina Grimmie) recounts the story of how Count Basie met his wife three times without speaking to her, telling her he would marry her some day in their first conversation, and then marrying her seven years later.
The post-hardcore band Dance Gavin Dance have a song titled "Count Bassy" that is included on their 2018 album Artificial Selection.
In his novel This Storm, James Ellroy makes Basie a character who is blackmailed by corrupt Los Angeles police to play a New Year's Eve concert in exchange for ignoring a marijuana charge.
Discography[edit]
Count Basie made most of his albums with his big band. See the Count Basie Orchestra Discography.
From 1929 to 1932, Basie was part of Bennie Moten's Kansas City Orchestra:
Count Basie in Kansas City: Bennie Moten's Great Band of 1930-1932 (RCA Victor, 1965)
Basie Beginnings: Bennie Moten's Kansas City Orchestra (1929–1932) (Bluebird/RCA, 1989)
The Swinging Count!, (Clef, 1952)
Count Basie Presents Eddie Davis Trio + Joe Newman (Roulette, 1958)
The Atomic Mr. Basie (Roulette, 1958)
Memories Ad-Lib with Joe Williams (Roulette, 1958)
Basie/Eckstine Incorporated with Billy Eckstine ( Roulette 1959)
String Along with Basie (Roulette, 1960)
Count Basie and the Kansas City 7 (Impulse!, 1962)
Basie Swingin' Voices Singin' with the Alan Copeland Singers (ABC-Paramount, 1966)
Basie Meets Bond (United Artists, 1966)
Basie's Beatle Bag (Verve, 1966)
Basie on the Beatles (Happy Tiger, 1970)
Loose Walk with Roy Eldridge (Pablo, 1972)
Basie Jam (Pablo, 1973)
The Bosses with Big Joe Turner (1973)
For the First Time (Pablo, 1974)
Satch and Josh with Oscar Peterson (Pablo, 1974)
Basie & Zoot with Zoot Sims (Pablo, 1975)
Count Basie Jam Session at the Montreux Jazz Festival 1975 (Pablo, 1975)
For the Second Time (Pablo, 1975)
Basie Jam 2 (Pablo, 1976)
Basie Jam 3 (Pablo, 1976)
Kansas City 5 (Pablo, 1977)
The Gifted Ones with Dizzy Gillespie (Pablo, 1977)
Montreux '77 (Pablo, 1977)
Basie Jam: Montreux '77 (Pablo, 1977)
Satch and Josh...Again with Oscar Peterson (Pablo, 1977)
Night Rider with Oscar Peterson (Pablo, 1978)
Count Basie Meets Oscar Peterson – The Timekeepers (Pablo, 1978)
Yessir, That's My Baby with Oscar Peterson (Pablo, 1978)
Kansas City 8: Get Together (Pablo, 1979)
Kansas City 7 (Pablo, 1980)
On the Road (Pablo, 1980)
Kansas City 6 (Pablo, 1981)
Mostly Blues...and Some Others (Pablo, 1983)
88 Basie Street (Pablo, 1983)
As sideman[edit]
With Eddie Lockjaw Davis
Count Basie Presents Eddie Davis Trio + Joe Newman (Roulette, 1957)
With Harry Edison
Edison's Lights (Pablo, 1976)
With Benny Goodman
The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert (Columbia, 1939)
Solo Flight: The Genius of Charlie Christian (Columbia, 1939)
With Jo Jones
Jo Jones Special (Vanguard, 1955)
With Joe Newman
Joe Newman and the Boys in the Band (Storyville, 1954)
With Paul Quinichette
The Vice Pres (Verve, 1952)
With Lester Young
The Complete Savoy Recordings (Savoy, 1944)
Filmography[edit]
Policy Man (1938)[88]
Hit Parade of 1943 (1943) – as himself
Top Man (1943) – as himself
Sugar Chile Robinson, Billie Holiday, Count Basie and His Sextet (1950) – as himself
Jamboree (1957)
Cinderfella (1960) – as himself
Sex and the Single Girl (1964) – as himself with his orchestra
Blazing Saddles (1974) – as himself with his orchestra
Last of the Blue Devils (1979) – interview and concert by the orchestra in documentary on Kansas City music
Awards[edit]
Grammy Awards[edit]
In 1958, Basie became the first African-American to win a Grammy Award.[89]
Count Basie Grammy Award history[90] Year Category Title Genre Results 1984 Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Big Band 88 Basie Street Jazz Winner 1982 Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Big Band Warm Breeze Jazz Winner 1980 Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Big Band On The Road Jazz Winner 1977 Best Jazz Performance by a Big Band Prime Time Jazz Winner 1976 Best Jazz Performance by a Soloist (Instrumental) Basie And Zoot Jazz Winner 1963 Best Performance by an Orchestra – For Dancing This Time By Basie! Hits of the 50's And 60's Pop Winner 1960 Best Performance by a Band For Dancing Dance With Basie Pop Winner 1958 Best Performance by a Dance Band Basie (The Atomic Mr. Basie) Pop Winner 1958 Best Jazz Performance, Group Basie (The Atomic Mr. Basie) Jazz Winner
Grammy Hall of Fame[edit]
By 2011, four recordings of Count Basie had been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least 25 years old, and that have "qualitative or historical significance."
Count Basie Grammy Hall of Fame Awards[91] Year recorded Title genre Label Year inducted 1939 Lester Leaps In Jazz (Single) Vocalion 2005 1955 Everyday (I Have the Blues) Jazz (Single) Clef 1992 1955 April in Paris Jazz (Single) Clef 1985 1937 One O'Clock Jump Jazz (Single) Decca 1979
Honors and inductions[edit]
On May 23, 1985, William "Count" Basie was presented, posthumously, with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Ronald Reagan. The award was received by Aaron Woodward.
On September 11, 1996, the U.S. Post Office issued a Count Basie 32 cents postage stamp. Basie is a part of the Big Band Leaders issue, which, is in turn, part of the Legends of American Music series.
In 2009, Basie was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.[92]
In May 2019, Basie was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame at a ceremony in Memphis, TN, presented by The Blues Foundation.
Count Basie award history Year Category Result Notes 2019 Blues Hall of Fame Inducted 2007 Long Island Music Hall of Fame Inducted 2005 Nesuhi Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame Inducted 2002 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award Winner 1983 NEA Jazz Masters Winner 1981 Grammy Trustees Award Winner 1981 Kennedy Center Honors Honoree 1982 Hollywood Walk of Fame Honoree at 6508 Hollywood Blvd. 1970 Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Initiated Mu Nu Chapter 1958 Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame Inducted
National Recording Registry[edit]
In 2005, Count Basie's song "One O'Clock Jump" (1937) was included by the National Recording Preservation Board in the Library of Congress National Recording Registry.[93] The board selects songs in an annual basis that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
Jazz portal
References[edit]
[edit]
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August 21, 1904April 26, 1984 Source for information on Basie, William James "Count": Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History dictionary.
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August 21, 1904
April 26, 1984
Born in Red Bank, New Jersey, jazz pianist and bandleader William "Count" Basie took up drums as a child, performing at informal neighborhood gatherings. He began to play piano before his teens, and in high school he formed a band with drummer Sonny Greer. In 1924 Basie moved to New York, where he was befriended by two of the greatest stride piano players of the day, Fats Waller and James P. Johnson. Basie himself became a fine stride pianist, as well as a proficient organist, learning that instrument while observing Waller's performances at the Lincoln Theater in Harlem. Basie left New York in the mid-1920s to work as a touring musician for bands led by June Clark and Elmer Snowden, and as accompanist to variety acts such as those led by Kate Crippen and Gonzelle White. When White's group broke up in Kansas City in 1927, Basie found himself stranded. He supported himself as a theater organist, but more importantly, he also began performing with many of the southwest "territory" bands. In 1928 he joined bassist Walter Page's Blue Devils, and the next year he joined Bennie Moten's band in Kansas City.
After Moten's death in 1935, Basie took over the group, now reorganized as Count Basie and the Barons of Rhythm. Producer John Hammond heard the band on a 1935 radio broadcast from the Reno Club in Kansas City, and the next year brought the band to New York City. During this time the Basie band became one of the country's best-known swing bands, performing at the Savoy Ballroom, at the Famous Door on 52nd Street, and at the Woodside Hotel in Harlem, a stay immortalized in "Jumpin' at the Woodside" (1938). The band's recordings from this time represent the best of the hard-driving, riff-based Kansas City style of big-band swing. Many of these recordings are "head" arrangements, in which the horns spontaneously set up a repeating motif behind the melody and solos. Memorable recordings from this period include "Good Morning Blues" (1937), "One O'Clock Jump" (1937), "Sent for You Yesterday" (1937), "Swinging the Blues" (1938), "Every Tub" (1938), and "Taxi War Dance" (1939). In 1941 the Basie band recorded "King Joe," a tribute to boxer Joe Louis, which had lyrics by Richard Wright and vocals by Paul Robeson. In 1943 the band appeared in two films, Stage Door Canteen and Hit Parade of 1943.
In the late 1930s and early 1940s, the Basie group was primarily a band of soloists. The leading members included tenor saxophonists Herschel Evans and Lester Young, alto saxophonists Buster Smith and Earle Warren, trumpeters Harry "Sweets" Edison and Wilbur "Buck" Clayton, and trombonists Eddie Durham and William "Dicky" Wells. Jimmy Rushing, Helen Humes, and Billie Holiday provided vocals. In the 1940s Basie also added saxophonists Buddy Tate and Don Byas, trumpeters Clark Terry and Joe Newman, and trombonists Vic Dickenson and J. J. Johnson. Throughout, the band's "all-American rhythm section" consisted of Basie, drummer Jo Jones, bassist Walter Page, and guitarist Freddie Green, who remained with the band for more than fifty years. Together, they provided the sparse and precise, but also relaxed and understated, accompaniment. Basie himself was one of the first jazz pianists to "comp" behind soloists, providing accompaniment that was both supportive and prodding. His thoughtful solos, which became highly influential, were simple and rarefied, eschewing the extroverted runs of stride piano, but retaining a powerful swing. That style is on display on Basie's 1938–1939 trio recordings ("How Long, How Long Blues" and "Oh! Red"). He also recorded on the organ in 1939.
With the rise of the bebop era, Basie had difficulty finding work for his big band, which he dissolved in 1949. However, after touring for a year with a bebop-oriented octet, Basie formed another big band, which lasted until his death. The "second" Basie band was very different from its predecessor. The first was famed for its simple and spontaneous "head" arrangements. In contrast, arrangers Neal Hefti, Johnny Mandel, and Ernie Wilkins, with their carefully notated arrangements and rhythmic precision, were the featured musicians of the second Basie band. The latter also had many fine instrumentalists, including saxophonists Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and Paul Quinichette, Frank Wess and Frank Foster playing saxophone and flute, trombonist Al Grey, trumpeter Thad Jones, and vocalist Joe Williams.
Basie's second band toured extensively worldwide from the 1950s through the 1970s. Basie had his first national hit in 1955 with "Every Day I Have the Blues." Other popular recordings from this time include April in Paris (1955, including "Corner Pocket" and "Shiny Stockings"), The Atomic Basie (1957, including "Whirly Bird" and "Lil' Darlin"), Basie at Birdland (1961), Kansas City Seven (1962), and Basie Jam (1973). During this period the Basie band's popularity eclipsed even that of Duke Ellington, with whom they made a record, First Time, in 1961. The Basie band became a household name, playing at the inaugural balls of both John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson and appearing in such films as Cinderfella (1959), Sex and the Single Girl (1964), and Blazing Saddles (1974).
In the 1980s, Basie continued to record, in solo, small-group, and big-band settings (Farmer's Market Barbecue, 1982; 88 Basie Street, 1984). He lived for many years in the St. Albans section of Queens, New York, with Catherine Morgan, a former dancer he had married in 1942. Health problems induced him to move to the Bahamas in his later years. He died in 1984 in Hollywood, Florida. His autobiography, Good Morning Blues, appeared the next year. Basie's band has continued performing, led by Thad Jones until 1986 and since then by Frank Foster.
See also Holiday, Billie; Robeson, Paul; Savoy Ballroom
Bibliography
Basie, Count, and Albert Murray. Good Morning Blues: The Autobiography of Count Basie. New York: Random House, 1985.
Dance, Stanley. The World of Count Basie. New York: Da Capo Press, 1980.
Sheridan, C. Count Basie: A Bio-Discography. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1986.
michael d. scott (1996)
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Basie Saxophonist Frank Foster Dies of Kidney Failure
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Frank Foster, a jazz saxophonist who played with the Count Basie Orchestra and composed the band's hit, "Shiny Stockings," died Tuesday.
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Frank Foster, a jazz saxophonist who played with the Count Basie Orchestra and composed the band’s hit, “Shiny Stockings,” died Tuesday. He was 82.
Foster died Tuesday morning at his home in Chesapeake, Virginia, of complications from kidney failure, according to Cecilia Foster, his wife of 45 years.
Foster was recognized in 2002 by the National Endowment for the Arts as a Jazz Master, the nation’s highest jazz honor . In a statement expressing sadness at Foster’s death, NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman called him “an extraordinary saxophonist, composer, arranger, bandleader, and educator.”
Landesman added, “We join many others in the jazz community and beyond in mourning his death while celebrating his life.”
Video: Frank Foster and the Pioneer Orchestra, ‘Shiny Stockings’
Trending on Billboard
According to the NEA, Foster’s many compositions included material for singers Sarah Vaughan and Frank Sinatra, and a commissioned piece written for jazz orchestra for the 1980 Winter Olympics: “Lake Placid Suite.”
Foster was a native of Cincinnati. He told NEA interviewer Don Ball in 2008 that he “had an ear for music” from an early age. He said his mother took him to hear opera when he was just 6.
Jazz big bands caught his attention when he was 12. Foster’s first instrument was clarinet, but at age 13 he took up the sax. Foster told the interviewer he played in a dance band at Wilberforce University and went on to join Basie‘s band in 1953.
During his 11-year tenure with Basie, Foster not only played tenor saxophone and other woodwinds but also contributed numerous arrangements and compositions for the band, including the jazz standard “Shiny Stockings,” Down for the Count,” and “Back to the Apple.”
After Basie’s death, he returned to assume leadership of the Count Basie Orchestra from Thad Jones in 1986. He won two Grammy Awards while leading the band until 1995.
However, Cecelia Foster said he was proudest of his own big band: Frank Foster’s Loud Minority. He also played as a sideman in drummer Elvin Jones’ combo and co-led a quintet with fellow Basie veteran, saxophonist-flutist Frank Wess.
Foster also served as a musical consultant in the New York City public schools and taught at Queens College and the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Although he was partially paralyzed by a stroke in 2001, Foster’s wife said he continued composing “up until the end.”
In the NEA interview, Foster said, “I had always had as much fun writing as playing … But when you play something, if you mess up you can’t make it right. But you can write something, and if it’s not right you can change it. And I always had as much pleasure writing as playing because the thrill of hearing your music played back to you is almost indescribable.”
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Count Basie >(William) Count Basie (1904-1984) was an extremely popular figure in the >jazz world for half a century. He was a fine pianist and leader of one of >the greatest jazz bands in history.
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Count Basie
Pianist, bandleader
For the Record…
Selected discography
Sources
In his monumental second volume on the history of jazz, The Swing Era, Gunther Schuller delays his attempt to define swing until, some two hundred pages into the book, he introduces Count Basie in a section titled “The Quintessence of Swing.” Schuller states: “That the Basie band has been from its inception a master of swing could hardly be disputed…. For over forty years [Basie] has upheld a particular concept and style of jazz deeply rooted in the Southwest and Kansas City in particular. It draws its aesthetic sustenance from the blues, uses the riff as its major rhetorical and structural device, all set in the language and grammar of swing.”
Indeed, from the mid-1930s to the mid-1940s the “All-American Rhythm Section” —Walter Page, bass; Jo James, drums; and Freddie Green, guitar—combined with leader and pianist Count Basie to propel Basie’s band from relative obscurity in a Kansas City nightclub to world renown as the leading purveyor of swing. Though blessed with an estimable array of soloists throughout the big band era, the Basie band originated an infectious pulse whose essence was a clean, unified, four-beats-to-the-bar swing. Though celebrated for the simplicity of the riff-oriented, call and response interaction of the brasses and reeds in its head arrangements, the band drew its virility from the rhythm section, even after Page and Jones left (c. 1948). Though energized in later years by brilliant writing and arranging, the Basie band housed a secret ingredient: the leader’s quite but forceful insistence upon an uncluttered, swinging sound, anchored by the rhythm section and accented by his own “less is more” solos.
Page combined a walking bass line with fine tone and a correct choice of notes. Jones, dancing on the high hat cymbal rather than thumping on the bass drum, allowed the lively bass lines to breathe. Green, the latecomer, strummed the chords that inspired two generations of great soloists. Schuller says of Green that he is “a wonderful anacronism, in that he has (almost) never played a melodic solo and seems content to play those beautiful ’changes’ night after night.” Basie quarterbacked, accented, edited, filled, chorded, and prodded, often pitting the soloists against one another to expose their fire. And what a group of soloists it was: tenor saxophonists Lester Young (he of the lean, dry phrases, precursor of the “cool” school), Herschel Evans, Paul Gonsalves, Illinois Jacquet, Lucky Thompson, Charlie Rouse, and Don Byas; trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry Edison; trombonists Vic Dickenson, Dicky Wells, Bennie Morton, and J.J. Johnson; and vocalists Jimmy Rushing, Helen Humes, and Billie Holiday. Later bands would include trumpeters Clark Terry and Thad Jones, trombonist Al Grey, and reedmen Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, Frank Foster, Marshal Royal,
For the Record…
Full name, William James Basie; born August 21, 1904, in Red Bank, N.J. ; died of pancreatic cancer, April 26, 1984, in Hollywood, Fla.; ashes interred at Pine Lawn Cemetery, Farmingdale, N.Y.; son of Harvey (a gardener) and Lillian (a domestic; maiden name, Childs) Basie; married Catherine Morgan (manager of Count Basie Enterprises), July 1942; children and adopted children (some informally): Diane, Aaron, Woodward III, Lamont Gilmore, Rosemarie Matthews, Clifford. Education: Attended public schools until about the ninth grade; studied piano during 1920s with Thomas “Fats” Waller.
Pianist with touring group, Gonzell White and the Big Jamboree, 1926-28; pianist with Walter Page’s Blue Devils, 1928-29; pianist with Benny Moten’s Kansas City Orchestra, 1929-35; pianist-leader of the Barons of Rhythm, 1935-36; pianist-leader of the Count Basie Orchestra, 1937-49, and 1952-84; pianist and leader of octet, 1950-51.
Awards: Recipient of Esquire magazine’s All American Band Award, 1945; winner of down beat magazine’s International Critics’ Poll, 1952-56; recipient of Esquire magazine’s Silver Award, 1955; winner of down beat magazine’s readers’ poll, 1955; winner of the Metronome Poll, 1956; Governor of State of New York declared September 22, 1974, Count Basie Day; received honorary doctorate from Philadelphia Music Academy, 1974; named to Ebony magazine’s Black Music Hall of Fame, 1975; named to Playboy magazine’s Hall of Fame, 1976; named to Newport Jazz Hall of Fame, 1976; received Kennedy Center Performing Arts Honors Medal, 1981; recipient of Black Music Association Award, 1982; winner of nine Grammy Awards.
and Frank Wess, and singer Joe Williams. Personnel changes in Basie’s band were gradual as, from 1936 until his death in 1984 (with the exception of 1950-51, when it was reduced to an octet), Count Basie led the quintessential big swing band with which his name will always be associated.
From his Red Bank, New Jersey, home, Basie gravitated to the music parlors of 1920s Harlem, where he met fabled pianists James P. Johnson and Fats Waller, picking up some informal instruction on both piano and organ from the latter. As a piano soloist and accompanist to several acts, he worked his way to Kansas City with a troupe that became stranded there. After some service as a silent film organ accompanist, Basie played with several of the local bands including that of Bennie Moten, the area’s best-known leader. Some time after Moten’s death, Basie assumed command of the nucleus of that band in 1935, and with a nine-piece group embarked on a long run at the Reno Club, making it one of Kansas’s City’s hottest spots. A radio announcer there dubbed Basie “Count” and the title prevailed.
Jazz impresario John Hammond heard one of the band’s regular broadcasts on an experimental radio station and helped to arrange bookings in Chicago and later New York. Basie increased the size of the band to thirteen pieces, trying to retain the feel of the smaller group, but initial reaction was disappointing. Finally, in 1937, several elements coalesced to launch the band on its nearly half-century of success. Freddie Green’s guitar solidified the rhythm section. Booking agent Willard Alexander finessed an engagement at the Famous Door in the heart of New York’s 52nd Street, a booking complete with a national NBC radio wire. Basie’s Decca recordings—” One O’Clock Jump,” “Jumpin’ at the Woodside,” “Swingin’ the Blues,” “Lester Leaps In” and others—began to catch on. As word fanned outward, Basie’s band attracted wildly cheering audiences, often in excess of the capacity of the venues.
Basie’s bands before and after the 1950-51 octet hiatus were quite different. The early band relied almost exclusively on head arrangements, those that often evolved over a period of time as the leader and the players experimented with short phrases (riffs) and accents that bounced from the trumpets to the reeds to the trombones, showcasing the parade of outstanding soloists. In the early 1940s the band benefited mightily from the writing and arranging of Buster Harding, Buck Clayton, and Tab Smith. Their work no doubt paved the way for the later band’s heavy reliance upon brilliant writing and arranging, chiefly by Neal Hefti, Frank Foster, Ernie Wilkins, and Sam Nestico. It, too, showcased excellent soloists, but the Basie ensemble sound, now grown to sixteen pieces, was its hallmark and the rhythm section, with Basie and Green ever-present, was its heartbeat.
Prolific recording dates, tours to Europe and Asia, regular appearances at Broadway’s Birdland, and an endless stream of dances, festivals, and concerts led to many honors for Basie and his band, including royal command performances in England and recognition by Presidents Kennedy and Reagan. In addition to some of the seminal hits, later audiences demanded to hear such new Basie staples as “Li’l Darlin’,” “Cute,” “Every Day I Have the Blues,” “All Right, OK, You Win,” and “April In Paris.” Despite their differences, both bands exhibited a devotion to blues-based swinging and an uncluttered pulse; both also relied on effective use of dynamics, more subtle in the early band, more dramatic in the later, when Green’s unamplified guitar chords often gave way to shouting brass.
Basie’s bandstand demeanor appeared laid-back in the extreme—some called it laissez faire; others just plain lazy. Testimony of his bandmen and arrangers belie this. Perhaps Basie’s greatest skill was that of editor, first in the matter of personnel, then in the selection of repertoire. As John S. Wilson quoted Basie in The New York Times: “I wanted my 13-piece band to work together just like those nine pieces…to think and play the same way…. I said the minute the brass got out of hand and blared and screeched instead of making every note mean something, there’d be some changes made.” Basie told his autobiography collaborator, Albert Murray, “I’m experienced at auditions. I can tell in a few bars whether or not somebody can voice my stuff.”
Francis Davis’s Atlantic tribute column observed, “Basie apparently demanded of his sidemen a commitment to basics as single-minded as his own.” The writers and arrangers for the later band became accustomed to Basie’s editing out all material that he considered contrary to the ultimate goal: to swing. In the case of Neal Hefti’s “Li’l Darlin’,” Basie’s insistence on a much slower tempo than Hefti had envisioned resulted in one of the band’s greatest and most enduring hits. Basie’s conducting arsenal included such simple movements as a pointed finger, a smile, a raised eyebrow, and a nod—all sufficient to shift the “swing machine” into high gear.
Though Basie’s piano did surface significantly in later recordings with smaller groups, including piano duets with Oscar Peterson, he most often considered himself simply a part of the rhythm section. His spartan, unadorned solos, usually brief, cut to the essence of swing. With the full band, increasingly he was content to support and cajole soloists with carefully distilled single notes and chords of introduction and background. A genuine modesty about his pianistic skills combined with Basie’s understanding of the role of the big-band piano to form his style. Several critics and musicologists have observed that Basie’s spare playing inspired such important artists as John Lewis, music director of the Modern Jazz Quartet, and Thelonious Monk, one of the architects of the Bop Era. Additionally, Mary Lou Williams and Oscar Peterson attest to Basie’s influence upon their playing. As many mature jazz practitioners aver, great playing consists not only of the notes one chooses to play, but those that one leaves out. In this respect Count Basie stands out as the acknowledged master.
Whether viewed as its pianist, leader, composer, arranger, paymaster, chief editor, inspiration, or soul—Count Basie will always be inextricably associated with the Basie Band. Despite crippling arthritis of the spine and a 1976 heart attack, Basie continued to call the tune and the tempo until his death from cancer in 1984. It will be the burden of all big bands, past, present, and future, to stand comparison with the Basie band. It has been the standard for half a century. One reason may well be that Count Basie, he of the impeccable taste, was not only its leader, but the bands greatest fan. He would not permit it to play less than its best. He loved it so.
Selected discography
With Bennie Moten
The Complete Bennie Moten, Volumes 3/4, French RCA Victor.
The Complete Bennie Moten, Volumes 5/6, French RCA Victor.
As Leader
The Best of Count Basie, MCA.
The Indispensable Count Basie, French RCA Victor.
One O’Clock Jump, Columbia Special Products.
April in Paris, Verve.
Basie Plays Hefti, Emus.
16 Men Swinging, Verve.
88 Basie Street, Pablo.
With Dizzy Gillespie
The Gifted Ones, Pablo.
With Oscar Peterson
Satch and Josh, Pablo.
Sources
Books
Basie, Count, with Albert Murray, Good Morning Blues, Random House, 1985.
Chilton, John, Who’s Who of Jazz, Time-Life Records, 1978.
Dance, Stanley, The World of Count Basie, Scribner, 1980.
Feather, Leonard, The New Edition of The Encyclopedia of Jazz, Bonanza Books, 1960.
McCarthy, Albert, Big Band Jazz, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1974.
Rust, Brian, Jazz Records 1897-1942, 5th Revised and Enlarged Edition, Volume I, Storyville Publications, 1982.
Schuller, Gunther, The Swing Era, Oxford University Press, 1989.
Simon, George T., The Big Bands, Macmillan, 1967.
Periodicals
Atlantic, August, 1984.
down beat, July, 1984.
Ebony, January, 1984.
Newsweek, May 21, 1984; March 17, 1986.
New York Review of Books, January 16, 1986.
New York Times, April 27, 1984.
New York Times Book Review, February 2, 1986.
People, March 22, 1982.
Rolling Stone, June 7, 1984.
—Robert Dupuis
Count Basie 1904–1984
Band leader
At a Glance…
Selected discography
Sources
As leader of his own orchestra for several decades of the twentieth century, William “Count” Basie was considered a member of the swing royalty, along with “king of swing” Benny Goodman and Basie’s longtime rival and friend, Duke Ellington. A talented keyboardist, Basie developed a style rife with loose, rolling cadences and infectious hooks that became synonymous with his name. “His piano work showed that rhythm and space were more important than technical virtuosity,” wrote the Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music, while “his composing gave many eminent soloist their finest moments…. Modern jazz stands indubitably in Basie’s debt.”
An only child, William James Basie was born in Red Bank, New Jersey in 1904 to musically gifted parents. His father, who was a gardener by profession, played horn, while his mother played the piano. Basie began his musical career as a drum player for his high school band. However, because a rival percussionist from Red Bank was earning a great deal of attention for his talents, Basie abandoned the instrument. This rival, Sonny Greer, became the drummer for Duke Ellington’s band in 1919 and remained with the band for the next three decades.
Red Bank was located directly across the Hudson River from New York City. As a teenager, Basie frequently visited Harlem and its African American performance venues to listen to ragtime and other early forms of jazz. He was particularly fascinated with pianists who perfected their own loose style called the “Harlem stride.” Basie also enjoyed listening to Thomas “Fats” Waller perform on the organ at the Lincoln Theater. He would often sit as close to Waller as possible in order to observe his technique. Eventually, Waller noticed Basie watching so intently and began giving him informal lessons on the side.
Waller also recommended Basie for his first job in the music industry, as pianist for a black touring act called Katie Crippen and Her Kids in the early 1920s. During these years, Basie also performed in skits for the Theatre Owners’ Booking Association (T.O.B.A.), an organization that created tours for the black vaudeville circuit. He returned to New York City for a time, but began touring with the Gonzel White vaudeville act in 1926. The White show went bankrupt in 1927, leaving Basie and the other performers stranded in Kansas City.
At a Glance…
Born William James Basie, August 21, 1904, in Red Bank, NJ; died of cancer, April 26, 1984, in Hollywood, FL; son of Harvey (a gardener) and Lillian (a domestic worker) Basie; married, c. 1943; wife’s name, Catherine (died, 1983); five children.
Career: Played pi no in black vaudeville, 1920s; joined Walter Page’s Blue Devils, 1928; formed forerunner of Count Basie Orchestra, 1935; signed to Decca Records, 1937; signed with Vocalion (Columbia) Records, 1939; appeared in the film Stage Door Canteen, 1943; made first tour of Europe, 1954; performed at the inaugural ball for President John F. Kennedy, 1961.
Awards: Congressional Medal of Freedom, 1985.
Kansas City was a rather carefree town during the 1920s. Local vice laws were often loosely enforced, which created a thriving environment for jazz musicians. Basie found work in the city’s movie theaters as a pianist, and his cool demeanor earned him the nickname “Count.” In July of 1928 he joined Walter Page’s Blue Devils, a band which epitomized the so-called Kansas City style of jazz. During his stint with the Blue Devils, Basie met vocalist Jimmy Rushing. The two men became good friends, and often worked together during the course of several decades.
By 1929, Basie had left the Blue Devils to join the Kansas City Orchestra, which was led by Benny Moten. For the next several years, he performed with the orchestra. When Moten died unexpectedly in 1935, Basie and Moten’s nephew Buster reformed the group as The Barons Of Rhythm. “Unfettered drinking hours, regular broadcasts on local radio and Basie’s feel for swing honed the band into quite simply the most classy and propulsive unit in the history of music,” declared The Guinness Encyclopedia. “Duke Ellington’s band may have been more ambitious, but for sheer unstoppable swing Basie could not be beaten.”
The Barons of Rhythm played often at the Kansas City’s Reno Club, and featured Walter Page on bass, Lester Young on tenor sax, Jo Jones on drums, Freddie Green on guitar, and Buck Clayton on trumpet. Basie played the piano and lead the band. The band was eventually renamed the Count Basie Orchestra, and their sound was distinct from the other big bands of the day, with a far more bluesy, less polished feel. Basie and Green’s combined tempo-keeping set the pace for this unique style. “Like all bands in the Kansas City tradition, the Count Basie Orchestra was organized about the rhythm section, which supported the interplay of brass and reeds and served as a background for the unfolding of solos,” explained the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.
Around 1935, Basie and his orchestra were discovered by producer John Hammond during one of their live radio broadcasts. Hammond, who was one of the first American record executives to foresee the commercial viability of recorded jazz, wrote about the Count Basie Orchestra in Down Beat magazine. He also arranged invitations for the band to play at the Grand Terrace in Chicago and New York’s Roseland Ballroom. Basie and his band completed their first recording, “One O’Clock Jump,” in early 1937, and were signed to a contract with Decca Records. This contract also required Basie to record twenty-four sides (twelve records in all) for the sum of only $750, with no royalties. Hammond would later help Basie renegotiate this unfair contract. In 1939, Basie and his orchestra signed a new contract with the jazz division of Columbia Records.
Both “One O’Clock Jump” and another recording, “Jumpin’ at the Woodside,” were huge commercial successes. “Jumpin’ at the Woodside,” which featured solos from Earl Warren on alto sax and Herschel Evans on clarinet, “could be taken as a definition of swing,” declared the Guinness Encyclopedia. Another recording, “Taxi War Dance,” also sold well, and epitomized the big-band sound. “The band’s recordings between 1937 and 1941 for Decca and Vocalion (Columbia) are among the finest of the period,” stated the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Fans appeared in droves to dance the jitterbug and listen to Basie’s big band sound, with its characteristically unfettered rhythms. On one occasion, the Count Basie Orchestra performed in a North Carolina warehouse before 16,000 fans. When several thousand fans waiting outside were told that they would not be able to enter, a disturbance erupted and the National Guard was summoned to maintain order.
Basie appeared in musical films during World War II, most notably the 1943 review Stage Door Canteen. Following the end of the war in 1945, the big-band sound began to decline in popularity. The Count Basie Orchestra, which was plagued by financial problems and poor management, broke up for a time. In the interim, Basie formed an eight-member band that included Clark Terry, Wardell Gray on tenor, and Buddy DeFranco on clarinet. However, in 1952, he resurrected the Count Basie Orchestra. With the addition of singer Joe Williams, the band enjoyed success with records like “Every Day (I Have the Blues)” and “April in Paris.” The band embarked on a tour of European cities, and performed before enthusiastic crowds. In 1957, the Count Basie Orchestra became the first African American band to play the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City.
During the 1950s, Basie’s band remained remarkably steady in its line-up, and he was a well-liked, modest man despite his regal nickname. “Bill Basie’s keyboard style is one of the happiest and most readily identifiable sounds in jazz,” wrote Nat Shapiro in 1957 in The Jazz Makers. “To the casual listener, it is no more than a formless and spontaneous series of interjections, commas, hyphens, underlines, quotation marks and interrogation and exclamation points.” The orchestra had a standing gig at Birdland in New York, and “there was no better place to hear Basie in peak form, surrounded by his most loyal fans,” wrote Dan Morgenstern in Rolling Stone. “Sometimes the band swung so hard that he would lift his hands from the keyboard and just sit there, beaming-the image of a man delighted with his work, which, simply put, was to make people feel good.”
In addition to his musical career, Basie owned a bar on 132nd Street in Harlem. For 25 years, he and his wife Catherine lived in the Queens neighborhood of St. Albans with their five children. Eventually, the Basie family moved to Long Island. Basie performed regularly during the 1960s. He also recorded albums and toured with singers such as Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra. The Count Basie Orchestra played at the 1961 inaugural ball for President John F. Kennedy, and made frequent television appearances during the decade. In 1965 Basie signed with Reprise, Frank Sinatra’s label, and began adapting pop tunes to the big-band sound, which was a great commercial success.
During the 1970s, Basie signed with Pablo Records and recorded many big-band standards. However, he also began to experience various health problems. In 1976, Basie was forced to retire for a time after suffering a heart attack. He returned to the recording studio in 1979 and released On the Road and Afrique, an avant-garde jazz album. Basie was later diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and soon lost the ability to walk on his own. He passed away on April 26, 1984. Basie’s funeral at Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church was attended by two thousand mourners, and hundreds more stood outside in homage. His ashes were interred at Pine Lawn Cemetery in Farmington, Long Island, New York.
Selected discography
Swinging at the Daisy Chain, Decca, 1937.
One O’Clock Jump, Decca, 1937.
Good Morning Blues, Decca, 1937.
Every Tub, Decca, 1938.
Doggin’ Around, Decca, 1938.
Jumpin’ at the Woodside, Decca, 1938.
Jive at Five, Decca, 1939.
Oh! Lady Be Good, Decca, 1939.
Rock-a-Bye Basie, Vocalion, 1939.
Taxi War Dance, Vocalion, 1939.
Miss Thing, Vocalion, 1939.
Tickle-toe, Vocalion, 1940.
The World Is Mad, Vocalion, 1940.
Diggin’ for Dex, Vocalion, 1941.
The King/Blue Skies, Vocalion, 1945.
The Count, Camden, 1947-49.
Dance Session, Clef, 1953.
Sixteen Men Swinging, Verve, 1953-54.
Basie Plays Hefti, Roulette, 1958.
Chairman of the Board, Roulette, 1959.
The Count Basie Story, Roulette, 1960.
Basie at Birdland, Roulette, 1961.
Basie Jam, Pablo, 1973.
On the Road, Pablo, 1979.
Sources
Books
Good Morning Blues: The Autobiography of Count Basie as Told to Albert Murray, Da Capo, 1996.
The Jazz Makers, edited by Nat Shapiro and Nat Hentoff, Rinehart, 1957, pp. 232-242.
Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music, edited by Colin Larkin, Guinness Publishing, 1992.
New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie, Macmillan, 1980, pp. 236-237.
Periodicals
Down Beat, July, 1984, p. 11; February, 1994, p. 31. New York Times, April 27, 1984, p. 1; May 1, 1984, p. 1.
Rolling Stone, June 7, 1984, p. 68.
—Carol Brennan
Count Basie
(William) Count Basie (1904-1984) was an extremely popular figure in the jazz world for half a century. He was a fine pianist and leader of one of the greatest jazz bands in history.
The story of Count Basie is very much the story of the great jazz band that he led for close to 50 years (1935-1984), an orchestra with a distinctive sound, anchored by a subtle but propulsive beat, buoyed by crisp ensemble work, and graced with superb soloists (indeed, a catalogue of featured players would read like a Who's Who of jazz). But perhaps the most startling aspect of the band's achievement was its 50-year survival in a culture that has experienced so many changes in musical fashion, and especially its survival after the mid-1960s when jazz lost much of its audience to rock music and disco.
William Basie was born in Red Bank, New Jersey, on August 21, 1904. His mother was a music teacher, and at a young age he became her pupil. But it was in Harlem, New York City, that he learned the rudiments of ragtime and stride piano, principally from his sometime organ teacher, the great Fats Waller. Basie made his professional debut as an accompanist for vaudeville acts. While on a tour of the Keith vaudeville circuit he was stranded in Kansas City. Here, in 1928, after a short stint as house organist in a silent movie theater, he joined Walter Page's Blue Devils, and when that band broke up in 1929, he was hired by Bennie Moten's Band and played piano with them, with one interruption, for the next five years.
Moten's death in 1935 altered Basie's career dramatically. He took over the remnants of the band (they called themselves The Barons of Rhythm) and, with some financial and promotional support from impresario John Hammond, expanded the personnel and formed the first Count Basie Orchestra. Within a year or so the band had developed its own variation of the basic Kansas City swing style—a solidly pulsating rhythm underpinning the horn soloists, who were additionally supported by sectional riffing (i.e., the repetition of a musical figure by the non-soloing brass and reeds). This familiar pattern is evident in the band's theme song, "One O'Clock Jump, " written by Basie himself in 1937, which has a subdued, expectant introduction by the rhythm section (piano, guitar, bass, and drums), then bursts into full orchestral support for a succession of stirring solos, and concludes with a full ensemble riffing out-chorus. Like any great swing band, Basie's was exciting in any tempo, and in fact one of the glories of his early period was a lugubrious, down-tempo blues called "Blue and Sentimental, " which featured two magnificent solos (one by Herschel Evans on tenor saxophone and the other by Lester Young on clarinet) with full ensemble backing.
A Huge Success
By 1937 Basie's band was, with the possible exception of Duke Ellington's, the most highly acclaimed African American band in America. In the racially segregated context of the pre-World War II music business, African American bands never achieved the notoriety nor made the money that the famous white bands did. But some (Ellington's, Earl Hines's, Jimmy Lunceford's, Erskine Hawkins's, Chick Webb's, and Basie's, among them) did achieve a solid commercial success. Basie's band regularly worked some of the better big city hotel ballrooms and shared with many of the other 1,400 big bands of the Swing Era the less appetizing one-nighters (a series of single night engagements in a variety of small cities and towns that were toured by bus).
Some of the band's arrangements were written by trombonist Eddie Durham, but many were "heads"— arrangements spontaneously worked out in rehearsal and then transcribed. The band's "book" (repertory) was tailored not only to a distinctive orchestral style but also to showcase the band's brilliant soloists. Sometimes the arrangement was the reworking of a standard tune—"I got Rhythm, " "Dinah, " or "Lady, Be Good"—but more often a bandsman would come up with an original written expressly for the band and with a particular soloist or two in mind: two of Basie's earliest evergreens, "Jumpin' at the Woodside" and "Lester Leaps In" were conceived primarily as features for the remarkable tenor saxophonist Lester Young (nicknamed "Pres, " short for "President") and were referred to as "flagwavers, " up-tempo tunes designed to excite the audience.
Unquestionably the Swing Era band (1935-1945) was Basie's greatest: the superior arrangements (reflecting Basie's good taste) and the sterling performers (reflecting Basie's management astuteness) gave the band a permanent place in jazz history that even severe personnel setbacks couldn't diminish. Herschel Evans's death in 1939 was a blow, but he was replaced by another fine tenorist, Buddy Tate; a major defection was that of the nonpareil Lester Young ("Count, four weeks from tonight I will have been gone exactly fourteen days."), but his replacement was the superb Don Byas; the trumpet section had three giants— Buck Clayton, Harry "Sweets" Edison, and Bill Coleman— but only Edison survived the era as a Basie-ite.
Perhaps the band's resilience in the face of potentially damaging change can be explained by its model big band rhythm section, one that jelled to perfection—the spare, witty piano of Basie; the wonderful rhythm guitar of Freddie Green (who was with the band from 1937 to 1984); the rock-solid bass of Walter Page (Basie's former employer); and the exemplary drumming of Jo Jones. Nor was the band's excellence hurt by the presence of its two great blues and ballads singers, Jimmy Rushing and Helen Humes.
"April in Paris"
The loss of key personnel (some to the military service), the wartime ban on recordings, the 1943 musicians' strike, the economic infeasibility of one-nighters, and the bebop revolution of the mid-1940s all played a role in the death of the big band era. The number of 12 to 15 piece bands diminished drastically, and Basie was driven to some soul-searching: despite his international reputation and the band's still first-rate personnel, Basie decided in 1950 to disband and to form a medium-sized band (first an octet and later a septet), juggling combinations of all-star musicians, among them tenorists Georgie Auld, Gene Ammons, and Wardell Gray; trumpeters Harry Edison and Clark Terry; and clarinetist Buddy DeFranco. The groups' recordings (Jam Sessions #2 & #3) are, predictably, of the highest quality, but in 1951 Basie reverted to his first love—the big band— and it thrived, thanks largely to the enlistment of two Basie-oriented composer-arrangers, Neil Hefti and Ernie Wilkins; to the solo work of tenorists Frank Wess and Frank Foster and trumpeters Joe Newman and Thad Jones; and to the singing of Joe Williams. Another boost was provided in the late 1950s by jazz organist Wild Bill Davis's arrangement of "April in Paris" which, with its series of "one more time" false endings, came to be a trademark of the band for the next quarter of a century.
A stocky, handsome, mustachioed man with heavy-lidded eyes and a sly, infectious smile, Basie in his later years took to wearing a yachting cap both off and on the bandstand. His sobriquet, "Count, " was a 1935 promotional gimmick, paralleling "Duke" (Ellington) and "Earl" (Hines's actual first name). He was a shrewd judge of talent and character and, ever the realist, was extremely forbearing in dealing with the behavioral caprices of his musicians. His realistic vision extended as readily to himself: a rhythm-centered pianist, he had the ability to pick out apt chord combinations with which to punctuate and underscore the solos of horn players, but he knew his limitations and therefore gave himself less solo space than other, less gifted, leaders permitted themselves. He was, however, probably better than he thought; on a mid-1970s outing on which he was co-featured with tenor saxophone giant Zoot Sims he acquitted himself nobly.
Among Basie's many recordings perhaps the most essential are The Best of Basie; The Greatest: Count Basie Plays … Joe Williams Sings Standards; and Joe Williams/Count Basie: Memories Ad-Lib. There are also excellent pairings of Basie and Ellington, with Frank Sinatra, with Tony Bennett, with Ella Fitzgerald, with Sarah Vaughan, and with Oscar Peterson.
In 1976 Basie suffered a heart attack, but returned to the bandstand half a year later. During his last years he had difficulty walking and so rode out on stage in a motorized wheelchair, his playing now largely reduced to his longtime musical signature, the three soft notes that punctuated his compositional endings. His home for many years was in Freeport, the Bahamas; he died of cancer at Doctors' Hospital in Hollywood, Florida, on April 26, 1984. His wife, Catherine, had died in 1983; they had one daughter. The band survived Basie's death, with ex-Basie-ite trumpeter Thad Jones directing until his death in 1986.
Further Reading
The best source for early Basie is Ross Russell's Jazz Style in Kansas City & The Southwest (1971). Two studies of the life of the band are Ray Horricks' Count Basie & His Orchestra and Stanley Dance's The World of Count Basie (1980), the latter a composite study of Basie and the band through bandsmen's memoirs. There is also a short biography, Count Basie (1985), by British jazz critic Alun Morgan. Good Morning Blues: The Autobiography of Count Basie as told to Albert Murray was published posthumously in 1985. □
Count Basie
Born: August 21, 1904
Red Bank, New Jersey
Died: April 26, 1984
Hollywood, Florida
African American bandleader and musician
Count Basie was an extremely popular figure in the jazz world for half a century. He was a fine pianist and leader of one of the greatest jazz bands in history.
Early years
William Basie was born in Red Bank, New Jersey, on August 21, 1904. His parents, Harvey and Lillian (Childs) Basie, were both musicians. Basie played drums in his school band and took some piano lessons from his mother. But it was in Harlem, New York City, that he learned the basics of piano, mainly from his sometime organ teacher, the great Fats Waller (1904–1943).
Basie made his professional debut playing piano with vaudeville acts (traveling variety entertainment). While on one tour he became stranded in Kansas City, Missouri. After working briefly as house organist in a silent movie theater, he joined Walter Page's Blue Devils in 1928. When that band broke up in 1929, he Bennie Moten's band hired him. He played piano with them, with one interruption, for the next five years. It was during this time that he was given the nickname "Count."
After Moten died in 1935, Basie took what was left of the band, expanded the personnel, and formed the first Count Basie Orchestra. Within a year the band developed its own variation of the Kansas City swing style—a solid rhythm backing the horn soloists, who were also supported by sectional riffing (the repeating of a musical figure by the non-soloing brass and reeds). This familiar pattern was evident in the band's theme song, "One O'Clock Jump," written by Basie himself in 1937.
Success in the swing era
By 1937 Basie's band was, with the possible exception of Duke Ellington's (1899–1974), the most famous African American band in America. Basie's band regularly worked some of the better big city hotel ballrooms. With many of the other big bands of the swing era he also shared the less appealing one-nighters (a series of single night performances in a number of small cities and towns that were traveled to by bus).
Many of the band's arrangements were "heads"—arrangements worked out without planning in rehearsal and then written down later. The songs were often designed to showcase the band's brilliant soloists. Sometimes the arrangement was the reworking of a standard tune—"I Got Rhythm," "Dinah," or "Lady, Be Good." Sometimes a member of the band would come up with an original, written with a particular soloist or two in mind. Two of Basie's earliest favorites, "Jumpin' at the Woodside" and "Lester Leaps In," were created as features for saxophonist Lester Young. They were referred to as "flagwavers," fast-paced tunes designed to excite the audience. The swing era band (1935–45) was unquestionably Basie's greatest. The superior arrangements (reflecting Basie's good taste) and the skilled performers (reflecting Basie's sound management) gave the band a permanent place in jazz history.
Later years
The loss of key personnel (some to military service), the wartime ban on recordings, the 1943 musicians' strike, the strain of onenighters, and the bebop revolution of the mid-1940s all played a role in the death of the big-band era. Basie decided to form a medium-sized band in 1950, juggling combinations of all-star musicians. The groups' recordings were of the highest quality, but in 1951 Basie returned to his first love—the big band—and it thrived. Another boost was provided in the late 1950s by the recording of "April in Paris," which became the trademark of the band for the next quarter of a century.
A stocky, handsome man with heavy-lidded eyes and a sly smile, Basie was a shrewd judge of talent and character, and he was extremely patient in dealing with the egos of his musicians. He and his band recorded with many other famous artists, including Duke Ellington (1899–1974), Frank Sinatra (1915–1998), Ella Fitzgerald (1917–1996), and Sarah Vaughan (1924–1990). Perhaps the most startling of the band's achievements was its fifty-year survival in a culture that experienced so many changes in musical fashion, especially after the mid-1960s, when jazz lost much of its audience to other forms of music.
In 1976 Basie suffered a heart attack, but he returned to the bandstand half a year later. During his last years he had difficulty walking and so rode out on stage in a motorized wheelchair. He died of cancer in Hollywood, Florida, on April 26, 1984. His wife, Catherine, had died in 1983. They had one daughter. The band survived Basie's death, with trumpeter Thad Jones directing until his own death in 1986.
For More Information
Basie, Count. Good Morning Blues: The Autobiography of Count Basie. New York: Random House, 1985.
Dance, Stanley. The World of Count Basie. New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1980.
Kliment, Bud. Count Basie. New York: Chelsea House, 1992.
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The Harlem Renaissance: ‘Count’ing Basie’s Life and Legacy
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"Joseph Dugan"
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2020-10-17T00:00:00
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William James "Count" Basie was born in Red Bank, NJ in August 1904. Both of his parents played instruments: his dad on mellophone
|
en
|
/apple-touch-icon.png?v=2
|
NYS Music
|
https://nysmusic.com/2020/10/17/the-harlem-renaissance-count-basie-life-and-legacy/
|
William James “Count” Basie was born in Red Bank, New Jersey in August 1904. Both of his parents played instruments: his dad on mellophone, his mom on piano. He dreamt of traveling, heavily inspired by touring carnivals. However, he spent most of his free time working at the Palace Theater in Red Bank where he eventually received free admission for performances.
Although he was more proficient on piano, his real love was drums. However, another drummer, Sonny Greer, also grew up at the same time in Red Bank, and Greer eventually became Duke Ellington‘s drummer. Therefore, Basie stuck to the piano.
Harlem
In about 1920, Basie moved to Harlem where the Harlem Renaissance was beginning. He lived down the street from the Alhambra Ballroom, a staple of the Renaissance. Soon after his arrival, he ran into Greer, who was already playing with Ellington. In addition, Basie ran into numerous Harlem musicians including James P. Johnson and Willie “The Lion”” Smith.
Basie soon began touring with various acts as both a soloist and accompanist. These tours took his to future homes of Kansas City and Chicago as well as St. Louis and New Orleans. The touring also allowed Basie to create connections with other musicians, including Louis Armstrong.
Basie was located in Harlem again in 1925, receiving his first steady job at a Leroy’s a place known for its piano players. There he met Fats Waller, another jazz pianist who was also proficient at organ and was playing it accompanying silent films. Waller taught Basie the organ, and Basie would go on to play it in Kansas City.
In 1928, Basie was invited to join Walter Page and his Oklahoma City Blue Devils. At this point, he began to be called “Count” Basie.
Kansas City
In 1929, Basie began working with the Bennie Moten band, located in Kansas City, Missouri. Basie joined with the intention of achieving the level off success seen by Duke Ellington. The Moten band was well-respected, playing in the ‘Kansas City Style’ of jazz which was the precursor to bebop. The band’s “Moten Swing” paved the way not only for the band, but swing music as a whole.
The band eventually voted Moten out, with Basie replacing him in “Count Basie and his Cherry Blossoms.” This group also failed, and Basie rejoined Moten. In 1935, Moten died from a failed tonsillectomy. The band tried to remain together, but failed. Basie then went on to form “Barons of Rhythm” with five other Moten Band members.
The Barons of Rhythm often did radio broadcasts, one of which cemented Basie as “Count Basie” when one radio announcer referred to him that way. It was with this group that Basie released his signature tune “One O’Clock Jump.”
Chicago
In 1936, Basie and his band, now “Count Basie and His Barons of Rhythm” moved to Chicago, landing a long engagement with the Grand Terrace Ballroom. Immediately, the band made an impact with its stellar rhythm section. Basie was one of the first to utilize two tenor saxophone players, Lester Young and Herschel Evans. They were able to complement each other and in some cases, held “duels”.
While in Chicago, Basie began recording with John Hammond. He recorded with Vocalion Records (now Columbia Records) from 1936-41. Basie already had deals with Decca Records, but did not begin recording with them until 1937.
Back to New York
In 1937, Basie brought his band back to Harlem, often rehearsing in the Woodside Hotel basement. Soon, the Roseland Ballroom booked the group for their Christmas show. The show was not received well as the band lacked polishing and presentation.
Their producer John Hammond eventually introduced Basie to Billie Holiday who was invited to sing with the band. She declined to record with them as she had her own contract, but did sing with the band for concerts. They appeared at the Apollo Theater soon after.
The band then played at the Savoy Ballroom. In 1938, there was a “battle of the bands” with Chuck Webb’s group. Basie had Holiday to sing vocals, and Webb countered with a superstar of his own: Ella Fitzgerald. Basie and his band came out on top.
This “battle” with Webb brought publicity and name recognition to Basie. Benny Goodman recorded “One O’Clock Jump” with his band, bringing further recognition to Basie.
Over the next few years, band members came and went. Basie dropped his agent and switched to the William Morris Agency. In 1939, Basie and his Orchestra did a cross-country tour, the first time Basie played the West Coast. In February 1940, Basie and his Orchestra began a four-week stint at Southland in Boston.
Post-War
After World War II, the era of the big band era appeared to have ended. Basie disbanded the group. He performed in combos and occasionally orchestras for the next few years.
In 1952, Basie reformed his band, eventually called the New Testament band and got a stint with the Birdland club. The jukebox era had begun, and Basie was there along with the early rock’n’roll artists. Basie and his band were sharing the Birdland stage with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Miles Davis, bebop legends. Soon, the band began to tour and record again.
In 1958, Basie and his band toured Europe. They later made two tours to the British Isles, performing for Queen Elizabeth II and Judy Garland. In 1959, Basie appeared on a television special with Fred Astaire. In 1961, Basie performed at one of John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Balls. In the summer of that year, Basie and Duke Ellington made their first recording together. Basie continued to lead his band through the next two decades.
In April of 1984, Count Basie died of pancreatic cancer in Hollywood, Florida.
Legacy
Count Basie recorded with a number of prominent vocal artists including Joe Williams, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, and Tony Bennett. Basie never recorded with Louis Armstrong, a fact Basie regretted.
The impact Basie had can be seen across the country. In his hometown of Red Bank, there is now a Count Basie Theatre and a Count Basie Field. He received an Honorary Doctorate from the Berklee College of Music. Basie is a member of the New Jersey Hall of Fame as well as the Blues Hall of Fame. In 1997, astronomers at a French observatory discovered an asteroid, naming it “Asteroid 35394 Countbasie” after Basie. In 85, Basie was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor an American civilian can receive. There was also a Count Basie 32 cent stamp issued by the USPS in 1996.
Basie introduced generations of listeners to Big Band. Throughout his life, he was described as considerate, relaxed, fun-loving, and extremely passionate about his music.
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correct_death_00034
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FactBench
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https://www.weeklymusiccommentary.com/2020/02/the-legendary-count-basie.html
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The Legendary Count Basie
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2020-02-10T00:17:36+00:00
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Count Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. In 1935, Basie formed his own jazz orchestra, the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and their first recording. He led the group for almost 50 years
|
en
|
Weekly Music Commentary
|
https://www.weeklymusiccommentary.com/2020/02/the-legendary-count-basie.html
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Many times during my preparation for a post in Weekly Music Commentary I reflect on my life as a child and young adult. With the content of my blog centered around music, I am led to thoughts about my father. There are many regular readers of this blog, and several close friends who know that my father was a jazz musician. He was a tremendous influence for everything I have endeavored musically. This very much includes Weekly Music Commentary. For certain, this week is one that memories of my father are prevalent. That’s because this week I chose to feature the great Jazz pianist, composer and bandleader Count Basie.
My memories of the music of Count Basie starts possibly around the age of seven or eight, long before I started to actually play or formally study music. His music, and many other jazz artists, was at the forefront of the music played in my house as a child. I often wonder now if my father purposefully exposed me to jazz, realizing that one day I would play and study jazz music. Perhaps he was just a musician parent exposing me to the music he loved. Regardless, I listened to a lot of jazz music as a child. I not only listened to jazz, my father made sure I knew about the artists themselves. Yes, those conversations indirectly led me to music blogging.
Even though I would listen to a great deal of Count Basie big band music while young, I gradually started to listen to popular music of this time. Motown acts like the Jackson Five dominated my listening. My father never discouraged my taste in music, he was glad I was listening to music of any kind. However, right before my teen years I started to formally study music, and things changed for me. Of course, I still listened to much of the popular music of the day, but the jazz of artists like Count Basie made more sense. I was developing an appreciation for instrumental music. Now, years later I’m writing this post and hoping that young musicians might gain the same appreciation for Count Basie that I developed as a youth.
William James Basie was born to Lillian and Harvey Lee Basie in Red Bank, New Jersey August 21, 1904. His father worked as a coachman and caretaker for a wealthy judge. After automobiles replaced horses, his father became a groundskeeper and handyman for several wealthy families in the area. Both of his parents had some type of musical background. His father played the mellophone, and his mother played the piano; in fact, she gave Basie his first piano lessons.
The mellophone is a three-valved brass instrument pitched in the key of F or E♭. It has a conical bore, like that of the euphonium and flugelhorn. The mellophone is used as the middle-voiced brass instrument in marching bands and drum and bugle corps in place of French horns, and can also be used to play French horn parts in concert bands and orchestras.
The music career of Count Basie can be traced back to his teen years. He developed into a natural piano player, but wanted to play the drums. He was discouraged from the drums by friend Sonny Greer. Many might know that name because he was drummer for Duke Ellington’s band in the early years. Basie switched to piano exclusively. Greer and Basie played together in venues until Greer set out on his professional career. By then, Basie was playing with pick-up groups for dances, resorts, and amateur shows, including Harry Richardson’s “Kings of Syncopation”. When not playing a gig, he hung out at the local pool hall with other musicians, where he picked up on upcoming play dates and gossip. He got some jobs in Asbury Park at the Jersey Shore, and played at the Hong Kong Inn until a better player took his place.
Around 1920, Count Basie moved to Harlem which was one of the hotbeds of jazz musicians at the time. According to my father it was a move that brought Basie into contact with a variety of other artists at the time. Of course he already knew Sonny Greer, but also Willie “The Lion” Smith and James P. Johnson. From there Basie began to tour with several acts that brought him closer to many more jazz greats. Among them was the great Louis Armstrong.
Back in Harlem in 1925, Basie gained his first steady job at Leroy’s, a place known for its piano players and its “cutting contests.” The place catered to “uptown celebrities,” and typically the band winged every number without sheet music using “head arrangements.” He met Fats Waller, who was playing organ at the Lincoln Theater accompanying silent movies, and Waller taught him how to play that instrument.
In 1929, Basie became the pianist with the Bennie Moten band based in Kansas City, inspired by Moten’s ambition to raise his band to the level of Duke Ellington’s or Fletcher Henderson’s. Some years later, when the band voted Moten out, Basie took over for several months, calling the group “Count Basie and his Cherry Blossoms.”When his own band folded, he rejoined Moten with a newly re-organized band. A year later, Basie joined Bennie Moten’s band, and played with them until Moten’s death in 1935 from a failed tonsillectomy. When Moten died, the band tried to stay together but couldn’t make a go of it. Basie then formed his own nine-piece band, Barons of Rhythm, with many former Moten members including Walter Page (bass), Freddie Green (guitar), Jo Jones (drums), Lester Young (tenor saxophone) and Jimmy Rushing (vocals). The band played at the Reno Club and sometimes were broadcast on local radio. Late one night with time to fill, the band started improvising. Basie liked the results and named the piece “One O’Clock Jump.” According to Basie, “we hit it with the rhythm section and went into the riffs, and the riffs just stuck. We set the thing up front in D-flat, and then we just went on playing in F.” It became his signature tune.
At the end of 1936, Basie and his band, now billed as “Count Basie and His Barons of Rhythm,” moved from Kansas City to Chicago, where they honed their repertoire at a long engagement at the Grand Terrace Ballroom. Right from the start, Basie’s band was noted for its rhythm section. Another Basie innovation was the use of two tenor saxophone players; at the time, most bands had just one. When Young complained of Herschel Evans’ vibrato, Basie placed them on either side of the alto players, and soon had the tenor players engaged in “duels”. Many other bands later adapted the split tenor arrangement.
This was the start of the successful run for Count Basie’s Orchestra. They would now become innovators among jazz bands of the day. The big band era was booming at this time. Even though World War II seemed to mark the end of the big band era at the time, Count Basie was right in the forefront with his innovation, adapting to the times with smaller groups at times, reforming the 16-piece orchestra in 1952 to a receptive audience.
When I finally started college in the 1980’s, Basie’s big band left a mark on the education of young jazz artists. In fact, what I found was that the large top jazz ensemble of my school would be the ultimate place for any horn player. Colleges across the country had the same structure which continues down until today.
Interestingly, as I made my way to my college jazz ensemble, the band played a lot of Basie blues standards arranged by longtime trumpet player Thad Jones and others. My father was quite proud of my accomplishments at the time. We not only spoke about some of the musicians that played with Basie’s orchestra, but also the music itself. Yes, our conversations reached a new level musically at that time. I guess he and I can give credit to Count Basie for that as well.
After my college experience, my hope is that every musician might have an opportunity to perform in a big jazz band. I learned so much about the relationship of the rhythm section with each other, and the rest of the band. Mostly, I learned to listen to other members in the band. Of course, that might sound simplistic, but jazz orchestra’s must hear each other and learn to perform together. That was the secret to the Count Basie sound. Why do they sound so tight?, I would ask my father. The answer: individual members learned to work together to form a unified sound. Easier said than done. That’s part of the reason Count Basie remains a legend – years after his death.
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Blues Foundation
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2019-03-01T18:15:49+00:00
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Count Basie led “The Band That Plays the Blues,” and indeed his band did in its own swinging style for decades, propelling one of the major movements in American music. Long heralded as a giant […]
|
en
|
Blues Foundation
|
https://blues.org/blues_hof_inductee/count-basie/
|
Count Basie led “The Band That Plays the Blues,” and indeed his band did in its own swinging style for decades, propelling one of the major movements in American music. Long heralded as a giant of jazz, Basie built on a foundation of blues that was always evident in his music. He played blues piano with an easy, economical touch, wrote or revamped an impressive cache of blues and jump tunes, and employed vocalists who could sing the blues with the same mastery the Basie band displayed on their instruments.
William James Basie was born in Red Bank, New Jersey, on August 21, 1904, and learned piano from his mother. Early professional experience came in Harlem and on the road accompanying singers Katie Crippen and Gonzell White on the vaudeville circuit. A tour with White brought him to Kansas City in 1927, and he ended up working in the area with Walter Page’s Blue Devils and the Bennie Moten orchestra. His first studio recording was on a Moten session in 1930. Basie’s big break came while fronting his own Barons of Rhythm, which included several alums of the Blue Devils and Moten’s band, in 1935-36 at the Reno Club on 12th Street. W9XBY, a new experimental high fidelity AM radio station, broadcast from the club nightly, and its signal carried far enough for producer and critic John Hammond to hear it. Hammond came to see Basie at the Reno and by late 1936 Basie was recording on his own and touring the East Coast. New York became his new base, but his sound was forever linked to Kansas City, a freewheeling crossroads that was a magnet for musicians who found plenty of opportunities to work, jam and exchange ideas.
As a bandleader, Basie employed an easy, uncomplicated approach that allowed both for cohesion and improvisation, infectious riffing and dueling soloists. In common with many blues artists of the era, most of the original band members weren’t formally trained and learned by memory and played by feel, not by reading sheet music. Notable soloists included Lester Young Herschel Evans, Buck Clayton and Harry “Sweets” Edison, and the exemplary rhythm section consisted of Basie, guitarist Freddie Green, bassist Walter Page, and drummer Jo Jones.
Longtime Basie vocalist Jimmy Rushing sang on Basie’s classic recordings of “Goin’ to Chicago Blues,” “Sent For You Yesterday and Here You Come Today,” “Good Morning Blues,” and a song from their first session in 1936 simply called “Boogie Woogie” with the tag line “I may be wrong but I won’t be wrong always.” Rushing’s depth and delivery were hugely influential on the generation of jump blues shouters in the coming wave of rhythm & blues and rock ’n’ roll – just as the beat and bravado of the Basie orchestra paved a path for the upcoming bands to follow. In addition to hits by the orchestra such as “One O’Clock Jump” and “Jumpin’ at the Woodside,” the Basie discography also included blues and boogie-woogie piano features with the rhythm section such as “How Long Blues” and “The Dirty Dozens.”
Billie Holiday, Helen Humes and Joe Williams also sang with the Basie unit, and the Basie-Williams rendering of “Everyday I Have the Blues” was a Billboard hit in 1955. The orchestra, sans Basie, played behind Etta James and LaVern Baker on a 1956 broadcast later released on an LP as Alan Freed’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Dance Party and played on a 1959 session with B.B. King. In addition to recording with such luminaries as Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, and Ella Fitzgerald, Basie also did a session with Jackie Wilson in 1968 which resulted in two singles on the Billboard chart. Later Basie collaborations included albums with blues vocals by Big Joe Turner and Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson.
Basie was able to buy a home in the Bahamas in the 1970s and was residing there when he took ill in 1984. He spent his last days at a hospital in Hollywood, Florida, where he died on April 26. While he has been honored with too many awards to mention, it is only appropriate that the Blues Hall of Fame recognize Count Basie both for the debt he owed to the blues and for what he gave back in return.
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correct_death_00034
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https://ktar.com/story/5026453/today-in-history-april-26-chernobyl-nuclear-plant-disaster/
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Today in History: April 26, Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster
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2022-04-26T04:00:10+00:00
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Today in History Today is Tuesday, April 26, the 116th day of 2022. There are 249 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On April 26, 1986,
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en
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KTAR.com
|
https://ktar.com/story/5026453/today-in-history-april-26-chernobyl-nuclear-plant-disaster/
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Today in History
Today is Tuesday, April 26, the 116th day of 2022. There are 249 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On April 26, 1986, an explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine caused radioactive fallout to begin spewing into the atmosphere. (Dozens of people were killed in the immediate aftermath of the disaster while the long-term death toll from radiation poisoning is believed to number in the thousands.)
On this date:
In 1607, English colonists went ashore at present-day Cape Henry, Virginia, on an expedition to establish the first permanent English settlement in the Western Hemisphere.
In 1865, John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, was surrounded by federal troops near Port Royal, Virginia, and killed.
In 1913, Mary Phagan, a 13-year-old worker at a Georgia pencil factory, was strangled; Leo Frank, the factory superintendent, was convicted of her murder and sentenced to death. (Frank’s death sentence was commuted, but he was lynched by an anti-Semitic mob in 1915.)
In 1933, Nazi Germany’s infamous secret police, the Gestapo, was created.
In 1964, the African nations of Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form Tanzania.
In 1968, the United States exploded beneath the Nevada desert a 1.3 megaton nuclear device called “Boxcar.”
In 1977, the legendary nightclub Studio 54 had its opening night in New York.
In 1984, bandleader Count Basie, 79, died in Hollywood, Florida.
In 1994, voting began in South Africa’s first all-race elections, resulting in victory for the African National Congress and the inauguration of Nelson Mandela as president.
In 2000, Vermont Gov. Howard Dean signed the nation’s first bill allowing same-sex couples to form civil unions.
In 2009, the United States declared a public health emergency as more possible cases of swine flu surfaced from Canada to New Zealand; officials in Mexico City closed everything from concerts to sports matches to churches in an effort to stem the spread of the virus.
In 2018, comedian Bill Cosby was convicted of drugging and molesting Temple University employee Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia mansion in 2004. (Cosby was later sentenced to three to 10 years in prison, but Pennsylvania’s highest court threw out the conviction and released him from prison in June 2021, ruling that the prosecutor in the case was bound by his predecessor’s agreement not to charge Cosby.)
Ten years ago: Former Liberian President Charles Taylor became the first head of state since World War II to be convicted by an international war crimes court as he was found guilty of arming Sierra Leone rebels in exchange for “blood diamonds” mined by slave laborers and smuggled across the border. (Taylor was sentenced to 50 years in prison.)
Five years ago: Dismissing concerns about ballooning federal deficits, President Donald Trump proposed dramatic tax cuts for U.S. businesses and individuals. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft survived an unprecedented trip between Saturn and its rings, sending back amazing pictures to show for it. Jonathan Demme (DEM’-mee), the Oscar-winning director of “The Silence of the Lambs” and “Philadelphia,” died in New York at age 73.
One year ago: The Census Bureau said U.S. population growth had slowed to its lowest rate since the Great Depression; Americans continued their march to the South and West, as Texas and Florida added enough population to gain congressional seats while New York and Ohio saw slow growth and lost political muscle. The Justice Department opened a sweeping probe into policing in Louisville, Kentucky, over the March 2020 death of Breonna Taylor, who was shot by police during a raid at her home. Apple rolled out a new privacy feature, following through on its pledge to crack down on Facebook and other snoopy apps that secretly shadowed people on their iPhones in order to target more advertising at users.
Today’s Birthdays: Actor-comedian Carol Burnett is 89. R&B singer Maurice Williams is 84. Songwriter-musician Duane Eddy is 84. Rock musician Gary Wright is 79. Actor Nancy Lenehan is 69. Actor Giancarlo Esposito is 64. Rock musician Roger Taylor (Duran Duran) is 62. Actor Joan Chen is 61. Rock musician Chris Mars is 61. Actor-singer Michael Damian is 60. Actor Jet Li (lee) is 59. Actor-comedian Kevin James is 57. Author and former U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey (TREHTH’-eh-way) is 56. Actor Marianne Jean-Baptiste is 55. Rapper T-Boz (TLC) is 52. Former first lady Melania Trump is 52. Actor Shondrella Avery is 51. Actor Simbi Kali is 51. Country musician Jay DeMarcus (Rascal Flatts) is 51. Rock musician Jose Pasillas (Incubus) is 46. Actor Jason Earles is 45. Actor Leonard Earl Howze is 45. Actor Amin Joseph is 45. Actor Tom Welling is 45. Actor Pablo Schreiber is 44. Actor Nyambi Nyambi is 43. Actor Jordana Brewster is 42. Actor Stana Katic is 42. Actor Marnette Patterson is 42. Actor Channing Tatum is 42. Americana/roots singer-songwriter Lilly Hiatt is 38. Actor Emily Wickersham is 38. Actor Aaron Meeks is 36. Electro pop musician James Sunderland (Frenship) is 35. New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge is 30.
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Count Basie >(William) Count Basie (1904-1984) was an extremely popular figure in the >jazz world for half a century. He was a fine pianist and leader of one of >the greatest jazz bands in history.
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Count Basie
Pianist, bandleader
For the Record…
Selected discography
Sources
In his monumental second volume on the history of jazz, The Swing Era, Gunther Schuller delays his attempt to define swing until, some two hundred pages into the book, he introduces Count Basie in a section titled “The Quintessence of Swing.” Schuller states: “That the Basie band has been from its inception a master of swing could hardly be disputed…. For over forty years [Basie] has upheld a particular concept and style of jazz deeply rooted in the Southwest and Kansas City in particular. It draws its aesthetic sustenance from the blues, uses the riff as its major rhetorical and structural device, all set in the language and grammar of swing.”
Indeed, from the mid-1930s to the mid-1940s the “All-American Rhythm Section” —Walter Page, bass; Jo James, drums; and Freddie Green, guitar—combined with leader and pianist Count Basie to propel Basie’s band from relative obscurity in a Kansas City nightclub to world renown as the leading purveyor of swing. Though blessed with an estimable array of soloists throughout the big band era, the Basie band originated an infectious pulse whose essence was a clean, unified, four-beats-to-the-bar swing. Though celebrated for the simplicity of the riff-oriented, call and response interaction of the brasses and reeds in its head arrangements, the band drew its virility from the rhythm section, even after Page and Jones left (c. 1948). Though energized in later years by brilliant writing and arranging, the Basie band housed a secret ingredient: the leader’s quite but forceful insistence upon an uncluttered, swinging sound, anchored by the rhythm section and accented by his own “less is more” solos.
Page combined a walking bass line with fine tone and a correct choice of notes. Jones, dancing on the high hat cymbal rather than thumping on the bass drum, allowed the lively bass lines to breathe. Green, the latecomer, strummed the chords that inspired two generations of great soloists. Schuller says of Green that he is “a wonderful anacronism, in that he has (almost) never played a melodic solo and seems content to play those beautiful ’changes’ night after night.” Basie quarterbacked, accented, edited, filled, chorded, and prodded, often pitting the soloists against one another to expose their fire. And what a group of soloists it was: tenor saxophonists Lester Young (he of the lean, dry phrases, precursor of the “cool” school), Herschel Evans, Paul Gonsalves, Illinois Jacquet, Lucky Thompson, Charlie Rouse, and Don Byas; trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry Edison; trombonists Vic Dickenson, Dicky Wells, Bennie Morton, and J.J. Johnson; and vocalists Jimmy Rushing, Helen Humes, and Billie Holiday. Later bands would include trumpeters Clark Terry and Thad Jones, trombonist Al Grey, and reedmen Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, Frank Foster, Marshal Royal,
For the Record…
Full name, William James Basie; born August 21, 1904, in Red Bank, N.J. ; died of pancreatic cancer, April 26, 1984, in Hollywood, Fla.; ashes interred at Pine Lawn Cemetery, Farmingdale, N.Y.; son of Harvey (a gardener) and Lillian (a domestic; maiden name, Childs) Basie; married Catherine Morgan (manager of Count Basie Enterprises), July 1942; children and adopted children (some informally): Diane, Aaron, Woodward III, Lamont Gilmore, Rosemarie Matthews, Clifford. Education: Attended public schools until about the ninth grade; studied piano during 1920s with Thomas “Fats” Waller.
Pianist with touring group, Gonzell White and the Big Jamboree, 1926-28; pianist with Walter Page’s Blue Devils, 1928-29; pianist with Benny Moten’s Kansas City Orchestra, 1929-35; pianist-leader of the Barons of Rhythm, 1935-36; pianist-leader of the Count Basie Orchestra, 1937-49, and 1952-84; pianist and leader of octet, 1950-51.
Awards: Recipient of Esquire magazine’s All American Band Award, 1945; winner of down beat magazine’s International Critics’ Poll, 1952-56; recipient of Esquire magazine’s Silver Award, 1955; winner of down beat magazine’s readers’ poll, 1955; winner of the Metronome Poll, 1956; Governor of State of New York declared September 22, 1974, Count Basie Day; received honorary doctorate from Philadelphia Music Academy, 1974; named to Ebony magazine’s Black Music Hall of Fame, 1975; named to Playboy magazine’s Hall of Fame, 1976; named to Newport Jazz Hall of Fame, 1976; received Kennedy Center Performing Arts Honors Medal, 1981; recipient of Black Music Association Award, 1982; winner of nine Grammy Awards.
and Frank Wess, and singer Joe Williams. Personnel changes in Basie’s band were gradual as, from 1936 until his death in 1984 (with the exception of 1950-51, when it was reduced to an octet), Count Basie led the quintessential big swing band with which his name will always be associated.
From his Red Bank, New Jersey, home, Basie gravitated to the music parlors of 1920s Harlem, where he met fabled pianists James P. Johnson and Fats Waller, picking up some informal instruction on both piano and organ from the latter. As a piano soloist and accompanist to several acts, he worked his way to Kansas City with a troupe that became stranded there. After some service as a silent film organ accompanist, Basie played with several of the local bands including that of Bennie Moten, the area’s best-known leader. Some time after Moten’s death, Basie assumed command of the nucleus of that band in 1935, and with a nine-piece group embarked on a long run at the Reno Club, making it one of Kansas’s City’s hottest spots. A radio announcer there dubbed Basie “Count” and the title prevailed.
Jazz impresario John Hammond heard one of the band’s regular broadcasts on an experimental radio station and helped to arrange bookings in Chicago and later New York. Basie increased the size of the band to thirteen pieces, trying to retain the feel of the smaller group, but initial reaction was disappointing. Finally, in 1937, several elements coalesced to launch the band on its nearly half-century of success. Freddie Green’s guitar solidified the rhythm section. Booking agent Willard Alexander finessed an engagement at the Famous Door in the heart of New York’s 52nd Street, a booking complete with a national NBC radio wire. Basie’s Decca recordings—” One O’Clock Jump,” “Jumpin’ at the Woodside,” “Swingin’ the Blues,” “Lester Leaps In” and others—began to catch on. As word fanned outward, Basie’s band attracted wildly cheering audiences, often in excess of the capacity of the venues.
Basie’s bands before and after the 1950-51 octet hiatus were quite different. The early band relied almost exclusively on head arrangements, those that often evolved over a period of time as the leader and the players experimented with short phrases (riffs) and accents that bounced from the trumpets to the reeds to the trombones, showcasing the parade of outstanding soloists. In the early 1940s the band benefited mightily from the writing and arranging of Buster Harding, Buck Clayton, and Tab Smith. Their work no doubt paved the way for the later band’s heavy reliance upon brilliant writing and arranging, chiefly by Neal Hefti, Frank Foster, Ernie Wilkins, and Sam Nestico. It, too, showcased excellent soloists, but the Basie ensemble sound, now grown to sixteen pieces, was its hallmark and the rhythm section, with Basie and Green ever-present, was its heartbeat.
Prolific recording dates, tours to Europe and Asia, regular appearances at Broadway’s Birdland, and an endless stream of dances, festivals, and concerts led to many honors for Basie and his band, including royal command performances in England and recognition by Presidents Kennedy and Reagan. In addition to some of the seminal hits, later audiences demanded to hear such new Basie staples as “Li’l Darlin’,” “Cute,” “Every Day I Have the Blues,” “All Right, OK, You Win,” and “April In Paris.” Despite their differences, both bands exhibited a devotion to blues-based swinging and an uncluttered pulse; both also relied on effective use of dynamics, more subtle in the early band, more dramatic in the later, when Green’s unamplified guitar chords often gave way to shouting brass.
Basie’s bandstand demeanor appeared laid-back in the extreme—some called it laissez faire; others just plain lazy. Testimony of his bandmen and arrangers belie this. Perhaps Basie’s greatest skill was that of editor, first in the matter of personnel, then in the selection of repertoire. As John S. Wilson quoted Basie in The New York Times: “I wanted my 13-piece band to work together just like those nine pieces…to think and play the same way…. I said the minute the brass got out of hand and blared and screeched instead of making every note mean something, there’d be some changes made.” Basie told his autobiography collaborator, Albert Murray, “I’m experienced at auditions. I can tell in a few bars whether or not somebody can voice my stuff.”
Francis Davis’s Atlantic tribute column observed, “Basie apparently demanded of his sidemen a commitment to basics as single-minded as his own.” The writers and arrangers for the later band became accustomed to Basie’s editing out all material that he considered contrary to the ultimate goal: to swing. In the case of Neal Hefti’s “Li’l Darlin’,” Basie’s insistence on a much slower tempo than Hefti had envisioned resulted in one of the band’s greatest and most enduring hits. Basie’s conducting arsenal included such simple movements as a pointed finger, a smile, a raised eyebrow, and a nod—all sufficient to shift the “swing machine” into high gear.
Though Basie’s piano did surface significantly in later recordings with smaller groups, including piano duets with Oscar Peterson, he most often considered himself simply a part of the rhythm section. His spartan, unadorned solos, usually brief, cut to the essence of swing. With the full band, increasingly he was content to support and cajole soloists with carefully distilled single notes and chords of introduction and background. A genuine modesty about his pianistic skills combined with Basie’s understanding of the role of the big-band piano to form his style. Several critics and musicologists have observed that Basie’s spare playing inspired such important artists as John Lewis, music director of the Modern Jazz Quartet, and Thelonious Monk, one of the architects of the Bop Era. Additionally, Mary Lou Williams and Oscar Peterson attest to Basie’s influence upon their playing. As many mature jazz practitioners aver, great playing consists not only of the notes one chooses to play, but those that one leaves out. In this respect Count Basie stands out as the acknowledged master.
Whether viewed as its pianist, leader, composer, arranger, paymaster, chief editor, inspiration, or soul—Count Basie will always be inextricably associated with the Basie Band. Despite crippling arthritis of the spine and a 1976 heart attack, Basie continued to call the tune and the tempo until his death from cancer in 1984. It will be the burden of all big bands, past, present, and future, to stand comparison with the Basie band. It has been the standard for half a century. One reason may well be that Count Basie, he of the impeccable taste, was not only its leader, but the bands greatest fan. He would not permit it to play less than its best. He loved it so.
Selected discography
With Bennie Moten
The Complete Bennie Moten, Volumes 3/4, French RCA Victor.
The Complete Bennie Moten, Volumes 5/6, French RCA Victor.
As Leader
The Best of Count Basie, MCA.
The Indispensable Count Basie, French RCA Victor.
One O’Clock Jump, Columbia Special Products.
April in Paris, Verve.
Basie Plays Hefti, Emus.
16 Men Swinging, Verve.
88 Basie Street, Pablo.
With Dizzy Gillespie
The Gifted Ones, Pablo.
With Oscar Peterson
Satch and Josh, Pablo.
Sources
Books
Basie, Count, with Albert Murray, Good Morning Blues, Random House, 1985.
Chilton, John, Who’s Who of Jazz, Time-Life Records, 1978.
Dance, Stanley, The World of Count Basie, Scribner, 1980.
Feather, Leonard, The New Edition of The Encyclopedia of Jazz, Bonanza Books, 1960.
McCarthy, Albert, Big Band Jazz, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1974.
Rust, Brian, Jazz Records 1897-1942, 5th Revised and Enlarged Edition, Volume I, Storyville Publications, 1982.
Schuller, Gunther, The Swing Era, Oxford University Press, 1989.
Simon, George T., The Big Bands, Macmillan, 1967.
Periodicals
Atlantic, August, 1984.
down beat, July, 1984.
Ebony, January, 1984.
Newsweek, May 21, 1984; March 17, 1986.
New York Review of Books, January 16, 1986.
New York Times, April 27, 1984.
New York Times Book Review, February 2, 1986.
People, March 22, 1982.
Rolling Stone, June 7, 1984.
—Robert Dupuis
Count Basie 1904–1984
Band leader
At a Glance…
Selected discography
Sources
As leader of his own orchestra for several decades of the twentieth century, William “Count” Basie was considered a member of the swing royalty, along with “king of swing” Benny Goodman and Basie’s longtime rival and friend, Duke Ellington. A talented keyboardist, Basie developed a style rife with loose, rolling cadences and infectious hooks that became synonymous with his name. “His piano work showed that rhythm and space were more important than technical virtuosity,” wrote the Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music, while “his composing gave many eminent soloist their finest moments…. Modern jazz stands indubitably in Basie’s debt.”
An only child, William James Basie was born in Red Bank, New Jersey in 1904 to musically gifted parents. His father, who was a gardener by profession, played horn, while his mother played the piano. Basie began his musical career as a drum player for his high school band. However, because a rival percussionist from Red Bank was earning a great deal of attention for his talents, Basie abandoned the instrument. This rival, Sonny Greer, became the drummer for Duke Ellington’s band in 1919 and remained with the band for the next three decades.
Red Bank was located directly across the Hudson River from New York City. As a teenager, Basie frequently visited Harlem and its African American performance venues to listen to ragtime and other early forms of jazz. He was particularly fascinated with pianists who perfected their own loose style called the “Harlem stride.” Basie also enjoyed listening to Thomas “Fats” Waller perform on the organ at the Lincoln Theater. He would often sit as close to Waller as possible in order to observe his technique. Eventually, Waller noticed Basie watching so intently and began giving him informal lessons on the side.
Waller also recommended Basie for his first job in the music industry, as pianist for a black touring act called Katie Crippen and Her Kids in the early 1920s. During these years, Basie also performed in skits for the Theatre Owners’ Booking Association (T.O.B.A.), an organization that created tours for the black vaudeville circuit. He returned to New York City for a time, but began touring with the Gonzel White vaudeville act in 1926. The White show went bankrupt in 1927, leaving Basie and the other performers stranded in Kansas City.
At a Glance…
Born William James Basie, August 21, 1904, in Red Bank, NJ; died of cancer, April 26, 1984, in Hollywood, FL; son of Harvey (a gardener) and Lillian (a domestic worker) Basie; married, c. 1943; wife’s name, Catherine (died, 1983); five children.
Career: Played pi no in black vaudeville, 1920s; joined Walter Page’s Blue Devils, 1928; formed forerunner of Count Basie Orchestra, 1935; signed to Decca Records, 1937; signed with Vocalion (Columbia) Records, 1939; appeared in the film Stage Door Canteen, 1943; made first tour of Europe, 1954; performed at the inaugural ball for President John F. Kennedy, 1961.
Awards: Congressional Medal of Freedom, 1985.
Kansas City was a rather carefree town during the 1920s. Local vice laws were often loosely enforced, which created a thriving environment for jazz musicians. Basie found work in the city’s movie theaters as a pianist, and his cool demeanor earned him the nickname “Count.” In July of 1928 he joined Walter Page’s Blue Devils, a band which epitomized the so-called Kansas City style of jazz. During his stint with the Blue Devils, Basie met vocalist Jimmy Rushing. The two men became good friends, and often worked together during the course of several decades.
By 1929, Basie had left the Blue Devils to join the Kansas City Orchestra, which was led by Benny Moten. For the next several years, he performed with the orchestra. When Moten died unexpectedly in 1935, Basie and Moten’s nephew Buster reformed the group as The Barons Of Rhythm. “Unfettered drinking hours, regular broadcasts on local radio and Basie’s feel for swing honed the band into quite simply the most classy and propulsive unit in the history of music,” declared The Guinness Encyclopedia. “Duke Ellington’s band may have been more ambitious, but for sheer unstoppable swing Basie could not be beaten.”
The Barons of Rhythm played often at the Kansas City’s Reno Club, and featured Walter Page on bass, Lester Young on tenor sax, Jo Jones on drums, Freddie Green on guitar, and Buck Clayton on trumpet. Basie played the piano and lead the band. The band was eventually renamed the Count Basie Orchestra, and their sound was distinct from the other big bands of the day, with a far more bluesy, less polished feel. Basie and Green’s combined tempo-keeping set the pace for this unique style. “Like all bands in the Kansas City tradition, the Count Basie Orchestra was organized about the rhythm section, which supported the interplay of brass and reeds and served as a background for the unfolding of solos,” explained the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.
Around 1935, Basie and his orchestra were discovered by producer John Hammond during one of their live radio broadcasts. Hammond, who was one of the first American record executives to foresee the commercial viability of recorded jazz, wrote about the Count Basie Orchestra in Down Beat magazine. He also arranged invitations for the band to play at the Grand Terrace in Chicago and New York’s Roseland Ballroom. Basie and his band completed their first recording, “One O’Clock Jump,” in early 1937, and were signed to a contract with Decca Records. This contract also required Basie to record twenty-four sides (twelve records in all) for the sum of only $750, with no royalties. Hammond would later help Basie renegotiate this unfair contract. In 1939, Basie and his orchestra signed a new contract with the jazz division of Columbia Records.
Both “One O’Clock Jump” and another recording, “Jumpin’ at the Woodside,” were huge commercial successes. “Jumpin’ at the Woodside,” which featured solos from Earl Warren on alto sax and Herschel Evans on clarinet, “could be taken as a definition of swing,” declared the Guinness Encyclopedia. Another recording, “Taxi War Dance,” also sold well, and epitomized the big-band sound. “The band’s recordings between 1937 and 1941 for Decca and Vocalion (Columbia) are among the finest of the period,” stated the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Fans appeared in droves to dance the jitterbug and listen to Basie’s big band sound, with its characteristically unfettered rhythms. On one occasion, the Count Basie Orchestra performed in a North Carolina warehouse before 16,000 fans. When several thousand fans waiting outside were told that they would not be able to enter, a disturbance erupted and the National Guard was summoned to maintain order.
Basie appeared in musical films during World War II, most notably the 1943 review Stage Door Canteen. Following the end of the war in 1945, the big-band sound began to decline in popularity. The Count Basie Orchestra, which was plagued by financial problems and poor management, broke up for a time. In the interim, Basie formed an eight-member band that included Clark Terry, Wardell Gray on tenor, and Buddy DeFranco on clarinet. However, in 1952, he resurrected the Count Basie Orchestra. With the addition of singer Joe Williams, the band enjoyed success with records like “Every Day (I Have the Blues)” and “April in Paris.” The band embarked on a tour of European cities, and performed before enthusiastic crowds. In 1957, the Count Basie Orchestra became the first African American band to play the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City.
During the 1950s, Basie’s band remained remarkably steady in its line-up, and he was a well-liked, modest man despite his regal nickname. “Bill Basie’s keyboard style is one of the happiest and most readily identifiable sounds in jazz,” wrote Nat Shapiro in 1957 in The Jazz Makers. “To the casual listener, it is no more than a formless and spontaneous series of interjections, commas, hyphens, underlines, quotation marks and interrogation and exclamation points.” The orchestra had a standing gig at Birdland in New York, and “there was no better place to hear Basie in peak form, surrounded by his most loyal fans,” wrote Dan Morgenstern in Rolling Stone. “Sometimes the band swung so hard that he would lift his hands from the keyboard and just sit there, beaming-the image of a man delighted with his work, which, simply put, was to make people feel good.”
In addition to his musical career, Basie owned a bar on 132nd Street in Harlem. For 25 years, he and his wife Catherine lived in the Queens neighborhood of St. Albans with their five children. Eventually, the Basie family moved to Long Island. Basie performed regularly during the 1960s. He also recorded albums and toured with singers such as Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra. The Count Basie Orchestra played at the 1961 inaugural ball for President John F. Kennedy, and made frequent television appearances during the decade. In 1965 Basie signed with Reprise, Frank Sinatra’s label, and began adapting pop tunes to the big-band sound, which was a great commercial success.
During the 1970s, Basie signed with Pablo Records and recorded many big-band standards. However, he also began to experience various health problems. In 1976, Basie was forced to retire for a time after suffering a heart attack. He returned to the recording studio in 1979 and released On the Road and Afrique, an avant-garde jazz album. Basie was later diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and soon lost the ability to walk on his own. He passed away on April 26, 1984. Basie’s funeral at Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church was attended by two thousand mourners, and hundreds more stood outside in homage. His ashes were interred at Pine Lawn Cemetery in Farmington, Long Island, New York.
Selected discography
Swinging at the Daisy Chain, Decca, 1937.
One O’Clock Jump, Decca, 1937.
Good Morning Blues, Decca, 1937.
Every Tub, Decca, 1938.
Doggin’ Around, Decca, 1938.
Jumpin’ at the Woodside, Decca, 1938.
Jive at Five, Decca, 1939.
Oh! Lady Be Good, Decca, 1939.
Rock-a-Bye Basie, Vocalion, 1939.
Taxi War Dance, Vocalion, 1939.
Miss Thing, Vocalion, 1939.
Tickle-toe, Vocalion, 1940.
The World Is Mad, Vocalion, 1940.
Diggin’ for Dex, Vocalion, 1941.
The King/Blue Skies, Vocalion, 1945.
The Count, Camden, 1947-49.
Dance Session, Clef, 1953.
Sixteen Men Swinging, Verve, 1953-54.
Basie Plays Hefti, Roulette, 1958.
Chairman of the Board, Roulette, 1959.
The Count Basie Story, Roulette, 1960.
Basie at Birdland, Roulette, 1961.
Basie Jam, Pablo, 1973.
On the Road, Pablo, 1979.
Sources
Books
Good Morning Blues: The Autobiography of Count Basie as Told to Albert Murray, Da Capo, 1996.
The Jazz Makers, edited by Nat Shapiro and Nat Hentoff, Rinehart, 1957, pp. 232-242.
Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music, edited by Colin Larkin, Guinness Publishing, 1992.
New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie, Macmillan, 1980, pp. 236-237.
Periodicals
Down Beat, July, 1984, p. 11; February, 1994, p. 31. New York Times, April 27, 1984, p. 1; May 1, 1984, p. 1.
Rolling Stone, June 7, 1984, p. 68.
—Carol Brennan
Count Basie
(William) Count Basie (1904-1984) was an extremely popular figure in the jazz world for half a century. He was a fine pianist and leader of one of the greatest jazz bands in history.
The story of Count Basie is very much the story of the great jazz band that he led for close to 50 years (1935-1984), an orchestra with a distinctive sound, anchored by a subtle but propulsive beat, buoyed by crisp ensemble work, and graced with superb soloists (indeed, a catalogue of featured players would read like a Who's Who of jazz). But perhaps the most startling aspect of the band's achievement was its 50-year survival in a culture that has experienced so many changes in musical fashion, and especially its survival after the mid-1960s when jazz lost much of its audience to rock music and disco.
William Basie was born in Red Bank, New Jersey, on August 21, 1904. His mother was a music teacher, and at a young age he became her pupil. But it was in Harlem, New York City, that he learned the rudiments of ragtime and stride piano, principally from his sometime organ teacher, the great Fats Waller. Basie made his professional debut as an accompanist for vaudeville acts. While on a tour of the Keith vaudeville circuit he was stranded in Kansas City. Here, in 1928, after a short stint as house organist in a silent movie theater, he joined Walter Page's Blue Devils, and when that band broke up in 1929, he was hired by Bennie Moten's Band and played piano with them, with one interruption, for the next five years.
Moten's death in 1935 altered Basie's career dramatically. He took over the remnants of the band (they called themselves The Barons of Rhythm) and, with some financial and promotional support from impresario John Hammond, expanded the personnel and formed the first Count Basie Orchestra. Within a year or so the band had developed its own variation of the basic Kansas City swing style—a solidly pulsating rhythm underpinning the horn soloists, who were additionally supported by sectional riffing (i.e., the repetition of a musical figure by the non-soloing brass and reeds). This familiar pattern is evident in the band's theme song, "One O'Clock Jump, " written by Basie himself in 1937, which has a subdued, expectant introduction by the rhythm section (piano, guitar, bass, and drums), then bursts into full orchestral support for a succession of stirring solos, and concludes with a full ensemble riffing out-chorus. Like any great swing band, Basie's was exciting in any tempo, and in fact one of the glories of his early period was a lugubrious, down-tempo blues called "Blue and Sentimental, " which featured two magnificent solos (one by Herschel Evans on tenor saxophone and the other by Lester Young on clarinet) with full ensemble backing.
A Huge Success
By 1937 Basie's band was, with the possible exception of Duke Ellington's, the most highly acclaimed African American band in America. In the racially segregated context of the pre-World War II music business, African American bands never achieved the notoriety nor made the money that the famous white bands did. But some (Ellington's, Earl Hines's, Jimmy Lunceford's, Erskine Hawkins's, Chick Webb's, and Basie's, among them) did achieve a solid commercial success. Basie's band regularly worked some of the better big city hotel ballrooms and shared with many of the other 1,400 big bands of the Swing Era the less appetizing one-nighters (a series of single night engagements in a variety of small cities and towns that were toured by bus).
Some of the band's arrangements were written by trombonist Eddie Durham, but many were "heads"— arrangements spontaneously worked out in rehearsal and then transcribed. The band's "book" (repertory) was tailored not only to a distinctive orchestral style but also to showcase the band's brilliant soloists. Sometimes the arrangement was the reworking of a standard tune—"I got Rhythm, " "Dinah, " or "Lady, Be Good"—but more often a bandsman would come up with an original written expressly for the band and with a particular soloist or two in mind: two of Basie's earliest evergreens, "Jumpin' at the Woodside" and "Lester Leaps In" were conceived primarily as features for the remarkable tenor saxophonist Lester Young (nicknamed "Pres, " short for "President") and were referred to as "flagwavers, " up-tempo tunes designed to excite the audience.
Unquestionably the Swing Era band (1935-1945) was Basie's greatest: the superior arrangements (reflecting Basie's good taste) and the sterling performers (reflecting Basie's management astuteness) gave the band a permanent place in jazz history that even severe personnel setbacks couldn't diminish. Herschel Evans's death in 1939 was a blow, but he was replaced by another fine tenorist, Buddy Tate; a major defection was that of the nonpareil Lester Young ("Count, four weeks from tonight I will have been gone exactly fourteen days."), but his replacement was the superb Don Byas; the trumpet section had three giants— Buck Clayton, Harry "Sweets" Edison, and Bill Coleman— but only Edison survived the era as a Basie-ite.
Perhaps the band's resilience in the face of potentially damaging change can be explained by its model big band rhythm section, one that jelled to perfection—the spare, witty piano of Basie; the wonderful rhythm guitar of Freddie Green (who was with the band from 1937 to 1984); the rock-solid bass of Walter Page (Basie's former employer); and the exemplary drumming of Jo Jones. Nor was the band's excellence hurt by the presence of its two great blues and ballads singers, Jimmy Rushing and Helen Humes.
"April in Paris"
The loss of key personnel (some to the military service), the wartime ban on recordings, the 1943 musicians' strike, the economic infeasibility of one-nighters, and the bebop revolution of the mid-1940s all played a role in the death of the big band era. The number of 12 to 15 piece bands diminished drastically, and Basie was driven to some soul-searching: despite his international reputation and the band's still first-rate personnel, Basie decided in 1950 to disband and to form a medium-sized band (first an octet and later a septet), juggling combinations of all-star musicians, among them tenorists Georgie Auld, Gene Ammons, and Wardell Gray; trumpeters Harry Edison and Clark Terry; and clarinetist Buddy DeFranco. The groups' recordings (Jam Sessions #2 & #3) are, predictably, of the highest quality, but in 1951 Basie reverted to his first love—the big band— and it thrived, thanks largely to the enlistment of two Basie-oriented composer-arrangers, Neil Hefti and Ernie Wilkins; to the solo work of tenorists Frank Wess and Frank Foster and trumpeters Joe Newman and Thad Jones; and to the singing of Joe Williams. Another boost was provided in the late 1950s by jazz organist Wild Bill Davis's arrangement of "April in Paris" which, with its series of "one more time" false endings, came to be a trademark of the band for the next quarter of a century.
A stocky, handsome, mustachioed man with heavy-lidded eyes and a sly, infectious smile, Basie in his later years took to wearing a yachting cap both off and on the bandstand. His sobriquet, "Count, " was a 1935 promotional gimmick, paralleling "Duke" (Ellington) and "Earl" (Hines's actual first name). He was a shrewd judge of talent and character and, ever the realist, was extremely forbearing in dealing with the behavioral caprices of his musicians. His realistic vision extended as readily to himself: a rhythm-centered pianist, he had the ability to pick out apt chord combinations with which to punctuate and underscore the solos of horn players, but he knew his limitations and therefore gave himself less solo space than other, less gifted, leaders permitted themselves. He was, however, probably better than he thought; on a mid-1970s outing on which he was co-featured with tenor saxophone giant Zoot Sims he acquitted himself nobly.
Among Basie's many recordings perhaps the most essential are The Best of Basie; The Greatest: Count Basie Plays … Joe Williams Sings Standards; and Joe Williams/Count Basie: Memories Ad-Lib. There are also excellent pairings of Basie and Ellington, with Frank Sinatra, with Tony Bennett, with Ella Fitzgerald, with Sarah Vaughan, and with Oscar Peterson.
In 1976 Basie suffered a heart attack, but returned to the bandstand half a year later. During his last years he had difficulty walking and so rode out on stage in a motorized wheelchair, his playing now largely reduced to his longtime musical signature, the three soft notes that punctuated his compositional endings. His home for many years was in Freeport, the Bahamas; he died of cancer at Doctors' Hospital in Hollywood, Florida, on April 26, 1984. His wife, Catherine, had died in 1983; they had one daughter. The band survived Basie's death, with ex-Basie-ite trumpeter Thad Jones directing until his death in 1986.
Further Reading
The best source for early Basie is Ross Russell's Jazz Style in Kansas City & The Southwest (1971). Two studies of the life of the band are Ray Horricks' Count Basie & His Orchestra and Stanley Dance's The World of Count Basie (1980), the latter a composite study of Basie and the band through bandsmen's memoirs. There is also a short biography, Count Basie (1985), by British jazz critic Alun Morgan. Good Morning Blues: The Autobiography of Count Basie as told to Albert Murray was published posthumously in 1985. □
Count Basie
Born: August 21, 1904
Red Bank, New Jersey
Died: April 26, 1984
Hollywood, Florida
African American bandleader and musician
Count Basie was an extremely popular figure in the jazz world for half a century. He was a fine pianist and leader of one of the greatest jazz bands in history.
Early years
William Basie was born in Red Bank, New Jersey, on August 21, 1904. His parents, Harvey and Lillian (Childs) Basie, were both musicians. Basie played drums in his school band and took some piano lessons from his mother. But it was in Harlem, New York City, that he learned the basics of piano, mainly from his sometime organ teacher, the great Fats Waller (1904–1943).
Basie made his professional debut playing piano with vaudeville acts (traveling variety entertainment). While on one tour he became stranded in Kansas City, Missouri. After working briefly as house organist in a silent movie theater, he joined Walter Page's Blue Devils in 1928. When that band broke up in 1929, he Bennie Moten's band hired him. He played piano with them, with one interruption, for the next five years. It was during this time that he was given the nickname "Count."
After Moten died in 1935, Basie took what was left of the band, expanded the personnel, and formed the first Count Basie Orchestra. Within a year the band developed its own variation of the Kansas City swing style—a solid rhythm backing the horn soloists, who were also supported by sectional riffing (the repeating of a musical figure by the non-soloing brass and reeds). This familiar pattern was evident in the band's theme song, "One O'Clock Jump," written by Basie himself in 1937.
Success in the swing era
By 1937 Basie's band was, with the possible exception of Duke Ellington's (1899–1974), the most famous African American band in America. Basie's band regularly worked some of the better big city hotel ballrooms. With many of the other big bands of the swing era he also shared the less appealing one-nighters (a series of single night performances in a number of small cities and towns that were traveled to by bus).
Many of the band's arrangements were "heads"—arrangements worked out without planning in rehearsal and then written down later. The songs were often designed to showcase the band's brilliant soloists. Sometimes the arrangement was the reworking of a standard tune—"I Got Rhythm," "Dinah," or "Lady, Be Good." Sometimes a member of the band would come up with an original, written with a particular soloist or two in mind. Two of Basie's earliest favorites, "Jumpin' at the Woodside" and "Lester Leaps In," were created as features for saxophonist Lester Young. They were referred to as "flagwavers," fast-paced tunes designed to excite the audience. The swing era band (1935–45) was unquestionably Basie's greatest. The superior arrangements (reflecting Basie's good taste) and the skilled performers (reflecting Basie's sound management) gave the band a permanent place in jazz history.
Later years
The loss of key personnel (some to military service), the wartime ban on recordings, the 1943 musicians' strike, the strain of onenighters, and the bebop revolution of the mid-1940s all played a role in the death of the big-band era. Basie decided to form a medium-sized band in 1950, juggling combinations of all-star musicians. The groups' recordings were of the highest quality, but in 1951 Basie returned to his first love—the big band—and it thrived. Another boost was provided in the late 1950s by the recording of "April in Paris," which became the trademark of the band for the next quarter of a century.
A stocky, handsome man with heavy-lidded eyes and a sly smile, Basie was a shrewd judge of talent and character, and he was extremely patient in dealing with the egos of his musicians. He and his band recorded with many other famous artists, including Duke Ellington (1899–1974), Frank Sinatra (1915–1998), Ella Fitzgerald (1917–1996), and Sarah Vaughan (1924–1990). Perhaps the most startling of the band's achievements was its fifty-year survival in a culture that experienced so many changes in musical fashion, especially after the mid-1960s, when jazz lost much of its audience to other forms of music.
In 1976 Basie suffered a heart attack, but he returned to the bandstand half a year later. During his last years he had difficulty walking and so rode out on stage in a motorized wheelchair. He died of cancer in Hollywood, Florida, on April 26, 1984. His wife, Catherine, had died in 1983. They had one daughter. The band survived Basie's death, with trumpeter Thad Jones directing until his own death in 1986.
For More Information
Basie, Count. Good Morning Blues: The Autobiography of Count Basie. New York: Random House, 1985.
Dance, Stanley. The World of Count Basie. New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1980.
Kliment, Bud. Count Basie. New York: Chelsea House, 1992.
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https://www.freddiegreen.org/articles/gp_mrhythm.html
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Freddie Green - Mr. Rhythm Remembered
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Author: Jim Ferguson
Source: Guitar Player Magazine
Issue: August 1987
While jazz legends Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie boast extended careers, in terms of longevity in the idiom they don't hold a candle to Freddie Green, rhythm guitarist par excellence. From 1937 until his death at seventy-five this past March he occupied the rhythm guitar chair in various ensembles led by pianist Count Basie, backing celebrated players such as saxophonist Lester Young, clarinetist Benny Goodman, and vocalist Billie Holiday, to name a few. In the world of guitar, the sheer length of his career is second only to that of maestro Andres Segovia, who gave his first public recital in 1909 and was still touring earlier this year at the age of ninety-four.
But rest assured that achievement in jazz is no mere endurance record because during his fifty year career, he set the standard for traditional four-to-the-bar rhythm guitar influencing players the caliber of Allan Reuss, George Van Eps, Allan Hanlon and Al Hendrickson. While his acoustic-based sound was sometimes felt more than heard in the midst of Basie's larger ensembles, they wouldn't have been the same without it. Green's flawless timekeeping abilities, along with his knack for weaving seamless foundations of three- and four-note chord voicings, was the basis of a kinetic accompaniment approach that was an integral part of some of the most vibrant jazz ever recorded.
Green was an essential cog in what is generally considered to be the best rhythm section in the history of big band jazz and what bandleader Paul Whiteman dubbed the All-American Rhythm Section, which featured Basie, bassist Walter Page, and drummer Jo Jones. It remained essentially intact from their first encounter in 1937 until Jones' departure in the late 1940s. From the start Green earned a reputation as a stylist without equal, fans and fellow players referred to him as Mr. Rhythm with the utmost respect.
Freddie's heyday was jazz's Golden Age of the 1930s and 1940s, when small groups proliferated but the emphasis was on the incredibly popular big bands that combined spirited jazz with danceable rhythms. From the early 1930s to the early 1940s the acoustic archtop was the instrument of choice among rhythm guitarists due to its "cutting power", the ability to be heard in a large ensemble setting. However, as the Forties unfolded, it was used less and less, as players gravitated toward amplified instruments. (Charlie Christian, an influential electric guitarist with Benny Goodman's immensely popular orchestra of the late 1930s and early 1940s, was largely responsible for this trend.)
Despite the move toward amplification, Green persisted in employing a totally acoustic instrument (although he briefly experimented with a pickup and amp in the late 1940s), apparently feeling secure with Basie and under no pressure to change. In the hands of a lesser player, an acoustic archtop would have seemed like an anachronism after the late 1940s, when the popularity of the big bands waned; however Green played with such finesse, commitment, and class that his music had a vital, timeless quality. While amplification gave guitarists a chance to step into the spotlight as soloists, Green chose to remain behind the scenes in a supportive capacity. Whatever his reasons for choosing such a self-effacing role, he came to be universally recognized as the premier backup guitarist. While aficionados will forever debate the various merits of most other players, there is only one Mr. Rhythm.
Frederick William Green was born in Charleston, South Carolina, on March 31, 1911. Before his teenage years, he picked up the banjo. Trumpeter Sam Walker, the father of one of Freddie's friends, taught him how to read music and encouraged him to play the guitar. Walker was an organizer for Charleston's respected Jenkins Orphanage Band, and he allowed Freddie to perform with the group, which also included a young Cat Anderson, who went on to play trumpet with pianist Duke Ellington and others. Green toured with the Jenkins band as far north as Maine.
After Freddie's parents died when he was in his early teens, he went to New York to live with his aunt and finishing his schooling. Eventually he began to play rent parties and in New York clubs such as the Yeah Man in Harlem and Greenwich Village's Black Cat. Tenor Saxophonist Lonnie Simmons got him one of his first jobs, working with the Night Hawks at the Black Cat. While at the club in 1937, Green was noticed by jazz talent scout John Hammond, who ultimately introduced him to Basie.
Hammond described his first impressions of Green in his autobiography John Hammond on Record [1977, Ridge Press/Summit Book]: "One of my favorite clubs was the Black Cat, a mob-owned joint. The band included two cousins, the drummer Kenny Clarke and the bass player Frank Clarke, but it was the guitarist that interested me the most. His name was Freddie Green, and I thought he was the greatest I had ever heard. He had unusually long fingers, a steady stroke, and unobtrusively held the whole rhythm section together. He was the antithesis of the sort of stiff, chugging guitarist Benny Goodman liked. Freddie was closer to the incomparable Eddie Lang than any guitar player I'd ever heard. He was perhaps not the soloist that Lang was, but he had a beat."
Count Basie had just come from Kansas City to New York and was debuting at the famed Roseland Ballroom. Soon after discovering Green, Hammond took Basie, Lester Young, Walter Page, Jo Jones, trumpeter Buck Clayton, and Benny Goodman to hear Freddie at the Black Cat. Although Basie liked his current guitarist, Claude Williams, he let him go in favor of Green, who joined the band after the Roseland engagement. Green cut his first sides with Count Basie and his Orchestra (featuring Page and Jones) for Decca on March 26, 1937, playing rhythm on "Honeysuckle Rose", "Pennies From Heaven", "Swinging At The Daisy Chain", and "Roseland Shuffle".
Green and Basie participated in Hammond's historic 1938 and 1939 Spirituals to Swing concerts, which featured a wide variety of jazz and blues artists (the second event paired Lester Young with Charlie Christian). For the next few years, Green propelled Basie's ensembles, recording for Columbia and RCA, and backing up players such as saxophonists Buddy Tate, Illinois Jacquet, Don Byas, Paul Gonsalves, trumpeter Emmett Berry, trombonist J.J. Johnson, vocalist Jimmy Rushing, and many others. In addition to recording with Count Basie and his Orchestra during that period, Green also participated in small groups led by Basie, including Count Basie and his Kansas City Seven, and Count Basie and his All-American Rhythm Section.
In 1945 Green recorded four spirited sides ("I'm In The Mood For Love", "Sugar Hips", "Get Lucky", and "I'll Never Be The Same") on the Duke label under the name Freddie Green and his Kansas City Seven. For the most part, Green used members from the Basie band, including trumpeter Buck Clayton, trombonist Dickie Wells, saxophonist Lucky Thompson, and drummer Shadow Wilson, who was filling in for Jo Jones while he was in the armed service. The ensemble also featured bassist Al Hall, vocalist Sylvia Simms, and pianist Sammy Benskin. When Jones finally quit Basie in 1948, he was permanently replaced by Wilson, which marked an end to the All-American Rhythm Section's reign.
As bebop gained momentum in the late 1940s and the emphasis shifted to small group jazz, many big bands fell on hard times. Count Basie was no exception, and in the summer of 1950 he pared the orchestra down to a handful of players. Green found himself unemployed for the first time in 13 years. According to his son, Al, the situation didn't last for long. Shortly after being let go, Freddie showed up with his guitar at one of Basie's gigs insisting he was back in the group. From that moment on, the relationship between Basie and Green was cemented. The unit soon swelled to a septet that included clarinetist Buddy DeFranco and trumpeter Clark Terry.
In 1952 Basie was back with another big band, which eventually recorded memorable sessions represented on the reissue album Sixteen Men Swinging. Three years later, Freddie cut the classic Mr. Rhythm under the name Freddie Green and his Orchestra with trumpeter Joe Newman, trombonist Henry Coker, saxophonist Al Cohn, pianist Nat Pierce, drummers Osie Johnson and Jo Jones, and bassist Milt Hinton. The session was a neat blend of rhythmic swing and more bebop-oriented soloing, and much of the material was penned by Green, including "Back And Forth", "Feed Bag", "Little Red", "Free And Easy", and "Swingin' Back".
From the late 1950s into the 1960s the band accompanied such notable vocalists as Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Mel Torme, Sarah Vaughn, Tony Bennett, Billy Eckstine, Sammy Davis Jr., and Judy Garland. In 1962, Green, Basie, bassist Ed Jones, and drummer Sonny Payne recorded the remarkable Count Basie and the Kansas City Seven, with cuts featuring flutists Frank Wess and Eric Dixon. The mid 1960s and 1970s brought numerous personnel changes to the aggregation; however, it mainly stayed with the Kansas City style swing it did best, despite brief flirtations with more contemporary material such as Beatles' songs and James Bond themes. Although big band jazz had long been a thing of the past, the group continued to record and tour extensively. For instance, in March 1965, Count Basie played 27 one-night stands, criss-crossing the country from Florida to New Jersey to Ohio to New York to Missouri to North Dakota to Illinois.
In 1975, Green teamed with Herb Ellis for the album Rhythm Willie, with bassist Ray Brown, drummer Jake Hanna, and pianist Ross Tompkins. Led by Ellis' brilliant blues-tinged single string work and backed by an expert rhythm section, the group cut a swinging mix of tunes, including "It Had To Be You", the title track, and Charlie Christian's "A Smooth One". Unlike some previous recordings with Basie, Green's masterful work was extremely well recorded and in perfect balance with the rest of the ensemble.
Count Basie's death in 1984 closed a rich chapter in big band jazz. He and Green had been good friends onstage and off, and Freddie assumed the helm of the 19 piece group. On March 1, 1987, Freddie Green died of a heart attack after playing a show in Las Vegas. The sad event marked the end of an era in the history of jazz guitar. In Los Angeles, what was intended to be a surprise tribute to Green organized by jazz critic Leonard Feather was turned into a memorial that featured the Basie band, vocalist Sarah Vaughan, and guitarist Kenny Burrell. Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley declared March 19 Freddie Green Day. Various honors Green garnered over his colorful career include his induction into the Jazz Hall of Fame, a 1958 Down Beat Critics Poll award, and a 1986 Grammy nomination for the album Swing Reunion, with pianist Teddy Wilson, drummer Louis Bellson, guitarist Remo Palmier, vibraphonist Red Norvo, and bassist George Duvivier.
All jazz fans - and especially guitarists - owe a debt to Green, who helped to keep alive one of the most vital styles in music. In the May 1983 issue of Guitar Player, Jim Hall declares: "If you pruned the tree of jazz, Freddie Green would be the only person left. If you have to listen to only one guitarist, study the way he plays rhythm with Count Basie." Green, who undoubtedly played more bars of straight 4/4 than any other guitarist in the history of jazz, had the uncanny knack to keep things continually interesting, mainly through his use of three- and four- note chord forms, which he connected into smooth, air-tight accompaniments. The following example - essentially a I, IV, I progression - shows how he used open voicings to create movement between the upper voice of the chord and the bass note (the fifth, second, and first strings should be damped by the left hand):
He continually avoided the limelight, content to play a supportive role. In Norman Mongan's The History of the Guitar in Jazz [1983; Oak Publications, New York], Green explained how he became a rhythm specialist: "At first when I joined Basie, I experimented with a couple of single string things, but people started looking at me as if to say, 'What's happening?' So that was the last of that. Rhythm holds the whole thing together."
Despite Green's commitment to rhythm, he played a number of single string solos over the years that frequently recalled Eddie Lang's work in the early 1930s. On "The Boll Weevil Song" from the album Brother John Sellers (recorded by an evangelist singer in 1954), he contributed an inspired bluesy solo. The small group recording Memories Ad-Lib [Roulette LP SR-59037], with Joe Williams and Count Basie, has several notable single string outings.
Just as Freddie occasionally deviated from playing rhythm on record, he also experimented with amplification for a short while in the late 1940's, equipping his large Stromberg Master 400 archtop with a DeArmond pickup, which he ran through a Gibson amp (Al Green recalls the amp gathering dust in a corner of his father's New York apartment). Prior to using the Stromberg, Green played an Epiphone Emperor. According to Al, the Stromberg became too valuable to take on the road, so Freddie switched to a blonde Gretsch Eldorado custom.
In the early 1950s, Al Green spent an unforgettable summer traveling with his father and Count Basie's band: "The camaraderie was great, even though moving the equipment was a hassle. One evening at a dance they were playing, Marshall Royal (sax) was soloing, and I glanced over at Dad doing his thing in his very unassuming kind of way. I remember thinking 'Gee, why doesn't he play the saxophone, so he could get some recognition like Marshall Royal?' But what does a 12 year old kid understand about someone who is so dedicated to his art? It took a lot of time, but he finally got the recognition he deserved." Mr. Rhythm, rest in peace.
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https://www.tiktok.com/%40countbasieofficial/video/7226401555635932462
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Make Your Day
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https://prezi.com/ugshfeb2jnbl/count-basie-harlem-renaissance/
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en
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Count Basie harlem renaissance
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Count Basie by:Desirea Riley Scoggin 4th William "Count" Basie was born August 21, 1904 in Red Bank, Monmouth County ,NJ. Basie studied music with his mother and played the piano at an early age. He moved to New York as a young man and he picked up early ragtime basics from some
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prezi.com
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https://prezi.com/ugshfeb2jnbl/count-basie-harlem-renaissance/
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https://musopus.net/musicians/basie-william-james-count/
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en
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Basie, William James “Count”
|
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2016-11-22T12:05:49+00:00
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William James Basie, byname Count Basie, (born August 21, 1904, Red Bank, New Jersey, U.S. – died April 26, 1984, Hollywood, Florida), a famous American jazz pianist, organist and composer.
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SHEET MUSIC CATALOG OF CLASSICAL MUSIC
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https://musopus.net/musicians/basie-william-james-count/
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William James Basie, byname Count Basie, (born August 21, 1904, Red Bank, New Jersey, U.S. – died April 26, 1984, Hollywood, Florida), a famous American jazz pianist, organist and composer. He is considered one of the greatest bandleaders of all times. Basie was a true innovator leading the great jazz band for almost 50 years, he left the world an almost unparalleled legacy of musical greatness having recorded over 480 albums during his lifetime.
BIOGRAPHY
Family
William James Basie was born in Red Bank, New Jersey, U.S. His father, Harvey Lee Basie, was a coachman and a groundskeeper, and his mother, Lillian Childs Basie, was a laundress. Both of his parents had some type of musical background. His father played the mellophone, and his mother played the piano. The family had a piano and William’s mother gave her son his first lessons, she was his first music teacher, later she paid 25 cents for his piano lessons. He had an incredible ear, and could repeat any tune he heard. Studying at school, Basie dreamed of travelling, he was inspired by the carnivals which came to town.
Profession of a musician
When Basie was a teenager he chose the profession of a musician. Although William was skilled with the piano he preferred the drums and he even dreamed of becoming a drummer. Discouraged by the obvious talents of Sonny Greer, who also lived in Red Bank and became Duke Ellington's drummer in 1919, Basie at age 15 went back to the piano. The musicians played together in venues until Greer set out on his professional career. By then, Basie performed in local ensembles and accompanied vaudeville performers.
He quickly made a name for himself playing the piano at local venues and parties around town until he moved to New York City in search of greater opportunities. In 1924 in New York Basie was befriended by two of the greatest stride piano players of the day, Fats Waller (Basie learned from him a lot) and James P. Johnson. Basie himself became a fine stride pianist, as well as a proficient organist, learning that instrument while observing Waller's performances at the Lincoln Theater in Harlem.
Kansas City period
Basie left New York in the mid-1920s to work as a touring musician for bands led by June Clark and Elmer Snowden, and as accompanist to variety acts such as those led by Kate Crippen and Gonzelle White. When White's group broke up in Kansas City in 1927, Basie found himself stranded. It was here that he was introduced to the big-band sound when he joined Walter Page’s Blue Devils in 1928. The next year he joined Bennie Moten's band in Kansas City. After Moten’s death in 1935, Basie worked as a soloist before leading a band initially called the Barons of Rhythm, a nine-piece band consisted of many former members of the Moten band – Walter Page (bass), Freddie Green (guitar), Jo Jones (drums), Lester Young (tenor saxophone) and Jimmy Rushing (vocals). The Barons of Rhythm were regulars at the Reno Club in Kansas City and often performed for a live radio broadcast.
First recordings
William Basie became a “Count” during a radio broadcast of the band’s performance, the announcer wanted to give Basie’s name some pizazz, keeping in mind the existence of other bandleaders like Duke Ellington and Earl Hines. So he called the pianist “Count,” with Basie not realizing just how much the name would catch on as a form of recognition and respect in the music world. Famed record producer and journalist, John Hammond, heard the band on a 1935 radio broadcast from the Reno Club, and the next year brought the band to New York City. During this time the Basie band became one of the country's best-known swing bands. In 1937 Basie took his group, Count Basie and his Barons of Rhythm, to New York to record their first album with Decca Records under their new name, The Count Basie Orchestra. The band's recordings from this time represent the best of the hard-driving, riff-based Kansas City style of big-band swing. The Count Basie Orchestra had a slew of hits that helped to define the big-band sound of the 1930s and ’40s. Memorable recordings from this period include Good Morning Blues (1937), One O'Clock Jump (1937), Sent for You Yesterday (1937), Swinging the Blues (1938), Every Tub (1938), and Taxi War Dance (1939). In 1941 the Basie band recorded King Joe, a tribute to boxer Joe Louis, which had lyrics by Richard Wright and vocals by Paul Robeson. Some of their notable chart toppers included Jumpin’ at the Woodside, April in Paris, and Basie’s own composition, One O’Clock Jump, which became the orchestra’s signature piece.
Five films
In 1943 the band appeared in five films: Hit Parade, Reveille with Beverly, Stage Door Canteen, Top Man, and Crazy House. He also scored a series of Top Ten hits on the pop and R&B charts, including I Didn’t Know About You, Red Bank Blues, Rusty Dusty Blues, Jimmy’s Blues, and Blue Skies.
War, post-war and later years
Count Basie Orchestra had continued success throughout the war years, but, like all big bands, it had declined in popularity by the end of the 1940s. The loss of key personnel (some to the military service), the wartime ban on recordings, the 1943 musicians’ strike, the economic infeasibility of one-nighters, and the bebop revolution of the mid-1940s all played a role in the death of the big band era. In 1950 Basie disbanded the group, opting to lead smaller units for the next couple of years. However, in 1952, he resurrected the Count Basie Orchestra and this new band was in high demand and embarked on a tour around the world (this became known as the New Testament Band, while the first Orchestra was the Old Testament Band). In 1957, the Count Basie Orchestra became the first African American band to play the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City. They played command performances for kings, queens and presidents, and issued a large number of recordings both under Basie’s name and as the backing band for various singers.
During the 1960s and '70s, Basie recorded with luminaries like Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Jackie Wilson, Dizzy Gillespie and Oscar Peterson. Basie ultimately earned nine Grammy Awards over the course of his career, but he made history when he won his first, in 1958, as the first African-American man to receive a Grammy. A few of his songs were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame as well, including April in Paris and Everyday I Have the Blues.
Last years
Basie’s health gradually deteriorated during the last eight years of his life. In 1976, he suffered a heart attack, but returned to the bandstand half a year later. During his last years he had difficulty walking and he was driving an electric wheel chair onto the stage. His home for many years was in Freeport, in the Bahamas. Count Basie died of cancer at Doctors’ Hospital in Hollywood, Florida, on April 26, 1984.
SHEET MUSIC
You can find and download free scores of the composer:
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https://www.uticaod.com/story/news/2012/03/01/sal-alberico-sr-remembering-man/44805682007/
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Sal Alberico Sr.: Remembering a man and his music
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"CASSAUNDRA BABER, Utica Observer Dispatch"
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With nine children, the Alberico house always brimmed with activity. On Sundays, the din of nine children became drowned out by the mash-up of some of the area’s most talented musicians. They were al…
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Observer-Dispatch
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https://www.uticaod.com/story/news/2012/03/01/sal-alberico-sr-remembering-man/44805682007/
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With nine children, the Alberico house always brimmed with activity.
On Sundays, the din of nine children became drowned out by the mash-up of some of the area’s most talented musicians. They were all there to jam with Sal Alberico Sr.
The Utica musician died Tuesday at age 82. He’ll be remembered for the deep roots he made in the community’s music scene as well as the foundation he formed as a loving and fair father, friends and family said.
“He was a serious father and just a great fun friend,” said his one of two sons, Joe Alberico, 60, of Mohawk. “He had seven daughters, so the poor guy didn’t sleep for 30 years, and literally, he didn’t go to sleep before everyone was in the house.”
His parenting was just and fair, Joe Alberico said. Those traits spilled over into his music career, for which he had great passion, he said.
He never showed up late for a gig, and he never canceled one.
“I don’t think he ever went to a job less than an hour before the job,” Joe Alberico said. “That was his thing. That was very important to him to be there and do the job and make the people enjoy it and make the club owner happy.”
Starting at age 11, that’s exactly what Sal Alberico did. His mother paid $154 for a clarinet and lessons at Schwender’s on Columbia Street, and his father – a drummer — offered more encouragement. A year later, it seems, mom got her money’s worth when Sal landed his first engagement.
He was 11 when he and his two friends Carl Cardarelli and Ray DeFiore began playing at the Palm Grill at Second and Bleecker streets.
“They had to get special permission from the Liquor Board for us to be there, and we couldn’t go into the barroom,” Sal once said in an interview. “We got paid $1.50 on Friday and $2 on Saturday, plus a covered meatball sandwich and a Coke at the end of the night.”
Eventually, Sal traded clarinet for saxophone. He performed in every band and orchestra in Proctor High School before graduating in 1948 and later joined the Tony Rogers Band, a local group of wide acclaim.
“He had a lot of friends,” said childhood friend and fellow musician Dan Falatico. The two played together for decades. Falatico last spoke to his friend two weeks before he died in Florida.
“He was a fantastic musician. He could have played with anybody.”
And he did.
For decades, his bands have been synonymous with swing, featuring the Big Band sounds of Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Count Basie and others. In addition to his own group, Sal backed up the best in the business, including Sammy Davis Jr., Nat King Cole and Tony Bennett. He used his talents to assist charities, especially Operation Sunshine, which was “his baby,” his son said.
He served many years as union president of Local 51, American Federation of Musicians, and as recently as three years ago he was the front man for his Big Band and played with several smaller groups. He was honored in 2009 by the Oneida County Historical Society as a Living Legend.
He and his wife, the former Marie DeSimone – who died in June — were married 62 years.
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https://www.notablebiographies.com/Ba-Be/Basie-Count.html
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Count Basie Biography
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Born: August 21, 1904
Red Bank, New Jersey
Died: April 26, 1984
Hollywood, Florida
African American bandleader and musician
Count Basie was an extremely popular figure in the jazz world for half a century. He was a fine pianist and leader of one of the greatest jazz bands in history.
Early years
William Basie was born in Red Bank, New Jersey, on August 21, 1904. His parents, Harvey and Lillian (Childs) Basie, were both musicians. Basie played drums in his school band and took some piano lessons from his
mother. But it was in Harlem, New York City, that he learned the basics of piano, mainly from his sometime organ teacher, the great Fats Waller (1904–1943).
Basie made his professional debut playing piano with vaudeville acts (traveling variety entertainment). While on one tour he became stranded in Kansas City, Missouri. After working briefly as house organist in a silent movie theater, he joined Walter Page's Blue Devils in 1928. When that band broke up in 1929, he Bennie Moten's band hired him. He played piano with them, with one interruption, for the next five years. It was during this time that he was given the nickname "Count."
After Moten died in 1935, Basie took what was left of the band, expanded the personnel, and formed the first Count Basie Orchestra. Within a year the band developed its own variation of the Kansas City swing style—a solid rhythm backing the horn soloists, who were also supported by sectional riffing (the repeating of a musical figure by the non-soloing brass and reeds). This familiar pattern was evident in the band's theme song, "One O'Clock Jump," written by Basie himself in 1937.
Success in the swing era
By 1937 Basie's band was, with the possible exception of Duke Ellington's (1899–1974), the most famous African American band in America. Basie's band regularly worked some of the better big city hotel ballrooms. With many of the other big bands of the swing era he also shared the less appealing one-nighters (a series of single night performances in a number of small cities and towns that were traveled to by bus).
Many of the band's arrangements were "heads"—arrangements worked out without planning in rehearsal and then written down later. The songs were often designed to showcase the band's brilliant soloists. Sometimes the arrangement was the reworking of a standard tune—"I Got Rhythm," "Dinah," or "Lady, Be Good." Sometimes a member of the band would come up with an original, written with a particular soloist or two in mind. Two of Basie's earliest favorites, "Jumpin' at the Woodside" and "Lester Leaps In," were created as features for saxophonist Lester Young. They were referred to as "flagwavers," fast-paced tunes designed to excite the audience. The swing era band (1935–45) was unquestionably Basie's greatest. The superior arrangements (reflecting Basie's good taste) and the skilled performers (reflecting Basie's sound management) gave the band a permanent place in jazz history.
Later years
The loss of key personnel (some to military service), the wartime ban on recordings, the 1943 musicians' strike, the strain of onenighters, and the bebop revolution of the mid-1940s all played a role in the death of the big-band era. Basie decided to form a medium-sized band in 1950, juggling combinations of all-star musicians. The groups' recordings were of the highest quality, but in 1951 Basie returned to his first love—the big band—and it thrived. Another boost was provided in the late 1950s by the recording of "April in Paris," which became the trademark of the band for the next quarter of a century.
A stocky, handsome man with heavy-lidded eyes and a sly smile, Basie was a shrewd judge of talent and character, and he was extremely patient in dealing with the egos of his musicians. He and his band recorded with many other famous artists, including Duke Ellington (1899–1974), Frank Sinatra (1915–1998), Ella Fitzgerald (1917–1996), and Sarah Vaughan (1924–1990). Perhaps the most startling of the band's achievements was its fifty-year survival in a culture that experienced so many changes in musical fashion, especially after the mid-1960s, when jazz lost much of its audience to other forms of music.
In 1976 Basie suffered a heart attack, but he returned to the bandstand half a year later. During his last years he had difficulty walking and so rode out on stage in a motorized wheelchair. He died of cancer in Hollywood, Florida, on April 26, 1984. His wife, Catherine, had died in 1983. They had one daughter. The band survived Basie's death, with trumpeter Thad Jones directing until his own death in 1986.
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https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/18085614.bolton-bandleader-meets-count-basie-tour/
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Bolton bandleader meets the Count Basie on tour
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https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/resources/images/10764607/?type=og-image
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"Jamie Bowman"
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2019-12-07T12:00:00+00:00
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BORN in Bolton in 1924, Alyn Ainsworth was educated at Canon Slade Grammar School on a scholarship, but never completed his education there because,…
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The Bolton News
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https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/18085614.bolton-bandleader-meets-count-basie-tour/
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It was with the BBC Northern Dance Orchestra that he finally found fame, working as the in-house arranger for the BBC’s then in-house big band. Their reputation as one of the top bands in the UK was in no small amount due to his hard work, and high standard
In 1956, he announced during Sunday Night at the London Palladium his engagement to Teddie Beverley of the Beverley Sisters, but they could not marry immediately and, in 1957, he announced that the engagement was cancelled.
It was around this time that this photograph was taken showing Alyn and his guitarist Dennis Newey, of Bury, meeting American bandleader Count Basie during the legendary jazz musician’s first UK tour. The photograph is dated Saturday, November 9, 1957.
Born on August 21, 1904, in Red Bank, New Jersey, Basie played vaudeville before eventually forming his own big band and helping to define the era of swing with hits like One O’Clock Jump and Blue Skies. In 1958, Basie became the first African-American male recipient of a Grammy Award. One of jazz music’s all-time greats, he won many other Grammys throughout his career and worked with artists, including Joe Williams and Ella Fitzgerald. Basie died in Florida on April 26, 1984.
In 1960, Alyn left the BBC and was signed up by Granada TV as the presenter of Spot The Tune. As a freelance musician, he frequently conducted TV shows for the BBC and ITV and wrote the arrangement to Shirley Bassey’s hit record Big Spender and 1976 Eurovision winner Save Your Kisses For Me by Brotherhood of Man .
Alyn died in London in 1990 aged 66.
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https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/six-facts-about-lavilla-you-should-know/
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Six facts about LaVilla you should know
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Located just west of the Downtown Core, LaVilla is one of Jacksonville's oldest historically African-American neighborhoods. The parking craters and empty lots of today belie a rich and vibrant history. In honor of Black History Month, here's a look at six stories from LaVilla's past that deserve to be better known.
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The first published account of blues singing on a public stage
The Hollywood Music Store on the corner of West Ashley and Broad streets (University of North Florida).
In 1909, Lionel D. Joel and Mr. Glickstein opened the Colored Airdome Theater at 601 West Ashley Street. With a seating capacity of 800, the Airdome was said to be the largest theater exclusively for Black people in the South. The popular theater quickly became known for its nightly standing room only audiences. Popular acts included Petrona Lazzo, the “Cuban soubrette”; “Chinese impersonator” Coy Herndon; and comedian Slim Henderson. Other performances included “Mr. Joplin’s Ragtime Dance” and the “Jacksonville Rounder’s Dance.” Renamed the Black Bottom Dance, this became the nation’s number one social dance after it was performed on Broadway in 1926.
In 1910, the Airdome was the site of the first recorded instance of blues singing performed on a public stage anywhere in the world. Professor Johnnie Woods was a versatile entertainer who worked as a ventriloquist, tap dancer and “female impersonator” or drag performer. In a piece published on April 16, 1910, the Indianapolis Freeman wrote about one of Woods’s ventriloquism performances that had taken place at the Airdome in Jacksonville earlier that week featuring his dummy “Little Henry”. According to the Freeman, Woods “set the Airdome wild by making Little Henry Drunk… he uses the ‘blues’ for Little Henry in this drunken act.” It may seem odd that the first written record of blues being sung on stage came from a drunken ventriloquist dummy, but it’s unsurprising that it happened in the growing cultural hub that was LaVilla.
Johnnie Woods and Little Henry from the Indianapolis Freeman, January 26, 1918.
The end of the Colored Airdome came as a result of the women’s clubs of Jacksonville persuading the mayor to ban all theaters, vaudeville shows and movies from opening on Sundays. By 1915, the Colored Airdome was no more and it was subsequently demolished. The popular Hollywood Music Store was constructed on the site. In addition to selling records, it carried on the Airdome’s legacy by hosting performances from Nat King Cole, Count Basie and Earl “Fatha” Hines. In 2002, the Clara White Mission expanded their facility with a transitional housing and vocational training complex on the site of the former Hollywood Music Store. The new building was designed to include a replica facade of the historic building that once stood at that location.
Birthplace of the Chitlin’ Circuit
The dedication of the Clara White Mission on West Ashley Street on July 13, 1947. (University of North Florida Eartha White Collection)
LaVilla emerged as Florida’s premier Chitlin’ Circuit destination during the formative years of vaudeville, ragtime, jazz, and blues. The Chitlin’ Circuit was the collective name given to a series of black-owned nightclubs, dance halls, juke joints and theaters that were safe and acceptable for African American entertainers to perform in during segregation. Notable venues on the Chitlin’ Circuit were the Cotton Club and Apollo Theater in Harlem, the Royal Peacock in Atlanta, the Fox Theatre in Detroit and the Howard Theatre in Washington, D.C.
Chitlins are a dish made from pig intestines that date back to slavery, when the enslaved were forced to nurture themselves with the less desirable parts of animals provided by the planter class. What was provided in a demeaning manner was turned into a soul food delicacy that remains popular in African American communities throughout the country today. Like chitlins, the circuit was established to nurture African-American performers during a time when they were not allowed in most white-owned venues.
Walter Barnes, a Chicago jazz musician born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, is credited as being an early originator of the “Chitlin’ Circuit”. Following the collapse of the Theatre Owners Booking Association (T.O.B.A.), a vaudeville circuit for African-American performers, Barnes successfully established a network of venues across the American South during the 1930s where it was safe, acceptable and successful for African-American entertainers to perform.
“The telephone lines started buzzing, taxis started running, the tailors, the restaurants, and in fact, the whole stroll turned out on W. Ashley Street in this city’s young Harlem.” When his band left town to tour the rest of the state, Barnes concluded: “All in all, Jacksonville is a very fly town.” Source: Bandleader Walter Barnes describing LaVilla in 1938. (Chicago Defender)
Establishing a winter headquarters in Jacksonville to conduct annual late-fall-to-spring Southern tours, contracts and routes created and promoted through Barnes’ position at the Chicago Defender soon became the Chitlin’ Circuit. Despite his death in 1940, his success in touring across the south encouraged numerous acts to follow the circuit during segregation.
While much of this history has been ignored, lost, and systematically destroyed since desegregation, vestiges of the Chitlin’ Circuit era remain all around us if we’re willing to get out, explore, and experience a part of our southern heritage that has not been given its proper due.
The South’s largest passenger railroad station
The Jacksonville Terminal in 1921. (State Archives of Florida)
During its heyday, the Jacksonville Terminal was the largest passenger railroad station in the South. It served as an official gateway to Florida for worldwide travelers, handling as many as 200 trains each day, including all trains going to or coming from South Florida. Millions of railroad passengers passed through the LaVilla station’s concourse or platforms each year, including the Duke and Duchess of Windsor in 1941 and every president between Warren G. Harding and Richard Nixon. Traffic peaked in 1944 when nearly 40,000 trains passed through the terminal carrying nearly 10 million passengers.
To support operations of such a large facility, over two thousand people were employed by the Jacksonville Terminal Company, making it the second-largest employer in the city at the time. In the 1930s, porters from the Jacksonville Terminal formed the Jacksonville Red Caps, an all-Black baseball team named after the red hats porters wore. The Red Caps went on to play in the Negro Major Leagues, making them the first major league sports team in Florida history.
With the decline of rail travel, Jacksonville abandoned its large, aging Downtown station in 1974 in favor of the current “Amshack” in Northwest Jacksonville. The old station is now the Prime Osborn Convention Center, though Downtown advocates hope to one day return it to its former glory as a passenger rail station.
Zora Neale Hurston and the Florida Writers Project
Zora Neale Hurston had strong ties to Jacksonville In the 1930s, she worked for the Florida Writers Project, which kept offices for its Black staff at the Clara White Mission (bottom right).
Renowned author and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston lived and worked in Jacksonville during several periods in her life. In 1938, she returned to Jacksonville to participate in the Federal Writers Project, an initiative of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. The project established offices in every state with the intention of providing work to struggling writers while creating a unique “self-portrait of America.” Headed by historian Carita Doggett Corse, the Florida Writers Project had its headquarters in Jacksonville. While white staff worked out of Downtown’s Dyal-Upchurch Building, due to the state’s Jim Crow laws, offices for African American staff were at the Clara White Mission in LaVilla.
Hurston, an expert on Black folklore and traditions, worked with the project’s folklore wing under Jacksonville native Stetson Kennedy. The best known figure employed by the Florida Writers Project, Hurston traveled the state to collect and record stories, songs and traditions. She put particular emphasis on rural Black communities and turpentine camps, making an invaluable and authoritative record of material that would otherwise be lost. In 1939, she invited African-American storytellers and singers to a recording session at the Clara White Mission, even singing 18 songs herself.
Are we really the Harlem of the South?
Famed musician Duke Ellington taking advantage of free time in LaVilla in 1955. (State Archives of Florida)
Almost everyone has heard of The Harlem Renaissance, a period of artistic work without precedent in the American Black community during the 1920s and 1930s. If you have not heard of it, at the very least you’re probably familiar with Harlem’s Apollo Theatre on 125th Street. Even today, several cities across the south, from Atlanta to Jacksonville and Tampa, are quick to label a formerly vibrant black neighborhood in their community as the “Harlem of the South.” What most tend to overlook is that the Harlem Renaissance is largely a result of the first Great Migration. Between 1910 and 1930, 1.6 million migrants left mostly southern, oppressive urban communities, to migrate to northern, industrial cities in search of a better life and economic opportunity.
As early as 1870, Jacksonville’s LaVilla was having its own “renaissance” with a 70 percent Black population attracted to jobs in the area’s booming hotel, lumber, port, building, and railroad industries. While Harlem was still a Jewish and Italian community, LaVilla had become the home to Excelsior Hall, the first Black-owned theatre in the South, and a Black owned streetcar company (more on that in a minute). In addition, during this time, Jaxson Pat Chappelle’s Rabbit’s Foot Company dominated the entertainment scene throughout the Southeast. LaVilla also served as a brief haven for Joe Robichaux, a “legitimate” musician during this period after the elimination of the relative privilege of the Creole racial distinction in New Orleans and just before the implementation of Florida’s most restrictive segregation laws.
During the second decade of the 20th century, recruiters from the Pennsylvania and the New York Central railroads were successfully drawing Black workers away from Jacksonville. Due to economic conditions, white militancy, and Jim Crow laws, thousands of African-Americans left Jacksonville between 1916 and 1917 as a part of the first Great Migration. Artists with Jacksonville ties including James Weldon Johnson, John Rosamond Johnson, Zora Neale Hurston and Augusta Savage all moved to New York where they became significant figures in the Harlem Renaissance.
By 1930, the end of the first Great Migration, African-Americans accounted for seventy percent of Harlem’s population and it had become associated with the New Negro movement. Jacksonville’s loss became Harlem’s gain. The zenith of this “flowering of Negro literature,” as James Weldon Johnson preferred to call the Harlem Renaissance, took place between 1924 and 1929. The cultural activities that made the Harlem Renaissance had been common in places like LaVilla for decades. However, being in Harlem introduced the southern Black experience within the corpus of American cultural history, redefining how the world viewed African-Americans.
The Colored Man’s Railroad
Looking north down Broad Street and the streetcar tracks of the North Jacksonville Street Railway, Town and Improvement Company. Established in 1902 by several prominent members of Jacksonville’s Black community, the streetcar line connected LaVilla and Moncrief, creating the collection of neighborhoods now known as Mid-Westside. (State Archives of Florida)
Railroading in early Jacksonville was a lot more than Henry Flagler and Henry Plant. On August 22, 1903, the North Jacksonville Street Railway, Town and Improvement Company began streetcar service to Jacksonville’s Black population. Organized by several prominent members of Jacksonville’s Black community (R. R. Robinson, H. Mason, F. C. Eleves, Walter P. Mucklow, George E. Ross and Frank P. McDermott), the streetcar system became known as “The Colored Man’s Railroad.” Hundreds came out for the system’s grand opening ceremony to ride on cars operated with black motormen and conductors. Initially, the North Jacksonville Street Railway ran from downtown’s Bay Street north on Clay to State and Kings Road before heading north on Myrtle Avenue. It returned to downtown via Moncrief Road through Hansontown. Black ownership ended a few years later when the system was acquired by Telfair Stockton, allowing it to be extended to the Eastside and Talleyrand. Stockton then sold the system to the Jacksonville Electric Company. Despite the change in ownership, the Colored Man’s Railroad was heavily utilized by the black community and was among the last routes to be abandoned in December 1936.
Article by Ennis Davis and Bill Delaney. Contact Ennis at [email protected] and Bill at [email protected].
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https://www.kanw.com/new-mexico-news/2024-04-26/today-in-history-april-26-chernobyl-nuclear-plant-disaster
|
en
|
Today in History: April 26, Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster
|
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2024-04-26T00:00:00
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Today in History: April 26, Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster
|
en
|
KANW | New Mexico Public Radio
|
https://www.kanw.com/new-mexico-news/2024-04-26/today-in-history-april-26-chernobyl-nuclear-plant-disaster
|
Today in History
Today is Friday, April 26, the 117th day of 2024. There are 249 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History:
On April 26, 1986, an explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine caused radioactive fallout to begin spewing into the atmosphere. (Dozens of people were killed in the immediate aftermath of the disaster while the long-term death toll from radiation poisoning is believed to number in the thousands.)
On this date:
In 1607, English colonists went ashore at present-day Cape Henry, Virginia, on an expedition to establish the first permanent English settlement in the Western Hemisphere.
In 1865, John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, was surrounded by federal troops near Port Royal, Virginia, and killed.
In 1913, Mary Phagan, a 13-year-old worker at a Georgia pencil factory, was strangled; Leo Frank, the factory superintendent, was convicted of her murder and sentenced to death. (Frank's death sentence was commuted, but he was lynched by an anti-Semitic mob in 1915.)
In 1933, Nazi Germany's infamous secret police, the Gestapo, was created.
In 1964, the African nations of Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form Tanzania.
In 1968, the United States exploded beneath the Nevada desert a 1.3 megaton nuclear device called "Boxcar."
In 1977, the legendary nightclub Studio 54 had its opening night in New York.
In 1984, bandleader Count Basie, 79, died in Hollywood, Florida.
In 1994, voting began in South Africa's first all-race elections, resulting in victory for the African National Congress and the inauguration of Nelson Mandela as president.
In 2000, Vermont Gov. Howard Dean signed the nation's first bill allowing same-sex couples to form civil unions.
In 2009, the United States declared a public health emergency as more possible cases of swine flu surfaced from Canada to New Zealand; officials in Mexico City closed everything from concerts to sports matches to churches in an effort to stem the spread of the virus.
In 2012, former Liberian President Charles Taylor became the first head of state since World War II to be convicted by an international war crimes court as he was found guilty of arming Sierra Leone rebels in exchange for "blood diamonds" mined by slave laborers and smuggled across the border. (Taylor was sentenced to 50 years in prison.)
In 2013, singer George Jones, believed by many to be the greatest country crooner of all time, died in Nashville at age 81.
In 2018, comedian Bill Cosby was convicted of drugging and molesting Temple University employee Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia mansion in 2004. (Cosby was later sentenced to three to 10 years in prison, but Pennsylvania's highest court threw out the conviction and released him from prison in June 2021, ruling that the prosecutor in the case was bound by his predecessor's agreement not to charge Cosby.)
In 2022, Russia pounded eastern and southern Ukraine as the U.S. promised to "keep moving heaven and earth" to get Kyiv the weapons it needed to repel the new offensive, despite Moscow's warnings that such support could trigger a wider war.
Today's Birthdays: Actor-comedian Carol Burnett is 91. R&B singer Maurice Williams is 86. Songwriter-musician Duane Eddy is 86. Actor Nancy Lenehan is 71. Actor Giancarlo Esposito is 66. Rock musician Roger Taylor (Duran Duran) is 64. Actor Joan Chen is 63. Rock musician Chris Mars (The Replacements) is 63. Actor-singer Michael Damian is 62. Actor Jet Li (lee) is 61. Actor-comedian Kevin James is 59. Author and former U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey is 58. Actor Marianne Jean-Baptiste is 57. Rapper T-Boz (TLC) is 54. Former first lady Melania Trump is 54. Actor Shondrella Avery is 53. Actor Simbi Kali is 53. Country musician Jay DeMarcus (Rascal Flatts) is 53. Rock musician Jose Pasillas (Incubus) is 48. Actor Jason Earles is 47. Actor Leonard Earl Howze is 47. Actor Amin Joseph is 47. Actor Tom Welling is 47. Actor Pablo Schreiber is 46. Actor Nyambi Nyambi is 45. Actor Jordana Brewster is 44. Actor Stana Katic is 44. Actor Marnette Patterson is 44. Actor Channing Tatum is 44. Americana/roots singer-songwriter Lilly Hiatt is 40. Actor Emily Wickersham is 40. Actor Aaron Meeks is 38. New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge is 32.
|
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correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
|
2
| 94 |
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/on-jazz/count-basie/78941F9732D91B834435B20619E5F0F0
|
en
|
Count Basie (Chapter 8)
|
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On Jazz - May 2022
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/core/cambridge-core/public/images/favicon.ico
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Cambridge Core
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https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/on-jazz/count-basie/78941F9732D91B834435B20619E5F0F0
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To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
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correct_death_00034
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FactBench
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0
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https://musicbrainz.org/artist/0dbd6300-efdc-420b-857e-895e18fad317
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en
|
Count Basie
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pianist, Type: Person, Gender: Male, Born: 1904-08-21 in Red Bank, Died: 1984-04-26 in Hollywood, Area: United States
|
en
|
/static/images/favicons/apple-touch-icon-57x57.png
| null |
Pianist whose blues-based swing band, the Count Basie Orchestra, emerged from Kansas City in the 1930s to become one of the most important jazz bands of all time. Basie also made a few small-group recordings under the name Kansas City Seven.
|
|||||
correct_death_00034
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FactBench
|
1
| 96 |
https://www.jacksonville.com/story/entertainment/local/2016/03/17/sinatra-family-frank-sinatra-jr-has-died/15703782007/
|
en
|
Frank Sinatra Jr. dies of cardiac arrest while in Daytona Beach a week after Jacksonville concert
|
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2016-03-17T00:00:00
|
LOS ANGELES - Frank Sinatra Jr., who carried on his famous father's legacy with his own music career and whose kidnapping as a young man added a bizarre chapter to his father's legendary life, died W…
|
en
|
Florida Times-Union
|
https://www.jacksonville.com/story/entertainment/local/2016/03/17/sinatra-family-frank-sinatra-jr-has-died/15703782007/
|
LOS ANGELES - Frank Sinatra Jr., who carried on his famous father's legacy with his own music career and whose kidnapping as a young man added a bizarre chapter to his father's legendary life, died Wednesday. He was 72.
The younger Sinatra died unexpectedly of cardiac arrest while on tour in Daytona Beach, the Sinatra family said in a statement to The Associated Press.
Sinatra was in Jacksonville last week for a March 9 concert performance at the Florida Theatre.
The statement said the family mourns the untimely passing of their son, brother, father and uncle. No other details were provided.
The Florida Theatre released a statement on Facebook saying: "A week ago today we were applauding Frank Sinatra, Jr. as he celebrated his father's musical legacy on our stage. Tonight, our hearts are sad as we learn of his passing. Our thoughts are with his family."
Mobile video: Touch here to watch the mobile version of the video report in this story
In memoriam: 2016 celebrity deaths | 2015 celebrity deaths | First Coast area obituaries
After leaving Jacksonville, Sinatra peformed in Fort Pierce, Miami, and Melbourne, according to 5gig.com, before heading to Daytona.
His real name was Francis Wayne Sinatra - his father's full name is Francis Albert Sinatra - but went professionally by Frank Sinatra Jr.
Sinatra Jr. was the middle child of Sinatra and Nancy Barbato Sinatra, who was the elder Sinatra's first wife and the mother of all three of his children. Sinatra Jr.'s older sister was Nancy Sinatra, who had a successful musical career of her own, and his younger sister was TV producer Tina Sinatra.
He was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, in 1943, just as his father's career was getting started, and he would watch his dad become one of the most famous singers of all time. But he usually watched from a distance, as Sinatra was constantly away on tours and making movies.
He did, however, sometimes get to see him from the wings of the stage, especially when his father performed for long stints in Las Vegas. Sinatra Jr. got to see many other storied performers too, like Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Count Basie.
"I saw all the top stars perform," Sinatra Jr. told the AP in 2002. He said one of his favorite memories of his father harks back to a performance in the late 1960s at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
"He was sitting on a little stool, and he sang the Beatles song 'Yesterday' and 'By the Time I Get to Phoenix' and 'Didn't We,'" Sinatra Jr. said. "We were all crying and singing."
Sinatra Jr. followed his father into music as a teenager, eventually working for the senior Sinatra as his musical director and conductor.
The elder Sinatra died of a heart attack May 14, 1998, at 82.
Sinatra Jr. was able to provide a link to his father's music after his death, performing his songs and arrangements on tours and especially in Las Vegas.
"Since my father's death, a lot of people have made it clear that they're not ready to give up the music," Sinatra Jr. said in the 2002 AP interview. "For me, it's a big, fat gift. I get to sing with a big orchestra and get to sing orchestrations that will never be old."
When Sinatra Jr. was 19 in 1963, three men kidnapped him at gunpoint from a Lake Tahoe hotel. He was returned safely after two days when his family paid $240,000 for his release.
Barry Keenan, a high school friend of Nancy Sinatra, was arrested with the other two suspects, Johnny Irwin and Joe Amsler, and convicted of conspiracy and kidnapping.
Keenan masterminded the kidnapping, prosecutors said. He was sentenced to life plus 75 years in prison, but was declared legally insane at the time of the crime, had his sentence reduced and was paroled in 1968 after serving 4 ½ years.
Sinatra Jr. was married in 1998, but divorced in 2000. He is survived by a son, Michael.
Times-Union writer Bill Bortzfield contributed to this report.
|
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correct_death_00034
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FactBench
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3
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https://www.freddiegreen.org/articles/gp_mrhythm.html
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en
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Freddie Green - Mr. Rhythm Remembered
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Author: Jim Ferguson
Source: Guitar Player Magazine
Issue: August 1987
While jazz legends Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie boast extended careers, in terms of longevity in the idiom they don't hold a candle to Freddie Green, rhythm guitarist par excellence. From 1937 until his death at seventy-five this past March he occupied the rhythm guitar chair in various ensembles led by pianist Count Basie, backing celebrated players such as saxophonist Lester Young, clarinetist Benny Goodman, and vocalist Billie Holiday, to name a few. In the world of guitar, the sheer length of his career is second only to that of maestro Andres Segovia, who gave his first public recital in 1909 and was still touring earlier this year at the age of ninety-four.
But rest assured that achievement in jazz is no mere endurance record because during his fifty year career, he set the standard for traditional four-to-the-bar rhythm guitar influencing players the caliber of Allan Reuss, George Van Eps, Allan Hanlon and Al Hendrickson. While his acoustic-based sound was sometimes felt more than heard in the midst of Basie's larger ensembles, they wouldn't have been the same without it. Green's flawless timekeeping abilities, along with his knack for weaving seamless foundations of three- and four-note chord voicings, was the basis of a kinetic accompaniment approach that was an integral part of some of the most vibrant jazz ever recorded.
Green was an essential cog in what is generally considered to be the best rhythm section in the history of big band jazz and what bandleader Paul Whiteman dubbed the All-American Rhythm Section, which featured Basie, bassist Walter Page, and drummer Jo Jones. It remained essentially intact from their first encounter in 1937 until Jones' departure in the late 1940s. From the start Green earned a reputation as a stylist without equal, fans and fellow players referred to him as Mr. Rhythm with the utmost respect.
Freddie's heyday was jazz's Golden Age of the 1930s and 1940s, when small groups proliferated but the emphasis was on the incredibly popular big bands that combined spirited jazz with danceable rhythms. From the early 1930s to the early 1940s the acoustic archtop was the instrument of choice among rhythm guitarists due to its "cutting power", the ability to be heard in a large ensemble setting. However, as the Forties unfolded, it was used less and less, as players gravitated toward amplified instruments. (Charlie Christian, an influential electric guitarist with Benny Goodman's immensely popular orchestra of the late 1930s and early 1940s, was largely responsible for this trend.)
Despite the move toward amplification, Green persisted in employing a totally acoustic instrument (although he briefly experimented with a pickup and amp in the late 1940s), apparently feeling secure with Basie and under no pressure to change. In the hands of a lesser player, an acoustic archtop would have seemed like an anachronism after the late 1940s, when the popularity of the big bands waned; however Green played with such finesse, commitment, and class that his music had a vital, timeless quality. While amplification gave guitarists a chance to step into the spotlight as soloists, Green chose to remain behind the scenes in a supportive capacity. Whatever his reasons for choosing such a self-effacing role, he came to be universally recognized as the premier backup guitarist. While aficionados will forever debate the various merits of most other players, there is only one Mr. Rhythm.
Frederick William Green was born in Charleston, South Carolina, on March 31, 1911. Before his teenage years, he picked up the banjo. Trumpeter Sam Walker, the father of one of Freddie's friends, taught him how to read music and encouraged him to play the guitar. Walker was an organizer for Charleston's respected Jenkins Orphanage Band, and he allowed Freddie to perform with the group, which also included a young Cat Anderson, who went on to play trumpet with pianist Duke Ellington and others. Green toured with the Jenkins band as far north as Maine.
After Freddie's parents died when he was in his early teens, he went to New York to live with his aunt and finishing his schooling. Eventually he began to play rent parties and in New York clubs such as the Yeah Man in Harlem and Greenwich Village's Black Cat. Tenor Saxophonist Lonnie Simmons got him one of his first jobs, working with the Night Hawks at the Black Cat. While at the club in 1937, Green was noticed by jazz talent scout John Hammond, who ultimately introduced him to Basie.
Hammond described his first impressions of Green in his autobiography John Hammond on Record [1977, Ridge Press/Summit Book]: "One of my favorite clubs was the Black Cat, a mob-owned joint. The band included two cousins, the drummer Kenny Clarke and the bass player Frank Clarke, but it was the guitarist that interested me the most. His name was Freddie Green, and I thought he was the greatest I had ever heard. He had unusually long fingers, a steady stroke, and unobtrusively held the whole rhythm section together. He was the antithesis of the sort of stiff, chugging guitarist Benny Goodman liked. Freddie was closer to the incomparable Eddie Lang than any guitar player I'd ever heard. He was perhaps not the soloist that Lang was, but he had a beat."
Count Basie had just come from Kansas City to New York and was debuting at the famed Roseland Ballroom. Soon after discovering Green, Hammond took Basie, Lester Young, Walter Page, Jo Jones, trumpeter Buck Clayton, and Benny Goodman to hear Freddie at the Black Cat. Although Basie liked his current guitarist, Claude Williams, he let him go in favor of Green, who joined the band after the Roseland engagement. Green cut his first sides with Count Basie and his Orchestra (featuring Page and Jones) for Decca on March 26, 1937, playing rhythm on "Honeysuckle Rose", "Pennies From Heaven", "Swinging At The Daisy Chain", and "Roseland Shuffle".
Green and Basie participated in Hammond's historic 1938 and 1939 Spirituals to Swing concerts, which featured a wide variety of jazz and blues artists (the second event paired Lester Young with Charlie Christian). For the next few years, Green propelled Basie's ensembles, recording for Columbia and RCA, and backing up players such as saxophonists Buddy Tate, Illinois Jacquet, Don Byas, Paul Gonsalves, trumpeter Emmett Berry, trombonist J.J. Johnson, vocalist Jimmy Rushing, and many others. In addition to recording with Count Basie and his Orchestra during that period, Green also participated in small groups led by Basie, including Count Basie and his Kansas City Seven, and Count Basie and his All-American Rhythm Section.
In 1945 Green recorded four spirited sides ("I'm In The Mood For Love", "Sugar Hips", "Get Lucky", and "I'll Never Be The Same") on the Duke label under the name Freddie Green and his Kansas City Seven. For the most part, Green used members from the Basie band, including trumpeter Buck Clayton, trombonist Dickie Wells, saxophonist Lucky Thompson, and drummer Shadow Wilson, who was filling in for Jo Jones while he was in the armed service. The ensemble also featured bassist Al Hall, vocalist Sylvia Simms, and pianist Sammy Benskin. When Jones finally quit Basie in 1948, he was permanently replaced by Wilson, which marked an end to the All-American Rhythm Section's reign.
As bebop gained momentum in the late 1940s and the emphasis shifted to small group jazz, many big bands fell on hard times. Count Basie was no exception, and in the summer of 1950 he pared the orchestra down to a handful of players. Green found himself unemployed for the first time in 13 years. According to his son, Al, the situation didn't last for long. Shortly after being let go, Freddie showed up with his guitar at one of Basie's gigs insisting he was back in the group. From that moment on, the relationship between Basie and Green was cemented. The unit soon swelled to a septet that included clarinetist Buddy DeFranco and trumpeter Clark Terry.
In 1952 Basie was back with another big band, which eventually recorded memorable sessions represented on the reissue album Sixteen Men Swinging. Three years later, Freddie cut the classic Mr. Rhythm under the name Freddie Green and his Orchestra with trumpeter Joe Newman, trombonist Henry Coker, saxophonist Al Cohn, pianist Nat Pierce, drummers Osie Johnson and Jo Jones, and bassist Milt Hinton. The session was a neat blend of rhythmic swing and more bebop-oriented soloing, and much of the material was penned by Green, including "Back And Forth", "Feed Bag", "Little Red", "Free And Easy", and "Swingin' Back".
From the late 1950s into the 1960s the band accompanied such notable vocalists as Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Mel Torme, Sarah Vaughn, Tony Bennett, Billy Eckstine, Sammy Davis Jr., and Judy Garland. In 1962, Green, Basie, bassist Ed Jones, and drummer Sonny Payne recorded the remarkable Count Basie and the Kansas City Seven, with cuts featuring flutists Frank Wess and Eric Dixon. The mid 1960s and 1970s brought numerous personnel changes to the aggregation; however, it mainly stayed with the Kansas City style swing it did best, despite brief flirtations with more contemporary material such as Beatles' songs and James Bond themes. Although big band jazz had long been a thing of the past, the group continued to record and tour extensively. For instance, in March 1965, Count Basie played 27 one-night stands, criss-crossing the country from Florida to New Jersey to Ohio to New York to Missouri to North Dakota to Illinois.
In 1975, Green teamed with Herb Ellis for the album Rhythm Willie, with bassist Ray Brown, drummer Jake Hanna, and pianist Ross Tompkins. Led by Ellis' brilliant blues-tinged single string work and backed by an expert rhythm section, the group cut a swinging mix of tunes, including "It Had To Be You", the title track, and Charlie Christian's "A Smooth One". Unlike some previous recordings with Basie, Green's masterful work was extremely well recorded and in perfect balance with the rest of the ensemble.
Count Basie's death in 1984 closed a rich chapter in big band jazz. He and Green had been good friends onstage and off, and Freddie assumed the helm of the 19 piece group. On March 1, 1987, Freddie Green died of a heart attack after playing a show in Las Vegas. The sad event marked the end of an era in the history of jazz guitar. In Los Angeles, what was intended to be a surprise tribute to Green organized by jazz critic Leonard Feather was turned into a memorial that featured the Basie band, vocalist Sarah Vaughan, and guitarist Kenny Burrell. Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley declared March 19 Freddie Green Day. Various honors Green garnered over his colorful career include his induction into the Jazz Hall of Fame, a 1958 Down Beat Critics Poll award, and a 1986 Grammy nomination for the album Swing Reunion, with pianist Teddy Wilson, drummer Louis Bellson, guitarist Remo Palmier, vibraphonist Red Norvo, and bassist George Duvivier.
All jazz fans - and especially guitarists - owe a debt to Green, who helped to keep alive one of the most vital styles in music. In the May 1983 issue of Guitar Player, Jim Hall declares: "If you pruned the tree of jazz, Freddie Green would be the only person left. If you have to listen to only one guitarist, study the way he plays rhythm with Count Basie." Green, who undoubtedly played more bars of straight 4/4 than any other guitarist in the history of jazz, had the uncanny knack to keep things continually interesting, mainly through his use of three- and four- note chord forms, which he connected into smooth, air-tight accompaniments. The following example - essentially a I, IV, I progression - shows how he used open voicings to create movement between the upper voice of the chord and the bass note (the fifth, second, and first strings should be damped by the left hand):
He continually avoided the limelight, content to play a supportive role. In Norman Mongan's The History of the Guitar in Jazz [1983; Oak Publications, New York], Green explained how he became a rhythm specialist: "At first when I joined Basie, I experimented with a couple of single string things, but people started looking at me as if to say, 'What's happening?' So that was the last of that. Rhythm holds the whole thing together."
Despite Green's commitment to rhythm, he played a number of single string solos over the years that frequently recalled Eddie Lang's work in the early 1930s. On "The Boll Weevil Song" from the album Brother John Sellers (recorded by an evangelist singer in 1954), he contributed an inspired bluesy solo. The small group recording Memories Ad-Lib [Roulette LP SR-59037], with Joe Williams and Count Basie, has several notable single string outings.
Just as Freddie occasionally deviated from playing rhythm on record, he also experimented with amplification for a short while in the late 1940's, equipping his large Stromberg Master 400 archtop with a DeArmond pickup, which he ran through a Gibson amp (Al Green recalls the amp gathering dust in a corner of his father's New York apartment). Prior to using the Stromberg, Green played an Epiphone Emperor. According to Al, the Stromberg became too valuable to take on the road, so Freddie switched to a blonde Gretsch Eldorado custom.
In the early 1950s, Al Green spent an unforgettable summer traveling with his father and Count Basie's band: "The camaraderie was great, even though moving the equipment was a hassle. One evening at a dance they were playing, Marshall Royal (sax) was soloing, and I glanced over at Dad doing his thing in his very unassuming kind of way. I remember thinking 'Gee, why doesn't he play the saxophone, so he could get some recognition like Marshall Royal?' But what does a 12 year old kid understand about someone who is so dedicated to his art? It took a lot of time, but he finally got the recognition he deserved." Mr. Rhythm, rest in peace.
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correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
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1
| 79 |
https://tedpanken.wordpress.com/2012/02/27/on-dexter-gordons-89th-birthday-my-liner-notes-for-the-complete-prestige-recordings-of-dexter-gordon/
|
en
|
On Dexter Gordon’s 89th Birthday, my liner notes for The Complete Prestige Recordings of Dexter Gordon
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2012-02-27T00:00:00
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Several years ago, before Concord purchased the holdings of Fantasy Records, I had the honor of writing the liner notes for an immense box set of Dexter Gordon's complete recordings for Prestige. I researched and wrote the essay while simultaneously putting together a large assignment for DownBeat that involved interviewing a cohort of saxophonists about…
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Today Is The Question: Ted Panken on Music, Politics and the Arts
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https://tedpanken.wordpress.com/2012/02/27/on-dexter-gordons-89th-birthday-my-liner-notes-for-the-complete-prestige-recordings-of-dexter-gordon/
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Several years ago, before Concord purchased the holdings of Fantasy Records, I had the honor of writing the liner notes for an immense box set of Dexter Gordon’s complete recordings for Prestige. I researched and wrote the essay while simultaneously putting together a large assignment for DownBeat that involved interviewing a cohort of saxophonists about either their favorite musician or their five favorites on a particular label (can’t remember which), which gave me an opportunity to inquire about their sense of the Gordon’s impact. Maxine Gordon graciously cooperated as well. Gordon’s 89th birth anniversary is today, and, for the occasion, I’m pleased to be able to append these notes.
The Complete Dexter Gordon on Prestige (Notes):
One day in 1945, on his way home from school, a 14-year saxophone beginner named Jackie McLean made a pit stop at a Harlem luncheonette on 125th Street and 7th Avenue. As he waited for his hot dog and root beer, he heard emanating from the backroom jukebox the joyful noise of two distinctly different tenor saxophones exchanging a string of choruses over a thunderous tom-tom shuffle.
“It was ‘Blowing the Blues Away’ by Billy Eckstine’s big band, and that was the first time I heard Dexter Gordon,” McLean recalls. Not long after that, a friend across the street played me ‘Dexter’s Deck.’ That did it. I had been in love with just one saxophone player—Lester Young. But listening to Dexter taught me how to swing.”
Few jazz musicians have stamped the vocabulary of their instrument so definitively at such a tender age as Dexter Keith Gordon, who was not yet 22 when he recorded that iconic tenor battle with Gene Ammons. But he was already a seasoned veteran. The son of a Los Angeles doctor who counted Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton as patients, and a private student of noted L.A. educator Lloyd Reese, Gordon joined Hampton in December 1940, two months before his 18th birthday. A devotee of Lester Young’s records with Count Basie, he’d seen Young play the previous October on Basie’s first California visit. “Lammar Wright, Jr. and I ditched school that day to catch the first show, which I think was at eleven in the morning,” Gordon told Ira Gitler in Swing to Bop. “They opened with ‘Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie,’ and Lester came out soloing—he was just fantastic. I really loved the man. He was melodic, rhythmic, had that bittersweet approach. And of course, in his pre-Army days he had such a zest for living. It felt so good to hear him play.”
On the road with Hampton, Gordon mastered the ritualistic dueling tenors function, telling ebullient stories with pretty notes, Lester Young style, in counterstatement to the brash, declarative Herschel Evans tales of Illinois Jacquet. Midway through 1941, Hampton’s band came to New York to work Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom opposite Jay McShann, whose alto saxophonist was a 21-year-old virtuoso named Charlie Parker.
“Bird had a lot of Lester in his playing, and also Jimmy Dorsey, who was a master saxophonist,” Gordon recalled in Gary Giddins’s essay “Dexter,” from Visions of Jazz: The First Century. “He was playing so much saxophone, new tunes, new harmonic conceptions; he extended the chords, altering them fluidly. Pres stayed around ninths—he must have listened to Ravel and Debussy—but Bird went all the way up the scale.” On various New York visits in ́41 and ́42, the aspirant heard trumpet modernists Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Harris, and Victor Coulson. “I heard [the new sound] gradually here and there,” he told Gitler. “Not in an organized band or even with all the cats playing that kind of style in a group.”
Gordon wasn’t doctrinaire about his influences. He knew the Coleman Hawkins lexicon inside out, and drew inspiration from Dick Wilson (1911-1941), a much-admired tenorman with Andy Kirk’s Twelve Clouds of Joy. In The Swing Era, Gunther Schuller writes that Wilson executed “sinuous and unpredictable” lines “with consummate control. . .interposing quick flurries of notes with more sustained phrases,” and projected them with a tone distinctive for being “at once imbued with a searing old-style intensity and a subtle ‘modern’ coolness.”
During the first nine months of 1944, Gordon refined his skills on jobs with drummer Lee Young (Lester’s older brother), Fletcher Henderson, and Louis Armstrong. In October he received a call to join Eckstine’s seminal bebop orchestra at Washington, D.C.’s Howard Theater. Maxine Gordon, his widow, relates: “Dexter told Louis, ‘I’ve got to go; that’s my boys.’ ‘Is it a matter of money?’ He said, ‘No, the money’s fine.’ ‘Well, what is it?’ ‘I’ve got to play that music.’ He was like, ‘OK, I get it.’ Dexter said that the publicity about Louis being anti-bebop was way overstated, that Louis encouraged the young musicians. He said, ‘Try your new thing. What we played was new!’”
Soon after recruiting Gordon, Eckstine hired a young Chicago tenorist named Gene Ammons, a Coleman Hawkins disciple. For the next ten months, a Gordon-Ammons cutting contest became a highly anticipated nightly ritual, establishing both youngbloods as rising stars.
“Dexter was a child of Lester Young,” Maxine Gordon says. “He tried to play like Lester, thought he played just like him, looked like him and acted like him. Lester was his number-one man. But Gene Ammons was his favorite tenor player among his contemporaries. Dexter said that Gene Ammons could do something that he was never able to attain, which is to play one note and affect the people so much that they fall on the ground and faint. They didn’t have much time for their solos. Dexter would work out, play everything he knew, show all he’d been working on. Gene’s ears were so good that he would come up and play everything back, and then play a low B-flat or a note where people would just go ‘Wow!’ Dexter said he learned that if you only worked on technique and speed, and neglected tone, projection, and feeling, you weren’t playing the tenor.
“Dexter told me that he once yelled at Jug, ́Stop playing back my shit! Play your own shit; don’t play mine.` Gene was very sweet and quiet and sensitive, and he took it badly. Dexter and Lammar Wright went to hear Basie. They went out back, and Lester was there. Lester said to him, ́I heard you had a beef with Brother Gene.` People talk. Dexter said, ́Yeah. I’m tired of him stealing my shit.` And Lester said to him, ́Oh, really? You want to be careful about that.` Then Dexter was like, ́Oh my God, I’m stealing every note from Lester.` He was just mortified. ́Okay, I get it.` Then he went and apologized to Gene and tried to be quiet. He said he never forgot that.”
Blending harmonic lessons from Dizzy Gillespie—Eckstine’s musical director and first trumpet until the end of 1944—with tutelage from Ammons in the art of efficiently telling a story with notes and tones, Gordon learned to conjure concise, melodic riffs from extended chord structures. Although he retained Young’s horizontal phrasing and low-vibrato tone, he gradually shed the skin of his idol, projecting a robust timbre and surging attack that appealed to audiences in Southern tobacco warehouses, Western dance halls, and soul lounges in Northern inner cities. He sidemanned on Gillespie’s “Blue and Boogie” in February 1945 for Guild, and appeared with Charlie Parker on sessions led by trombonist Trummy Young and pianist Sir Charles Thompson. He led his first date in December 1945, and for the next three years—recording in New York for Savoy and in Los Angeles for Dial—tossed off a succession of attractive three-minute riff tunes with ad hoc quartets and quintets, including “The Duel,” a tenor joust with West Coast bop avatar Teddy Edwards, and “The Chase,” an epic encounter with L.A.-based tenorman Wardell Gray.
Both Gordon and Gray are in particularly good form on “Move,” taped at Hollywood’s Hula Hut on August 27, 1950. It was originally issued on The Wardell Gray Memorial Album, and is the first of the 88 tracks that comprise The Complete Prestige Recordings of Dexter Gordon. Over an unwavering, crackling beat from L.A. modernists Jimmy Bunn, Billy Hadnott, and Chuck Thompson, Gray uncorks a string of flaming, elegant, thematically linked choruses, constantly building momentum. There follows a classic solo by trumpeter Clark Terry, in town with the Count Basie Octet; fully cognizant of Dizzy Gillespie and Fats Navarro, he’s completely his own man. Perhaps aware that it was Young’s 41st birthday, Gordon leaps in (4:22) with an eloquent stream-of-consciousness monologue that continues for 3 minutes and 35 seconds. Swinging fiercely and never repeating himself, he choreographs a continuous flow of melodic ideas, referencing Lestorian fragments as signifying guideposts, throwing in for good measure a well-timed phrase from “Let’s Fall in Love.”
It’s the kind of well-wrought eruption that caused Gordon’s peers and acolytes to keep him firmly in their sights. “Dexter was a tough man to beat in a cutting session,’” says Von Freeman (b.1922), who had first-hand knowledge of the fact. “He was very modern-thinking, could play the stew out of the horn, and you could tell he had studied a whole lot. He was among the very first modern tenor players to break away from Pres, to start emphasizing minor IXs, major IXs, XIIIs, and flatted Vs. In other words, he had some Bird in him early, which gave him an edge among a lot of tenor players who were playing like Pres, since Pres didn’t stress those notes, though he used them in the context of his normal playing. In bebop you start in or end on those type of notes, and that makes your playing different to people who study music. Dexter to me was that stop on tenor between Pres and Hawk, and then Coltrane.”
“Besides the gods, Lester and Hawk and Don Byas, Dexter and Eddie ‘Lockjaw’ Davis were the guys that guys my age were listening to when we were coming up,” says Sonny Rollins (b.1930), who grew up in Harlem. “Dexter made a great contribution to the bebop language; in fact, I think he defined it during a certain period. He transcribed a lot of the stuff that Bird was doing, and brought that approach to the tenor without being a copier. He was an important figure in bringing people along. Coltrane at one time sounded a lot like Dexter, and I still hear that lineage. And one time when I was in Chicago, this guy had heard one of my records, and he said, ‘Yeah, man, you sound great; you sound like Dexter.’ I have nothing but praise for him.”
“Around Philadelphia, we all wanted to be like Dexter,” recalls Jimmy Heath (b.1926). “He had this relaxed, behind-the-beat way of playing that made him swing harder than most of the saxophone players. Coltrane, Benny Golson, and myself all were keyed into his sound, and we all were listening to his records, because we were so impressed with the way he adapted the bebop style for the tenor saxophone. One of his records was ‘Setting the Pace,’ and he set the pace.”
“Dexter could take those common chords and string a melody to it like an expensive necklace of pearl beads,” says Golson (b.1929). “His ideas were completely different than Don Byas and Lester Young. To me, they sounded a little more hip, and I guess they were, because he was much younger than them, and he came onto the scene with a new breath of air, so to speak. He had a lot of soul in what he was doing. He was suave—his movements were that way, and his speech was so smooth and deliberate; he thought about what he was going to say. He wasn’t a person that you knew for playing an abundance of notes, though that didn’t mean he couldn’t. He wasn’t approaching his tenor saxophone the same way Charlie Parker approached his alto saxophone. Charlie Parker played a lot of double-time things. With Dexter it wasn’t a flurry of notes. It was the way he played the notes that he played! It was like he gave more attention to each note rather than a slew of ideas. Charlie Parker came with rapid fire, and Dexter came with single shots, but they were well-aimed. And it was those shots that touched my heart and my brain.”
Six-and-a-half feet tall and bronze-complected, with sculpted, florid cheekbones, full lips, and lidded, ironic eyes, Gordon oozed charisma. “Dexter was a movie star on the saxophone,” says McLean. “My aunt Miriam opened my room door one day when I was practicing and said, ‘Jackie, last night I was on 52nd Street, and this tall, beautiful guy named Dexter something was playing, and oh my God, he was so great.’ I said, ‘Wait a minute! That’s Dexter Gordon.’ I had a little windup record player, and I wound it up and put on ‘Dexter’s Deck’ for her.”
McLean recalls hearing Gordon play several afternoon jam sessions at the Lincoln Square Center, a converted stable in Manhattan’s west sixties. “The first time, Ben Webster and a bunch of other people were playing,” McLean states. “The next time I went, I stepped up with my dollar to get in, and the guy asked me, ‘How old are you?’ I tried to drop my voice down. I said, ‘18.’ ‘No. Come on, kid. Get out of the line.’ I was dejected, and went outside. Then I saw Dexter coming, and I ran up to him in the street. ‘Mr. Gordon, I want to go in to see you play, but they won’t let me in—I’m too young.’ Dexter said, ‘How much does it cost?’ ‘A dollar.’ ‘Give me your dollar. Just stay with me.’ I walked right in with him. Every time he tried to get away from me, to talk to the ladies or something, there I was! When he went to unpack his horn, I was looking in his case. Finally, he said, ‘Go have a seat, man.’ Ben Webster was already playing onstage, and Dexter walked out and joined him on ‘Cottontail,’ and tried to steal the scene. Ben didn’t like it too much.
“Ten years later, I went to the West Coast with Art Blakey, and Dexter showed up and started talking. I walked up to him and said, ‘Hey, Dexter, do you remember me?’ He said, ‘You lost a lot of weight, man, but I know who you are. You’re the pest.’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ‘I remember you, man. You were a chubby little kid. You used to be in my face all the time.’”
In Eckstine’s band, Gordon and reed section mates Sonny Stitt, Leo Parker, and John Jackson dubbed themselves the Unholy Four; their experiments with heroin quickly led to addiction. Sonny Rollins recalls encountering Gordon at a Forties dance at the Hunts Point Ballroom in the Bronx. “Dexter was strung out at the time, and I was a young cat whose mother had just bought me my brand-new tenor,” Rollins recalls. “He didn’t have a horn, so I lent it to him. He was already an established star; I was just a kid. But he didn’t steal my horn!”
Around this time, Don Schlitten—who went on to produce four of the albums that appear on this collection—first saw Gordon at a Sunday afternoon jam session at the Club 845 on Prospect Avenue and 160th Street in the Bronx. Soon after, he went to Lincoln Square Center to see his idol at a welcome-home party for the Billy Eckstine band. “They had Sonny Stitt, Gene Ammons, Leo Parker, Fats Navarro, Art Blakey, Monk on piano, and John Simmons on bass,” Schlitten recalls. “Dexter was supposed to be there and so was Charlie Ventura. Charlie Ventura couldn’t make it, so he sent in a sub, who was Don Byas. The show was from 3 to 7, and everybody was waiting for Dexter. At 7 o’clock, the curtains parted, and Dexter stuck his head out of the curtains and waved to everybody hello. But he never played! Then Symphony Sid or one of those cats came out and said that Dexter would be here next week.”
Gordon remained enmeshed in his habit throughout the Fifties. He relocated to California in 1949, spent 1953 and 1954 incarcerated at the Chino State Penitentiary, and went back to jail soon after his encounter with McLean. He didn’t get out until 1960. Gordon didn’t like to talk about those years, telling friends simply, “It saved my life.” Maxine Gordon notes that, unlike Ammons, who spent most of the Sixties in a maximum security lockup in Joliet, Illinois, Gordon “always played, always had his horn. The jail had a band. All the best players were in jail at that time.”
On parole in 1960, Gordon led a house band at the Zebra Lounge and joined the Los Angeles production of The Connection, the Jack Gelber play about heroin addicts. Pianist Freddie Redd—who wrote the score—and McLean had performed in the famous 1959-60 New York stage and film production; in L.A., Gordon led an onstage quartet through several of his minor-key originals, and, writes Gitler in his vivid chapter on Gordon in Jazz Masters of the ‘40s, “handled an important speaking role that called for a lot of ad-libbing.”
During the play’s run, Cannonball Adderley approached Gordon to do a one-off date with Jazzland. The result is Resurgence, and a fine album it is, though the back story described by trumpeter Martin Banks (b.1936) indicates that Gordon was remaining in character outside the theater. “Leonard Feather and Shorty Rogers and all sorts of people were in the control room,” Banks told a reporter in Austin, Texas, his hometown, where he currently lives and plays. “Dexter had some manuscript up on the music stand, and he was pointing at it. But there was nothing written on the paper! He said, quietly: ‘We’re gonna make up this date, because they’ve already paid me for the music. And I’ve spent the money.’”
In point of fact, Gordon makes only two contributions to his comeback album. On the hard-charging “Home Run,” the front line slams out three bars of a chord not dissimilar to the opening of Thelonious Monk’s “Little Rootie Tootie” before resolving into the form of Ray Brown’s “Two Bass Hit.” Propelled by the unrelenting swing of Larance Marable, the “West Coast Philly Joe Jones,” Gordon, Banks, and trombonist Richard Boone—the latter an Arkansan who later gained notoriety with Count Basie for his authoritative “mumbles” vocalese, and moved in 1970 to Copenhagen and an eventual sinecure in the Danish Radio Orchestra—take concise, pithy solos. The tenorist also offers a soulful reading of “Jodi,” an original ballad that he would revisit in 1965 on the Blue Note album Clubhouse.
Saving the day is pianist Charles “Dolo” Coker (1927-1989), a Hartford, Connecticut native whose c.v. included gigs and recordings with Sonny Stitt, Art Pepper, and Philly Jones. The first of Coker’s four compositions is “Dolo,” a twisty “Rhythm” variant taken at a racehorse tempo. Gordon tears through the theme with impeccable articulation and, showing no strain, spins a solo that illustrates McLean’s contention that “Dexter was the master of swinging and playing just a little back of the beat, and then switching over and getting in front of the beat, like Bird often did.” Coker’s “Lovely Lisa” is a tipping blues with a Basie flavor, tight three-horn voicings, and nice changes that Gordon gobbles up; Boone’s vocalized solo crosses Bennie Green fluency with raspy Henry Coker tone. More a tango than a rumba, “Affair In Havana” affords everyone a solo, while “Field Day” finds Coker presenting his own take on the vocabulary of Tadd Dameron—Gordon’s strutting, pellucid solo is a highlight.
Not long after Resurgence hit the street, Gordon signed with Blue Note and moved to New York. Between April 1961 and August 1962 he made four superb studio albums—Doin’ Allright, Dexter Calling, Go, and A Swinging Affair—that reignited his career. Unable to procure a New York cabaret card, Gordon had trouble parlaying critical acclaim into work, and he extended a September 1962 engagement in London at Ronnie Scott’s into a two-year European sojourn. Gordon spent part of 1963 in France, where he made the classic Our Man in Paris with Bud Powell and Kenny Clarke, and received warm greetings in Copenhagen, which became his base until 1976. There he married, fathered a son, drove a Volvo station wagon and rode a bicycle, had a piano in his house in suburban Valby, performed steadily around Scandinavia and continental Europe as a combo leader and member of various big bands, and took working vacations in the Canary Islands.
“Dexter did things when he was living in Copenhagen that he never was able to do before,” says Maxine Gordon. “He would practice on his piano and work on music. But he wasn’t working on it because he had a record date that night or that week. It changed his way of playing and his way of thinking. He thought longer and worked with bigger ideas. You don’t want to think of his time in Europe as one when he fell into obscurity, and then comes back and is rediscovered. He was very active. He played with a lot of American musicians as well as Europeans. He played all the festivals. He could have worked all the time. He was very happy about this period of creativity, and I think his playing reflects it.”
After recording his final albums for Blue Note in New York on May 27-28, 1965, Gordon returned to Copenhagen, working most of the summer in town at the Jazzhus Montmartre. He took a break on July 31st to play the jazz festival in Molde, Norway, which included a jam session with tenor saxophonist Booker Ervin (1930-1970), an early Gordon admirer and an explosive stylist with a penchant for stratospheric flights through standard songs. Out of Dallas, Texas, Ervin signed with Prestige in 1963 after several strong sideman appearances with Charles Mingus and dates for Bethlehem, Savoy and Candid. By 1965 he’d recorded four freewheeling albums under Don Schlitten’s supervision, two with an anything-goes rhythm section—iconoclastic stride-to-avant pianist Jaki Byard, virtuoso bassist Richard Davis and Boston drum giant Alan Dawson. That October, Schlitten put together a tenor summit tour of Germany featuring Ervin, Gordon and Sonny Rollins, and booked a Munich studio to record Ervin with Byard, Dawson and bassist Reggie Workman. He decided to contract with Gordon to reprise the Molde meeting and documented a tenor battle between the master and his acolyte on two classic riff tunes from Gordon’s Savoy years.
The ensuing album, Setting The Pace, is a must-hear of the two-tenor genre. On the title track Gordon solos first and Ervin second, while on the Rhythm-rooted “Dexter’s Deck,” Gordon follows Ervin’s signifying deconstruction with a quote-laden down-the-middle testimonial that lasts 9 minutes and 35 seconds and justifies Schlitten’s comment: “It’s one of the classic saxophone solos ever put on record, like a summation of his entire playing before and after and during.”
Schlitten and Gordon remained in touch, and in February 1969, Gordon signed a two-album contract with Prestige. He arrived in New York in April, gigged a week at the Village Vanguard with Barry Harris, Ron Carter, and Mickey Roker, and recorded Tower of Power and More Power, his first studio dates in America since 1960. Their release over the next nine months caused elation amongst Gordon’s still sizable American fan base who had lost track of their hero over the preceding decade.
“We were going to do a session with James Moody and one with just the rhythm section,” Schlitten recalls. “Dexter came to my little studio on the Grand Concourse, and went through a batch of sheet music that I had there, took out his horn, and started to play all these different songs. I was sitting there, digging the private concert. He chose ‘Those Were the Days’ and ‘Meditation,’ which he recorded that week, and ‘Some Other Spring,’ which he didn’t.”
Blended for the LPs Tower of Power and More Power, the dates appear here in chronological sequence. Moody sounds out of sorts on the April 2nd performance, which has a tentative, edgy quality despite the synchronous rhythm section (Barry Harris, Buster Williams, and Albert “Tootie” Heath). Unfazed, Gordon roars through “Montmartre,” a up minor blues that he’d written about a year before the session. He navigates the sweet changes of Tadd Dameron’s “Lady Bird” with swinging lusciousness; at Schlitten’s instigation, the tenors juxtapose Dameron’s melody with “Half Nelson,” a Miles Davis variant that the trumpeter recorded on his first leader session, in 1947, with Charlie Parker on tenor saxophone. A Dameron connoisseur, Harris plays laid-back Bud Powell lines on both takes of “Lady Bird” and and comps valiantly throughout. On the alternate take of “Sticky Wicket,” a minor blues by Gordon, Moody responds disjointedly to Gordon’s quotefest; on the master take, Gordon concocts a new invention, and Moody plays only on the opening and closing unisons.
“Dexter usually took everything in his stride,” Schlitten notes. “He’d been around, understood everything and everybody, and did what he had to do.”
He’s in peak form on April 4th, which produced high-level performances. The tenorist digs into “Those Were the Days,” a Gene Raskin tune that was getting much airplay at the time. Inspired by the loose camelwalk tempo, Gordon—now 46—digs deep into the nostalgic lyric (“Once upon a time there was a tavern, where we used to raise a glass or two; Remember how we laughed away the hours, and dreamed of all the great things we would do. . .”). Shortly after his first jail stay, Gordon penned “Stanley the Steamer” for a 1955 Bethlehem date led by West Coast bop drummer Stan Levey. Fourteen years later, the pulse on this blues stomp shifts from mid tempo to a sleek up-medium, and Gordon devours the changes in his updated manner.
According to Thorbjørn Sjøren’s authoritative discography, Long Tall Dexter, Gordon first documented “Rainbow People” on a Stockholm radio broadcast the preceding January 20th, with pianist Bobo Stenson and expat bass giant Red Mitchell. Like much of his Copenhagen writing, it’s more a composition than a tune, with attractive changes that beg for a lyric. Gordon and Barry Harris swing deep into the melody deeply on both takes. Both bopwalk eloquently on two takes of “Boston Bernie,” a Gordon variant on the 1939 Jerome Kern song “All the Things You Are” (from the musical Very Warm for May) and on “Fried Bananas,” Gordon’s ingenious up tempo version of “It Could Happen to You,” by Rodgers and Hart. First documented in performance at Amsterdam’s Paradiso Club on February 5, 1969, “Fried Bananas” became an enduring staple of Gordon’s repertoire. Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “Meditation” is Gordon’s second investigation of a bossa nova (first was “Morning of the Carnival” from the 1965 album Gettin’ Around )As Ira Gitler wrote on the liner notes for More Power, “Talk about creating a mood—Dex does it in all registers of the horn with a gorgeous sound and a feeling that envelops one with fireside warmth. Heavy romance. I have often mused how groovy it would have been to hear Pres and Bird work out on a bossa nova. Now I have a better idea.”
The April 4th meeting concludes with the unissued “Dinner for One Please, James,” a bittersweet ballad by Michael Carr, perhaps chosen by Gordon to signify on Moody’s absence from the session. Barely straying from the melody, Gordon lets his tone do the work, wringing out all the bathos.
His trip already paid for, Gordon set up several gigs to make it all worthwhile. These included a May 4th engagement at Baltimore’s Left Bank Jazz Society with a strong pickup group featuring pianist Bobby Timmons (1935-1974). Out of Philadelphia, Timmons had risen to prominence a decade earlier with Art Blakey, for whom he composed such soul jazz classics as “Moanin’” and “’Dat Dere.” Here he draws on bop and blues roots, playing with great imagination, intensity, and finesse on a hopelessly out-of-tune piano. Bassist Victor Gaskin and veteran drummer Percy Brice round out the unit. Both sets were recorded for posterity, and Fantasy released them on the CDs LTD and XXL in 2001 and 2002, respectively. The famous Gordon joie de vivre is evident on every note.
“The way he plays on the Left Bank gig is incredible!” Joe Lovano states. “I played there a few times with Woody Herman’s band and also with Jack McDuff in the mid-Seventies. It was like an afternoon into the evening party. Now, Dexter got you in different ways in different periods. In the Sixties he was up on his articulation and up on the beat, and his tone and presence and interaction with the rhythm section changed. A lot of joy always came through in Dexter’s playing, and it’s probably the thing about him that influenced me most. Just the way he hit one note made you feel great.”
LTD annotator Larry Hollis counts 11 Gordon choruses on the set-opening “Broadway,” a flagwaver whose co-composer, tenorist Teddy McRae, brought the youngster to Armstrong in 1944. Lester Young made the song famous with Basie in 1940, and Gordon memorably covered it on Our Man in Paris in 1963. He uncorks a lengthy discourse on the various things that the aforementioned “Boston Bernie” is. The release of the Left Bank tapes would be worthwhile if only for Gordon’s sensual tenor reading of Duke Ellington’s “In a Sentimental Mood,” which he would record on soprano sax for Steeplechase in March 1975. Feeling his vonce before the soulfully enspirited Baltimore congregation, Gordon counts off the tempo for “Blues Up and Down,” the ritualistic set-closer, “roaring out the blocks hotter than a bowl of three-alarm chili, expatiating inventive verse after verse until the total rings up to an astounding 40,” in the words of Hollis.
The band picks up where they left off with Thelonious Monk’s “Rhythm-a-ning,” beginning with an intense 7:30 solo by Gordon. Timmons plays six blues-inflected minutes; Gaskin bows fiddle style for another four, and Brice steps out of his tipping role for an exciting five-minute display that exploits his quick hands and strong sense of organization. To the crowd’s delight, the leader digs into the famous refrain of Erroll Garner’s “Misty,” and develops the melody—with a nod to Eckstine’s “I Want to Talk About You”—at a leisurely lope. Timmons matches the mood, and Gordon returns for a heartfelt recapitulation and coda, quoting “How Are Things in Glocca Morra.” Gordon had recorded Cole Porter’s “Love for Sale” at the Montmartre in 1967, and addresses it similarly, stating the theme over a Latin groove, as played by Cannonball Adderley and Miles Davis on the 1958 album Something Else. At 3 minutes, the beat changes to 4/4 swing and Gordon notches up into the next gear, launching a four-minute explosion. Timmons and Gaskin have their final say, and Gordon swings through his summation and a stimulating series of exchanges with Brice, concluding an inspired sermon of tenor saxophony with the opening bars of “Soy Califa” (“I am the caliph”), a 1962 opus from A Swingin’ Affair.
Prestige renewed Gordon’s option, and assigned Schlitten to produce the summer 1970 sessions that became The Panther and The Jumpin’ Blues. Three weeks before this American sojourn, he joined the Junior Mance Trio for a radio broadcast from the Montreux Jazz Festival. Mance’s label, Atlantic, couldn’t use it, and sold the master to Prestige in 1974, enabling Gordon to fulfill his contractual obligations to the label.
Addressing a good piano, Mance—out of Chicago, he was Gene Ammons’s pianist of choice from 1947 to 1950 and Cannonball Adderley’s from 1956 to 1958—solos and comps with as much authority and vigor as any pianist who appears on this corpus. Gordon responds in kind; playing with all the power and discursive invention he customarily brought to club sets, he projects a polish and concision apropos to a concert setting. He surges fluently through “Fried Bananas,” evokes the bittersweet aura of Ellington’s voluptuous “Sophisticated Lady,” and roars cohesively through Monk’s “Rhythm-a-ning.” After Mance postulates a few McCoy Tyner chords, Gordon states the melody of “Body and Soul”—the first citation in Sjøren is a February 1968 Frankfurt concert; later that year, Gordon recorded it with Teddy Wilson on Danish TV—and cuts to the chase for a soaring, operatic improvisation on the “Coltrane changes,” concluding with an extended coda that references Burt Bacharach’s “Alfie” and Tadd Dameron’s “If You Could See Me Now.” Gordon first tackled “Blue Monk” on a May 1970 recording with vocalist Karin Krog and pianist Kenny Drew. Here, backed by Mance’s soulful chords and Oliver Jackson’s subtle backbeat, he develops an ingeniously anthological treatise with vocal inflections, including a variation on “Parker’s Mood,” inexorably building the dramatic arc. Mance plays the blues as only he can, bassist Martin Rivera has a tasty solo, and Gordon starts his final chorus with the “Reinhardt, Reinhardt” motif of “Harvard Blues,” a 1942 Jimmy Rushing-Don Byas vehicle with Count Basie. The set concludes with the premiere performance of “The Panther,” an original minor blues in 5/4 with a catchy melody and a funky feel.
In New York’s RCA studios three weeks later with Tommy Flanagan (1930-2001) on piano, Larry Ridley on bass, and Alan Dawson on drums for his first formal session of the summer, Gordon has chiseled out a point of view on “The Panther.” Midway through his decade-long stint as Ella Fitzgerald’s pianist and musical director, Flanagan follows the leader’s sturdy arcs and planes with a graceful sketch. Thus begins a cohesive session on which, as Schlitten says, “the stars were aligned, the elements were right, and everyone was in the mood to play beautiful.” On this “Body and Soul”—“I always ask my favorite players to play it; it’s a sick thing I have,” says Schlitten—Gordon goes bel canto, subtly deploys timbre, his huge enveloping tone more Ben Websterish than Lestorian on an immortal reading. If “Body And Soul” implies a waltz feel, “Valse Robin”—Gordon’s dedication to his daughter—is explicitly so. “It floats along on a strong, buoyant pulse under an orb that is both Manakoorish Moon and Midnight Sun, and yet neither,” wrote Gitler in the notes. Named for the title character of a 1942 film in which Greer Garson was the female lead, the third original, “Mrs. Miniver,” is a medium swinger with another imprintable melody and meaty changes. It’s hard to imagine anyone extracting a more viola-like sound from a metal tube with holes than what Gordon achieves on Mel Tormé’s “The Christmas Song”—it’s pure tenor melody, like Ben Webster playing “Danny Boy.” The six-hour session ends with another brawny, architectonic Gordon solo on Clifford Brown’s “Blues Walk.” Flanagan lays out for about a minute at 1:55, and Gordon stretches the harmony, referencing “Chasin’ the Trane,” coming back inside after the pianist rejoins the fray.
“Europe has been very good because my lifestyle is much calmer and relaxed,” Gordon told Down Beat in 1972. “I can devote more time to music, and I think it is beginning to show.” In a sense, The Panther is the first extended document of Gordon’s mature style. Still functioning at a peak of physical prowess, he kept the fierce attack, deep swing, and populist imperatives of the Blue Note years, while internalizing the developments of the preceding decade.
“Dexter loved Trane,” Maxine Gordon. “He used to say, ‘Maybe if I didn’t give him that mouthpiece, I’d play as good as him.’ I said, ‘You do play as good as Trane.’ ‘No, I don’t.’”
“When Coltrane lived in Philly, I know he was listening to Dexter’s records, and Dexter later started playing some of Trane’s tunes,” says Jimmy Heath. “Dexter was over in Europe, and this revolution was happening here. He caught up with it later. There were a lot of people on his tail, so he had to move. Everybody has to. The free jazz movement influenced all of us to get a little freer in our playing, to try to get away from such a structured style. If you’re a musician who’s trying to get better all the time and improve your craft, you’re always looking for different substitutions, different ways to play on chords—or without chords. Different ways of expressing yourself. The search continues, and it continued with Dexter.”
“Dexter’s approach changed in the late Sixties and early Seventies,” says Eric Alexander, an astute Gordon student from a later generation. “When he resurfaced with Blue Note in the early Sixties, he was already playing with heavier articulation and swaggering swing, and more so by the late Sixties. Plus, he was listening to what was going on around him, and he started to extract bits and pieces of stuff he heard avant-garde players doing which start to show up in his playing. He didn’t stay in one place. He was constantly morphing into something else, even though he was Dex always.”
Piggybacking on the favorable reception for the Power albums, Gordon criss-crossed the States in the summer of 1970. He gigged at the Newport Jazz Festival, made a return visit to Baltimore, stopped in Philadelphia, Detroit, Milwaukee, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, and took two bookings in Chicago. On the first Chicago visit, Windy City impresario Joe Segal hired Gordon to play afternoon and evening jam sessions at the North Park Hotel in the company of fellow expat Don Byas and old pal Gene Ammons. It was the first Gordon-Ammons recording since the Eckstine days, and Segal recorded the proceedings, placing a pair of Gordon-Ammons dialogues and one solo turn by each on The Chase.
Now we can hear the music in sequence, beginning with two quartets by Gordon and the afternoon rhythm section—idiosyncratic swing-to-bop pianist John Young (b.1921), bassist Cleveland Eaton of the Ramsey Lewis group, and drummer Steve McCall, who would become well-known later in the decade for his deft textural drumming with Air, an avant-garde collective trio. A staple of Gordon’s late Seventies repertoire, “Polka Dots and Moonbeams” does not appear in his discography until an October 1969 TV broadcast with the Oscar Peterson Trio. Presumably omitted from the original LP for reasons of length, but included on the subsequent double-LP 25 Years of Prestige, “Wee Dot” is a J.J. Johnson blues first recorded for Savoy on December 19, 1947 by a septet under the nominal leadership of baritone saxophonist Leo Parker, joined by Johnson, Gordon, Leo Parker, Joe Newman, Hank Jones, Curly Russell, and Shadow Wilson. Gordon would wax a fire-and-brimstone version on a 1974 album for Steeplechase. Here he uncorks a solo as long and effervescent as his personality, quoting “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” and “Here Comes the Bride” along the way. Ammons comes on board for a long ballad medley, sounding wistful on “Lover Man” and heart-on-the-sleeve on “My Funny Valentine,” while Gordon puts a light touch on “I Can’t Get Started” and “Misty.”
Manning the piano for the evening set is Chicago first-caller Jodie Christian, joined by local drum king Wilbur Campbell and bassist Rufus Reid, a member of Gordon’s working American quartet at the end of the decade. The surviving selections are a lively reprise of “The Chase,” Gordon’s notoriously popular 1947 tenor battle with Wardell Gray, and two versions of the popular Eckstine feature “Lonesome Lover Blues.” According to Segal, the intention was to record a new version of “Blowing the Blues Away,” with alto saxophonist/vocalist Vi Redd singing Eckstine’s lyric, but Redd—who had not heard the tune for several decades—opens the first version [Disc 7:8] singing what Joe Segal describes in the original notes as “a combination lyric best described as “Blowin’ the (Lonesome Lover) Blues Away.” In response to her repeated request to “blow Mr. Gene, blow Mr. Dexter, too,” Gordon and Ammons begin with several choruses of call-and-response. Gordon sets forth a string of citations (the original line from his own solo on the Eckstine recording, “I Say a Little Prayer,” “Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better,” “Candy”) before resolving into several choruses of blues invention. Ammons starts slow, making each note count, belting out his phrases like a Kansas City blues shouter, moving into the upper register as he builds the dramatic arc of his testimony, quoting “Frankie and Johnny” back at his old partner. John Young solos, Ammons ripostes, and the tenors banter to a conclusion over an extended, sloppy vamp. On the second version, which seems to conclude the concert, the saxophonists play the heads more cleanly and are more organized on the vamp, but stay closer to the vest on the solos.
“If you want to learn how to really phrase the saxophone and slow your actions down, listen to Dexter Gordon,” says tenorist David Murray in a comment relevant to Gordon’s playing on the Chicago concert. “This is a guy who had the ability to think ballad during an up tempo piece, and that’s why he sounds so smooth and so full. The way he played was effortless. He wasn’t racing anywhere. He could play fast if he wanted, but he didn’t really need to. I played opposite him and Johnny Griffin, and Johnny prefers to play fast. But when Johnny soloed opposite Dexter, Dexter always—unless he was completely torched—would come out and get house because he was grounded. In complete command.”
Gordon returned to New York for another Lester Young birthday visit to the studio in the company of a A-list rhythm section selected by Schlitten. On piano, out of Brooklyn, is Wynton Kelly (1931-1972), slightly past his prime but still swinging hard, and on bass is Florida native Sam Jones (1924-1981), whose down-the-center beat, huge tone, and melodic conception gave him steady work with Cannonball Adderley from 1959 to 1965 and with Oscar Peterson from 1966 to 1970. Detroiter Roy Brooks (b.1938), a Barry Harris disciple and Horace Silver alumnus with a bop-friendly disjunctive time feel, has the drum chair.
While Gordon selected repertoire for The Panther that framed him with contemporary beats and harmonies, he harks back to his early years on The Jumpin’ Blues, and plays with unwavering consistency and focus throughout—there’s little to choose between his solos on the alternate takes and the masters. Written for the session, “Evergreenish” is an attractive AABA form with a Dameronian connotation. Gordon’s solo swings with staunch precision, but Kelly is tentative in his solo, and the flow peters out. Brooks strokes an introductory train bell tone on his cymbal, cuing the tenorist into a streamlined “Rhythm-a-ning.” Gordon puts himself in the mood to swing with “Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better”; Kelly finds his vonce; Sam Jones plucks a walking chorus; and Gordon and Brooks embark on bracing 16-, 8- and 4-bar exchanges. “I Love You (For Sentimental Reasons)” was a Billboard #1 hit for Nat Cole in 1946-47, and was subsequently charted by Ella Fitzgerald, Charlie Spivak, Dinah Shore, Sam Cooke, and the Cleftones. Had jazz been the zeitgeist in 1970, Gordon’s orotund, mellifluous version—hewing to Lester Young’s dictum that knowledge of lyrics is the basis of informed interpretation—might have been as popular. Gordon had interpolated the climactic coda of Tadd Dameron’s “If You Could See Me Now” in both his recorded codas of “Body and Soul.” Here he caresses the lyric bop melody of the 1946 Sarah Vaughan Musicraft hit, gives way to a gentle Kelly solo, and returns for a rippling final chorus. He closes this paean to bebop with two homages to Charlie Parker. Springboarding off Bird’s rumba-like intro to his famous 1950 recording of “Star Eyes,” Gordon launches another graceful solo over a rolling, medium-up 4/4, breaking up his phrases and moving easily up and the down the horn. Recording with Jay McShann in 1941 for Decca, Bird introduced his concept to the world with pungent solos on “The Jumping Blues” and “Hootie Blues.” Gordon digs into the former, a prototype riff tune, and gets creative, weaving a quote of “Raincheck”—a 1941 Ben Webster feature by Billy Strayhorn—into the end of his solo.
Gordon won the 1971 Down Beat Critics Poll for top tenor saxophonist on the strength of his four LPs with Schlitten, and signed his third and final contract with Prestige on July 14, 1971, to do two more albums. Much of the jazz fraternity was plugging in—on the heels of Bitches Brew, Miles Davis was about to record Jack Johnson; Herbie Hancock had cut Mwandishi at the end of 1970; and Weather Report had recently recorded their first album—and it probably seemed like a good deal. But hardcore jazz was Gordon’s game, and he was not about to change.
Asked by a Down Beat interviewer in 1972 to choose between the terms “jazz” or “black music” as a self-description, Gordon responded: “I prefer to call it jazz, because to me it’s not a dirty word. It’s a beautiful word—I love it. To call it black music would be untrue, because many of the harmonic structures of bebop come from European music—from Stravinsky, from Handel, from Bartók. So to say ‘black music’? I don’t know what that is, unless it would be some African drums or something.”
Prestige got three LPs out of Gordon’s two sessions at the end of June 1972. First comes Generation, supervised by veteran A&R man Ozzie Cadena. Gordon shares the front line with trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, then under contract to CTI, as he had done on his Blue Note debut, Doin’ Allright, and 1965’s Landslide. The rhythm section is pianist Cedar Walton, who had gigged with Gordon the previous November; bassist Buster Williams; and Gordon’s favorite drummer, Billy Higgins.
Though he’s a bit low in the mix, Higgins’s buoyant ride cymbal and subtle touch propels the soloists through the master take of “Milestones,” a John Lewis line for which Miles Davis took credit on his 1947 Savoy debut with Charlie Parker on tenor. Gordon again mirrors Bird’s asymmetrical phrasing and structural logic; Hubbard eschews pyrotechnics for a fat, burnished tone on a reflective solo; Walton is typically witty and incisive. On “Scared to Be Alone,” a 1968 song by Dory Previn [“When someone is around us/We don’t know what we’re seeing/We take a Polaroid picture/To find the human being”], Gordon again makes you feel the lyric message with his keening, commanding sound. Hubbard’s virtuosic solo includes clean upper-register triplet trills. Composed by Gordon for the occasion, “The Group” has an extended form and tasty bridge that propels declarative solos by Gordon and Hubbard—the latter struts into the upper register for much of his declamation, followed by a brief Walton summation. Composed by Henry Mancini for a Jack Lemmon–Lee Remick vehicle directed by Blake Edwards, “Days of Wine and Roses” is an extended ballad feature for the tenorist, who constructs his solo over Higgins’s inimitable medium bounce, before giving way for several well-conceived Walton choruses. All parties stretch out on Thelonious Monk’s “We See”—originally recorded by Monk on a May 1954 Prestige session with Frank Foster—to conclude a satisfying, no-nonsense convocation.
A week later, Gordon entered Van Gelder’s studio with a quintet of jazz virtuosos, and recorded seven tunes, several of blatantly commercial intent. His front–line partner is Thad Jones, one month Gordon’s junior, who worked in the Basie trumpet section from 1954 to 1963, and co-led the Thad Jones–Mel Lewis Orchestra from 1966 until 1978. Working with Gordon for the first time since the 1947 “Wee Dot” date is pianist Hank Jones (b.1918), who was then too busy in the New York commercial studios to get around much any more to serious jazz dates. After graduating from the Philadelphia Academy of Music the previous year, bassist Stanley Clarke had accumulated New York credits with Art Blakey, Horace Silver, Joe Henderson, and Stan Getz; with Chick Corea and Return to Forever, formed also in 1972, he’d bring the bass to the front of the band, inaugurating a successful career in electric jazz/fusion. Detroit-born drummer Louis Hayes (b.1938) hit the scene with Horace Silver in 1956, and spent much of the Sixties working with Cannonball Adderley and Oscar Peterson.
After Gordon intones the title, Clarke and Hayes lay down a relentless Afro-funk groove on “Ca’Purange,” recorded by Gene Ammons in 1962 and by Stevie Wonder in 1970. Gordon signifies on Ammons in his improvisation, substituting punchy phrases for his trademark long melodic lines. Thad Jones displays his singular harmonic concept and phrasing on an economical solo, and Hank Jones digs in as well. The leader returns to familiar ground on “Tangerine,” composed by Johnny Mercer and Victor Schertzinger for the 1942 film The Fleet’s In, and taken here as a up tempo burner. Roberta Flack won the 1972 Grammy for Song of the Year and Album of the Year with “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” and Gordon sticks close to the melody, again channeling the manly, warm mid-register voice that his fans could never get enough of. Propelled by a churchy Stax-Volt backbeat, “What It Was,” penned by Gordon, features another Ammons-centric effort by the leader and a fleet turn by Thad Jones, who manages to interpolate a fragment of “Fascinating Rhythm.” Gordon finds some changes he can dig into on two takes of “Airegin,” a Sonny Rollins line that debuted on a 1954 Miles Davis quintet session for Prestige. Laconic on the master take, Thad Jones blows a mouthful on the alternate, which also features a solo chorus by Hayes. A classic Hank Jones intro brings on Gordon’s second original of the date, “Oh! Karen O,” a medium-slow blues on which the tenorist and Thad Jones testify at length. The pianist does the same on the attractive theme of Gordon’s sprightly “August Blues,” perhaps cooked up on the spot, and offers his meatiest solo of the day, following some harmonic twists and turns from his little brother and yet another example of Gordon’s consistent ability to find new things to say on the most elemental forms.
In the ensuing week, Gordon participated in two recorded all-star jam sessions for the first Newport Jazz Festival in New York at Radio City Music Hall, before returning to Europe. Though these would be his last New York performances until 1976, American enthusiasts enjoyed numerous Gordon recordings with the Danish Steeplechase label, which signed him in the latter part of 1972. Over the next four years, he did several tours on a circuit that took him from Western Canada to his native Los Angeles. On one such L.A. engagement in July 1973, documented on the Up Front label, Gordon revisited the music he’d written for The Connection 13 years before with old friend Hampton Hawes on piano, Bob Cranshaw on bass, and ur–bop drummer and fellow expat Kenny Clarke.
A July 7th radio broadcast with that quartet at the Montreux Jazz Festival, issued contemporaneously on Prestige as Blues a la Suisse, wraps up this package. It may be the most swinging record of 1973. After perfunctorily outlining the theme on Jimmy Heath’s “Gingerbread Boy,” Gordon bridges into a long, lick-filled solo, playing all over the horn with impeccable timing and a thick, ravishing tone. Hawes is guitaristic and percussive on the Rhodes, and Clarke precisely syncopates his off-beat accents on the snare drum. The title track is another name for John Coltrane’s “Some Other Blues,” which Sjøgren cites Gordon playing on two gigs the previous November. A slick klook-a-mop figure on the hi-hat and a tasty Hawes intro escort Gordon into the theme, and without further ado, boosted by Clarke’s crisp, inventive timekeeping, he essays a joyous declamation. Hawes again morphs the Rhodes into tuned drums, and Clarke says a mouthful with a minimum of strokes. There follows a stunningly beautiful, almost plainsong reading of Irene Kitchings’s “Some Other Spring,” introduced by Billie Holiday in 1939, and an extended romp at an unwavering boptrot tempo through Sammy Fain’s Oscar-winning “Secret Love,” written for the 1953 film Calamity Jane and sung by Doris Day. The quartet ends their hour with “Tivoli,” a gentle minor waltz by Gordon with nice melodic motion within the changes. Gordon is poetic, expressive and transparent; if this concert were the only recording of his oeuvre, he would rank as one of the great voices on any instrument.
Fittingly, the 88th and final track is a rousing Dexter Gordon–Gene Ammons tenor battle, augmented by Nat and Cannonball Adderley, on a spontaneous Ammons riff titled “’Treux Bleu,” in honor of the venue. Gordon inserts “3 O’Clock in the Morning,” “Candy,” “Mona Lisa,” “Stranger in Paradise,” “Chicago,” “Salt Peanuts,” and other good old good ones; Nat Adderley blows a few strong choruses before losing his lip; Ammons rip-roars through an ascendant oration with many “Wow!” moments; and Cannonball explores the lower depths of the alto with complete control, meeting the tenors on their own terms and adding something else.
Three years later, Gordon would sign with Columbia and relocate to the Apple to embark on his efflorescent final act. Until his death in 1990, he gigged around the world on a regular basis with several top-shelf American quartets, made records with good budgets and adequate rehearsal time, and brilliantly portrayed the shambling, dissipated jazzman Dale Turner in Bertrand Tavernier’s film ́Round Midnight. “I saw Dexter in the early days of the filming and asked how he was feeling,” says producer Todd Barkan, who booked Gordon into San Francisco’s Keystone Korner on a regular basis during his pre-“homecoming” years. “He said, ‘I have been preparing for this movie all my life.’ He considered it to be his life story.”
Long before he became a movie star, Gordon brought to bandstands on a nightly basis the emotional transparency that made him so effective in the film. His music was an ongoing memoir. The Fantasy holdings give us a clear picture of how consistently he was able to access his creative muse on impromptu jam sessions, concert performances, and studio dates executed with various degrees of rehearsal. Loyal to old-school values, he continued to grow, navigating the here-and-now on his own terms.
“Nobody was more hip than Dexter, or less doctrinaire or more liberal,” says Barkan. “I think he fit perfectly into the zeitgeist of the Sixties. His warmth and graciousness made him stand out in the musical community—an especially likable and well-liked guy. He was very urbane and appreciated the finer things in life, but he had a common touch with people—he got along with a whole spectrum.”
“Dexter could charm anybody,” Jimmy Heath affirms. “His personality was very open. The ladies loved him, but everyone liked him a lot. They liked his playing, they liked the way he looked, the image he had.”
And people still like Dexter Gordon. Consider this appreciation from Joshua Redman, who won the 1991 Thelonious Monk Saxophone Competition with a version of “Second Balcony Jump”:
“The thing about Dexter that hits me more than anything else is the depth and hugeness and commanding power of his sound. Dexter makes you realize that the sound is everything. Because if you have the sound, all the ideas and vocabulary flow through it. Dexter showed me that it’s clearly not about which notes you play or how many, and it’s not about your technical prowess. It’s not necessarily about harmonic sophistication, even though he was very sophisticated harmonically. It’s about your voice. He was such a master of strong, declarative playing. And so relaxed, so behind the beat. You can hear it in his phrasing. Just taking his time. Allowing that big voice to speak at its own pace. There’s something very joyful about his personality, a subtle sense of humor that makes you smile. Those corners of your mouth start to go up as the solo progresses.
“For me as a saxophonist, trying to learn the language of jazz, and specifically the language of bebop, there was no better tenor player than Dexter Gordon to learn that from. Dexter’s improvisations lay out the language of bebop in very clear, strong, simple terms. He trimmed all the fat off of it. There’s no ornament. It’s pure substance. Pure content. It’s raw material spoken through this strong, elegant, powerful, and gentle voice.”
Even as life chipped away at Dexter Gordon’s constitution, that voice remained constant. However much he abused his body, he always sounded comfortable in his own skin. “Dexter liked the jazz world,” says Maxine Gordon. “He loved jazz musicians. He wanted to be remembered as the bebop tenor saxophonist.” When you’re done listening to this boxed set from beginning to end, you’ll agree that he was.
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[
"Count Basie"
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[
"IMDb"
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Count Basie. Soundtrack: Pearl Harbor. The famed composer ("One O'Clock Jump", "Two O'Clock Jump", "Jumpin' at the Woodside"), pianist, songwriter and bandleader began as an accompanist to vaudeville acts. He joined the Bennie Moten orchestra in Kansas City, later organizing his own orchestra and performing on radio. In 1936 he came to New York, appearing in hotels, night clubs, theatres and jazz festivals. He toured the US, and also, in...
|
en
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IMDb
|
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0059831/
|
The famed composer ("One O'Clock Jump", "Two O'Clock Jump", "Jumpin' at the Woodside"), pianist, songwriter and bandleader began as an accompanist to vaudeville acts. He joined the Bennie Moten orchestra in Kansas City, later organizing his own orchestra and performing on radio. In 1936 he came to New York, appearing in hotels, night clubs, theatres and jazz festivals. He toured the US, and also, in 1954, Europe. He was elected to the Down Beat Magazine's Hall of Fame in 1958, and has made many records. Joining ASCAP in 1943, his chief musical collaborators included Mack David, Jerry Livingston, James Rushing, Andy Gibson, Eddie Durham, and Lester Young. His songs and instrumentals also include "Good Morning Blues"; "Every Tub"; "John's Idea"; "Basie Boogie"; "Blue and Sentimental"; "Gone With the Wind"; "I Ain't Mad at You"; "Futile Frustration"; "Good Bait"; "Don't You Miss Your Baby?"; "Miss Thing" "Riff Interlude"; "Panassie Stomp: "Shorty George"; "Out the Window"; "Hollywood Jump: "Nobody Knows"; "Swinging at the Daisy Chain"; and "I Left My Baby".
|
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correct_death_00034
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FactBench
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3
| 3 |
https://www.biography.com/musicians/count-basie
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en
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Songs, Band & Facts
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[
"Last Name: Basie",
"First Name: Count",
"Birth City: Red Bank",
"Birth Month/Day: August 21",
"Birth Year: 1904",
"Death Year: 1984",
"Group: Famous Jazz Musicians",
"Industry/Interest Area: Jazz",
"Death Month/Day: April 26",
"Death City: Hollywood",
"Life Events/Experience: Music Hall of Fame",
"Group: Apollo Legends",
"Death State: Florida",
"Life Events/Experience: Grammy",
"Birth State: New Jersey",
"Astrological Sign: Leo",
"Group: Famous Harlem Residents",
"Death Month: 4",
"Death Country: United States",
"Birth Country: United States",
"Birth Month: 8"
] | null |
[] |
2014-04-02T09:22:32
|
One of jazz music's all-time greats, bandleader-pianist Count Basie was a primary shaper of the big-band sound that characterized mid-20th century popular music.
|
en
|
/_assets/design-tokens/biography/static/images/favicon.3635572.ico
|
Biography
|
https://www.biography.com/musicians/count-basie
|
(1904-1984)
Who Was Count Basie?
A pianist, Count Basie played vaudeville before eventually forming his own big band and helping to define the era of swing with hits like "One O'Clock Jump" and "Blue Skies." In 1958, Basie became the first African American male recipient of a Grammy Award. One of jazz music's all-time greats, he won many other Grammys throughout his career and worked with a plethora of artists, including Joe Williams and Ella Fitzgerald.
Early Life
Basie was born William James Basie (with some sources listing his middle name as "Allen") on August 21, 1904, in Red Bank, New Jersey. His father Harvey was a mellophonist and his mother Lillian was a pianist who gave her son his first lessons. After moving to New York, he was further influenced by James P. Johnson and Fats Waller, with Waller teaching Basie organ-playing techniques.
Barons of Rhythm
Basie played the vaudevillian circuit for a time until he got stuck in Kansas City, Missouri in the mid-1920s after his performance group disbanded. He went on to join Walter Page's Blue Devils in 1928, which he would see as a pivotal moment in his career, being introduced to the big-band sound for the first time.
He later worked for a few years with a band led by Bennie Moten, who died in 1935. Basie then formed the Barons of Rhythm with some of his bandmates from Moten's group, including saxophonist Lester Young. With vocals by Jimmy Rushing, the band set up shop to perform at Kansas City's Reno Club.
Becomes 'Count'
During a radio broadcast of the band's performance, the announcer wanted to give Basie's name some pizazz, keeping in mind the existence of other bandleaders like Duke Ellington and Earl Hines. So he called the pianist "Count," with Basie not realizing just how much the name would catch on as a form of recognition and respect in the music world.
Hits That Swing
Producer John Hammond heard the band's sound and helped secure further bookings. After some challenges, the Count Basie Orchestra had a slew of hits that helped to define the big-band sound of the 1930s and '40s. Some of their notable songs included "One O'Clock Jump"—the orchestra's signature tune which Basie composed himself — and "Jumpin' at the Woodside."
With the group becoming highly distinguished for its soloists, rhythm section and style of swing, Basie himself was noted for his understated yet captivating style of piano playing and precise, impeccable musical leadership. He was also helming one of the biggest, most renowned African American jazz groups of the day.
Band's Second Incarnation
Due to changing fortunes and an altered musical landscape, Basie was forced to scale down the size of his orchestra at the start of the 1950s, but he soon made a comeback and returned to his big-band structure in 1952, recording new hits with vocalist Joe Williams and becoming an international figure. Another milestone came with the 1956 album April in Paris, whose title track contained psyche-you-out endings that became a new band signature.
Collaborations, Awards and Death
During the 1960s and '70s, Basie recorded with luminaries like Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Jackie Wilson, Dizzy Gillespie and Oscar Peterson. Basie ultimately earned nine Grammy Awards over the course of his career, but he made history when he won his first, in 1958, as the first African American man to receive a Grammy. A few of his songs were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame as well, including "April in Paris" and "Everyday I Have the Blues."
Basie suffered from health issues in his later years, and died from cancer in Hollywood, Florida, on April 26, 1984. He left the world an almost unparalleled legacy of musical greatness, having recorded or been affiliated with dozens upon dozens of albums during his lifetime.
QUICK FACTS
Name: Count Basie
Birth Year: 1904
Birth date: August 21, 1904
Birth State: New Jersey
Birth City: Red Bank
Birth Country: United States
Gender: Male
Best Known For: One of jazz music's all-time greats, bandleader-pianist Count Basie was a primary shaper of the big-band sound that characterized mid-20th century popular music.
Industries
Jazz
Astrological Sign: Leo
Interesting Facts
In 1958, Count Basie became the first African-American male recipient of a Grammy Award.
Death Year: 1984
Death date: April 26, 1984
Death State: Florida
Death City: Hollywood
Death Country: United States
Fact Check
We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right,contact us!
CITATION INFORMATION
Article Title: Count Basie Biography
Author: Biography.com Editors
Website Name: The Biography.com website
Url: https://www.biography.com/musicians/count-basie
Access Date:
Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
Last Updated: April 14, 2021
Original Published Date: April 2, 2014
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https://www.facebook.com/KennedyCenter/videos/us-navy-band-commodores/661177751514200/
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Today from our Millennium Stage archives: From John Coltrane and Clark Terry to Artie Shaw, the United States Navy Band Commodores, the Navy’s premier...
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[
""
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Today from our Millennium Stage archives: From John Coltrane and Clark Terry to Artie Shaw, the United States Navy Band Commodores, the Navy’s premier...
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https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/yT/r/aGT3gskzWBf.ico
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https://www.facebook.com/KennedyCenter/videos/us-navy-band-commodores/661177751514200/
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https://health.wusf.usf.edu/2023-06-05/reuben-wilson-organist-who-helped-usher-in-soul-jazz-has-died-at-88
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en
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Reuben Wilson, organist who helped usher in soul jazz, has died at 88
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2023-06-05T00:00:00
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The funk-ridden grooves of Wilson's music could feel larger than life, particularly those he created for Blue Note Records in the late 1960s and early '70s.
|
en
|
Health News Florida
|
https://health.wusf.usf.edu/2023-06-05/reuben-wilson-organist-who-helped-usher-in-soul-jazz-has-died-at-88
|
Few are the folks who could cast a literal shadow over the iconic Hammond B-3 organ, nicknamed "the Beast" by many of the jazz musicians who have helmed the hefty 425-pound instrument. But Reuben Wilson — who died on May 26 at the age of 88 — was one such organist. When he perched his athletic 6-foot-5-inch inch frame behind the dual-manual keyboard, quick hands and size 15 feet sparring with the drawbars, pedals and electromagnetic tonewheels housed in a wooden box that could be mistaken for living room furniture — it didn't seem so big after all. The funk-ridden grooves of his music could feel larger than life, however, particularly those he created for Blue Note Records in the late 1960s and early '70s. These landmark LPs provided his peers with "a groovy situation" (as one album was titled), and would inspire acid jazz DJs and hip-hop luminaries worldwide a generation later.
Wilson's death was confirmed by his son, Reuben Reuel Wilson. After battling dementia the last several years, and recently being diagnosed with advanced lung cancer, he died in Harlem.
"Reuben Wilson helped usher in what we now call Soul Jazz," says Pete Fallico, founder of the Jazz Organ Fellowship Hall of Fame, an organization dedicated to honoring the history of jazz organ, and into which Wilson was inducted in 2013. "And in the '90s, his music was revitalized when English DJs like Gilles Peterson started playing all these old funky tunes he had recorded decades earlier."
Born April 9, 1935, in the tiny town of Mounds, Okla., Reuben Lincoln Wilson was the second youngest of 13 siblings. When Reuben was 5, Dust Bowl conditions forced the family westward to Pasadena, Calif., where his father Amos worked odd jobs and his mother Elizabeth was a domestic worker. As a teen, Wilson tinkered on the home piano. He loved the boogie-woogie sounds the delivery guys would stick around to play after dropping off ice for the family's ice box, and was further piqued after a visit to the house by rising pianist Sonny Clark.
But music was second-string to his love for hitting people. He earned All-City football honors playing defensive end, and gravitated to the ring as a professional heavyweight boxer, becoming a sparring partner of future champ, Floyd Patterson. "Kirk Douglas was my sponsor," Wilson told me in a 2004 interview. "I knocked a lot of guys out." His relationship with the Hollywood star landed him the role of the knocked out boxer in Carmen Jones, the 1954 film featuring Harry Belafonte and Dorothy Dandridge. "After I moved to New York years later," Wilson recounted, "every time I ran into Harry he'd put his dukes up and say, 'Alright, man, let's go!'"
In his early 20s, a stint playing defensive back for the semi-pro Orange County Rhinos convinced Wilson it was time to permanently swap cleats for keyboards. Moonlighting piano gigs around LA eventually led him to the burgeoning sound of the Hammond organ gaining traction in predominantly African American neighborhoods, and being propelled by the likes of Bill Doggett, Jimmy Smith and Richard "Groove" Holmes, the latter taking the time to show Wilson the instrument's nuances during jam sessions. Wilson became so obsessed with the hard-driving, "East Coast sound" of his mentor, he moved to New York City on Christmas, 1966.
Late night field study in Harlem clubs such as the Club Baron, Count Basie's, and Well's Chicken and Waffles, led to a steady organ gig with noted saxophonist, Willis "Gator" Jackson, introducing him to the jazz scene's heavy hitters, and piquing the ears of Blue Note Records' Francis Wolff. A subsequent five-album deal would change Wilson's life. He had noticed during jazz set intermissions, the clubs' jukeboxes would stir the crowd with the likes of James Brown and Gladys Knight — not jazz — and wanted to incorporate that into his own sound. "I wanted a different kind of approach," Wilson recalled to me. "We played jazz, but we had the drummer play funk. And it worked."
1969's Love Bug unabashedly illustrated this beat-first philosophy on a mix of originals and covers, particularly on the opening tune, "Hot Rod," named for Wilson's son Roderick. Drummer Idris Muhammad's funk undeniably worked, as did the guitar of Grant Green, trumpeter Lee Morgan and tenor saxophonist George Coleman. This groove-centric approach permeated the rest of his efforts for Blue Note, notably then again for the aptly named Groove Merchant Records, and culminated with 1975's funk masterwork, Got to Get Your Own, for the (soon-to-be bankrupt) Cadet label. Anchored by legendary drummer Bernard Purdie, and lavished with two dozen of NYC's top session musicians and singers, Wilson thought the LP's burning title track would be his signature dancefloor moment. "I thought I was gonna hit it big like Stevie Wonder," Wilson told me.
Instead, he was left to wonder about retirement, as Hammond organ gigs vanished, synthesizers became tech royalty, DJs dealt disco hits, and rappers grabbed the mic into the 1980s and '90s. But in hip-hop, the art of the sample has a way of introducing what's coming, while simultaneously taking one down memory lane. Wilson provided a perfect example of this process when a passage from his 1971 track "We're in Love" gave producer DJ Premier the core sample for "Memory Lane (Sittin' In Da Park)," a track off Nas' 1994 debut, Illmatic. Wilson was also one of several recruits on rapper Guru's Jazzmatazz sessions and tours, and when jazz record labels re-issued their back catalogs for a new generation hungry for "old" breakbeats, his athletic mastery of the groove floated to the top.
As a leader, Wilson performed well into his 70s, and recorded at least 17 full-length albums, their artwork showcasing his infectious smile. "Reuben was exceptional and had everything together," says his longtime collaborator Bernard Purdie in a phone interview. "I never saw him play a regular piano, but he played the hell out of the organ."
He is predeceased by his first wife, singer Faye Emma Smith Wilson; survived by their son, musician Roderick Wilson; by his second wife, Daphne and their son, musician Reuben Wilson.
"The organ will tell on you quicker than any instrument I know," Wilson told me once. "When you sit down to play that bad boy, however you feel — that's exactly the way it's gonna come out."
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
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https://kids.britannica.com/students/article/Count-Basie/317082
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Count Basie
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(1904–84). American jazz pianist, composer, and bandleader Count Basie was one of the outstanding organizers of big bands in jazz history. He transformed big-band jazz by the…
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Britannica Kids
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https://kids.britannica.com/students/article/Count-Basie/317082
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(1904–84). American jazz pianist, composer, and bandleader Count Basie was one of the outstanding organizers of big bands in jazz history. He transformed big-band jazz by the simplicity of his arrangements and secured his place in history with such classic numbers as “One O’Clock Jump” and “Basie Boogie.”
William Basie was born on August 21, 1904, in Red Bank, New Jersey. He studied music with his mother and was later influenced by the Harlem pianists James P. Johnson and Fats Waller, receiving informal training on the organ from Waller. He began his professional career as an accompanist on the vaudeville circuit. Basie eventually settled in Kansas City, Missouri, and in 1935 assumed the leadership of a nine-piece band, composed of former members of the Walter Page and Bennie Moten orchestras. One night, while the band was broadcasting on a short-wave radio station in Kansas City, the announcer dubbed him “Count” Basie to compete with such other bandleaders as Duke Ellington. The jazz critic John Hammond heard the broadcasts in New York, New York, and promptly launched the band on its career in Chicago, Illinois. Although rooted in the riff style of the 1930s swing-era bands, the Basie band included soloists who reflected the styles of their own periods. In this way the band was a springboard for such artists as tenor saxophonist Lester Young, trumpeter Buck Clayton, and trumpeter-composer Thad Jones. Many musicians considered Basie’s to be the major big band in jazz history, a model for ensemble rhythmic conception and tonal balance.
During the late 1930s the accompanying unit for the band (pianist Basie, rhythm guitarist Freddie Green, bassist Walter Page, and drummer Jo Jones) was unique in its lightness, precision, and relaxation, becoming the precursor for modern jazz accompanying styles. Basie’s syncopated and spare but exquisitely timed chording, commonly termed comping, became the model for what was expected from combo pianists in their improvised accompaniments for the next 30 years of jazz. Despite its influence on modern piano styles, Basie’s solo technique had roots in the pre-swing-era style of Fats Waller, and Basie continued to display such a “stride style” in performances through the 1970s.
Basie’s autobiography, Good Morning Blues, written with Albert Murray, was published in 1985, one year after his death. Count Basie died on April 26, 1984, in Hollywood, Florida, leaving a grand legacy of song that would continue to influence jazz musicians for generations to come.
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https://louisarmstrongandallthatjazz.wordpress.com/2014/11/14/count-basie/
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Louis Armstrong's Jazzamatazz
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Count Basie from the 1955 film Rhythm and Blues Revue Background information Birth name William James Basie Born (1904-08-21)August 21, 1904 Red Bank, New Jersey, United States Died April 26, 1984(1984-04-26) (aged 79) Hollywood, Florida, United States Genres Jazz, Swing, big band, piano blues Occupation(s) Musician, bandleader, composer Instruments Piano, organ…
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Louis Armstrong's Jazzamatazz
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William James “Count” Basie (August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984)[1] was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. His mother taught him to play the piano and he started performing in his teens. Dropping out of school, he learned to operate lights for vaudeville and to improvise accompaniment for silent films at a local movie theater in his home town of Red Bank, New Jersey. By 16 he increasingly played jazz piano at parties, resorts and other venues. In 1924 he went to Harlem, where his performing career expanded; he toured with groups to the major jazz cities of Chicago, St. Louis and Kansas City. In 1929 he joined Bennie Moten‘s band in Kansas City, and played with them until Moten’s death in 1935.
That year Basie formed his own jazz orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and their first recording. He led the group for almost 50 years, creating innovations like the use of two “split” tenor saxophones, emphasizing the rhythm section, riffing with a big band, using arrangers to broaden their sound, and others. Many musicians came to prominence under his direction, including the tenor saxophonists Lester Young and Herschel Evans, the guitarist Freddie Green, trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry “Sweets” Edison and singers Jimmy Rushing and Joe Williams. Basie’s theme songs were “One O’Clock Jump“, developed in 1935 in the early days of his band, and later “April in Paris“.
Biography
Early life and education
William Basie was born to Harvey Lee and Lillian Basie in Red Bank, New Jersey.[2][3] His father worked as a coachman and caretaker for a wealthy judge. After automobiles replaced horses, his father became a groundskeeper and handyman for several wealthy families in the area.[4] Both of his parents had some type of musical background. His father played the mellophone, and his mother played the piano; in fact, she gave Basie his first piano lessons. She took in laundry and baked cakes for sale for a living. She paid 25 cents a lesson for piano instruction for him.[5][6]
Not much of a student in school, Basie dreamed of a traveling life, inspired by touring carnivals which came to town. He finished junior high school[7] but spent much of his time at the Palace Theater in Red Bank, where doing occasional chores gained him free admission to performances. He quickly learned to improvise music appropriate to the acts and the silent movies.[8]
Though a natural at the piano, Basie preferred drums. Discouraged by the obvious talents of Sonny Greer, who also lived in Red Bank and became Duke Ellington‘s drummer in 1919, Basie at age 15 switched to piano exclusively.[5] Greer and Basie played together in venues until Greer set out on his professional career. By then, Basie was playing with pick-up groups for dances, resorts, and amateur shows, including Harry Richardson’s “Kings of Syncopation”.[9] When not playing a gig, he hung out at the local pool hall with other musicians, where he picked up on upcoming play dates and gossip. He got some jobs in Asbury Park at the Jersey Shore, and played at the Hong Kong Inn until a better player took his place.[10]
Early career
Around 1920, Basie went to Harlem, a hotbed of jazz, where he lived down the block from the Alhambra Theater. Early after his arrival, he bumped into Sonny Greer, who was by then the drummer for the Washingtonians, Duke Ellington‘s early band.[11] Soon, Basie met many of the Harlem musicians who were “making the scene,” including Willie “the Lion” Smith and James P. Johnson.
Basie toured in several acts between 1925 and 1927, including Katie Krippen and Her Kiddies as part of the Hippity Hop show; on the Keith, the Columbia Burlesque, and the Theater Owners Bookers Association (T.O.B.A.) vaudeville circuits; and as a soloist and accompanist to blues singers Katie Krippen and Gonzelle White.[12][13] His touring took him to Kansas City, St. Louis, New Orleans, and Chicago. Throughout his tours, Basie met many jazz musicians, including Louis Armstrong.[14] Before he was 20 years old, he toured extensively on the Keith and TOBA vaudeville circuits as a solo pianist, accompanist, and music director for blues singers, dancers, and comedians. This provided an early training that was to prove significant in his later career.[15]
Back in Harlem in 1925, Basie gained his first steady job at Leroy’s, a place known for its piano players and its “cutting contests.” The place catered to “uptown celebrities,” and typically the band winged every number without sheet music using “head arrangements.”[16] He met Fats Waller, who was playing organ at the Lincoln Theater accompanying silent movies, and Waller taught him how to play that instrument. (Basie later played organ at the Eblon Theater in Kansas City).[1] As he did with Duke Ellington, Willie “the Lion” Smith helped Basie out during the lean times by arranging gigs at “house-rent parties,” introducing him to other leading musicians, and teaching him some piano technique.[17]
In 1928 Basie was in Tulsa and heard Walter Page and his Famous Blue Devils, one of the first big bands, which featured Jimmy Rushing on vocals.[18] A few months later, he was invited to join the band, which played mostly in Texas and Oklahoma. It was at this time that he began to be known as “Count” Basie (see Jazz royalty).[19]
Kansas City years
The following year, in 1929 Basie became the pianist with the Bennie Moten band based in Kansas City, inspired by Moten’s ambition to raise his band to the level of Duke Ellington’s or Fletcher Henderson‘s.[20] Where the Blue Devils were “snappier” and more “bluesy,” the Moten band was classier and more respected, and played in the “Kansas City stomp” style.[21] In addition to playing piano, Basie was co-arranger with Eddie Durham, who notated the music.[22] Their “Moten Swing“, which Basie claimed credit for,[23] was widely acclaimed and was an invaluable contribution to the development of swing music, and at one performance at the Pearl Theatre in Philadelphia in December 1932, the theatre opened its door to allow anybody in to hear the band perform.[24] During a stay in Chicago, Basie recorded with the band. He occasionally played four-hand piano and dual pianos with Moten, who also conducted.[25] The band improved with several personnel changes, including the addition of tenor saxophonist Ben Webster.
When the band voted Moten out, Basie took over for several months, calling the group “Count Basie and his Cherry Blossoms.” When his own band folded, he rejoined Moten with a newly re-organized band.[26] When Moten died in 1935 after a surgical procedure, the band unsuccessfully tried to stay together but couldn’t make a go of it.
Basie formed a new band that year, which included many Moten alumni, with the important addition of tenor player Lester Young. They played at the Reno Club and sometimes were broadcast on local radio. Late one night with time to fill, the band started improvising. Basie liked the results and named the piece “One O’Clock Jump.”[27] According to Basie, “we hit it with the rhythm section and went into the riffs, and the riffs just stuck. We set the thing up front in D-flat, and then we just went on playing in F.” It became his signature tune.[28]
John Hammond and first recordings
At the end of 1936, Basie and his band, now billed as “Count Basie and His Barons of Rhythm,” moved from Kansas City to Chicago, where they honed their repertoire at a long engagement at the Grand Terrace Ballroom.[29] Right from the start, Basie’s band was noted for its rhythm section. Another Basie innovation was the use of two tenor saxophone players; at the time, most bands had just one. When Young complained of Herschel Evans‘ vibrato, Basie placed them on either side of the alto players, and soon had the tenor players engaged in “duels”. Many other bands later adapted the split tenor arrangement.[30]
In that city in October 1936, the band had a recording session which the producer John Hammond later described as “the only perfect, completely perfect recording session I’ve ever had anything to do with”.[31] Hammond had heard Basie’s band over short-wave radio and went to Kansas City to check them out.[32] He invited them to record, in performances which were Lester Young’s earliest recordings. Those four sides were released under the band name of Jones-Smith Incorporated; the sides were “Shoe Shine Boy”, “Evening”, “Boogie Woogie”, and “Oh, Lady Be Good”. Basie had already signed with Decca Records, but did not have his first recording session with them until January 1937.[33]
By then, Basie’s sound was characterized by a “jumping” beat and the contrapuntal accents of his own piano. His personnel around 1937 included: Lester Young and Herschel Evans (tenor sax), Freddie Green (guitar), Jo Jones (drums), Walter Page (bass), Earle Warren (alto sax), Buck Clayton and Harry Edison (trumpet), Benny Morton and Dickie Wells (trombone).[34] Lester Young, known as “Prez” by the band, came up with nicknames for all the other band members. He called Basie “Holy Man”, “Holy Main”, and just plain “Holy”.[35]
Basie favored blues, and he would showcase some of the most notable blues singers of the era after he went to New York: Billie Holiday, Jimmy Rushing, Big Joe Turner, Helen Humes, and Joe Williams. He also hired arrangers who knew how to maximize the band’s abilities, such as Eddie Durham and Jimmy Mundy.
New York City and the swing years
When Basie took his orchestra to New York in 1937, they made the Woodside Hotel in Queens their base (they often rehearsed in its basement). Soon, they were booked at the Roseland Ballroom for the Christmas show. Basie recalled a review, which said something like, “We caught the great Count Basie band which is supposed to be so hot he was going to come in here and set the Roseland on fire. Well, the Roseland is still standing”.[36] Compared to the reigning band of Fletcher Henderson, Basie’s band lacked polish and presentation.[37]
The producer John Hammond continued to advise and encourage the band, and they soon came up with some adjustments, including softer playing, more solos, and more standards. They paced themselves to save their hottest numbers for later in the show, to give the audience a chance to warm up.[38] His first official recordings for Decca followed, under contract to agent MCA, including “Pennies from Heaven” and “Honeysuckle Rose“.[39]
Hammond introduced Basie to Billie Holiday, whom he invited to sing with the band. (Holiday didn’t record with Basie, as she had her own record contract and preferred working with small combos).[40] The band’s first appearance at the Apollo Theater followed, with the vocalists Holiday and Jimmy Rushing getting the most attention.[41] Durham returned to help with arranging and composing, but for the most part, the orchestra worked out its numbers in rehearsal, with Basie guiding the proceedings. There were often no musical notations made. Once the musicians found what they liked, they usually were able to repeat it using their “head arrangements” and collective memory.[42]
Next, Basie played at the Savoy, which was noted more for lindyhopping, while the Roseland was a place for fox-trots and congas.[43] In early 1938, the Savoy was the meeting ground for a “battle of the bands” with Chick Webb‘s group. Basie had Holiday, and Webb countered with the singer Ella Fitzgerald. As Metronome magazine proclaimed, “Basie’s Brilliant Band Conquers Chick’s”; the article described the evening:
“Throughout the fight, which never let down in its intensity during the whole fray, Chick took the aggressive, with the Count playing along easily and, on the whole, more musically scientifically. Undismayed by Chick’s forceful drum beating, which sent the audience into shouts of encouragement and appreciation and casual beads of perspiration to drop from Chick’s brow onto the brass cymbals, the Count maintained an attitude of poise and self-assurance. He constantly parried Chick’s thundering haymakers with tantalizing runs and arpeggios which teased more and more force from his adversary”.[44]
The publicity over the big band battle, before and after, gave the Basie band a boost and wider recognition. Soon after, Benny Goodman recorded their signature “One O’Clock Jump” with his band.[45]
A few months later, Holiday left for Artie Shaw‘s band. Hammond introduced Helen Humes, whom Basie hired; she stayed with Basie for four years.[46] When Eddie Durham left for Glenn Miller‘s orchestra, he was replaced by Dicky Wells. Basie’s 14-man band began playing at the Famous Door, a mid-town nightspot with a CBS network feed and air conditioning. Their fame took a huge leap.[47] Adding to their play book, Basie received arrangements from Jimmy Mundy (who had also worked with Benny Goodman and Earl Hines), particularly for “Cherokee”, “Easy Does It”, and “Super Chief”.[48] In 1939, Basie and his band made a major cross-country tour, including their first West Coast dates. A few months later, Basie quit MCA and signed with the William Morris Agency, who got them better fees.[49]
On 19 February 1940, Count Basie and his Orchestra opened a four-week engagement at Southland in Boston, and they broadcast over the radio on 20 February.[50] On the West Coast, in 1942 the band did a spot in Reveille With Beverly, a musical film starring Ann Miller, and a “Command Performance” for Armed Forces Radio, with Hollywood stars Clark Gable, Bette Davis, Carmen Miranda, Jerry Colonna, and the singer Dinah Shore.[51] Other minor movie spots followed, including Choo Choo Swing, Crazy House, Top Man, Stage Door Canteen, and Hit Parade of 1943.[52] They also continued to record for OKeh Records and Columbia Records.[53] The war years caused a lot of members turn over, and the band worked many play dates with lower pay. Dance hall bookings were down sharply as swing began to fade, the effects of the musicians’ strikes of 1942–44 and 1948 began to be felt, and the public’s taste grew for singers.
Basie occasionally lost some key soloists. However,throughout the 1940s, Basie maintained a big band that possessed an infectious rhythmic beat, an enthusiastic team spirit, and a long list of inspired and talented jazz soloists.[54]
Post-war and later years
The big band era appeared to have ended after the war, and Basie disbanded the group. For a while, he performed in combos, sometimes stretched to an orchestra. In 1950, he headlined the Universal-International short film “Sugar Chile” Robinson, Billie Holiday, Count Basie and His Sextet. He reformed his group as a 16-piece orchestra in 1952. Basie credits Billy Eckstine, a top male vocalist of the time, for prompting his return to Big Band. He said that Norman Granz got them into the Birdland club and promoted the new band through recordings on the Mercury, Clef, and Verve labels.[55] The jukebox era had begun, and Basie shared the exposure along with early rock’n’roll and rhythm and blues artists. Basie’s new band was more of an ensemble group, with fewer solo turns, and relying less on “head” and more on written arrangements.
Basie added touches of bebop “so long as it made sense”, and he required that “it all had to have feeling”. Basie’s band was sharing Birdland with such bebop greats as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Miles Davis. Behind the occasional bebop solos, he always kept his strict rhythmic pulse, “so it doesn’t matter what they do up front; the audience gets the beat”.[56] Basie also added flute to some numbers, a novelty at the time that became widely copied.[57] Soon, his band was touring and recording again. The new band included: Paul Campbell, Tommy Turrentine, Johnny Letman, Idrees Sulieman, and Joe Newman (trumpet); Jimmy Wilkins, Benny Powell, Matthew Gee (trombone); Paul Quinichette and Floyd “Candy” Johnson (tenor sax); Marshall Royal and Ernie Wilkins (alto sax); and Charlie Fowlkes (baritone sax).[58] Down Beat magazine reported, “(Basie) has managed to assemble an ensemble that can thrill both the listener who remembers 1938 and the youngster who has never before heard a big band like this.”[59]
In 1958, the band made its first European tour. Jazz was especially appreciated in France, The Netherlands, and Germany in the 1950s; these countries were the stomping grounds for many expatriate American jazz stars who were either resurrecting their careers or sitting out the years of racial divide in the United States. Neal Hefti began to provide arrangements, notably “Lil Darlin’“. By the mid-1950s, Basie’s band had become one of the preeminent backing big bands for some of the most prominent jazz vocalists of the time. They also toured with the “Birdland Stars of 1955”, whose lineup included Sarah Vaughan, Erroll Garner, Lester Young, George Shearing, and Stan Getz.[60]
In 1957, Basie released the live album Count Basie at Newport. “April in Paris” (arrangement by Wild Bill Davis) was a best-selling instrumental and the title song for the hit album.[61] The Basie band made two tours in the British Isles and on the second, they put on a command performance for Queen Elizabeth II, along with Judy Garland, Vera Lynn, and Mario Lanza.[62] He was a guest on ABC‘s The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, a venue also opened to several other black entertainers. In 1959, Basie’s band recorded a “greatest hits” double album The Count Basie Story (Frank Foster, arranger) and “Basie and Eckstine, Inc.”: album featuring Billy Eckstine, Quincy Jones (as arranger) and the Count Basie Orchestra. It was released by Roulette Records, then later reissued by Capitol Records.
Later that year, Basie appeared on a television special with Fred Astaire, featuring a dance solo to “Sweet Georgia Brown“, followed in January 1960 by Basie performing at one of the five John F. Kennedy Inaugural Balls.[63] That summer, Basie and Duke Ellington combined forces for the recording First Time! The Count Meets the Duke, each providing four numbers from their play books.[64]
Count Basie (left) in concert (Cologne 1975)
During the balance of the 1960s, the band kept busy with tours, recordings, television appearances, festivals, Las Vegas shows, and travel abroad, including cruises. Some time around 1964, Basie adopted his trademark yachting cap.[65]
Through steady changes in personnel, Basie led the band into the 1970s. Basie made a few more movie appearances, such as the Jerry Lewis film Cinderfella (1960) and the Mel Brooks movie Blazing Saddles (1974), playing a revised arrangement of “April in Paris”.
Marriage and family
Basie was a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity. On 21 July 1930, Basie married Vivian Lee Winn, in Kansas City, Jackson County, Missouri. They were divorced sometime before 1935. Sometime in or before 1935, the now single Basie returned to New York City, renting a house at 111 138th Street, Manhattan, as evidenced by the 1940 census. He married Catherine Morgan on 13 July 1950 in the King County courthouse in Seattle, Washington. In 1942 [reference?], they moved to Queens. On April 11, 1983, Catherine Basie died of a heart attack at the couple’s home in Freeport, Grand Bahama Island. She was 67 years old.[66]
Basie died of pancreatic cancer in Hollywood, Florida on April 26, 1984 at the age of 79.[1]
Count Basie and his Orchestra
The musicians associated with Count Basie over the years included the following:
c.1937: Joe Keyes, Buck Clayton, Carl Smith, George Hunt, Dan Minor, Caughey Roberts, Herschel Evans, Lester Young, Jack Washington, Claude Williams, Walter Page, Jo Jones.
c.1939: Ed Lewis, Buck Clayton, Shad Collins, Harry Edison, Earle Warren, Buddy Tate, Benny Morton, Dicky Wells, Freddie Green.
1940: Al Killian, Vic Dickenson.
1943: Joe Newman, Snooky Young, Eli Robinson, Robert Scott, Jimmy Powell, Rudy Rutherford, Rodney Richardson.
The singers
Basie hitched his star to some of the most famous vocalists of the 1950s and 1960s, which helped keep the Big Band sound alive and added greatly to his recording catalog. Jimmy Rushing sang with Basie in the late 1930s. Joe Williams toured with the band and was featured on the 1957 album One O’Clock Jump, and 1956’s Count Basie Swings, Joe Williams Sings, with “Every Day (I Have the Blues)” becoming a huge hit. With Billy Eckstine on the album Basie-Eckstine Inc., in 1959. Ella Fitzgerald made some memorable recordings with Basie, including the 1963 album Ella and Basie!. With the ‘New Testament’ Basie band in full swing, and arrangements written by a youthful Quincy Jones, this album proved a swinging respite from her Songbook recordings and constant touring she did during this period. She even toured with the Basie Orchestra in the mid-1970s, and Fitzgerald and Basie also met on the 1979 albums A Classy Pair, Digital III at Montreux, and A Perfect Match, the last two also recorded live at Montreux. In addition to Quincy Jones, Basie was using arrangers such as Benny Carter (Kansas City Suite), Neal Hefti (The Atomic Mr Basie), and Sammy Nestico (Basie-Straight Ahead).
Frank Sinatra recorded for the first time with Basie on 1962’s Sinatra-Basie and for a second studio album on 1964’s It Might as Well Be Swing, which was arranged by Quincy Jones. Jones also arranged and conducted 1966’s live Sinatra at the Sands which featured Sinatra with Count Basie and his orchestra at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas. In May 1970, Sinatra performed in London’s Royal Festival Hall with the Basie orchestra, in a charity benefit for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Sinatra later said of this concert “I have a funny feeling that those two nights could have been my finest hour, really. It went so well; it was so thrilling and exciting”.[67]
Basie also recorded with Tony Bennett in the early 1960s—their albums together included the live recording at Las Vegas and Strike Up the Band, a studio album. Basie also toured with Bennett, including a date at Carnegie Hall. Other notable recordings were with Sammy Davis, Jr., Bing Crosby, and Sarah Vaughan. One of Basie’s biggest regrets was never recording with Louis Armstrong, though they shared the same bill several times.[68] In 1968 Basie and his Band recorded an album with Jackie Wilson entitled “Manufacturers of Soul”.[69][70]
Legacy and honors
Count Basie introduced several generations of listeners to the Big Band sound and left an influential catalog. Basie is remembered by many who worked for him as being considerate of musicians and their opinions, modest, relaxed, fun-loving, dryly witty, and always enthusiastic about his music.[71] In his autobiography, he wrote, “I think the band can really swing when it swings easy, when it can just play along like you are cutting butter.”[72]
In Red Bank, New Jersey, the Count Basie Theatre, a property on Monmouth Street redeveloped for live performances, and Count Basie Field were named in his honor.
Mechanic Street, where he grew up with his family, has the honorary title of Count Basie Way.
In 2009, Edgecombe Avenue and 160th Street in Washington Heights, Manhattan, were renamed as Paul Robeson Boulevard and Count Basie Place. The corner is the location of 555 Edgecombe Avenue, also known as the Paul Robeson Home, a National Historic Landmark where Count Basie had also lived.
In October 2013, version 3.7 of WordPress was code-named Count Basie.[73]
Representation in other media
Jerry Lewis used “Blues in Hoss’ Flat” from Basie’s Chairman of the Board album, as the basis for his own “Chairman of the Board” routine in the movie The Errand Boy.
“Blues in Hoss’ Flat,” composed by Basie band member Frank Foster, was used by the radio DJ Al “Jazzbeaux” Collins as his theme song in San Francisco and New York.
In Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), Brenda Fricker‘s “Pigeon Lady” character claims to have heard Basie in Carnegie Hall.
Drummer Neil Peart of the Canadian rock band Rush recorded a version of “One O’Clock Jump” with the Buddy Rich Big Band, and has used it at the end of his drum solos on the 2002 Vapor Trails Tour and Rush’s 30th Anniversary Tour.
Discography
The majority of Basie’s recordings were made with his big band, see Count Basie Orchestra Discography.
From 1929–1932 Basie was part of Bennie Moten‘s Kansas City Orchestra:
Bennie Moten’s Kansas City Orchestra (1929–1932): Basie Beginnings (1929–1932, RCA/Bluebird Records)
Basie also made several small group recordings without his band:
Count Basie Sextet (1954, Clef)
Atomic Swing (1958, Roulette Jazz)
Count Basie and the Kansas City 7 (1962, Impulse!)
Basie Swingin’ Voices Singin’ (1966, EMI)
Loose Walk (with Roy Eldridge) (1972, Pablo)
Basie Jam (1973, Pablo)
The Bosses (with Big Joe Turner) (1973)
For the First Time (1974, Pablo)
Satch and Josh (with Oscar Peterson)
Basie & Zoot (with Zoot Sims) (1975, Pablo)
For the Second Time (1975, Pablo)
Basie Jam 2 (1976, Pablo)
Basie Jam 3 (1976, Pablo)
Kansas City 5 (1977, Pablo)
The Gifted Ones (with Dizzy Gillespie) (1977, Pablo)
Montreux ’77 (Live) (1977 Pablo)
Basie Jam: Montreux ’77 (Live) (1977, Pablo)
Satch and Josh…Again (with Oscar Peterson) (1977, Pablo)
Night Rider (with Oscar Peterson) (1978, Pablo)
Count Basie Meets Oscar Peterson – The Timekeepers (with Oscar Peterson) (1978, Pablo)
Yessir, That’s My Baby (with Oscar Peterson) (1978, Pablo)
Kansas City 8: Get Together (1979, Pablo)
Kansas City 7 (1980, Pablo)
On The Road (1980, Pablo Today, Red Vinyl)
Kansas City 6 (1981, Pablo)
Mostly Blues…and Some Others (1983, Pablo)
20 Golden Pieces of Count Basie (1993, Bulldog)
Jazz & blues (1995, Editions Atlas)
Count Basie [K-Tel] (1996, K-Tel)
Count Basie’s Got Rhythm (1998, Emporio; 2001, MCI)
Jumpin’ (2000, Columbia River Entertainment Group)
The Memorial Album (2012, AAO Music)
Filmography
Hit Parade of 1943 (1943) – as himself
Sugar Chile Robinson, Billie Holiday, Count Basie and His Sextet (1950) – as himself
Cinderfella (1960) – as himself
Blazing Saddles (1974) – as himself with his orchestra
Last of the Blue Devils (1979) – interview and concert by the orchestra in documentary on Kansas City music
Awards
Grammy Awards
Count Basie Grammy Award history[74] Year Category Title Genre Results 1982 Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Big Band Warm Breeze Jazz Winner 1984 Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Big Band 88 Basie Street Jazz Winner 1980 Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Big Band On The Road Jazz Winner 1977 Best Jazz Performance by a Big Band Prime Time Jazz Winner 1976 Best Jazz Performance by a Soloist (Instrumental) Basie And Zoot Jazz Winner 1963 Best Performance by an Orchestra – For Dancing This Time By Basie! Hits of the 50’s And 60’s Pop Winner 1960 Best Performance by a Band For Dancing Dance With Basie Pop Winner 1958 Best Performance by a Dance Band Basie Pop Winner 1958 Best Jazz Performance, Group Basie Jazz Winner
Grammy Hall of Fame
By 2011, four recordings of Count Basie had been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least 25 years old, and that have “qualitative or historical significance.”
Count Basie Grammy Hall of Fame Awards[75] Year recorded Title genre Label Year inducted 1939 Lester Leaps In Jazz (Single) Vocalion 2005 1955 Everyday (I Have the Blues) Jazz (Single) Clef 1992 1955 April in Paris Jazz (Single) Clef 1985 1937 One O’Clock Jump Jazz (Single) Decca 1979
Honors and inductions
On May 23, 1985, William “Count” Basie was presented, posthumously, with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Ronald Reagan. The award was received by his son, Aaron Woodward.
On September 11, 1996 the U.S. Post Office issued a Count Basie 32 cents postage stamp. Basie is a part of the Big Band Leaders issue, which, is in turn, part of the Legends of American Music series.
In 2009, Basie was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.[76]
Count Basie award history Year Category Result Notes 2007 Long Island Music Hall of Fame Inducted 2005 Nesuhi Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame Inducted 2002 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award Winner 1983 NEA Jazz Masters Winner 1981 Grammy Trustees Award Winner 1981 Kennedy Center Honors Honoree late 1970s Hollywood Walk of Fame Honoree at 6508 Hollywood Blvd. 1970 Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Initiated Mu Nu Chapter 1958 Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame Inducted
National Recording Registry
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https://www.wvua23.com/today-in-history-april-26-2024/
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Today in History: April 26, 2024
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By The Associated Press Today is Friday, April 26, the 117th day of 2024. There are 249 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On April 26, 1986, an explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine caused radioactive fallout to begin spewing into the atmosphere. (Dozens of people were killed in the immediate aftermath...
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WVUA 23
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https://www.wvua23.com/today-in-history-april-26-2024/
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Today is Friday, April 26, the 117th day of 2024. There are 249 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On April 26, 1986, an explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine caused radioactive fallout to begin spewing into the atmosphere. (Dozens of people were killed in the immediate aftermath of the disaster while the long-term death toll from radiation poisoning is believed to number in the thousands.)
On this date:
In 1607, English colonists went ashore at present-day Cape Henry, Virginia, on an expedition to establish the first permanent English settlement in the Western Hemisphere.
In 1865, John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, was surrounded by federal troops near Port Royal, Virginia, and killed.
In 1913, Mary Phagan, a 13-year-old worker at a Georgia pencil factory, was strangled; Leo Frank, the factory superintendent, was convicted of her murder and sentenced to death. (Frank’s death sentence was commuted, but he was lynched by an anti-Semitic mob in 1915.)
In 1933, Nazi Germany’s infamous secret police, the Gestapo, was created.
In 1964, the African nations of Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form Tanzania.
In 1968, the United States exploded beneath the Nevada desert a 1.3 megaton nuclear device called “Boxcar.”
In 1977, the legendary nightclub Studio 54 had its opening night in New York.
In 1984, bandleader Count Basie, 79, died in Hollywood, Florida.
In 1994, voting began in South Africa’s first all-race elections, resulting in victory for the African National Congress and the inauguration of Nelson Mandela as president.
In 2000, Vermont Gov. Howard Dean signed the nation’s first bill allowing same-sex couples to form civil unions.
In 2009, the United States declared a public health emergency as more possible cases of swine flu surfaced from Canada to New Zealand; officials in Mexico City closed everything from concerts to sports matches to churches in an effort to stem the spread of the virus.
In 2012, former Liberian President Charles Taylor became the first head of state since World War II to be convicted by an international war crimes court as he was found guilty of arming Sierra Leone rebels in exchange for “blood diamonds” mined by slave laborers and smuggled across the border. (Taylor was sentenced to 50 years in prison.)
In 2013, singer George Jones, believed by many to be the greatest country crooner of all time, died in Nashville at age 81.
In 2018, comedian Bill Cosby was convicted of drugging and molesting Temple University employee Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia mansion in 2004. (Cosby was later sentenced to three to 10 years in prison, but Pennsylvania’s highest court threw out the conviction and released him from prison in June 2021, ruling that the prosecutor in the case was bound by his predecessor’s agreement not to charge Cosby.)
In 2022, Russia pounded eastern and southern Ukraine as the U.S. promised to “keep moving heaven and earth” to get Kyiv the weapons it needed to repel the new offensive, despite Moscow’s warnings that such support could trigger a wider war.
Today’s Birthdays: Actor-comedian Carol Burnett is 91. R&B singer Maurice Williams is 86. Songwriter-musician Duane Eddy is 86. Actor Nancy Lenehan is 71. Actor Giancarlo Esposito is 66. Rock musician Roger Taylor (Duran Duran) is 64. Actor Joan Chen is 63. Rock musician Chris Mars (The Replacements) is 63. Actor-singer Michael Damian is 62. Actor Jet Li (lee) is 61. Actor-comedian Kevin James is 59. Author and former U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey is 58. Actor Marianne Jean-Baptiste is 57. Rapper T-Boz (TLC) is 54. Former first lady Melania Trump is 54. Actor Shondrella Avery is 53. Actor Simbi Kali is 53. Country musician Jay DeMarcus (Rascal Flatts) is 53. Rock musician Jose Pasillas (Incubus) is 48. Actor Jason Earles is 47. Actor Leonard Earl Howze is 47. Actor Amin Joseph is 47. Actor Tom Welling is 47. Actor Pablo Schreiber is 46. Actor Nyambi Nyambi is 45. Actor Jordana Brewster is 44. Actor Stana Katic is 44. Actor Marnette Patterson is 44. Actor Channing Tatum is 44. Americana/roots singer-songwriter Lilly Hiatt is 40. Actor Emily Wickersham is 40. Actor Aaron Meeks is 38. New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge is 32.
All contents © copyright 2024 Associated Press. All rights reserved
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Count Basie | Jazz Pianist, Bandleader, Composer
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Count Basie was an American jazz musician noted for his spare, economical piano style and for his leadership of influential and widely heralded big bands. Basie studied music with his mother and was later influenced by the Harlem pianists James P. Johnson and Fats Waller, receiving informal
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Encyclopedia Britannica
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https://www.britannica.com/biography/Count-Basie
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Count Basie (born August 21, 1904, Red Bank, New Jersey, U.S.—died April 26, 1984, Hollywood, Florida) was an American jazz musician noted for his spare, economical piano style and for his leadership of influential and widely heralded big bands.
Basie studied music with his mother and was later influenced by the Harlem pianists James P. Johnson and Fats Waller, receiving informal tutelage on the organ from the latter. He began his professional career as an accompanist on the vaudeville circuit. Stranded in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1927, Basie remained there and eventually (in 1935) assumed the leadership of a nine-piece band composed of former members of the Walter Page and Bennie Moten orchestras. One night, while the band was broadcasting on a shortwave radio station in Kansas City, he was dubbed “Count” Basie by a radio announcer who wanted to indicate his standing in a class with aristocrats of jazz such as Duke Ellington. Jazz critic and record producer John Hammond heard the broadcasts and promptly launched the band on its career. Though rooted in the riff style of the 1930s swing-era big bands, the Basie orchestra played with the forceful drive and carefree swing of a small combo. They were considered a model for ensemble rhythmic conception and tonal balance—this despite the fact that most of Basie’s sidemen in the 1930s were poor sight readers; mostly, the band relied on “head” arrangements (so called because the band had collectively composed and memorized them, rather than using sheet music).
More From Britannica
jazz: Count Basie’s band and the composer-arrangers
The early Basie band was also noted for its legendary soloists and outstanding rhythm section. It featured such jazzmen as tenor saxophonists Lester Young (regarded by many as the premier tenor player in jazz history) and Herschel Evans, trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry “Sweets” Edison, and trombonists Benny Morton and Dicky Wells. The legendary Billie Holiday was a vocalist with Basie for a short stint (1937–38), although she was unable to record with the band because of her contract with another record label; mostly, vocals were handled by Jimmy Rushing, one of the most renowned “blues bawlers.” The rhythm unit for the band—pianist Basie, guitarist Freddie Green (who joined the Basie band in 1937 and stayed for 50 years), bassist Walter Page, and drummer Jo Jones—was unique in its lightness, precision, and relaxation, becoming the precursor for modern jazz accompanying styles. Basie began his career as a stride pianist, reflecting the influence of Johnson and Waller, but the style most associated with him was characterized by spareness and precision. Whereas other pianists were noted for technical flash and dazzling dexterity, Basie was known for his use of silence and for reducing his solo passages to the minimum amount of notes required for maximum emotional and rhythmic effect. As one Basie band member put it, “Count don’t do nothin’. But it sure sounds good.”
The Basie orchestra had several hit recordings during the late 1930s and early ’40s, among them “Jumpin’ at the Woodside,” “Every Tub,” “Lester Leaps In,” “Super Chief,” “Taxi War Dance,” “Miss Thing,” “Shorty George,” and “One O’Clock Jump,” the band’s biggest hit and theme song. It had continued success throughout the war years, but, like all big bands, it had declined in popularity by the end of the 1940s. During 1950 and ’51, economy forced Basie to front an octet, the only period in his career in which he did not lead a big band. In 1952 increased demand for personal appearances allowed Basie to form a new orchestra that in many ways was as highly praised as his bands of the 1930s and ’40s. (Fans distinguish the two major eras in Basie bands as the “Old Testament” and “New Testament.”) The Basie orchestra of the 1950s was a slick, professional unit that was expert at sight reading and demanding arrangements. Outstanding soloists such as tenor saxophonists Lucky Thompson, Paul Quinichette, and Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis and trumpeters Clark Terry and Charlie Shavers, figured prominently. Singer Joe Williams, whose authoritative, blues-influenced vocals can be heard on hit recordings such as “Every Day I Have the Blues” and “Alright, Okay, You Win,” was also a major component in the band’s success. Arrangers Neal Hefti, Buster Harding, and Ernie Wilkins defined the new band’s sound on recordings such as “Li’l Darlin’,” “The Kid from Red Bank,” “Cute,” and “April in Paris” and on celebrated albums such as The Atomic Mr. Basie (1957).
The 1950s band showcased the sound and style Basie was to employ for the remainder of his career, although there were to be occasional—and successful—experiments such as Afrique (1970), an album of African rhythms and avant-garde compositions that still managed to remain faithful to the overall Basie sound. Throughout the 1960s, Basie’s recordings were often uninspired and marred by poor choice of material, but he remained an exceptional concert performer and made fine records with singers Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, and Frank Sinatra. When jazz record producer Norman Granz formed his Pablo label in the 1970s, several established jazz artists, including Basie, signed on in order to record unfettered by commercial demands. Basie benefited greatly from his association with Granz and made several recordings during the ’70s that rank among his best work. He recorded less often with his big band during this era (although when he did, the results were outstanding), concentrating instead on small-group and piano-duet recordings. Especially noteworthy were the albums featuring the duo of Basie and Oscar Peterson, with Basie’s economy and Peterson’s dexterous virtuosity proving an effective study in contrasts. Many of Basie’s albums of the ’70s were Grammy Award winners or nominees.
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| 82 |
https://www.theguardian.com/news/1999/jun/09/guardianobituaries.johnfordham
|
en
|
Ernie Wilkins
|
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"John Fordham",
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1999-06-09T00:00:00
|
His crackling jazz arrangements pumped new life into the Count Basie big band
|
en
|
the Guardian
|
https://www.theguardian.com/news/1999/jun/09/guardianobituaries.johnfordham
|
The art of big-band arrangement is being rekindled. After years consigned to buffs' nights out for their prehistoric repertoires, high overheads, profligate staffing and absence of cool, the warmth, richness and urgency of the jazz orchestra is coming back on song.
Among the architects of this tradition, heroes like Count Basie and Duke Ellington are household names, but many of the crucial background figures are known only to enthusiasts. These are the staff arrangers, the artisans who could wrap the folds of an orchestra's tonal possibilities around the graceful form of a good tune - and do it at the drop of a cigar-butt.
The former Count Basie saxophonist, composer and arranger Ernie Wilkins, who has died aged 76, was one of those. His work was fundamental to the rebirth of the Basie band's reputation in the 1950s.
Wilkins's background in St Louis made him well acquainted with the blues, and the blues was the essence of the Basie band's direct appeal. Basie himself had been born in New Jersey but came up in Kansas City in the early 1930s, where the mob-run Kansas club-life was more pragmatic than New York and the expenses tighter. Blues was the popular local fare, and the agenda was high-quality populist, getting straight to the point.
A decade and a half later, when the disorientated and struggling big-band leaders of the difficult post-war years were toying with fussy and over-complex arrangements to win the audiences back, it was Ernie Wilkins who reminded the Basie band of what it had once done best. He produced a succession of crackling arrangements as emphatic and arresting as a string of exclamation marks.
He kicked the whole process off by writing Every Day I Have The Blues for Basie's majestic singer Joe Williams almost as soon as he joined the orchestra in 1951. The song became a chart hit, and one of the best-selling jazz records of all time - and it put the flawless open roadster that had been the Basie band of the swing era back on the road.
Wilkins originally learned piano and violin, and played jazz as a teenage tenor saxophonist, growing up with the fine trumpeter Clark Terry, who was later to work with both Basie and Duke Ellington. During military service in the 1940s, he worked with the innovative altoist Willie Smith's ensemble, but the vital musical and professional experience of this period was joining the last big band of the piano virtuoso Earl Hines in 1948.
When the Hines band broke up, Wilkins returned to St Louis, but three years later - when Basie was looking for an altoist - it was Terry's childhood friend who came to mind to fill the chair. He had to switch to a battered old alto the band dubbed "the grey ghost", but though his solo playing was never exceptional, his writing abilities soon surfaced.
Following the success of Every Day I Have The Blues, Wilkins came up with Teach Me Tonight and Roll 'Em Pete for Joe Williams, as well as punchy arrangements of jazz and bebop standards. By the late 1950s, this talent was becoming widely appreciated, and he left Basie's staff to freelance for Dizzy Gillespie, Harry James, Sarah Vaughan, Buddy Rich and many others. His impact in the 1950s big-band world was so pervasive that Basie is reported to have said to James on a joint show, "Who's going to play my arrangements first, me or you?"
Wilkins's star waned in the 1960s when he turned to heroin, and it was Clark Terry who offered work when others had given up on him, although he did write for his trombonist brother Jimmy's group. When he straightened out, he and Terry worked extensively together throughout the 1970s, and for a period in that decade Wilkins headed artists and recording at Mainstream Records.
Moving to Copenhagen in 1979, he refreshed his arranging career through work with his own Almost Big Band, and larger orchestras including the Danish Radio Big Band. Health problems hampered him in later years, but he continued to compose and arrange into the 1990s. Wilkins honed a jubilant, forthright style that has become something of a cliché in other hands - but in his own, it was a 1950s revelation.
Ernest Brooks 'Ernie' Wilkins, jazz musician, born July 20, 1922; died June 5, 1999
|
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| 43 |
https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/frank-sinatra-jr-dies-in-florida-during-tour/
|
en
|
Frank Sinatra Jr. Dies In Florida During Tour
|
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[
"Frank Sinatra"
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2016-03-17T08:32:19-04:00
|
The son of legendary crooner Frank Sinatra has died in Florida while on tour. Frank Sinatra Jr., died unexpectedly of cardiac arrest while on tour in Daytona Beach.
|
en
|
https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/frank-sinatra-jr-dies-in-florida-during-tour/
|
Follow CBSMIAMI.COM: Facebook | Twitter
MIAMI (CBSMiami/AP) — The son of legendary crooner Frank Sinatra has died in Florida while on tour.
Frank Sinatra Jr., died unexpectedly of cardiac arrest while on tour in Daytona Beach. He was 72.
His real name was Francis Wayne Sinatra — his father's full name was Francis Albert Sinatra — but he went professionally by Frank Sinatra Jr.
Sinatra Jr. was the middle child of Sinatra and Nancy Barbato Sinatra, who was the elder Sinatra's first wife and the mother of all three of his children. Sinatra Jr.'s older sister was Nancy Sinatra, who had a successful musical career of her own, and his younger sister was TV producer Tina Sinatra.
He was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, in 1944, just as his father's career was getting started, and he would watch his dad become one of the most famous singers of all time. But he usually watched from a distance, as Sinatra was constantly away on tours and making movies.
He did, however, sometimes get to see him from the wings of the stage, especially when his father performed for long stints in Las Vegas. Sinatra Jr. got to see many other storied performers too, like Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Count Basie.
"I saw all the top stars perform," Sinatra Jr. told the AP in 2002. He said one of his favorite memories of his father was a show in the late 1960s at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
"He was sitting on a little stool, and he sang the Beatles song 'Yesterday' and 'By the Time I Get to Phoenix' and 'Didn't We,'" Sinatra Jr. said. "We were all crying and singing."
Sinatra Jr. followed his father into music as a teenager, eventually working for the senior Sinatra as his musical director and conductor.
The elder Sinatra died of a heart attack May 14, 1998, at 82.
Sinatra Jr. was able to provide a link to his father's music after his death, performing his songs and arrangements on tours and especially in Las Vegas.
"Since my father's death, a lot of people have made it clear that they're not ready to give up the music," Sinatra Jr. said in the 2002 AP interview. "For me, it's a big, fat gift. I get to sing with a big orchestra and get to sing orchestrations that will never be old."
When Sinatra Jr. was 19 in 1963, three men kidnapped him at gunpoint from a Lake Tahoe hotel. He was returned safely after two days when his family paid $240,000 for his release.
Barry Keenan, a high school friend of Nancy Sinatra, was arrested with the other two suspects, Johnny Irwin and Joe Amsler, and convicted of conspiracy and kidnapping.
Keenan masterminded the kidnapping, prosecutors said. He was sentenced to life plus 75 years in prison, but was declared legally insane at the time of the crime, had his sentence reduced and was paroled in 1968 after serving 4 ½ years.
Sinatra Jr. had nearly two dozen TV and movie credits as an actor, including appearances on "The Love Boat" and "Marcus Welby, M.D." most recently providing his own voice for two episodes of "Family Guy."
Last year he performed the national anthem at Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees games in celebration of the centennial of his father's birth.
He was scheduled to perform Thursday night in St. Petersburg, Florida, in a show featuring his father's songbook. The venue's website mentioned Sinatra Jr.'s death in canceling the show. He had other tour dates booked for May, September and October in the Midwest and East Coast.
Sinatra Jr. was married in 1998, but divorced in 2000. He is survived by a son, Michael.
(TM and © Copyright 2016 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2016 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
|
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FactBench
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2
| 16 |
https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/basie-william-james-count
|
en
|
Basie, William James "Count"
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Basie, William James "Count"
August 21, 1904April 26, 1984 Source for information on Basie, William James "Count": Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History dictionary.
|
en
|
/sites/default/files/favicon.ico
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https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/basie-william-james-count
|
August 21, 1904
April 26, 1984
Born in Red Bank, New Jersey, jazz pianist and bandleader William "Count" Basie took up drums as a child, performing at informal neighborhood gatherings. He began to play piano before his teens, and in high school he formed a band with drummer Sonny Greer. In 1924 Basie moved to New York, where he was befriended by two of the greatest stride piano players of the day, Fats Waller and James P. Johnson. Basie himself became a fine stride pianist, as well as a proficient organist, learning that instrument while observing Waller's performances at the Lincoln Theater in Harlem. Basie left New York in the mid-1920s to work as a touring musician for bands led by June Clark and Elmer Snowden, and as accompanist to variety acts such as those led by Kate Crippen and Gonzelle White. When White's group broke up in Kansas City in 1927, Basie found himself stranded. He supported himself as a theater organist, but more importantly, he also began performing with many of the southwest "territory" bands. In 1928 he joined bassist Walter Page's Blue Devils, and the next year he joined Bennie Moten's band in Kansas City.
After Moten's death in 1935, Basie took over the group, now reorganized as Count Basie and the Barons of Rhythm. Producer John Hammond heard the band on a 1935 radio broadcast from the Reno Club in Kansas City, and the next year brought the band to New York City. During this time the Basie band became one of the country's best-known swing bands, performing at the Savoy Ballroom, at the Famous Door on 52nd Street, and at the Woodside Hotel in Harlem, a stay immortalized in "Jumpin' at the Woodside" (1938). The band's recordings from this time represent the best of the hard-driving, riff-based Kansas City style of big-band swing. Many of these recordings are "head" arrangements, in which the horns spontaneously set up a repeating motif behind the melody and solos. Memorable recordings from this period include "Good Morning Blues" (1937), "One O'Clock Jump" (1937), "Sent for You Yesterday" (1937), "Swinging the Blues" (1938), "Every Tub" (1938), and "Taxi War Dance" (1939). In 1941 the Basie band recorded "King Joe," a tribute to boxer Joe Louis, which had lyrics by Richard Wright and vocals by Paul Robeson. In 1943 the band appeared in two films, Stage Door Canteen and Hit Parade of 1943.
In the late 1930s and early 1940s, the Basie group was primarily a band of soloists. The leading members included tenor saxophonists Herschel Evans and Lester Young, alto saxophonists Buster Smith and Earle Warren, trumpeters Harry "Sweets" Edison and Wilbur "Buck" Clayton, and trombonists Eddie Durham and William "Dicky" Wells. Jimmy Rushing, Helen Humes, and Billie Holiday provided vocals. In the 1940s Basie also added saxophonists Buddy Tate and Don Byas, trumpeters Clark Terry and Joe Newman, and trombonists Vic Dickenson and J. J. Johnson. Throughout, the band's "all-American rhythm section" consisted of Basie, drummer Jo Jones, bassist Walter Page, and guitarist Freddie Green, who remained with the band for more than fifty years. Together, they provided the sparse and precise, but also relaxed and understated, accompaniment. Basie himself was one of the first jazz pianists to "comp" behind soloists, providing accompaniment that was both supportive and prodding. His thoughtful solos, which became highly influential, were simple and rarefied, eschewing the extroverted runs of stride piano, but retaining a powerful swing. That style is on display on Basie's 1938–1939 trio recordings ("How Long, How Long Blues" and "Oh! Red"). He also recorded on the organ in 1939.
With the rise of the bebop era, Basie had difficulty finding work for his big band, which he dissolved in 1949. However, after touring for a year with a bebop-oriented octet, Basie formed another big band, which lasted until his death. The "second" Basie band was very different from its predecessor. The first was famed for its simple and spontaneous "head" arrangements. In contrast, arrangers Neal Hefti, Johnny Mandel, and Ernie Wilkins, with their carefully notated arrangements and rhythmic precision, were the featured musicians of the second Basie band. The latter also had many fine instrumentalists, including saxophonists Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and Paul Quinichette, Frank Wess and Frank Foster playing saxophone and flute, trombonist Al Grey, trumpeter Thad Jones, and vocalist Joe Williams.
Basie's second band toured extensively worldwide from the 1950s through the 1970s. Basie had his first national hit in 1955 with "Every Day I Have the Blues." Other popular recordings from this time include April in Paris (1955, including "Corner Pocket" and "Shiny Stockings"), The Atomic Basie (1957, including "Whirly Bird" and "Lil' Darlin"), Basie at Birdland (1961), Kansas City Seven (1962), and Basie Jam (1973). During this period the Basie band's popularity eclipsed even that of Duke Ellington, with whom they made a record, First Time, in 1961. The Basie band became a household name, playing at the inaugural balls of both John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson and appearing in such films as Cinderfella (1959), Sex and the Single Girl (1964), and Blazing Saddles (1974).
In the 1980s, Basie continued to record, in solo, small-group, and big-band settings (Farmer's Market Barbecue, 1982; 88 Basie Street, 1984). He lived for many years in the St. Albans section of Queens, New York, with Catherine Morgan, a former dancer he had married in 1942. Health problems induced him to move to the Bahamas in his later years. He died in 1984 in Hollywood, Florida. His autobiography, Good Morning Blues, appeared the next year. Basie's band has continued performing, led by Thad Jones until 1986 and since then by Frank Foster.
See also Holiday, Billie; Robeson, Paul; Savoy Ballroom
Bibliography
Basie, Count, and Albert Murray. Good Morning Blues: The Autobiography of Count Basie. New York: Random House, 1985.
Dance, Stanley. The World of Count Basie. New York: Da Capo Press, 1980.
Sheridan, C. Count Basie: A Bio-Discography. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1986.
michael d. scott (1996)
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https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Count_Basie
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en
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New World Encyclopedia
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William "Count" Basie (August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was a prominent American jazz pianist and band leader. Like his contemporary Duke Ellington, Basie assembled a group of premiere musicians and through innovative use of rhythm and improvisation, and his spare yet suggestive piano work, Basie largely defined the distinctive Kansas City jazz style that would, in turn, influence the emergence of modern jazz. For his contribution to classic jazz and his anticipation of modern developments, Basie is regarded as one of jazz music’s all time greats.
Basie is known for his inimitable statements on the piano, but it has also been said that his real instrument was his band. Basie brought to perfection the union of opposites characteristic of much great art: His crisp, contrapuntal piano and the relaxed, even swing of the rest of his rhythm section; his incisive, minimalist piano and the powerful sound of his orchestra; and countless pairs of hard/soft soloists dialogging with each other. Combining soulful blues and upbeat, celebratory rhythms and solo performances, Basie's music possessed an emotional resonance that elevated Big Band jazz beyond the conventions of popular swing jazz.
Early life
Basie was born in Red Bank, New Jersey, to Harvey Lee Basie, and Lillian Ann Childs and lived on Mechanic Street. Later, he would be referred to as the “Kid from Red Bank” (the title of a tune). Bill had a brother, LeRoy Basie. His father worked as coachman for a wealthy family. After automobiles replaced horses, his father became a grounds keeper and handyman for several families in the area. His mother took in laundry, and was Basie's first piano teacher when he was a child. He was taught organ informally by Fats Waller. Along with Waller, James P. Johnson, Willie “The Lion” Smith, Lucky Roberts, and other pianists of the Harlem stride tradition would be Basie’s prime influences.
Basie toured the Theater Owners Bookers Association (T.O.B.A.) vaudeville circuit, starting in 1924, as a soloist and accompanist to blues singers. Sometimes, he would also provide musical accompaniment to silent movies. His touring took him to Kansas City, Missouri, where he met many jazz musicians in the area. Kansas City was then an important transit point and a musical scene connected to nightlife, similar to New Orleans’ Storyville, had begun to thrive there, giving birth to a distinctive Kansas City style. In 1928, Basie joined Walter Page's Blue Devils, and the following year became the pianist with the Bennie Moten band based in Kansas City.
Moten’s ensemble was a good "territory band," a term signifying the rising popularity of jazz outside of urban scenes and of popular bands that would range far from home for engagements. Moten himself was a capable, but unremarkable, ragtime pianist who had the good sense to put to use the young pianist he had recruited: Basie. Except for Basie, the really outstanding musician of the band was trumpeter Oran “Hot Lips” Page. The band had had its successes (notably a 1928 version of "South") but it was still a few steps away from the swing era. Occasionally, one could hear an accordion in the ensembles, which gave it a pleasant but unsophisticated rural sound.
Within a mere two years, the band had absorbed many of the best elements of Walter Page’s Blue Devils, a competing band that had dissolved. These included Page himself, a formidable bassist who gave the band a powerful new swing. Basie’s piano had become gradually more present ("Moten Swing," "Prince of Wails") and he soon came to all but own the band. He started his own band in 1934, but shortly after returned to Moten's band. When Moten died in 1935, the band soon dissembled, and in 1936, Basie, along with several of Moten’s key alumni, resurrected it under a new name, Barons of Rhythm, soon to become the Count Basie Orchestra.
The classic band: Basie’s “First Testament”
In addition to touring, the band performed nightly radio broadcasts, and serendipitously, the young Columbia Records producer and talent scout John Hammond—a music legend who had discovered the seventeen-year-old Billie Holiday in 1933, tracked down the forgotten Bessie Smith for a final recording session in 1937, and later launched the careers of Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, and Bruce Springsteen—picked up the Basie band on his car radio. Inspired by what he heard, Hammond set out for Kansas City to hear Basie in person, and in October 1936, the producer arranged a recording session in Chicago that he later described as "the only perfect, completely perfect recording session I've ever had anything to do with."
Basie's band honed their repertoire at a long engagement at a Chicago club. It was at this time that he was first called "Count" Basie by a local disk jockey, a term of distinction for outstanding jazz greats that included Joe "King" Oliver, Edward "Duke" Ellington, and Bessie Smith, who was crowned the Empress of the Blues. Soon the Basie band was expanded to the full big band size (13 musicians), and by the end of 1936 Hammond brought the band to New York, where it opened at the Roseland Ballroom. By the next year Basie took up residence at the Famous Door, and the Count Basie Orchestra continued to perform in New York until 1950.
Basie’s music was characterized by his trademark "jumping" beat and the contrapuntal accents of his own piano. Basie also showcased some of the best blues singers of the era: Billie Holiday, Helen Humes, and later Big Joe Turner and Joe Williams. Most congenial to the band was Jimmy Rushing, called “Mr. Five by Five” (due to his short stature and large girth). Rushing epitomized the spirit of Basie’s orchestral blues, a blues that was more urbane and often humorous than traditional blues. Even more importantly, Count Basie was a highly successful band-leader who was able to hold onto some of the greatest jazz musicians of the 1930s and early 1940s, like Buck Clayton and Lester Young, and the band's brilliant rhythm section, Walter Page, Freddie Green, and Jo Jones. He was also able to hire great arrangers that knew how to use the band's abilities, like Eddie Durham and Jimmy Mundy.
With his newly formed band, Basie quickly brought the Kansas City style of jazz to perfection. While not fundamentally different from the style played by other swing era bands in New York or Chicago, this way of playing was characterized by a supple, light beat and the astute use of riffs—short melodic patterns played repeatedly, especially towards the end of a piece, to heighten the atmosphere. The alternating playing of several riffs could go on indefinitely, until a climax was reached. Unfortunately, the recordings of that era were limited to about three minutes, so they cannot fully convey the equivalent of the band’s live performances.
Another Basie innovation was the introduction of two tenor saxophones “dueling” with each other. The first, historical pair consisted of Lester Young, with his detached, cool sound and Herschel Evans with his more traditional, intensely hot style. This was the starting point of a long history of saxophone duels within the Basie Band and beyond. On trumpet also, the elegant Buck Clayton and the powerful Harry “Sweets Edison” were a perfect complement to each other. On trombone too, there were usually two major voices at any given time, including Bennie Morton, Dickie Wells, and Vic Dickenson.
Basie the pianist
Most of the time, Basie played very few notes, but these were perfectly chosen to fill the silence he used with equal mastery. His unique, crisp style can immediately be recognized by knowledgable jazz fans(only Nat Pierce has been somewhat successful at imitating him). At times, his piano was reminiscent of Earl Hines’s jumpy and ethereal rhythmic playing ("Moten Swing," with Bennie Moten). Much of the time, the stable and powerful qualities of his stride piano heritage were obvious. His playing was often pure Fats Waller, with the stomping left hand the pearly flurries of the right hand (John’s Idea, 1937), except that it was also pure Basie. Over the years, Basie’s subtle sense of rhythm, combined with his powerful stride playing, would produce a unique synthesis that gradually evolved into his signature minimalist style. He would play next to nothing but fill the room with his few notes.
Many tunes also highlight Basie’s double role as soloist and accompanist of his key players (e.g., in Roseland Shuffle, 1937, in his dialogue with Lester Young). Occasionally, Basie would also produce piano solos ("How Long Blues," 1938) or contribute extended solos to his band’s performances ("Boogie Woogie").
The Basie rhythm section
Basie’s rhythm section has often been described as the best in jazz history. It was certainly the most cohesive of its time and has reached proverbial fame. Starting with Basie’s presence in the Moten band, it came into being over the years when, first, Walter Page’s bass gave real swing to the band. Later, Jo Jones on drums introduced the even 4 beats that contrasted with earlier drummers emphasizing 2 beats out of 4. Jones was also a formidable soloist. When finally Freddie Green added his guitar to the band, the section was complete. Over the next 50 years, Green would practically play nothing but a succession of chords that completed the even dynamism of the section. Interestingly, each time a new element of that section was added, the already existing members toned down their playing without changing it to reach the perfect balance that made the ensemble famous. Much of that subtle quality was lost once Jones and Page departed, but even the more muscular nature of drumming in the New Testament band maintained the essence of that quality thanks to the lasting presence of Freddie Green and Basie himself.
Basie’s “New Testament”
By the late 1940s the Big Band era appeared to be at an end, but (after downsizing to a septette and octette in 1950) Basie reformed his band as an even larger 16-piece orchestra in 1952, and led it until his death. Basie remained faithful to the Kansas City style and helped keep jazz alive with his distinctive piano playing. The new band gave its real meaning to the name big band. Its huge sound was brassier than that of the first band. It also relied on sophisticated arrangements, while the first band had mostly relied on star soloists and their ability to play "head arrangements." These were simple arrangements learned by heart by musicians who, for all their talent, were poor sight readers. In that sense, the new band was more professional and less dependent on particular key players. Any capable musician could fit in and replace a departing member of the band. What was gained in weight and in sophistication was perhaps compensated by a slight loss in originality over time. The new soloists of the band, while excellent, were not quite of the historical caliber of a Lester Young. The emotion-laden sound of the ensembles and Basie’s own input became all the more important.
Basie and modern jazz
With his New Testament band, Basie moved into the special realm of classic jazz being played in the era of bop and modern jazz—concurrently with developments that were of a totally different nature. While he and his musicians remained swing musicians in essence, they did evolve with the times, creating the big band music of after the swing era. The major soloists who passed through the new band through the years include Clark Terry on flugelhorn, Joe Newman on trumpet, Paul Gonsalves, Frank Foster, Frank Wess, and Eddie “Lockjaw Davis" on tenor, Sonny Paine and Louis Bellson (a white musician) on drums, and many more. All of them could be considered transitional artists, mixing elements of classic jazz with the complexities and tone of modern jazz.
The vocalists
By the mid 1950s, the Count Basie Band had become one of the preeminent backing big bands for the finest jazz vocalists of the time. Joe Williams was spectacularly featured on the 1957 album One o'Clock Jump, and 1956's Count Basie Swings, Joe Williams Sings. Ella Fitzgerald, the quintessential swing singer, recorded several times with the Count Basie Orchestra. These records are highly regarded by critics. Fitzgerald's 1963 album Ella and Basie! is remembered as one of Fitzgerald's greatest recordings. With the "New Testament" Basie band in full swing, and arrangements written by a youthful Quincy Jones, this album proved a swinging respite from the "Songbook" recordings and constant touring that Fitzgerald was engaged in during this period. She toured with the Basie Orchestra in the mid-1970s, and Fitzgerald and a much tamer Basie band also met on the 1979 albums Digital III at Montreux, A Classy Pair, and A Perfect Match.
Frank Sinatra had an equally fruitful relationship with Basie; 1963's Sinatra-Basie and 1964's It Might As Well Be Swing (both arranged by Quincy Jones) are two of the highest points at the peak of Sinatra's artistry. Jones provided the punchy arrangements for the Basie band on Sinatra's biggest selling album, the live Sinatra at the Sands.
In the 60s, Basie was often compelled to compromise on the choice of his material to maintain his band. In 1960, he appeared as himself (along with his band) in the Jerry Lewis film Cinderfella. But by the 70s, his fame had reached a peak, including with the public at large, not unlike the popularity achieved by Louis Armstrong. He was named the greatest jazz musician on earth by the British publication Melody Maker and was invited to perform for Queen Elizabeth before even Duke Ellington earned that distinction. Count Basie died of pancreatic cancer in Hollywood, Florida, on April 26, 1984 at the age of seventy-nine. The Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, New Jersey was named in his honor.
Legacy
“Basie's status as a great musician was not a matter of extension and elaboration of blues idiom basics as was the case of Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington," says jazz critic Albert Murray. "Basie's claim to fame and prestige was based on his refinement of the fundamentals that make jazz music swing. The Basie hallmark was always simplicity, but it is a simplicity that is the result of a distillation that produced music that was as refined, subtle and elegant as it was earthy and robust. There is no better example of the un-gaudy in the work of any other American artist in any medium."
Basie's consummate artistry, like Ellington's, is a credit to his visionary understanding of the jazz idiom and his leadership as much as to his innovative keyboard work. Basie's band is often cited as the most important precursor of the emergence of modern jazz, and it is not coincidental that the leading innovator of forties, the saxophonist Charlie Parker, was a native of Kansas City. Basie gathered many of the premiere jazz artists of the era. Saxophonist Herschel Evans and his distinctive "Texas moan;" the blues-based "Hot Lips" Page, who had earlier performed with Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith; jazz balladeers Jimmy Rushing and Joe Turner; and above all brilliant, boundary-breaking tenor sax improviser Lester Young (known affectionately as "Pres") established a style for the Basie band that drew from the excitement of traditional jazz and informed it with innovations in rhythm and phrasings that would lead jazz in radical new directions.
"Count Basie's music is not about protest," said Murray. "It is about celebration, and . . . what [Basie's music] generates is a sense of well-being that even becomes exhilaration."
References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees
Basie, Count. Count Basie Collection (Artist Transcriptions). Hal Leonard Corporation, 2004.
Basie, Count. The Piano Style of Count Basie: Some of Basie's Best of Advanced Piano. Alfred Publishing Company, 2001.
Dance, Stanley. The World of Count Basie. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1980.
Murray, Albert et al.Good Morning Blues: The Autobiography of Count Basie. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2002.
All links retrieved January 10, 2024.
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https://www.scribd.com/document/661561197/Count-Basie
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African American Music
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https://imgv2-1-f.scribdassets.com/img/document/661561197/original/c08fb2c440/1721399152?v=1
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Count Basie - Free download as PDF File (.pdf), Text File (.txt) or read online for free. William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist and bandleader who formed the Count Basie Orchestra in 1935. Some key innovations of his band included using two "split" tenor saxophones, emphasizing the rhythm section, riffing with a big band, and using arrangers. Many famous musicians came to prominence under his leadership over the band's almost 50 year run. Basie had an early musical education and got his start performing in vaudeville and with various bands in the 1920s-1930s before forming his own successful band.
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https://s-f.scribdassets.com/scribd.ico?2ff3db32a?v=5
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https://www.scribd.com/document/661561197/Count-Basie
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https://discover.midhudsonlibraries.org/search/card%3Fid%3De84fe5bd-8f1d-42cf-8fe5-bd8f1d12cf54%26entityType%3DFormatGroup%26showcase%3Dresources%26identifier%3De84fe5bd-8f1d-42cf-8fe5-bd8f1d12cf54
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https://discover.midhudsonlibraries.org/search/favicon.ico
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https://discover.midhudsonlibraries.org/search/favicon.ico
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https://jazzlives.wordpress.com/2024/01/09/two-routes-to-the-same-summit-oscar-peterson-and-count-basie-with-niels-henning-orsted-pedersen-and-butch-miles-at-the-prague-jazz-festival-november-8-1974/
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TWO ROUTES TO THE SAME SUMMIT: OSCAR PETERSON and COUNT BASIE (with FREDDIE GREEN, NIELS-HENNING ORSTED PEDERSEN, and SKEETS MARSH) at the Prague Jazz Festival, November 8, 1974.
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2024-01-09T00:00:00
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Comparisons are odious and eventually not very useful. So when you have pianists Oscar Peterson and Count Basie on the same stage, beaming respect at each other (with the assistance of Freddie Green, guitar; Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen, double bass, and Skeets Marsh, drums) all you can do is marvel. As I do. Peterson: OLD FOLKS / WE'LL…
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https://secure.gravatar.com/blavatar/80412dbe49952f394f4f5599d95bd6d55685a4c4868572b5159fea46189fade2?s=32
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JAZZ LIVES
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https://jazzlives.wordpress.com/2024/01/09/two-routes-to-the-same-summit-oscar-peterson-and-count-basie-with-niels-henning-orsted-pedersen-and-butch-miles-at-the-prague-jazz-festival-november-8-1974/
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Comparisons are odious and eventually not very useful. So when you have pianists Oscar Peterson and Count Basie on the same stage, beaming respect at each other (with the assistance of Freddie Green, guitar; Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen, double bass, and Skeets Marsh, drums) all you can do is marvel. As I do.
Peterson: OLD FOLKS / WE’LL BE TOGETHER AGAIN / add Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen, double bass / JUST FRIENDS / I LOVE YOU / MACK THE KNIFE / add Basie [25:45] Freddie Green, and Skeets Marsh: ROYAL GARDEN BLUES / SLOW BLUES IN G / JUMPIN’ AT THE WOODSIDE //
I note that this has been posted by several other people on YouTube, but that duplication is something to celebrate. Let us make sure that everyone devoted to jazz piano and to swing has had a chance to see this interlude and admire the five heroes onstage.
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https://countbasie.rutgers.edu/biography/
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Biography – Count Basie
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Jazz icon, Count Basie, was born William James Basie August 21, 1904 in Red Bank, New Jersey. Count Basie is considered one of the greatest bandleaders of all times. He was the arbiter of the big-band swing sound and his unique style of fusing blues and jazz established swing as a predominant music style. Basie changed the jazz landscape and shaped mid-20th century popular music, duly earning the title “King of Swing” because he made the world want to dance.
The Man
Both of Basie’s parents were hard workers. His father, Harvey Lee Basie, was a coachman and a groundskeeper, and his mother, Lillian Childs Basie, was a laundress. As a young boy, Basie hated to see his parents working so hard, and vowed to help them get ahead. The family had a piano, and Basie’s mother paid 25¢ a lesson for his piano lessons at an early age. He had an incredible ear, and could repeat any tune he heard. Dropping out of junior high school, Basie learned to operate lights for vaudeville and to improvise piano accompaniment for silent films at the local movie theater in his hometown that would eventually become the Count Basie Theatre. He quickly made a name for himself playing the piano at local venues and parties around town until he moved to New York City in search of greater opportunities.
His Family
After a decade long courtship, Basie married dancer Catherine Morgan, his second wife, on his birthday in 1942. They had one daughter, Diane, in 1944. Count and Mrs. Basie were true socialites – often gathering with friends including celebrities Frank Sinatra, Jerry Lewis, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Basie protégé Quincy Jones. They had direct lines to presidents, occasionally exchanging personal telegrams giving well wishes. In 1949, the Basie family moved one of the premier neighborhoods open to African American families – Addsleigh Park in St. Albans, Queens, New York. Their neighbors included Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald, Jackie Robinson and Milt Hinton. While Count Basie worked over 300 nights a year, Mrs. Basie was very active in charitable and civil rights organizations, and was recognized for her work by the major leaders of the day. In the early 1970s, the Basies moved to the warmer climate of Freeport, Bahamas.
His Music
Around 1924 Basie moved to Harlem, a hotbed for jazz, where his career started to quickly take off. Shortly after he got there, he got a gig replacing Fats Waller with a touring vaudeville act. When he came back to Harlem, Fats Waller showed him how to play the organ, and Willie “the Lion” Smith took him under his wing. He went out on tour with on the vaudeville and TOBA circuits again until his performance group disbanded in the mid-1920s, leaving him stuck in Kansas City. It was here that he was introduced to the big-band sound when he joined Walter Page’s Blue Devils in 1928. Basie now called Kansas City home.
Basie heard Bennie Moten’s band, and longed to play with them. But Moten was an expert piano player himself, and Basie fashioned a job for himself as the band’s staff arranger. He couldn’t write music at the time, but his ear was perfect. Eventually, Moten generously let Basie sit in on piano.
A year later, Basie joined Bennie_Moten’s band, and played with them until Moten’s death in 1935. Basie then formed his own nine-piece band, Barons of Rhythm, with many former Moten members including Walter Page (bass), Freddie Green (guitar), Jo Jones (drums), Lester Young (tenor saxophone) and Jimmy Rushing (vocals).
The Barons of Rhythm were regulars at the Reno Club and often performed for a live radio broadcast. During a broadcast the announcer wanted to give Basie’s name some style, so he called him “Count.” Little did Basie know this touch of royalty would give him proper status and position him with the likes of Duke Ellington and Earl Hines.
Famed record producer and journalist, John Hammond, heard the band’s broadcast and began writing about the Orchestra to gain their attention. He then traveled from New York to Kansas City just to hear the band and to meet Count Basie. He soon started booking the band and shopping them to agents and record companies – forging their big break. In 1937 Basie took his group, Count Basie and His Barons of Rhythm, to New York to record their first album with Decca Records under their new name, The Count Basie Orchestra.
The Count Basie Orchestra had a slew of hits that helped to define the big-band sound of the 1930s and ’40s. Some of their notable chart toppers included Jumpin’ at the Woodside, April in Paris, and Basie’s own composition, One O’Clock Jump, which became the orchestra’s signature piece.
Basie and his Orchestra appeared in five films, all released within a matter of months in 1943: Hit Parade, Reveille with Beverly, Stage Door Canteen, Top Man, and Crazy House. He also scored a series of Top Ten hits on the pop and R&B charts, including I Didn’t Know About You, Red Bank Blues, Rusty Dusty Blues, Jimmy’s Blues, and Blue Skies.
In 1950, financial restraints forced Basie to disband the orchestra. For the next two years he led small bands between six and nine pieces. Basie reorganized the Orchestra in 1952 and this new band was in high demand and toured extensively around the world. (This became known as the “New Testament Band”, while the first Orchestra was the “Old Testament Band.”) They played command performances for kings, queens and presidents, and issued a large number of recordings both under Basie’s name and as the backing band for various singers, most notably Frank Sinatra.
Some argue Basie made some of his best work during the 1960s and ’70s Shiny Stocking, L’il Darlin, Corner Pocket, and even a hit single, Everyday I Have the Blues, with Joe Williams. During this period he also recorded with music greats, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Jackie Wilson, Dizzy Gillespie and Oscar Peterson.
Basie was a true innovator leading the band for almost 50 years and recording on over 480 albums. He is credited for creating the use of the two “split” tenor saxophone, emphasizing the rhythm section, riffing with a big band, using arrangers to broaden their sound, and beautifully layering masterful vocalists. Basie was often recognized for his understated yet captivating style of piano playing and his precise, impeccable musical leadership.
Basie earned nine Grammy Awardsand made history in 1958 by becoming the first African-American to receive the award. He has had an unprecedented four recordings inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame – One O’Clock Jump (1979), April in Paris (1985), Everyday I Have the Blues (1992), and Lester Leaps In (2005), along with a slew of other awards and honors not only for his music, but for his humanitarianism and philanthropy around the world.
Basie died April 26, 1984 in Hollywood, FL but his legacy is still swinging strong.
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https://www.facebook.com/countbasiejazz/
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Facebook
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https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/yv/r/B8BxsscfVBr.ico
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Sieh dir auf Facebook Beiträge, Fotos und vieles mehr an.
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https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/yv/r/B8BxsscfVBr.ico
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https://www.facebook.com/login/
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https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/basie-saxophonist-frank-foster-dies-of-kidney-failure-468978/
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Basie Saxophonist Frank Foster Dies of Kidney Failure
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2011-07-27T12:55:00+00:00
|
Frank Foster, a jazz saxophonist who played with the Count Basie Orchestra and composed the band's hit, "Shiny Stockings," died Tuesday.
|
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Billboard
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https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/basie-saxophonist-frank-foster-dies-of-kidney-failure-468978/
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Frank Foster, a jazz saxophonist who played with the Count Basie Orchestra and composed the band’s hit, “Shiny Stockings,” died Tuesday. He was 82.
Foster died Tuesday morning at his home in Chesapeake, Virginia, of complications from kidney failure, according to Cecilia Foster, his wife of 45 years.
Foster was recognized in 2002 by the National Endowment for the Arts as a Jazz Master, the nation’s highest jazz honor . In a statement expressing sadness at Foster’s death, NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman called him “an extraordinary saxophonist, composer, arranger, bandleader, and educator.”
Landesman added, “We join many others in the jazz community and beyond in mourning his death while celebrating his life.”
Video: Frank Foster and the Pioneer Orchestra, ‘Shiny Stockings’
Trending on Billboard
According to the NEA, Foster’s many compositions included material for singers Sarah Vaughan and Frank Sinatra, and a commissioned piece written for jazz orchestra for the 1980 Winter Olympics: “Lake Placid Suite.”
Foster was a native of Cincinnati. He told NEA interviewer Don Ball in 2008 that he “had an ear for music” from an early age. He said his mother took him to hear opera when he was just 6.
Jazz big bands caught his attention when he was 12. Foster’s first instrument was clarinet, but at age 13 he took up the sax. Foster told the interviewer he played in a dance band at Wilberforce University and went on to join Basie‘s band in 1953.
During his 11-year tenure with Basie, Foster not only played tenor saxophone and other woodwinds but also contributed numerous arrangements and compositions for the band, including the jazz standard “Shiny Stockings,” Down for the Count,” and “Back to the Apple.”
After Basie’s death, he returned to assume leadership of the Count Basie Orchestra from Thad Jones in 1986. He won two Grammy Awards while leading the band until 1995.
However, Cecelia Foster said he was proudest of his own big band: Frank Foster’s Loud Minority. He also played as a sideman in drummer Elvin Jones’ combo and co-led a quintet with fellow Basie veteran, saxophonist-flutist Frank Wess.
Foster also served as a musical consultant in the New York City public schools and taught at Queens College and the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Although he was partially paralyzed by a stroke in 2001, Foster’s wife said he continued composing “up until the end.”
In the NEA interview, Foster said, “I had always had as much fun writing as playing … But when you play something, if you mess up you can’t make it right. But you can write something, and if it’s not right you can change it. And I always had as much pleasure writing as playing because the thrill of hearing your music played back to you is almost indescribable.”
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Local 802 AFM
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2010-11-01T04:00:00+00:00
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Charles Genduso Charles Genduso, 88, a trumpeter and a Local 802 member since 1939, died on June 18. Early in his musical life, Mr. Genduso won a full…
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en
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https://www.local802afm.org/wp-content/themes/sink_local802/images/favicon.ico?v=1721399565
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Local 802 AFM
|
https://www.local802afm.org/allegro/articles/requiem-112/
|
Charles Genduso
Charles Genduso, 88, a trumpeter and a Local 802 member since 1939, died on June 18.
Early in his musical life, Mr. Genduso won a full scholarship to study with William Vacchiano of the New York Philharmonic. He then played locally in New York City bands before heading to the West Coast to perform with Will Osborne and his orchestra.
Mr. Genduso later returned to New York to record “Flying Home” with Ella Fitzgerald in 1945. He began long tenures with Ray McKinley, Tommy Dorsey, Harry James and Eddie Duchin. With these bands Mr. Genduso would record many albums and also appear in Hollywood movies, including “Bathing Beauty,” “Best Foot Forward,” “Springtime in the Rockies,” “Hollywood Canteen” and many others.
Mr. Genduso became a studio musician and a mainstay in Broadway orchestras. He also performed at all the top New York clubs and hotels. He played on radio and television and recorded with Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney, Louis Armstrong, Anita O’Day, Tony Bennett, Bobby Darin, Mel Torme, Sarah Vaughan and many others. He appeared often with Doc Severinsen on the “Tonight Show” big band. His final performance was at his 88th birthday when he played “I Remember You” backed by a big band to a room filled with his friends, family, fellow musicians and admirers. He is survived by sons Billy and Albert and grandchildren Joseph and Alyssa.
Brian Grice
Brian Oliver Grice, 54, a drummer and percussionist, died on July 17. He grew up in Chicago and when he joined Local 802 in 1982, he also maintained his membership in Local 10-208 (Chicago).
He began playing professionally at the age of 15. Early in his career he recorded at the famed Chess Recording Studios with artists such as Bo Diddley, Eddie Harris and Donny Hathaway.
He appeared on recordings with B.B. King, Nancy Wilson, Quincy Jones, Terrence Blanchard, Gregory Hines and Tyrone Davis. He is also on the cast albums of “Jelly’s Last Jam,” Michael John LaChiusa’s “The Wild Party” and “Swinging on a Star.”
He was on a Grammy award-winning recording with the Count Basie orchestra and served as drummer for Eartha Kitt, Gregory Hines and Savion Glover. He also played in the pits of a number of Broadway and Off Broadway shows, including “The Wiz,” “Purlie,” “Your Arms Too Short to Box With God,” “Smokey Joe’s Cafe,” “Swinging on a Star,” “Jelly’s Last Jam,” “Black and Blue” and “On the Town.”
He worked with Music Outreach, a program that brings music to children of the New York City public schools, and did a lot of private teaching.
Mr. Grice is survived by his parents Maurice and Celestine Grice, his daughter Alayah Schueller, her mother Nathalie Boyd Schueller and his stepson Rasaan Kellum.
Buddy Morrow
Buddy Morrow, 91, the noted trombonist and bandleader, died in Maitland, Florida on Sept. 27. He had been a Local 802 member since 1936.
Born Muni Zudekoff in New Haven, Conn., Mr. Morrow started trombone at age 12. At 15, he joined the Yale Collegians. He won a scholarship to Juilliard in 1936 but left after two years to play with a succession of prominent bands.
After a stint in the Navy, Mr. Morrow became a successful New York studio musician before organizing his own band in 1945. When the band was unsuccessful he returned to studio work.
In 1950 he formed another band, which was successful for more than 10 years. This band featured rock and R&B tunes such as “Night Train” and “One Mint Julep” as well as classic trombone features. like “Blue Prelude” and “Tara’s Theme.” He recorded over 20 albums including “The Golden Trombone,” “Tribute To A Sentimental Gentleman” (dedicated to Tommy Dorsey) and “Dance Tonight To Morrow.”
Returning to the studios in 1960, he also played with the “Tonight Show” orchestra, the World’s Greatest Jazz Band and the 1972 Broadway show “The Selling of The President.” In the late 70’s, Mr. Morrow took over the Tommy Dorsey orchestra, with which he performed until three days before his death.
Widely considered one of the greatest trombonists ever, Mr. Morrow received a lifetime achievement award from the International Trombone Association in 2008.
He is survived by his wife Carol, son Peter, daughters Cathy and Sara and three grandchildren.
Wesley Watson
Wesley “Wally Gator” Watson, 58, a drummer and bandleader, died on Sept. 3. He had been a Local 802 member since 1992.
Mr. Watson worked with many prominent bands including Lionel Hampton, the Duke Ellington Orchestra, the Count Basie Band and the Cab Calloway Orchestra. He also performed extended engagements with Whitney Houston, Ashford & Simpson, Ben E. King, Wilson Pickett, Sandra Reeves-Phillips and many others.
Mr. Watson toured and performed in every U.S. state and in 32 countries. Born in Brooklyn, he began working professionally at age 15. His experience as a drummer and a clinician touched on every aspect of the music business, and he performed at top venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Grand Ole Opry, the Cotton Club and the Apollo Theatre.
Mr. Watson also played in the New York City nightclub scene and on Broadway, including in such shows as “The Wiz,” “Chess,” “Your Arms Too Short to Box With God,” “I Love My Wife,” “Dreamgirls,” and Bob Fosse’s “Dancin’.”
He performed with Wilson Pickett in Ghana, West Africa, for the 1971 “Soul to Soul” concert, which later was released as a film.
Mr. Watson worked in radio, TV and film, both as a recording musician and occasionally as an actor, doing small roles.
He was a member of the Local 802 Jazz Advisory Committee.
Mr. Watson was on the staff of York College, was an artist in residence at Medgar Evers College, and was producer and host of the “Groove Master’s Show,” which still airs every Saturday at 5 p.m. on BCAT-TV (see www.TinyURL.com/bcat-schedule).
He is survived by his wife of 30 years, Elise (Shieba). He is also survived by his sons Aden, Chieftain and Ayinde (Gatorboy), sisters Claudette Cleveland and Renee MacMillan, brother Halbert Landers, grandchildren Nia, Emmanuel and Chieftain Jr. and many other friends and family.
Frederick Vogelgesang
Frederick Vogelgesang, 89, a violinist, violist, pianist and French hornist, died on Aug. 30. He had been a Local 802 member since 1947.
Mr. Vogelgesang was a child prodigy who began studying the violin at age 4. He graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music where he was a student of Efrem Zimbalist. At 18, he was the youngest member of the Philadelphia Orchestra and was the violin soloist at one of its youth concerts. He also became the orchestra’s official pianist.
During his career, Mr. Vogelgesang was also a member of the Denver Symphony, NBC Symphony, CBS Symphony, Metropolitan Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, New York City Ballet, American Symphony and the New York City Opera, where he played for almost 30 years. He worked with Arturo Toscanini, Leopold Stokowski, Eugene Ormandy and Leonard Bernstein, who had also been one his classmates at Curtis.
He also conducted at the Roxy Theatre and Radio City Music Hall and for many Broadway shows. During World War II, he played French horn with the U.S. Air Force Band.
Mr. Vogelgesang made many recordings throughout his life, playing violin, piano, viola and French horn, and perhaps his most famous recording was of the Brahms horn trio in which he played all three parts himself. He was also a music teacher and coach.
“He had a great sense of humor and always made people laugh,” wrote Mr. Vogelgesang’s wife Rosily in a letter to Allegro. Mrs. Vogelgesang also remembers that her husband enjoyed model railroads and photography. He was an avid letter writer and his friends looked forward to receiving letters from him.
In addition to his wife, Mr. Vogelgesang is survived by his brother David and brother-in-law Allen.
We also remember…
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correct_death_00034
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https://towertheatre.ticketsauce.com/e/count-basie-orchestra/tickets
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Count Basie Orchestra
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“The real innovators did their innovating just by being themselves”— Count Basie
In the history of Jazz music, there is only one bandleader that has the distinction of having his orchestra still performing sold out concerts all over the world, with members personally chosen by him, for nearly 40 years after his passing. Pianist and bandleader William James “Count” Basie was and still is an American institution that personifies the grandeur and ...
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https://towertheatre.ticketsauce.com/e/count-basie-orchestra
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Details
“The real innovators did their innovating just by being themselves”
— Count Basie
In the history of Jazz music, there is only one bandleader that has the distinction of having his orchestra still performing sold out concerts all over the world, with members personally chosen by him, for nearly 40 years after his passing. Pianist and bandleader William James “Count” Basie was and still is an American institution that personifies the grandeur and excellence of Jazz. The Count Basie Orchestra, today directed by Scotty Barnhart, has won every respected jazz poll in the world at least once, won 18 Grammy Awards, performed for Kings, Queens, and other world Royalty, appeared in several movies, television shows, at every major jazz festival and major concert hall in the world. The most recent honor is a 2024 Grammy Win of Best Large Jazz Ensemble for Basie Swings the Blues! Other honors include their 2022 Grammy Nomination for Live At Birdland, a 2018 Grammy Nomination for All About That Basie, which features special guests Stevie Wonder, Jon Faddis, and Take 6 among others, and the 2018 Downbeat Readers Poll Award as the #1 Jazz Orchestra in the world. Their critically acclaimed release in 2015 of A Very Swingin’ Basie Christmas! is the very first holiday album in the 80-year history of the orchestra. Released on Concord Music, it went to #1 on the Jazz charts and sold out on Amazon! Special guests include vocalists Johnny Mathis, Ledisi, our own Carmen Bradford and pianist Ellis Marsalis. A BBC TV produced documentary on Mr. Basie and the orchestra entitled Count Basie: Through His Own Eyes premiered on PBS in the US and UK in 2019 coinciding with the orchestra’s 85th Anniversary. It features interviews by Quincy Jones, Scotty Barnhart, Dee Askew, John Williams, and several other important members and associates of Mr. Basie and the orchestra.
Some of the greatest soloists, composers, arrangers, and vocalists in jazz history such as Lester Young, Billie Holiday, Frank Foster, Thad Jones, Sonny Payne, Freddie Green, Snooky Young, Frank Wess, and Joe Williams, became international stars once they began working with the legendary Count Basie Orchestra. This great 18-member orchestra is still continuing the excellent history started by Basie of stomping and shouting the blues, as well as refining those musical particulars that allow for the deepest and most moving of swing.
William “Count” Basie was born in Red Bank, New Jersey in 1904. He began his early playing days by working as a silent movie pianist and organist and by eventually working with the Theater Owners Booking Agency (TOBA) circuit. In 1927, Basie, then touring with Gonzelle White and the Big Jazz Jamboree, found himself stranded in Kansas City, Missouri. It was here that he would begin to explore his deep love of the Blues and meet his future band mates including bassist Walter Page.
Walter Page’s Blue Devils and Benny Moten's Kansas City Orchestra caught Basie’s ear and soon he was playing with both and serving as second pianist and arranger for Mr. Moten. In 1935, Bennie Moten died, and it was left to Basie to take some of the musicians from that orchestra and form his own, The Count Basie Orchestra, which is still alive and well today some 86 years later. His orchestra epitomized Kansas City Swing and along with the bands of Fletcher Henderson, Jimmy Lunceford, Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman, Basie’s orchestra would define the big band era.
While the media of the period crowned Benny Goodman the “King of Swing”, the real King of Swing was undoubtedly Count Basie. As the great Basie trumpeter Sweets Edison once said, “we used to tear all of the other bands up when it came to swing”. The Basie orchestra evolved into one of the most venerable and viable enterprises in American music with the highest levels of continued productivity rivaling any musical organization in history.
With the April In Paris recording in 1955, the orchestra began to set standards of musical achievement that have been emulated by every jazz orchestra since that time. One of the things that set Mr. Basie’s orchestra apart from all others and is one of the secrets to its longevity, is the fact the Basie allowed and actually encouraged his musicians to compose and arrange especially for the orchestra and its distinctive soloists such as Snooky Young, Thad Jones, Frank Foster, and Frank Wess on flute, who recorded the very first jazz flute solo in history. The orchestra also began to become the first choice for the top jazz vocalists of the day including Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Tony
Bennett, and of course, Basie’s “Number One Son”, the great Joe Williams.
During the 1960s and throughout the 1970s and into the 80s, the orchestra’s sound, swing feel, general articulation and style began to become more laid back and even more relaxed. As 30-year veteran trumpeter Sonny Cohn once stated, “this is a laid...back...orchestra....a...laid...back...orchestra”. With very few personnel changes, the orchestra members were able to blend into one sound and one way of phrasing that is now known as the “Basie way”.
Since Basie’s passing in 1984, Thad Jones, Frank Foster, Grover Mitchell, Bill Hughes, Dennis Mackrel, and since September 2013, Scotty Barnhart, have led the Count Basie Orchestra and maintained it as one of the elite performing organizations in Jazz.
Current members include musicians hired by Basie himself: Frequent guest vocalist Carmen Bradford (joined in 1983) and trombonist Clarence Banks (1984). Long-time members include Doug Miller (1989, formerly w/Lionel Hampton), guitarist Will Matthews from Kansas City (1996), and members who have 15-25 years of service; trombonist Mark Williams, trumpeters Shawn Edmonds and Endre Rice, saxophonists Doug Lawrence (formerly w/Benny Goodman) and returning on lead alto, David Glasser.
Newer members include bassist Trevor Ware, lead trumpeter Frank Greene III and trumpeter Brandon Lee, pianist Reginald Thomas, lead trombonist Isrea Butler, bass trombonist Ronald Wilkins, alto sax and flute Stantawn Kendrick and the youngest members, drummer Robert Boone and baritone saxophonist Josh Lee.
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FactBench
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https://www.denvercenter.org/news-center/miss-rhythm-popular-pop-culture-references-explained/
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Miss Rhythm: Popular Pop Culture References Explained
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2023-05-15T11:14:27-06:00
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Miss Rhythm — The Legend of Ruth Brown plays at the Garner Galleria Theatre through October 22 to bring R&B singer and actor Ruth Brown’s story to life. This show’s script mentions significant people, places and things that also affected Ruth Brown’s life. Here’s a brief rundown of each person,…
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en
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Denver Center for the Performing Arts
|
https://www.denvercenter.org/news-center/miss-rhythm-popular-pop-culture-references-explained/
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//
Miss Rhythm — The Legend of Ruth Brown plays at the Garner Galleria Theatre through October 22 to bring R&B singer and actor Ruth Brown’s story to life. This show’s script mentions significant people, places and things that also affected Ruth Brown’s life.
Here’s a brief rundown of each person, place and thing mentioned in Miss Rhythm.
“Sanford and Son” – A 1972 sitcom starring comedian Red Foxx and Demond Wilson who play father and son, Fred and Lamont Sanford. They own a junkyard called Sanford and Son in California and get into a series of adventures with the estranged, Bible-toting Aunt Esther (LaWanda Page), Grady (Whitman Mayo), Bubba (Don Bexley) and more. The pioneering show featured the first predominantly Black cast since “Amos ’n’ Andy” in 1951 and went on to last for six seasons.
Hairspray – A 1988 movie with Ruth Brown as Motormouth Maybelle, Sonny Bono as Franklin Von Tussle, Debbie Harry as Velma Von Tussle, and more about a plump teenager who earns a spot on a popular teen dance show. She pushes for more cultural diversity on the show in 1962 Baltimore, Maryland. The 2007 remake also has an A-list cast with Queen Latifah, John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer, Christopher Walken, Zac Efron and more.
Black and Blue – A 1989 Broadway musical starring Ruth Brown, Linda Hopkins, Carrie Smith and more celebrating the great legacy of classic African-American song, dance and music traditions. Ruth Brown scored a Tony Award for the “Best Actress in a Musical” category in 1989.
Jimmy Brown – A trumpeter and one of Ruth’s husbands.
Lucky Millinder’s Band – Ruth Brown sang for Lucky Millinder’s Band for a while. She was fired after a gig in Washington D.C. for bringing sodas to the band members.
Blanche Calloway – The first woman to lead an all-male jazz orchestra, the older sister of Cab Calloway and the first African-American woman to vote in Florida in 1958. Blanche discovered Ruth and served as her agent after Ruth was let go from Lucky Millinder’s Band. Blanche also gave Ruth a gig at the Crystal Caverns Nightclub.
Cab Calloway – A bandleader, singer and entertainer during the Swing Era. He’s also the younger brother of Blanche Calloway.
Crystal Caverns Club – A jazz club, aka Bohemian Caverns, owned by Blanche Calloway. Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Ruth Brown and other musicians played here.
Willis Conover – A DJ for Music USA on Voice of America. Willis, Sonny Til, and Duke Ellington heard Ruth Brown sing at the Crystal Caverns and called Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson at Atlantic Records about this raw talent.
Sonny Til – Singer of Sonny Til and The Orioles. The band is well known for its reputation as the Founding Fathers of Rhythm and Blues.
Duke Ellington – One of the greatest jazz composers, bandleaders and pianists. He was one of the big-band jazz originators. He was responsible for hits like “I Got It Bad And That Ain’t Good,” “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing),” “In A Sentimental Mood” and more.
Ahmet Ertegun – A Turkish-American music executive who founded Atlantic Records with Herb Abramson in 1947. Willis Conover called Ahmet and Herb to tell them about Ruth Brown after seeing her perform at the Crystal Caverns. Ahmet had a representative speak with Brown and give her a record deal.
Herb Abramson – Co-founder of Atlantic Records. He spent a lot of his time collecting jazz and blues records, and eventually became a part-time producer for National Records. He joined forces with Ahmet Ertegun, a fellow record collector, and the rest was history.
Atlantic Records – Considered “The House That Ruth Built,” held many greats like Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, The Drifters, Led Zeppelin and more. Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson started Atlantic in 1947 as a major label for jazz and R&B. On her way to New York to sign and perform at the Apollo, Ruth endured a car accident that crushed her legs. She signed her contract from a hospital bed and Atlantic paid her medical bills.
Apollo Theater – Known as “The Soul of American Culture,” this Harlem theater in New York launched the careers of many performers in the jazz, swing, bebop, R&B, gospel, blues and soul eras. Ella Fitzgerald and Pearl Bailey debuted at the Apollo in 1934. Ruth performed at the Apollo in 1954 with her hit, “Mama He Treats Your Daughter Mean.”
Grand Ole Opry – The Nashville stage that exhibits country music’s past, present and future with Johnny Cash, Reba McEntire, Randy Travis, Martina McBride, Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood and more. Ruth performed at the Grand Ole Opry in 1986 for a tribute show dedicated to DJ John “John R” Richbourg.
George Shearing – British pianist and composer Sir George Shearing. He was a blind, self-taught musician who found fame and fortune in the U.S. with elegant jazz stylings. Ruth Brown performed in a 1950s concert with George Shearing, Count Basie, The Jacks, Sonny Til and the Orioles and more. Their names and faces also shared a concert poster.
Billy Eckstine – An African-American jazz, bebop and ballad singer with a deep voice. Ruth Brown toured with Eckstine in the 50s and also shared billing on a poster.
The Count Basie Orchestra – Founded by William “Count” Basie in Kansas City, Missouri in 1927 where he found his love for the Blues. Some key soloists, composers, arrangers, and vocalists included Lester Young, Billie Holiday, Frank Foster, and more. Ruth Brown was a featured vocalist for the Orchestra, and the Orchestra still plays gigs today long after Count Basie’s death.
Redd Fox – Comedian and actor on “Sanford and Son,” Harlem Nights and more, Foxx and Ruth were good friends. He was the opening act for her on tours.
Mahalia Jackson – Known as the “Queen of Gospel Song,” Mahalia sang at President John F. Kennedy’s inauguration in 1961. Ruth played Mahalia in the musical Selma, which was backed by Red Foxx in 1976. This “comeback” launched Ruth’s stage, television and film careers.
“The Jeffersons” – A spin off of “All in the Family,” “The Jeffersons” focused on George and Louise “Weezy” Jefferson (played by Sherman Hemsley and Isabel Sanford), a Black couple who “moved on up” from a quiet neighborhood to a luxurious city apartment. The show aired from 1975 to 1985. Ruth Brown made a guest appearance on an 1981 episode.
John Waters – Director of 1988’s Hairspray movie. Ruth Brown mentioned in an interview with the Chicago Tribune that her and John had differences on set, but Divine stepped in as the mediator. Hairspray introduced Ruth to a new generation of music lovers.
Divine – Born Harris Glenn Milstead, Divine is an actor, recording star, and a legendary drag icon. Divine performed with Ruth in Hairspray. Ruth said in the aforementioned Chicago Tribune interview that Divine mediated between her and John Waters. He told her, “Don’t worry, Ruth. For every fan that you lose there are two more that you’ll win.”
The Rhythm and Blues Foundation – A foundation Ruth started to help R&B singers receive their royalties from big record labels. The company also provides support for artists’ family members.
Lena Horne – American singer, dancer, actor and Civil Rights activist. She played in Cabin in the Sky and Stormy Weather, two heavy-hitter 1943 MGM musicals.
Ray Charles – A blind blues musician with hits such as “Hit the Road Jack,” “I Can’t Stop Loving’ You,” “Georgia On My Mind,” “What’d I Say Pt. 1 & 2” and so many more. He signed with Atlantic Records in 1954. Comedian, actor, and singer Jamie Foxx portrayed Ray Charles in the 2004 movie, Ray, scoring Foxx an Oscar for Best Actor.
Joe Williams – Known for hits, “Everyday (I Have The Blues),” “The Comeback,” and “Alright Okay You Win,” Joe Williams performed with the Count Basie Orchestra and collaborated on the album, Everyday I Have The Blues.
Bonnie Raitt – American singer and songwriter ranging from R&B to gospel, blues, country rock and more. She inducted Ruth Brown into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.
For more references, music and fun, check out Miss Rhythm – The Legend of Ruth Brown at the Garner Galleria Theatre playing now through October 15.
DETAILS
Miss Rhythm – The Legend of Ruth Brown
May 6 – Oct 22, 2023 • Garner Galleria Theatre
Tickets
https://www.denvercenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/lucky-millinders.jpeg 369 455 Khaleel Hayes Khaleel Hayes2023-05-15 11:14:272024-02-01 11:51:33Miss Rhythm: Popular Pop Culture References Explained
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https://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/2016/02/07/thad-jones-mel-lewis-jazz/79845538/
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Thad Jones: 50 years of big band jazz in present tense
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2016-02-07T00:00:00
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Rare 1966 recordings document birth of influential band co-led by innovative Pontaic-born composer, arranger, trumpeter
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en
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Detroit Free Press
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https://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/2016/02/07/thad-jones-mel-lewis-jazz/79845538/
|
Thad Jones was stuck in neutral at the start of 1966. A few months shy of his 43rd birthday, the Pontiac-born trumpeter was toiling in the CBS studios and freelancing around New York. He had recently left the cozy nest of the Count Basie band, where he spent nine years from 1954-63. He contributed some potent arrangements to Basie, though his greatest fame came from inserting a mischievous quote of “Pop Goes the Weasel” to start his solo on “April in Paris” (1955).
Jones was the second of three brothers from Pontiac who became jazz royalty. Hank, the oldest, was an elegant pianist. Younger brother Elvin was one of the most innovative drummers in jazz history. By early 1966, Thad Jones was known as a versatile modernist, highly regarded by insiders as a thinking man’s improviser and an imaginative composer-arranger. But there was also a feeling that for a musician who bassist Charles Mingus had once celebrated as “Bartok with valves,” Jones’ career remained less noteworthy than his talent had predicted.
That began to change 50 years ago today. On Monday, Feb. 7, 1966, in a pie-shaped basement 15 steps below 7th Avenue in Manhattan, the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra made its debut at the Village Vanguard. The band, co-led by an A-list drummer, was an instant smash, and Jones was soon recognized as one of the most important and influential composer-arrangers in jazz. More than anyone else, as critic-musician Bill Kirchner once put it, Jones revitalized post-war big band writing for the conventional ensemble of saxophones, trumpets, trombones and rhythm section. Jones created a new template. On top of a Basie and Ellington foundation he added all the harmonic and rhythmic advances since bebop, even venturing into modal territory mapped out by John Coltrane. It was big band music in the present tense. In some ways it still is.
Jones, who died in 1986, and Lewis created an institution. They parlayed a handshake deal with Vanguard owner Max Gordon for a couple Monday nights into the longest running gig in jazz history. Fifty years and roughly 2,500 Mondays later, the band — which survived Jones’ decampment to Europe in 1979 and Lewis’ death in 1990 — lives on as the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. The band has been celebrating its anniversary with an extended eight-night stand at the club.
Another piece of the anniversary party arrives on Feb. 19: Resonance Records is issuing a remarkable 2-CD set, “All My Yesterdays,” which documents the birth of the band, including six tracks recorded on that first Monday night 50 years ago and 11 more taped six weeks later.
These seminal recordings open a window on a critical chapter in modern jazz history. It's a rich, multi-layered story that begins with Jones' influential genius and the long-shadow of the orchestra he and Lewis created a half century ago. But the tale also reflects the explosion of jazz talent in Detroit in the middle of the 20th Century and the odd-couple partnership of an African-American trumpeter-composer and white drummer, whose integrated ensemble offered an inspiring model for the promise of American culture at its best
The music on the Resonance set, including such Jones classics as “The Little Pixie,” “Mean What You Say” and “Big Dipper,” practically explodes out of the speakers. Execution is not nearly as polished as it would become, but the excitement, electricity and spontaneity in the club are off the charts — you can hear Jones clapping and shouting encouragement to the band. The audience is shouting too, and you can feel the feedback loop inspiring the players.
The recordings were engineered by George Klabin, then a 19-year-old student at Columbia, who was hired by disc jockey Alan Grant, an early champion of the band, to help provide Jones and Lewis with a demo tape that they could use to secure a record deal. About 15 years ago, Grant released a shoddy bootleg of some of this music, obscuring the fact that there were two recording dates. Now Klabin, who owns Resonance, and co-producer Zev Feldman have done right by the material, meticulously sorting out the details and including an 88-page booklet featuring fresh interviews with surviving original band members and others. The sound quality is crystal clear.
There's one regrettable misstep. Because the original tape ran out before the end of "The Little Pixie," the producers had to engineer a fade-out. But they have also surreptitiously spliced the opening chorus onto the end of the performance, clumsily re-arranging Jones' masterpiece.
Still, the opening-night performance of “The Little Pixie” offers a distillation of Jones' art. Like a lot of his classics, it’s based on a simple form: a 32-bar “I Got Rhythm”-derived tune in A-flat that Jones transforms into a dazzling symphony of melody and swing. It begins with a surprising burst of muted brass, an ambiguous chord suspended in midair. Saxophones announce the jabbing theme, heavily syncopated and sparkling like pixie dust. Three scampering ensemble choruses follow as reeds and brass (in cup mutes to start, then open) chase after each other in a game of anything-you-can-do-I-can-do-better. They trade 16-bar phrases, then 8s, then 4s. The writing is virtuosic and witty, filled with clever melodic pirouettes, breathless triplets, driving rhythmic accents and colorful chord extensions. Joyous swing is built into every phrase. Harmonies bite with dissonance. Tension builds. Fingers fly. Emotions soar. The ensemble merges in a rocking climax.
Wow!
The band included mostly midcareer pros from the studios, players with big band experience but also vibrant personalities as soloists, among them the section leaders Snooky Young, a peerless lead trumpeter, Jerome Richardson on alto saxophone and Bob Brookmeyer on valve trombone. Hank Jones was on board, though another Detroit pianist, Roland Hanna, would soon assume his chair. Marvin (Doc) Holladay, who in the 1970s established the jazz program at Oakland University, played baritone sax on opening night, though the fire-breathing Pepper Adams, Jones’ first choice for the baritone chair, plays on the March 21 date and shortly thereafter replaced Holladay permanently. Hot young tenor Joe Farrell was in the sax section
Jones, more than 6 feet tall and built like a linebacker, played unpredictable solos on cornet and flugelhorn and conducted with a charismatic smile and homemade karate-chop gestures. The sidemen made $17 a night to start, though the band was so successful the members quickly got a raise — to $18. The Vanguard charged a $2.50 cover.
“When word got out about the band, a crowd of musicians started showing up at rehearsals,” alto saxophonist Jerry Dodgion, an original member, said in an interview. “That first night the place was packed. Jazz was alive in New York, but it wasn’t thriving. Max wasn’t doing great. He said, ‘Mondays are a good night to try — nothing’s happening.’ Pretty soon, Mondays were sustaining him. It was good timing. The band exploded and the people were ready for it.”
Jones, who was 63 when he died, has been gone 30 years. While he's in the canon, his brilliance as an improviser and composer-arranger are not as widely understood or appreciated as they should be these days. Still, as great a trumpet soloist as Jones was — and he remains a vastly underrated school unto himself — his ultimate destiny was the big band. “The epitome of everything we’re trying to do musically — sounds, fury, distance, dissonance, space — happens in a big band,” Jones told Down Beat magazine in 1970.
Coming of age as a musician and man
Born Thaddeus Joseph Jones in 1923, he took up the trumpet at 13 or 14 after hearing Louis Armstrong on the radio, and he taught himself to play from method books. He played cornet at Pontiac High School and retained a lifelong preference for the instrument’s darker sound compared to the trumpet. Being self-taught reinforced his individuality.
“There are certain things I do in certain ways that nobody else does,” Jones told Down Beat in 1955. “A schooled musician has, I imagine, a crisper style than mine, but there is a freedom in the way I play.”
Jones was raised on a rich diet of big bands. Duke Ellington's puckish cornetist Rex Stewart, who loved bent notes and half-valve effects, left the biggest imprint until Jones latched onto his most significant influence, Dizzy Gillespie. Jones assimilated the swift attack, complex syncopation and chromatic melodies that defined the emerging bebop style spearheaded by Gillespie and alto saxophonist Charlie Parker.
Jones played with territory bands, revues, carnivals and burlesque shows in the late '40s. The trips to the segregated south were rough: “We were having pistols stuck in our faces by cops,” he told Chip Deffaa in the 1985 book “Swing Legacy.” Those experiences and others like them left scars. Friends remember Jones as generous, gregarious, self-effacing and funny, but his mood and countenance could turn on a dime if he sensed any hint of racism, disrespect or condescension.
“He had antennae up for that,” said trumpeter John McNeil. “It came close to having a chip on his shoulder, but if you were cool, he was cool with you.” McNeil said Jones told him about an incident on the street in front of Birdland in New York in the ‘50s in which Jones, wearing a suit and holding his horn case, was standing with friends when two cops approached. One said, “Hey, boys, break it up.” Jones, his temperature rising at the demeaning tone, replied sternly, “I don’t see no boys here!” The cops roughed him up. “I didn’t make it easy on them,” Jones told McNeil. “They had to call for backup. It took four of them to get me in that car. I got a few bruises, but it was worth it. They charged me with disorderly conduct or some bull, and I had to pay a fine.”
Jones retained an intense dislike for the south, especially Florida, where on a couple of occasions he left for home in the middle of tours with his own band because he perceived racist treatment. He was a complicated man. Mel Lewis told Bob Rusch in Cadence magazine in an interview published in 1990 that Jones created some scenes himself, situations exacerbated by Jones' issues with alcohol abuse.
Jones settled in Detroit, joining the house band in 1952 that tenor saxophonist Billy Mitchell led at the Blue Bird Inn on the West Side. It was the hippest modern jazz group at the hippest club in Detroit. The rest of the band was pianist-vibraphonist Terry Pollard (who was replaced by pianist Tommy Flanagan when she joined Terry Gibbs in 1953), bassist James (Beans) Richardson and drummer Elvin Jones.
Mitchell’s quintet became the stuff of legend, working on its own and backing visiting stars like Charlie Parker, Sonny Stitt and Miles Davis. Several of Jones’ enduring originals date from this period, including “Zec,” “Elusive,” “Bitty Ditty,” “Scratch” and “50-21." In May 1954, Jones was hired out of Detroit by Basie, and he hit New York running.
The highlights of Jones’ early discography are the three LPs he made for Blue Note in 1956-57: “Detroit-New York Junction,” “The Magnificent Thad Jones,” “The Magnificent Thad Jones, Vol. 3.” Half the sidemen were colleagues from home, among them emerging stars like guitarist Kenny Burrell and bassist Paul Chambers, and these were among the first records to draw attention to the burgeoning pipeline of world-class talent from Detroit.
Jones’ initial LPs were part of an emerging hard bop mainstream, but they also stand apart. Unlike the loose blowing sessions coming into vogue, there is a wealth of organizational detail. Jones' compositions and improvisations are filled with what colleagues would come to call "Jonesisms” — melodic surprises and dissonance, sudden harmonic shifts, rhythmic displacements, curious sequences and intervals —that keep the ear in a state of wonder. Jones’ solos are models of tension-and-release, each risky dissonance ingeniously resolved — like Gillespie taken to a higher level of abstraction.
Jones' tone was uniquely burnished and warm, and he didn’t rely on preconceived patterns and formulas. “If you talk about the percentage of true improvisation in a solo — or an entire career of solos — then Thad had one of the highest percentages in jazz history,” said trumpeter Tim Hagans. “The quality and percentage of literally new stuff that came out of his horn was astounding. That creative melodic language is what informs all his lead lines in his big band writing. That’s why his music has so much warmth and humor.”
Jones balanced organization and unpredictability. “I remember hearing him play night after night on tunes that I knew really well, and I would think: Why did he just play that?" said John McNeil. “Then five or six seconds later I’d wonder why I never did! He could make a sequence out of anything. He would play a phrase, then play it a minor 3rd away, then maybe a step down; he would move it all over the place. And he would make changes to it as he went along, throwing other notes in or changing the rhythm.”
Jones told the New York Times in 1973: “There are no bad notes, just bad organization.”
Jones’ first big band arrangements with Basie in the late '50s fit comfortably into the Basie mold, but there are also Jonesisms: A trombone playing lead over the saxes on “H.R.H.” is as alluring as it is unusual. The ambitious “Speaking of Sounds” folds flute, clarinet and bass clarinet into the orchestration and a cutesy soft-shoe beat.
At a 1961 recording session that paired the Ellington and Basie bands, Duke’s ears perked up when he heard Jones’ sumptuous ballad “To You.” Ellington hired Jones in August 1963 for what turned out to be just a week. Jones joined the band at the Michigan State Fairgrounds in Detroit for performances of Ellington’s symphonic “Night Creature” with the Detroit Symphony led by associate conductor Walter Poole. Jones regarded the experience as one of the greatest musical highlights of his life. But he would later recall that he couldn’t keep the gig because he had just left Basie to spend more time with his wife and two children.
Jones revered Ellington. One Monday in 1968, Ellington veterans Britt Woodman and Jimmy Hamilton dropped by the Vanguard. When they left, Jones turned to David Berger, an aspiring composer-arranger: “Duke Ellington — greatest band in the world,” said Jones.
Berger protested: “Your band's the greatest!”
“No, no, no!” Jones said. “My band's not one-tenth of what Duke Ellington and Count Basie are and never will be.”
Jones elaborated on Ellington in Deffaa’s “Swing Legacy”: “I can’t think of anybody who was able to use the material available and to mold it and create such fantastic musical tapestries. It’s almost like watching a moving mural to listen to one of his arrangements. All of the different colors. All of the different intangibles that you feel emotionally.”
The birth of a band
Jones and Mel Lewis first met in Detroit on a sweltering July night in 1955 when Jones was with Basie and Lewis was with Stan Kenton. The groups were booked for a battle-of-the-bands dance at the Graystone Ballroom. After talking on a break, Jones invited Lewis to the West End Hotel, an after-hours jam session spot in southwest Detroit. They pair remained friendly, later crossing paths in the studios and the fertile Gerry Mulligan Concert Jazz Band in 1964. That’s when they began plotting their own band.
The demise of the Mulligan band set the stage for the Jones-Lewis orchestra. So did fate. Basie commissioned an album’s worth of material from Jones in 1965, but the arrangements proved too adventurous for Basie and the LP was scuttled. Jones and Lewis now had the foundation of a book of their own. Bob Brookmeyer, who found inspiration in Jones’ progressive dissonance and would become a highly influential writer himself, also contributed several key charts.
The co-leaders were a curious pair: One black and raised Baptist, the other white and Jewish; Jones was genial, Lewis rather brusque and a talker of Rabbinical proportion. But they were as close as brothers. They insisted on rooming together on the road, even though Jones was an inveterate ladies’ man and Lewis was often left to bide his time in hotel lobbies while Jones entertained a new friend upstairs. But Jones and Lewis shared musical values. Each wanted a disciplined band committed to the grandeur of the ensemble but with unfettered freedom granted to soloists.
They also insisted on an integrated band. From the start the group was half-black and half-white, a potent symbol of harmony in an era in which black-power politics were gaining currency. When the personnel tilted increasingly toward white players in the ‘70s, Jones and Lewis candidly complained to critic Leonard Feather in 1978 about the relative scarcity of young black musicians willing to commit to straight-ahead jazz in the fusion era and the irony that increasing opportunities for blacks in previously closed studios and pit bands were siphoning away potential sidemen.
For all of Jones’ originality, one of the most striking things about many of his compositions and arrangements is how basic the forms are and how saturated they are with the blues. On the new Resonance release, “Big Dipper,” “Backbone” and "A-That's Freedom" (Hank Jones' tune, but Thad's chart) are all 12 or 16-bar variations on the blues. Jones’ melodic imagination and reservoir of swing are inexhaustible. The theme of “Mean What You Say,” as memorable as a Gershwin tune, gives way to oodles of adroit counter-melodies, ornamentation, interludes and backgrounds. You could draw a frame around any detail and call it a song.
There were many other innovations and Jonesims. He set a new standard for the saxophone “soli” — a written passage for the section that mirrors an improvised solo. He reintroduced the soprano saxophone into a big band tapestry.His climatic shout choruses roar in gnarly yet swinging glory. In the '70s, he explored woodwind colors and even denser harmony. When you take the scores apart, you can see the craftwork. But there’s a soulful resonance far beyond technique. Jones tells stories. He gets under your skin where your emotions live. He excites the imagination, elevates the spirit.
“I try to write it as I’m building a house, adding as I go, maybe bypassing one section and coming back to it, rather than go from level to level,” Jones told Down Beat in 1974.
Lewis was the band's secret weapon. The most musical big band drummer of the modern era, he swung in relaxed fashion at any tempo or volume, set up the ensemble with a minimum of fuss, and morphed into a fine small-group drummer behind solos. He teamed with idiosyncratic bassist Richard Davis to forge a groove unlike any other. Lewis’ drums laid behind the beat and Davis’ bass pushed ahead: Imagine the back and front legs of a chair moving in unison, the band riding on a wide cushion in between.
The audience never knew what was going to happen. Neither did the players. Jones would spontaneously cue the rhythm section in and out, letting a soloist go it alone for a few choruses or putting a horn player in motion with, say, just bass behind him. The two versions of “Big Dipper” on the new recording begin with hilariously heated unaccompanied discussions between Jerome Richardson’s baying alto sax and Jimmy Nottingham’s growling, plunger-muted trumpet. Background riffs behind soloists were often improvised on the spot, and Jones would mix and match them on the fly.
The Vanguard was Jones' living room. He had fun, and if you were in his orbit, you did too. One night Miles Davis was in the club and between tunes walked up to the band and asked Jones to play a ballad. “Sure!” said Jones. He turned to the band and counted off one of the fastest tunes in the book. The next tune was a ballad.
The original band recorded five indispensable LPs between 1966-70 — “Presenting Thad Jones-Mel Lewis & the Jazz Orchestra,” “Live at the Village Vanguard,” “Monday Night,” “Central Park North” and “Consummation.” There are also studio dates with Ruth Brown and Joe Williams and killer bootlegs of European concerts in 1969 with the added attraction of Joe Henderson (another former Detroiter) blowing up a storm on tenor sax. There’s a lot of great video from Europe floating around YouTube too.
A legacy of individualism
The ‘70s on the whole were frustrating for Jones. He and Lewis were unable to parlay their acclaim into higher fees, steady recordings and more consistent touring. A New York Times story in 1973 gives a picture of Jones’ harried professional life: He taught at William Patterson University in Wayne, N.J., on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Five nights a week, plus matinees on Wednesday and Saturdays, were spent in the pit for “Two Gentlemen of Verona” on Broadway. On Fridays he flew to Boston to teach at the New England Conservatory. Monday nights were reserved for the Vanguard. “America makes a mockery of higher aesthetic yearning,” Jones told Jazz Journal International in 1979.
He had reached another crossroads. Beyond his gnawing restlessness, his marriage was breaking up, and there was a new woman in his life from Denmark. He began a relationship with the Danish Radio Big Band in 1977 that called for well-paid two-month residencies in Copenhagen in the fall and spring, including recording. He re-upped the next year, quietly laying the groundwork for a permanent move. Then came a bizarre incident whose details still remain elusive.
While on tour with the Jones-Lewis band in 1978, Jones was in a taxi cab in Yugoslavia when a bystander shoved his fist through the window. The shattered glass cut Jones’ lip, and it would take three years and several surgeries before he could return to the cornet. He took up valve trombone for a while, because the larger mouthpiece required less muscle strength. In interviews Jones blamed the incident on a random act of violence by a drunk, but given his own volatile history it’s just as likely that words had been exchanged before the punch. Jones left the states without warning in January 1979 to start a new life in Denmark. “Thad and Mel got a divorce — and Mel got the kids” was a popular line at the time.
Lewis had been deeply hurt when Jones left. The drummer never really got over the bitterness, although he and Jones eventually reached a détente. The brief final chapter of Jones’ life began in 1985, when he returned to America to take over the Count Basie band after Basie’s death. The marriage got off to a promising start, but within a year an exhausted Jones returned to Copenhagen. He died of cancer in August 1986.
Jones’ music remains central to the big-band tradition. His arrangements are performed regularly and studied like Shakespeare in universities. Almost all of the mainstream big band arrangers and composers to emerge in the 1970s and ‘80s bore his influence, among them Jim McNeely, John Clayton and Bob Mintzer. The avant-garde hero Muhal Richard Abrams took something from Jones’ dissonance and angularity and dedicated a piece to him, “Big T.” Of the younger generation, the eclectic composer-bandleader Darcy James Argue grew up worshiping Jones. Countless once-a-week big bands all over the country grew out of the Jones-Lewis model. Jones' trumpet playing remains far less celebrated, but a goldmine of ideas and inspiration awaits anyone who discovers it.
Ultimately, however, Jones’ legacy transcends aesthetic bloodlines and musicology. The key lesson of his career is that his body of work defines a spirit of individualism as adamantly as any in jazz. “Each person has his or her own voice that they have to speak with if they want to speak the truth,” Jones said about a year before he died. That’s it exactly: The music of Thad Jones spoke the truth. The whole truth and nothing but.
This essay was adapted from Mark Stryker’s forthcoming book, “Made in Detroit: Jazz from the Motor City” (University of Michigan Press), to be published in 2017.
Contact Mark Stryker: 313-222-6459. [email protected]
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https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Count_Basie
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Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Count_Basie
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William "Count" Basie (August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. He was one of the most important jazz bandleaders of his time. He led his popular Count Basie Orchestra for almost 50 years. Many important musicians came to became popular and successful with his help, like tenor saxophonists Lester Young and Herschel Evans, trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry "Sweets" Edison and singers Jimmy Rushing and Joe Williams. Basie's famous songs were "One O'Clock Jump" and "April In Paris".
William James Basie was born in 1904 in New Jersey. His parents were Harvey Lee Basie and Lillian Ann Childs, who lived on Mechanic Street in Red Bank, New Jersey.[1] His father worked as a coachman and caretaker for a rich judge. After automobiles (cars) became more popular than using horses to get around, his father became a groundskeeper and handyman for some families in the area.[2] His mother was a piano player and she gave Basie his first piano lessons. To earn money, she took in laundry to wash and baked cakes for sale.[3]
Basie was not very interested in school. He dreamed of a traveling, inspired by the carnivals which came to town. He only got as far as junior high school.[4] He helped out at the Palace theater in Red Bank, to get into the shows for free. He also learned to use the spotlights for the vaudeville shows. One day, when the pianist did not arrive in time for the show, Basie played instead. He soon learned to improvise music for silent movies.[5]
Basie was very good at the piano, but he liked drums better. There was another drummer in Red Bank who was better, called Sonny Greer, so Basie stopped playing drums and just played piano.[3] They played together until Greer started his professional career. Basie played with different groups for dances, resorts, and amateur shows, like Harry Richardson’s "Kings of Syncopation".[6] When he was not playing a gig, he spent time at the local pool hall with other musicians. He got some jobs in Asbury Park, playing at the Hong Kong Inn, until a better player took his place.[7]
Around 1924, Basie went to Harlem, New York City. A lot of jazz was being played there. He liced down the block from the Alhambra Theater. Soon after he went to Harlem, he met Sonny Greer again, who was now the drummer for the Washingtonians, Duke Ellington's early band.[8] Soon, Basie met many Harlem musicians, like Willie "the Lion" Smith and James P. Johnson.
Basie toured in some acts between 1925 and 1927, as a soloist and accompanist to blues singers Katie Krippen and Gonzelle White.[9][10] He went to Kansas City, St. Louis, New Orleans, and Chicago. He met many great jazz musicians, like Louis Armstrong.[11]
Back in Harlem in 1925, Basie got his first regular job at Leroy’s, a place known for its piano players, where lots of celebrities went. The band usually played without sheet music.[12] He met Fats Waller, who was playing organ at the Lincoln Theater, accompanying silent movies, and Waller taught him how to play the organ.[13] Willie "the Lion" Smith helped Basie out when there was not much work, arranging gigs at house-rent parties, where he met other important musicians.[14]
In 1928 Basie was in Tulsa and heard Walter Page and his Famous Blue Devils, one of the first big bands, which had Jimmy Rushing singing.[15] A few months later, Basie was asked to join the band, which played mostly in Texas and Oklahoma. He began to be known as "Count" Basie.[16]
In 1929, Basie started playing with the Bennie Moten band, Kansas City.[17] The Moten band was classier and more respected than the Blue Devils. They played in a style called the Kansas City stomp.[18] As well as playing piano, Basie also arranged music with Eddie Durham.[19] When they were staying in Chicago, Basie recorded with the band. He sometimes played four-hand piano and dual pianos with Moten.[20] The band got better when they added a saxophone player called Ben Webster.
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https://www.nytimes.com/1984/04/27/arts/count-basie-79-band-leader-and-master-of-swing-dead.html
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COUNT BASIE, 79, BAND LEADER AND MASTER OF SWING, DEAD
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https://www.nytimes.com/1984/04/27/arts/count-basie-79-band-leader-and-master-of-swing-dead.html
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Count Basie, the jazz pianist whose spare, economic keyboard style and supple rhythmic drive made his orchestra one of the most influential groups of the Big Band era, died of cancer yesterday morning at Doctors' Hospital in Hollywood, Fla. He was 79 years old and lived in Freeport, the Bahamas.
Mr. Basie was, along with Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman, one of the pre-eminent bandleaders of the Big Band era in the 1930's and 40's. Mr. Basie's band, more than any other, was the epitome of swing, of jazz that moved with a built-in flowing intensity.
This stemmed primarily from the presence in the rhythm section, from 1937 to the present, of both Mr. Basie on piano and Freddie Green on guitar.
As one critic put it, they ''put wheels on all four bars of the beat,'' creating a smooth rhythmic flow over which Mr. Basie's other instrumentalists rode as though they were on a streamlined cushion. Among his band's best-known numbers were ''One O'Clock Jump,'' ''Jumpin' at the Woodside,'' ''Li'l Darlin' '' and ''April in Paris.''
Directing With a Glance Mr. Basie, a short, stocky, taciturn but witty man who liked to wear a yachting cap offstage, presided over the band at the piano with apparent utmost casualness. He flicked out tightly economical, single-finger passages, directing his musicians with a glance, a lift of an eyebrow or a note hit gently but positively in passing.
His piano style, which often seemed bare and simple, was an exquisitely realized condensation of the florid ''stride'' style of Fats Waller and James P. Johnson with whom Mr. Basie started.
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https://www.tpl.org/blog/wellsbuilt-museum
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Discover African American Heritage in Orlando's Harlem
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2024-02-07T16:41:30+00:00
|
To visit the Wells'Built Museum is to step inside the story of America's music and the Black artists who shaped it.
|
en
|
/favicon.ico
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Trust for Public Land
|
https://www.tpl.org/blog/wellsbuilt-museum
|
“Musicians are like weeds,” says Jeff Rupert. “You can’t stop them. They just keep growing through the cracks of the sidewalk, you know?” This is how Rupert, a saxophonist and director of Jazz Studies at the University of Central Florida, explains the tenacity of Black musicians who toured the South during the Jim Crow era of legalized segregation. In Orlando, one of the only places these artists could safely perform and lodge was at the South Street Casino and Wells’Built Hotel, respectively.
The latter is now a museum of African American history and culture, and the building is still standing today thanks in part to Trust for Public Land. Opened by its namesake, Dr. William Monroe Wells, in 1929, the Wells’Built hosted an almost absurdly impressive list of talents, including Ray Charles, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Lionel Hampton, Dinah Washington, Duke Ellington, B.B. King, Illinois Jacquet, Cab Calloway, Memphis Slim, Billie Holiday, and Louis Armstrong. (And its list of famous lodgers goes beyond musicians; Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and baseball star Jackie Robinson also stayed there.)
These influential musicians played what was known as the Chitlin’ Circuit, a tour route through the South that author Preston Lauterbach described on NPR’s Code Switch as “African Americans making something beautiful out of something ugly, whether it’s making cuisine out of hog intestines or making world-class entertainment despite being excluded from all of the world-class venues.”
CeCe Teneal, an Orlando-based soul singer who travels worldwide with her Aretha Franklin tribute act, says visiting the museum and seeing evidence of those who paved the way for musicians of color gives her own role as a performer new meaning: “They jeopardized their lives to play music, to do the thing they loved,” she says. “Because of the things that these people did for me, I am required to give it my all.”
From 1936 to 1966, Black travelers relied on The Negro Motorist Green Book, a publication that listed restaurants, gas stations, hotels, and other establishments that served African Americans. The Wells’Built Hotel, a two-story brick building opened by one of Orlando’s first African American physicians, was the only lodging listed in Orlando. “I’m sure there’s no way to outline the amount of obstacles he encountered,” Teneal says of Dr. Wells, noting his persistence and courage must have been incredible.
The South Street Casino—which, despite the name, was an entertainment venue and community event center rather than a gambling establishment—was damaged by a fire and demolished in 1987. But the hotel remains. Located in the Holden-Parramore Historic District, what some term Orlando’s Harlem, and situated directly across the street from the Amway Center (where the Orlando Magic play), it almost wasn’t saved at all.
Learn more about our work to preserve sites that tell the story of the Black experience in America.
“It was a bit of a stretch,” says Will Abberger, an Orlando native and director of TPL’s conservation finance program. “The building was in horrible shape, dilapidated; the roof was falling in. I think we ended up hauling 13 dumpster loads of garbage out of it. There were homeless people living there. It’s a wonder it didn’t burn down.”
But former Florida Representative Alzo J. Reddick and current Florida State Senator Geraldine Thompson had a vision for the hotel—and they knew TPL could help see it through. “We were known in the historic preservation world here in Florida,” says Abberger, who was a TPL project manager in Florida at the time. Reddick connected Abberger with Thompson, who is also founder of the Association to Preserve African American Society, History and Tradition (PAST), the nonprofit that runs the Wells’Built Museum.
In a previous, administrative position at Orlando’s Valencia College, Thompson started collecting artifacts and memorabilia related to Black history. She says it got to the point where her collection was taking over the shipping and receiving department, so she started thinking about a museum.
“Then I learned about Dr. Wells and how important both of those structures were in terms of the history of Central Florida,” she says. So she wrote a grant proposal to acquire the hotel, but there wasn’t much time: it was slated for demolition. In 1994, Trust for Public Land purchased the building. Meanwhile, PAST raised funds to cover the cost plus repairs. (TPL and PAST later received various grants to fund renovations and acquire exhibits.)
After being abandoned for 25 years, the Wells’Built Museum—which displays memorabilia of Orlando’s African American community and the civil rights movement as well as African art and artifacts—opened in February 2001, in celebration of Black History Month. “This is my calling,” says Thompson, “I’ve been given the privilege to share this information. There are so many stories that have been obscured and omitted, and they need to be brought to the forefront.”
Dr. Jocelyn Imani, TPL’s director of Black History and Culture, says good preservation work “goes down to the individual players, individual people.” TPL is creating a national mosaic of stories, but it’s “hyperlocal pieces” like the Wells’Built Museum that make up the greater narrative.
And it’s not just the interior of the hotel that holds meaning: the Wells’Built’s geography tells a racial story, too. “Like in so many other cities in the United States,” explains Abberger, “the interstate cuts right through downtown—on one side you’ve got the white, affluent, old Orlando, and on the other side is Parramore, which, like many African American urban areas, has suffered from years and years of disinvestment.” And Parramore is bordered to the east by South Division Avenue, a street “long associated with the dividing line between white and Black Orlando,” according to the Orange County Regional History Center.
Thompson’s favorite part of the collection? Dr. Wells’s ledgers, which were discovered in his former home. Also slated for demolition, the house was saved and relocated next to the museum (and will eventually become part of it). “The Wells’Built was one of Ray Charles’s favorite places,” says Thompson, pointing to a record of the venue’s performers and guests. “He would come into the building, register for his room . . . climb the stairs to the second floor, and enter the hallway. He would turn left, and he knew that when he ran into the wall, his room was right there to the left. We know when he was there and when Louis Armstrong was there. That’s one of my favorites because those books were intact.”
Jeff Rupert mentions the ledgers, too: “It’s incredible seeing some of the legendary names on there,” he says. “Count Basie and Duke Ellington, Louie Armstrong—a lot of important vocalists. Count Basie’s band was the first band I ever heard when I was 10 years old,” he adds. “To me, the Wells’Built is as vital as going to Beethoven’s house in Bonn or Wagner’s home in Lucerne. It’s really important. This is a profound place. This is America’s music.”
Beyond the stack of ledgers, exploring the museum feels like walking through a Black history textbook—a raw, honest textbook. Many displays are inspiring: paintings by Floridian Odell Etim depicting performers and crowds at the South Street Casino; an epic panoramic photo of an early African Methodist Episcopal (AME) gathering in Chicago; or a plain white shirt covered in campaign buttons for Thompson, Reddick, Jesse Jackson, and Barack Obama. But much is hard to take in, such as countless “mammy” figurines depicting a toxic stereotype of Blackness.
“You feel this sense of heaviness,” says Teneal, “but then you also feel a sense of freedom.” Expressing gratitude for the people and stories represented by the museum, she adds, “As a Black woman, they’ve given me the opportunity to have a better life.”
At the time of the Chitlin’ Circuit, this was no easy feat. But musicians, like weeds, are also tenacious—hard to keep down. Teneal, who’s opened for Wells’Built lodger B.B. King, agrees: “That’s the thing about music,” she says. “It kind of chooses you. If you don’t do it, you may not die a physical death, but you die inside. So I can imagine that drive in them. It’s probably what made them brave enough to actually just push forward and keep doing it.”
Amy McCullough is senior writer and editor for Trust for Public Land and managing editor of Land&People magazine. She is also the author of The Box Wine Sailors, an adventure memoir.
|
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correct_death_00034
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1
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https://www.tiktok.com/%40countbasieofficial/video/7226401555635932462
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en
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Make Your Day
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correct_death_00034
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https://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/location/hollywood-fla/
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en
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Hollywood, FL births and deaths
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A list of stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame who were born or died in Hollywood, FL.
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correct_death_00034
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FactBench
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https://nysmusic.medium.com/the-harlem-renaissance-counting-basie-s-life-and-legacy-4b69f652c70e
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en
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The Harlem Renaissance: ‘Count’ing Basie’s Life and Legacy
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2020-12-11T23:54:53.813000+00:00
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William James “Count” Basie was born in Red Bank, New Jersey in August 1904. Both of his parents played instruments: his dad on mellophone, his mom on piano. He dreamt of traveling, heavily inspired…
|
en
|
Medium
|
https://nysmusic.medium.com/the-harlem-renaissance-counting-basie-s-life-and-legacy-4b69f652c70e
|
By Joseph Dugan. Originally published on NYSMusic.com
William James “Count” Basie was born in Red Bank, New Jersey in August 1904. Both of his parents played instruments: his dad on mellophone, his mom on piano. He dreamt of traveling, heavily inspired by touring carnivals. However, he spent most of his free time working at the Palace Theater in Red Bank where he eventually received free admission for performances.
Although he was more proficient on piano, his real love was drums. However, another drummer, Sonny Greer, also grew up at the same time in Red Bank, and Greer eventually became Duke Ellington’s drummer. Therefore, Basie stuck to the piano.
Harlem
In about 1920, Basie moved to Harlem where the Harlem Renaissance was beginning. He lived down the street from the Alhambra Ballroom, a staple of the Renaissance. Soon after his arrival, he ran into Greer, who was already playing with Ellington. In addition, Basie ran into numerous Harlem musicians including James P. Johnson and Willie “The Lion”” Smith.
Basie soon began touring with various acts as both a soloist and accompanist. These tours took his to future homes of Kansas City and Chicago as well as St. Louis and New Orleans. The touring also allowed Basie to create connections with other musicians, including Louis Armstrong.
Basie was located in Harlem again in 1925, receiving his first steady job at a Leroy’s a place known for its piano players. There he met Fats Waller, another jazz pianist who was also proficient at organ and was playing it accompanying silent films. Waller taught Basie the organ, and Basie would go on to play it in Kansas City.
In 1928, Basie was invited to join Walter Page and his Oklahoma City Blue Devils. At this point, he began to be called “Count” Basie.
Kansas City
In 1929, Basie began working with the Bennie Moten band, located in Kansas City, Missouri. Basie joined with the intention of achieving the level off success seen by Duke Ellington. The Moten band was well-respected, playing in the ‘Kansas City Style’ of jazz which was the precursor to bebop. The band’s “Moten Swing” paved the way not only for the band, but swing music as a whole.
The band eventually voted Moten out, with Basie replacing him in “Count Basie and his Cherry Blossoms.” This group also failed, and Basie rejoined Moten. In 1935, Moten died from a failed tonsillectomy. The band tried to remain together, but failed. Basie then went on to form “Barons of Rhythm” with five other Moten Band members.
The Barons of Rhythm often did radio broadcasts, one of which cemented Basie as “Count Basie” when one radio announcer referred to him that way. It was with this group that Basie released his signature tune “One O’Clock Jump.”
Chicago
In 1936, Basie and his band, now “Count Basie and His Barons of Rhythm” moved to Chicago, landing a long engagement with the Grand Terrace Ballroom. Immediately, the band made an impact with its stellar rhythm section. Basie was one of the first to utilize two tenor saxophone players, Lester Young and Herschel Evans. They were able to complement each other and in some cases, held “duels.”
While in Chicago, Basie began recording with John Hammond. He recorded with Vocalion Records (now Columbia Records) from 1936–41. Basie already had deals with Decca Records, but did not begin recording with them until 1937.
Back to New York
In 1937, Basie brought his band back to Harlem, often rehearsing in the Woodside Hotel basement. Soon, the Roseland Ballroom booked the group for their Christmas show. The show was not received well as the band lacked polishing and presentation.
Their producer John Hammond eventually introduced Basie to Billie Holiday who was invited to sing with the band. She declined to record with them as she had her own contract, but did sing with the band for concerts. They appeared at the Apollo Theater soon after.
The band then played at the Savoy Ballroom. In 1938, there was a “battle of the bands” with Chuck Webb’s group. Basie had Holiday to sing vocals, and Webb countered with a superstar of his own: Ella Fitzgerald. Basie and his band came out on top.
This “battle” with Webb brought publicity and name recognition to Basie. Benny Goodman recorded “One O’Clock Jump” with his band, bringing further recognition to Basie.
Over the next few years, band members came and went. Basie dropped his agent and switched to the William Morris Agency. In 1939, Basie and his Orchestra did a cross-country tour, the first time Basie played the West Coast. In February 1940, Basie and his Orchestra began a four-week stint at Southland in Boston.
Post-War
After World War II, the era of the big band era appeared to have ended. Basie disbanded the group. He performed in combos and occasionally orchestras for the next few years.
In 1952, Basie reformed his band, eventually called the New Testament band and got a stint with the Birdland club. The jukebox era had begun, and Basie was there along with the early rock’n’roll artists. Basie and his band were sharing the Birdland stage with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Miles Davis, bebop legends. Soon, the band began to tour and record again.
In 1958, Basie and his band toured Europe. They later made two tours to the British Isles, performing for Queen Elizabeth II and Judy Garland. In 1959, Basie appeared on a television special with Fred Astaire. In 1961, Basie performed at one of John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Balls. In the summer of that year, Basie and Duke Ellington made their first recording together. Basie continued to lead his band through the next two decades.
In April of 1984, Count Basie died of pancreatic cancer in Hollywood, Florida.
Legacy
Count Basie recorded with a number of prominent vocal artists including Joe Williams, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, and Tony Bennett. Basie never recorded with Louis Armstrong, a fact Basie regretted.
The impact Basie had can be seen across the country. In his hometown of Red Bank, there is now a Count Basie Theatre and a Count Basie Field. He received an Honorary Doctorate from the Berklee College of Music. Basie is a member of the New Jersey Hall of Fame as well as the Blues Hall of Fame. In 1997, astronomers at a French observatory discovered an asteroid, naming it “Asteroid 35394 Countbasie” after Basie. In 85, Basie was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor an American civilian can receive. There was also a Count Basie 32 cent stamp issued by the USPS in 1996.
Basie introduced generations of listeners to Big Band. Throughout his life, he was described as considerate, relaxed, fun-loving, and extremely passionate about his music.
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correct_death_00034
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https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/basie-count-william-allen-count-basie-1904-1984/
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en
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William Allen (Count) Basie (1904
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2008-02-19T20:22:43+00:00
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A jazz pianist and bandleader, Count Basie was one of the leading musicians of the Big Band “Swing” era. His Count Basie Orchestra was formed in 1936, and featured singers such as Billie Holliday, and notable musicians including Lester Young, Jo Jones, and Walter Page. … Read MoreWilliam Allen (Count) Basie (1904-1984)
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en
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https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/basie-count-william-allen-count-basie-1904-1984/
|
A jazz pianist and bandleader, Count Basie was one of the leading musicians of the Big Band “Swing” era. His Count Basie Orchestra was formed in 1936, and featured singers such as Billie Holliday, and notable musicians including Lester Young, Jo Jones, and Walter Page. The band lasted for many decades, outliving Basie himself.
He was born William Allen Basie in Red Bank, New Jersey on August 21, 1904. His mother was his childhood piano teacher, and he was taught to play the cinema organ by Fats Waller. As a young man, he toured with vaudeville acts playing ragtime and stride piano, and after being stranded in Kansas City, Missouri in 1927, played the organ for silent films. He joined the Blue Devils, a jazz band, in 1928. Basie later formed his own group, playing at the renowned Apollo in New York City, New York and in 1937 recorded “One O’Clock Jump” on the Decca label, which became the band’s signature song.
The importance of radio exposure in this pre-television era was shown by the heartland enthusiasm for his band’s tours after Basie was broadcast from New York’s 52nd Street Famous Door on the CBS Network in 1938. By the end of the thirties, the band had an international reputation. When Count Basie’s band was hired by a major New York hotel in 1943, it was considered a breakthrough for black musicians, who were often limited to playing in black clubs at that time.
When the Big Band era was supplanted by Bebop, Basie reorganized and adapted his orchestra, becoming a popular mainstream jazz band, with successful tours including to Europe and Japan. He continued to record extensively, including with jazz singer Sarah Vaughan and with Frank Sinatra. On March 20, 1981, Carnegie Hall paid tribute to Basie on the 50th anniversary of his career.
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correct_death_00034
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https://archives.libraries.rutgers.edu/repositories/6/resources/523
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en
|
Collection: Count Basie family papers and artifacts
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Overview
William James "Count" Basie (1904 August 21 - 1984 April 26) was an African American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. He was married to Catherine Morgan Basie (1914 December 3 – 1983 April 11), an African American burlesque dancer and singer who later became a community organizer and activist. They had one daughter, Diane Lillian Basie (1944 February 6 – 2022 October 15), who was born with cerebral palsy and lived at home with her parents and caretakers until her death. The Basie family also included several unofficially adopted children: Aaron Woodward III, Rosemary (Holman) Matthews, Olivia (Hasell) Simmons, Pamela Jackson, and Lamont Gilmore.
Count Basie’s early years
Count Basie was born in Red Bank, New Jersey to Harvey Lee Basie and Lillian “Lilly Ann” Childs Basie. They had one other son, Leroy, who died in childhood. Count Basie’s first musical forays were as a drummer, but he learned to play piano by taking lessons from a local teacher. He left middle school and worked at the nearby movie theater, changing film reels and playing accompaniments for silent films. In 1924 he moved to New York City, where he met and was influenced by stride pianists James P. Johnson and Fats Waller, who helped Basie learn to play the organ, the instrument he preferred when playing at home for fun. Shortly after moving to New York, he obtained work as a vaudeville pianist and toured across the country. In 1928 he started performing with Walter Page’s Blue Devils, eventually landing in Kansas City, where in 1929 he began his association with Bennie Moten’s Orchestra. When Moten died in 1935, Basie formed his own nine-piece group, the Barons of Rhythm, featuring many of Moten’s personnel as well as members of the Blue Devils. He also started using the name “Count Basie.” By 1937, the Barons of Rhythm had grown to 13 members and relocated to New York City, where they made their first recordings as Count Basie and his Orchestra.
Catherine Basie’s early years
Catherine Morgan Basie was born in Columbus, Ohio, to Warren Morgan and Helen Cobb Morgan, and had one sister, Ruby, and two brothers, Leonard and Milton. Catherine graduated from Central High School, and soon thereafter was a contender for the 1936 Olympics as a champion backstroke swimmer. Not being able to afford the training, she instead focused on her career as a dancer, singer, and entertainer, performing with the Whitman Sisters vaudeville act, but soon she was on her own billing as Princess Aloha, appearing in film shorts and touring on the burlesque circuit.
Marriage and family
Catherine and Count Basie first met in 1931 when they were both performing in Philadelphia, but the two did not become romantically involved until Catherine’s five-year marriage to Jimmy Miller ended in 1940. Count Basie was also previously married, from 1930-1935, to Vivian Lee Winn. In his autobiography, Count Basie states the date and location of his and Catherine’s marriage as August 21, 1942 in Seattle, Washington, but contemporary published accounts claim the couple eloped in early 1943. According to the marriage license on file in the Kings County, Washington archives, the Basies were married July 13, 1950.1
In 1944, Catherine gave birth to their daughter, Diane Basie, in Cleveland, Ohio, where Catherine had gone to stay with her mother for the birth and Diane’s infancy. She was born with cerebral palsy, requiring daily full-time care and support for the duration of her life. When Catherine returned to New York City, the family moved to an apartment in Manhattan, and in 1946, they bought a home in Addisleigh Park in Saint Albans, Queens, New York, where they installed a swimming pool, the site of frequent neighborhood gatherings and charitable events. The Basies maintained the swimming pool for neighborhood use even after moving permanently to Freeport, Grand Bahama in 1973. Neighborhood friends included Ella Fitzgerald, Jackie Robinson, Joe Louis, Lena Horne, Illinois Jacquet, and Milt and Mona Hinton.
Count Basie toured extensively with the Count Basie Orchestra, more than 300 nights each year, so he was not often home on a daily or even weekly basis. Although Catherine, and sometimes Diane, traveled with the Count Basie Orchestra regularly (particularly on overseas trips) Catherine used her time away from her husband to lead and participate in various social, charitable, and civic organizations and programs; manage the household and family’s budget; and care for Diane with support from family and caretakers, including nurse Dee Dee Williams, neighbor and unofficially adopted daughter Rosemary Matthews, and Catherine’s sister-in-law, Carrie Morgan.
Catherine Basie charitable and civic work
In addition to serving as president of the Rinkeydinks, a charitable organization whose membership consisted primarily of the wives of jazz musicians, Catherine held leadership positions in the National Conference of Christians and Jews (NCCJ), New York Urban League, Lighthouse for the Blind, South Jamaica Community Council, and the Multiple Sclerosis Society, among others. She was a lifetime member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and involved with local, regional, and national civic and charitable organizations. Some of her key interests were civil rights, mental and physical health, issues related to children and young people, and public education. She was appointed Community Mayor of Queens, and was the recipient of many honors, including the 1961 NCCJ Brotherhood Award and being named Woman of the Year in 1960 by the Zeta Phi Beta sorority as well as in 1962 by the Jewish War Veterans of the United States, Queens County Council Ladies Auxiliary.
Count Basie Orchestra
With the exception of several core musicians who stayed with the band for long stretches, the Count Basie Orchestra’s personnel changed regularly over the years, and musicians would often leave only to return later either as a guest soloist or sometimes again as a permanent member of the lineup. Between 1936 and 1938, Count Basie enlarged the group, adding Buck Clayton on trumpet, singers Jimmy Rushing and Billie Holiday, Earle Warren on alto saxophone, Bennie Morton and Dicky Wells on trombone, Helen Humes (replacing Holiday), and Harry “Sweets” Edison on trumpet. They joined band members Oran “Hot Lips” Page on trumpet, Herschel Evans and Lester Young on tenor saxophone, Eddie Durham on trombone and sometimes guitar (also an arranger for the band), Buster Smith on alto saxophone, and the “All American” rhythm section of Walter Page on bass, Jo Jones on drums, and Freddie Green on guitar. (Green was in the Basie Orchestra for fifty years until his death in 1987, longer than any other band member.)
The band’s popularity grew exponentially during the late 1930s and early 1940s, starting with a string of hits for Decca Records, including “Jumpin’ at the Woodside” and “One O'Clock Jump.” “Lester Leaps In,” recorded for Vocalion, was another major hit for the band during this period. The group’s performances were regularly broadcast on radio networks across North America, and they recorded frequently, except during the 1942-1944 and 1948 musicians’ strikes by the American Federation of Musicians, which limited recording opportunities for all union members. By the end of the 1940s, big band jazz was declining in popularity and bookings were becoming more difficult to negotiate at the level the band required. In 1950 Count Basie decided to break up the group and instead led smaller combos of six to nine players for a brief stint.
In 1951 he re-formed the sixteen-piece big band, the group that would become his most successful and enduring, which continued to perform and record as “Count Basie and His Orchestra.” By mid-1952 the lineup of the newly-reconfigured ensemble had mostly stabilized and consisted of Paul Campbell, Wendell Culley, Joe Newman, and Reunald Jones on trumpet; Henry Coker, Benny Powell, and Jimmy Wilkins on trombone; Paul Quinichette and Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis on tenor saxophone; Marshal Royal as deputy music director, alto saxophonist, and clarinetist; Ernie Wilkins on alto and tenor saxophone; Charlie Fowlkes on baritone saxophone; Gus Johnson on drums; Freddie Green on guitar; Jimmy Lewis on bass (soon to be replaced by Gene Ramey and then Eddie Jones, respectively); Bixie Crawford as frequent vocalist; and Count Basie as pianist and leader. Over the course of coming years, new Count Basie Orchestra personnel would include Thad Jones on trumpet (also an arranger for the band), Joe Wilder on trumpet, Sonny Payne on drums, Bill Hughes on trombone, Frank Foster on various reed instruments, and Frank Wess on tenor saxophone and flute (also an arranger for the band). The group toured internationally and made some of Basie’s most popular recordings, including “April in Paris,” “Shiny Stockings,” “L’il Darling,” and the single “Everyday I Have the Blues” (Basie’s biggest hit) with singer Joe Williams, who performed regularly with the band. Starting in the late 1950s, the Count increasingly recorded with top singers of the day, including Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Billy Eckstine.
As the Count’s fame grew, his and Catherine’s world expanded. The orchestra gave a command performance for Queen Elizabeth II at the London Palladium in 1957, after their first European tour in 1954, and performed at one of the inaugural balls for President John F. Kennedy in 1961. This was also when Count and Catherine Basie operated a nightclub, Count Basie’s Lounge, in New York City, starting around 1957. In 1958, he was first African American musician to win a GRAMMY Award (in fact, he won two that year), and he would win seven more during the next two decades. He was a Downbeat international critics’ poll winner from 1952 to 1956.
Basie recorded for Roulette Records between 1957 and 1962 with producer Teddy Reig and made the first of three tours of Japan in 1963. Throughout the 1960s, the Count Basie Orchestra toured extensively and made numerous television and film appearances and many recordings, including collaborations with Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett. The Orchestra also played many new arrangements written by Benny Carter, Chico O’Farrill, Frank Foster, Quincy Jones, Sammy Nestico, Bill Holman, and Eric Dixon.
From 1972 until 1984, Count Basie recorded for Pablo Records, often in small group jam sessions, with musicians including Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald (with whom he frequently toured), Dizzy Gillespie, J.J. Johnson, Zoot Sims, Roy Eldridge, Milt Jackson, Joe Pass, Ray Brown, Louie Bellson, blues singer Joe Turner, and Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson.
Later years
In 1974, one year after the Basies moved permanently to Freeport, Catherine organized a gala fundraiser for a Freeport hospital in honor of the Count’s 70th birthday, inviting Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan to be the guest artists with the Count Basie Orchestra. The Count’s 70th was feted again with a “Royal Salute” at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel (his was the first African American band to play the Waldorf, in 1957) to benefit the United Negro College Fund and the Catherine and Count Basie Scholarship Fund for the NCCJ.
As a recipient of Kennedy Center Honors in 1981, the Count was described by President Reagan as "among the handful of musicians that helped change the path of American music in the 30s and 40s.” He received honorary degrees from International University, the Philadelphia Academy of Music, the Berklee College of Music, Montclair State College, Union College, Monmouth College, Dowling College, and the University of Missouri as well as numerous citations and proclamations from local, state, and federal government officials.
Basie persevered through bouts of declining health and took several months off following a heart attack in 1976. His mobility declined in later years, leading to his use of a motorized wheelchair both on the road and at home. Catherine died of a heart attack in 1983 at their home in the Bahamas. Count Basie died the next year of pancreatic cancer in a Florida hospital, shortly after his last performance with the Count Basie Orchestra on April 13th in Burlington, Vermont. Diane Basie died in Florida after suffering a heart attack in 2022.
1. Basie, Count. Good Morning Blues. (Random House: New York, 1985), 259. Walker, Danton. “New York Letter.” The Philadelphia Inquirer Public Ledger (1934-1969), January 12, 1943 (Page 15 of 34), accessed online November 1, 2022. Washington State Archives; Olympia, Washington; Washington Marriage Records, 1854-2013; Reference Number: kingcoarchmc166491, accessed online November 1, 2022.
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correct_death_00034
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FactBench
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1
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https://oxfordamerican.org/web-only/henderson-the-swing-king
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en
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HENDERSON THE SWING KING
|
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My own jazz age began in the 1970s with my discovery of the Crusaders, so the most prominent jazz …
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Oxford American
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My own jazz age began in the 1970s with my discovery of the Crusaders, so the most prominent jazz Henderson in my mind was Wayne. My parents watched the Tonight show, so the only bandleader Henderson I knew was Skitch. Later, as I read (erratically) in books about jazz, I ran across the name of Fletcher Henderson, but Cynthia Shearer’s propulsive, cradle-to-grave narrative of his life and influence on twentieth-century music and culture left me floored.
I recently bought a new turntable after two decades of going without and subsequently dug my parents’ boxes of vinyl out of storage. Even before I read Cynthia’s story, I’d been listening to Benny Goodman’s famous 1938 Carnegie Hall concert, which some have called the most significant concert in jazz history, the concert that made jazz a listener’s, in addition to a dancer’s, music. Scanning the LP’s back-sleeve credits, the small font belies the outsize influence Fletcher Henderson had on the genre, which is now beginning to be more widely acknowledged. As Shearer writes:
For most of the Roaring Twenties and into the Great Depression, Henderson’s bands were the first turnstile through which many a young black male musician passed, fresh from far-flung American precincts, on the way to his rightful place in jazz iconography: Louis Armstrong, Big Charlie Green, Lester Young, Rex Stewart, Red Allen, Chu Berry, Buster Bailey, Roy Eldridge, Cootie Williams, and a whole host of others. The most obvious case of influence is Benny Goodman, who built his reputation on Henderson’s book and his back, only to be anointed ‘king of swing’ in the perpetual paternity suit that is jazz criticism.
It was also treat and a surprise to find the opinion of Henderson’s greatness confirmed in the issue’s interview with Col. Bruce Hampton, who relates that none other than Sun Ra ranked Henderson as the best bandleader of all time, ahead of Jimmie Lunceford, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and Goodman. “And he said Henderson’s bands,” Col. Bruce tells Lance Ledbetter, “were ten times better than the rest of them.”
Even after the Georgia Music Issue was finished, I continued the discussion with Cynthia—a novelist and a writing professor at Texas Christian University—about Fletcher Henderson, a subject neither of us wanted to close. The following is an email exchange we conducted that delves more deeply into her story, including the origins of her interest in Henderson, the research she unearthed, and the difficulty of finding firm answers to questions of musical attribution and the (sometimes dirty) business of early jazz.
Can you begin by telling us how you first heard of Henderson and how and why, as primarily a fiction writer, you subsequently became intrigued with researching and writing an extended nonfiction account of his life?
I asked my father one time, “Who had the best big band, Benny Goodman or Glenn Miller?” He answered, “Neither one. It was Fletcher Henderson.” He told me about hearing Henderson’s radio hour when he was growing up in South Georgia, and claimed to have hitched a free train ride or two to hear him on the rare occasions Henderson came back to Georgia to play. My father also told me that later in his military days, he had once had a conversation with Henderson in a deserted officers’ club, when Henderson was waiting for some equipment to arrive before a performance. He described it as one of the greatest moments of his life, just sitting at a table having a drink with him, the cooks in the kitchen sneaking adoring looks at him. Henderson was already in bad health by then, but he still had a sense of humor about being from the piney woods of Georgia. Sometime after my father died, I started listening to Henderson’s music. I think this is a deep American secret that needs to get out: that a black bandleader in the early 1930s was a role model to a smart little white boy wanting to get the hell out of South Georgia just like Henderson did.
As for the OA piece, my first thought was to make sure Henderson got his rightful ink allotment in the OA’s Georgia Music Issue, because nobody much has ever heard of him. So I went into it thinking to do a kind of painless little generic biography that paid homage to his Georgia roots. The more I read the old Atlanta Constitution accounts of Henderson’s father and the lynchings around Cuthbert, the more I began to realize it was not going to be painless or generic, that it was going to require something else with the controlled emotional valence of, say, Blind Willie Johnson singing about the Titanic with a smidge of vocal fry. I am interested in the holes in history. There are a lot of holes in Henderson’s history.
Did you feel apprehensive about wading into the critical waters of an area of study like jazz, where people are both intensely emotionally involved and exceedingly knowledgeable and scholarly? Both Geoff Dyer (But Beautiful) and Michael Ondaatje (Coming through Slaughter) chose to muddy the waters by turning their research into fiction, but you’re out there naked. How much time did you spend on research, what did you find that you didn’t think had been found before, and what reactions have you heard from jazz scholars?
It’s terrifying to write about jazz because (a) the sources and oral histories contradict each other, and (b) the only people who read about jazz are often musicians themselves who wince at descriptions of jazz music coming out the mouths of literary folk. Can you blame them? But we do it anyway. When you write about jazz and you add a sentence that re-geo-locates the birth of swing to a red-dirt town in Georgia, you can already hear the ghosts of Nick LaRocca and Louie Armstrong protesting before you reach the full stop, and King Oliver spinning in his grave. Time to put the Kevlar on and make yourself a nice drink and get ready to split some hairs because there are old quarrels that you have just wandered into.
I do admire it fiercely when a novelist comes into a historical issue sideways to force new discussion. I’m thinking of Don DeLillo’s Lee Harvey Oswald figure in Libra. I also really admire William Boyd’s contemporary novel Brazzaville Beach; in particular a scene that accomplishes in a few paragraphs what it would take decades to percolate up through the anthropology journals. Boyd’s asking a big question: ever notice how old-school male academics can resemble primates in the way they police the utterances of any younger males and females that stray beyond the alpha’s scented circle? And Boyd’s scene is based on some pretty high-powered primatology research. Right now I’m finishing Tom Piazza’s A Free State. This book is magic, elegant conjure work, yet solidly grounded in history. And he makes a point about race and voice and music in America that will reach many people, most of whom would not touch an academic journal with a ten-foot pole.
My idea with this nonfiction piece on Fletcher Henderson was to pipe some new research questions into the mix of Henderson stories out there. Jeffrey Magee’s excellent low-key biography and Walter Allen’s Hendersonia, a big coral reef of data, are very thorough and I have so much respect for the basic human integrity in those works. David Suisman’s relatively new research on the Black Swan label (and tour) is some of the coolest work I have seen in a while. If I turned up anything new, it may be that there is a clear pattern of three generations of anti-lynching efforts in the Henderson family, beginning with his grandfather’s depositions after the Civil War. I ran across enough information that also makes me see a high likelihood that the Black Swan Troubadours tour in 1921–22 was also Harry Pace’s way of supporting the NAACP’s full-court press to try to get the Dyer anti-lynching bill through Congress. I want to be sure that people understand that Fletcher Henderson had probably earned his place in American history books before he ever led that first band into Club Alabam.
I’m no historian; I got trained as a fiction writer to shamble in like Moms Mabley asking that the house lights be turned back on because we are not done talking about this or that particular thing. In Henderson’s case, we need to pull the camera back a little on that stock scene of the little boy locked in with the piano and get more in the frame—the ambient racism, the white men giving speeches in the downtown hotels about how if you educate the Negro you destroy your cheap labor force. Should we look more closely at Henderson’s Atlanta University days? Can we look at Kemper Harreld, his first real mentor? Can we get a focused study of Henderson’s difficulties in dealing with white managers? How ’bout a little litigation history? Should we do a FOIA search to see if J. Edgar Hoover also tracked Henderson once he was connected to John Hammond? Was the ugly plantationism limited to the stage sets, or did it transfer into the financial arrangements with white nightclub owners? Henderson’s purported lack of “business sense” has been looping for many decades now, cropping up in places like a popular Benny Goodman biography that offers only Goodman’s girlfriend as the authority on the subject. I’m sorry; can’t we, as a tribe, do better? Some readers have been as interested in these questions as I am. There are photos in the Amistad collection that the world has never seen, including one that may well be the crew of the first Hudson River tour boat that Henderson played on. I do not want to pursue these things; I want to try to grow peonies in Texas!
It does seem like we (human beings, I mean) latch onto narratives that ossify, and we have a hard time asking new questions about them. You raise so many! May you raise as many peonies. As a fiction writer and a storyteller, it seems as if uncovering the stories behind the songs gives you as much pleasure as the music itself, that you hear history along with the music. Can you trace this dual interest to anything in particular?
In 2000 I had a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship to research my second novel, and a Mississippi friend, Tom Freeland, offered to add me to a private email list of “roots” music scholars working on various projects. Blues, country, bluegrass, early jazz, even some African music. I don’t remember who all was on this list, but I do remember Alan Balfour, Dick Spottswood, Jeff Todd Titon, Charles Wolfe, Mary Katherine Aldin, Tony Russell, Howard Rye, Kip Lornell, Chris Smith, Scott Barretta, David Nelson, and others. They (in my estimation) laid the foundation for what people now call “Americana,” long before we heard the word used in the way it is today.
I mostly just lurked on that list for over a year, but I learned from them that it was okay to be skeptical of “popular” music writing if the spirit so moved me. They could read the subfloor of a lot of rock music the public assumed to be “original.” Many were doing work that illuminates the hidden racial songlines in American culture, how they crisscross. These guys could give you the sixty-second etymology of a song like Kurt Cobain’s “Where Did You Sleep Last Night,” branching backward in time to Leadbelly’s version rather than the Louvin Brothers’ “In the Pines,” and then steer you to even older fiddle or bluegrass variants that came out of Appalachia. Or they could tell you whether “Trombone Charlie” Green had actually frozen to death in his own doorway. Somebody in Maryland or Mississippi might pose a question to the group; somebody in Southampton or the Shetland Islands might answer back.
I was awestruck. They were editors, ethnomusicologists, discographers, and devotees of the music, some with street cred that goes back to Newport in the sixties. Some were using methodologies that go back to early days of authenticating Shakespeare texts or even Sanskrit grammars! A black Pentecostal preacher in Florida singing about the death of FDR would get the same care and expertise as FDR himself. It was mind-bending to me, to read Charles Wolfe’s consideration of DeFord Bailey, the first black Grand Ole Opry star. I think Howard Rye was working on his Southern Syncopated Orchestra (black) topic then, which eventually balanced out the existing scholarship on the Original Dixieland Jazz Band (white).
I considered myself lucky to be even in liminal proximity to what I saw as the brain trust of American popular music research, bouncing emails around the globe in the early days of the Internet, writing books or massive discographies, doing radio shows while working with record companies on reissues, writing liner notes. It was humbling to me, how they all put their shoulders to a common wheel to ensure that the music survives. Which it has. Those guys changed the way I heard music. Even today I still hear music as history.
Cynthia Shearer’s “Sugarfoot Stomp” appeared in our Georgia Music Issue.
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correct_death_00034
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FactBench
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3
| 40 |
https://thebasie.org/events/donna-the-buffalo/
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en
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Donna the Buffalo - Count Basie Center for the Arts
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2024-06-17T14:00:25+00:00
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Donna the Buffalo performs live at The Vogel at the Count Basie Center in Red Bank on December 12. Tickets start at...
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en
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Count Basie Center for the Arts
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https://thebasie.org/events/donna-the-buffalo/
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Buy Tickets
Tickets: $20 - $69 + fees | Limit 8 tickets per mailing address
DOORS 7PM • SHOWTIME 8PM
The Vogel • Basie Center Campus • 99 Monmouth Street, Red Bank
Donna The Buffalo is not just a band, rather one might say that Donna The Buffalo has become a lifestyle for its members and audiences. Since 1989, the roots rockers have played thousands of shows and countless festivals including Bonnaroo, Newport Folk Festival, Telluride, Austin City Limits Festival, Merle Fest, and Philadelphia Folk Festival.
They’ve opened for The Dead and have toured with Peter Rowan, Del McCoury, Los Lobos, Little Feat, Jim Lauderdale, Rusted Root, and Railroad Earth to name a few. They also toured with Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen to help raise awareness about increased corporate spending in politics.
In 1991, the band started the Finger Lakes Grassroots Festival in Trumansburg, NY. The four day festival has become an annual destination for over 15,000 music lovers every year and was started as an AIDS benefit. It continues as a benefit for arts and education. To date, the event has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars and is now one of three Grassroots Festivals; the Bi-annual Shakori Hills fest in North Carolina and Virginia Key festival in Florida. In 2016 GrassRoots Culture Camp was introduced in Trumansburg, New York as four days of music, art, dance and movement workshops, including nightly dinners and dances.
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correct_death_00034
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FactBench
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1
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https://musopus.net/musicians/basie-william-james-count/
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en
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Basie, William James “Count”
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2016-11-22T12:05:49+00:00
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William James Basie, byname Count Basie, (born August 21, 1904, Red Bank, New Jersey, U.S. – died April 26, 1984, Hollywood, Florida), a famous American jazz pianist, organist and composer.
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en
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SHEET MUSIC CATALOG OF CLASSICAL MUSIC
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https://musopus.net/musicians/basie-william-james-count/
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William James Basie, byname Count Basie, (born August 21, 1904, Red Bank, New Jersey, U.S. – died April 26, 1984, Hollywood, Florida), a famous American jazz pianist, organist and composer. He is considered one of the greatest bandleaders of all times. Basie was a true innovator leading the great jazz band for almost 50 years, he left the world an almost unparalleled legacy of musical greatness having recorded over 480 albums during his lifetime.
BIOGRAPHY
Family
William James Basie was born in Red Bank, New Jersey, U.S. His father, Harvey Lee Basie, was a coachman and a groundskeeper, and his mother, Lillian Childs Basie, was a laundress. Both of his parents had some type of musical background. His father played the mellophone, and his mother played the piano. The family had a piano and William’s mother gave her son his first lessons, she was his first music teacher, later she paid 25 cents for his piano lessons. He had an incredible ear, and could repeat any tune he heard. Studying at school, Basie dreamed of travelling, he was inspired by the carnivals which came to town.
Profession of a musician
When Basie was a teenager he chose the profession of a musician. Although William was skilled with the piano he preferred the drums and he even dreamed of becoming a drummer. Discouraged by the obvious talents of Sonny Greer, who also lived in Red Bank and became Duke Ellington's drummer in 1919, Basie at age 15 went back to the piano. The musicians played together in venues until Greer set out on his professional career. By then, Basie performed in local ensembles and accompanied vaudeville performers.
He quickly made a name for himself playing the piano at local venues and parties around town until he moved to New York City in search of greater opportunities. In 1924 in New York Basie was befriended by two of the greatest stride piano players of the day, Fats Waller (Basie learned from him a lot) and James P. Johnson. Basie himself became a fine stride pianist, as well as a proficient organist, learning that instrument while observing Waller's performances at the Lincoln Theater in Harlem.
Kansas City period
Basie left New York in the mid-1920s to work as a touring musician for bands led by June Clark and Elmer Snowden, and as accompanist to variety acts such as those led by Kate Crippen and Gonzelle White. When White's group broke up in Kansas City in 1927, Basie found himself stranded. It was here that he was introduced to the big-band sound when he joined Walter Page’s Blue Devils in 1928. The next year he joined Bennie Moten's band in Kansas City. After Moten’s death in 1935, Basie worked as a soloist before leading a band initially called the Barons of Rhythm, a nine-piece band consisted of many former members of the Moten band – Walter Page (bass), Freddie Green (guitar), Jo Jones (drums), Lester Young (tenor saxophone) and Jimmy Rushing (vocals). The Barons of Rhythm were regulars at the Reno Club in Kansas City and often performed for a live radio broadcast.
First recordings
William Basie became a “Count” during a radio broadcast of the band’s performance, the announcer wanted to give Basie’s name some pizazz, keeping in mind the existence of other bandleaders like Duke Ellington and Earl Hines. So he called the pianist “Count,” with Basie not realizing just how much the name would catch on as a form of recognition and respect in the music world. Famed record producer and journalist, John Hammond, heard the band on a 1935 radio broadcast from the Reno Club, and the next year brought the band to New York City. During this time the Basie band became one of the country's best-known swing bands. In 1937 Basie took his group, Count Basie and his Barons of Rhythm, to New York to record their first album with Decca Records under their new name, The Count Basie Orchestra. The band's recordings from this time represent the best of the hard-driving, riff-based Kansas City style of big-band swing. The Count Basie Orchestra had a slew of hits that helped to define the big-band sound of the 1930s and ’40s. Memorable recordings from this period include Good Morning Blues (1937), One O'Clock Jump (1937), Sent for You Yesterday (1937), Swinging the Blues (1938), Every Tub (1938), and Taxi War Dance (1939). In 1941 the Basie band recorded King Joe, a tribute to boxer Joe Louis, which had lyrics by Richard Wright and vocals by Paul Robeson. Some of their notable chart toppers included Jumpin’ at the Woodside, April in Paris, and Basie’s own composition, One O’Clock Jump, which became the orchestra’s signature piece.
Five films
In 1943 the band appeared in five films: Hit Parade, Reveille with Beverly, Stage Door Canteen, Top Man, and Crazy House. He also scored a series of Top Ten hits on the pop and R&B charts, including I Didn’t Know About You, Red Bank Blues, Rusty Dusty Blues, Jimmy’s Blues, and Blue Skies.
War, post-war and later years
Count Basie Orchestra had continued success throughout the war years, but, like all big bands, it had declined in popularity by the end of the 1940s. The loss of key personnel (some to the military service), the wartime ban on recordings, the 1943 musicians’ strike, the economic infeasibility of one-nighters, and the bebop revolution of the mid-1940s all played a role in the death of the big band era. In 1950 Basie disbanded the group, opting to lead smaller units for the next couple of years. However, in 1952, he resurrected the Count Basie Orchestra and this new band was in high demand and embarked on a tour around the world (this became known as the New Testament Band, while the first Orchestra was the Old Testament Band). In 1957, the Count Basie Orchestra became the first African American band to play the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City. They played command performances for kings, queens and presidents, and issued a large number of recordings both under Basie’s name and as the backing band for various singers.
During the 1960s and '70s, Basie recorded with luminaries like Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Jackie Wilson, Dizzy Gillespie and Oscar Peterson. Basie ultimately earned nine Grammy Awards over the course of his career, but he made history when he won his first, in 1958, as the first African-American man to receive a Grammy. A few of his songs were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame as well, including April in Paris and Everyday I Have the Blues.
Last years
Basie’s health gradually deteriorated during the last eight years of his life. In 1976, he suffered a heart attack, but returned to the bandstand half a year later. During his last years he had difficulty walking and he was driving an electric wheel chair onto the stage. His home for many years was in Freeport, in the Bahamas. Count Basie died of cancer at Doctors’ Hospital in Hollywood, Florida, on April 26, 1984.
SHEET MUSIC
You can find and download free scores of the composer:
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https://discover.midhudsonlibraries.org/search/card%3Fid%3D7e323b1f-49a0-4469-b23b-1f49a004695f%26entityType%3DFormatGroup%26showcase%3Dresources%26identifier%3D7e323b1f-49a0-4469-b23b-1f49a004695f
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https://discover.midhudsonlibraries.org/search/favicon.ico
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https://discover.midhudsonlibraries.org/search/favicon.ico
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https://www.tpl.org/blog/wellsbuilt-museum
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Discover African American Heritage in Orlando's Harlem
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2024-02-07T16:41:30+00:00
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To visit the Wells'Built Museum is to step inside the story of America's music and the Black artists who shaped it.
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en
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/favicon.ico
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Trust for Public Land
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https://www.tpl.org/blog/wellsbuilt-museum
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“Musicians are like weeds,” says Jeff Rupert. “You can’t stop them. They just keep growing through the cracks of the sidewalk, you know?” This is how Rupert, a saxophonist and director of Jazz Studies at the University of Central Florida, explains the tenacity of Black musicians who toured the South during the Jim Crow era of legalized segregation. In Orlando, one of the only places these artists could safely perform and lodge was at the South Street Casino and Wells’Built Hotel, respectively.
The latter is now a museum of African American history and culture, and the building is still standing today thanks in part to Trust for Public Land. Opened by its namesake, Dr. William Monroe Wells, in 1929, the Wells’Built hosted an almost absurdly impressive list of talents, including Ray Charles, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Lionel Hampton, Dinah Washington, Duke Ellington, B.B. King, Illinois Jacquet, Cab Calloway, Memphis Slim, Billie Holiday, and Louis Armstrong. (And its list of famous lodgers goes beyond musicians; Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and baseball star Jackie Robinson also stayed there.)
These influential musicians played what was known as the Chitlin’ Circuit, a tour route through the South that author Preston Lauterbach described on NPR’s Code Switch as “African Americans making something beautiful out of something ugly, whether it’s making cuisine out of hog intestines or making world-class entertainment despite being excluded from all of the world-class venues.”
CeCe Teneal, an Orlando-based soul singer who travels worldwide with her Aretha Franklin tribute act, says visiting the museum and seeing evidence of those who paved the way for musicians of color gives her own role as a performer new meaning: “They jeopardized their lives to play music, to do the thing they loved,” she says. “Because of the things that these people did for me, I am required to give it my all.”
From 1936 to 1966, Black travelers relied on The Negro Motorist Green Book, a publication that listed restaurants, gas stations, hotels, and other establishments that served African Americans. The Wells’Built Hotel, a two-story brick building opened by one of Orlando’s first African American physicians, was the only lodging listed in Orlando. “I’m sure there’s no way to outline the amount of obstacles he encountered,” Teneal says of Dr. Wells, noting his persistence and courage must have been incredible.
The South Street Casino—which, despite the name, was an entertainment venue and community event center rather than a gambling establishment—was damaged by a fire and demolished in 1987. But the hotel remains. Located in the Holden-Parramore Historic District, what some term Orlando’s Harlem, and situated directly across the street from the Amway Center (where the Orlando Magic play), it almost wasn’t saved at all.
Learn more about our work to preserve sites that tell the story of the Black experience in America.
“It was a bit of a stretch,” says Will Abberger, an Orlando native and director of TPL’s conservation finance program. “The building was in horrible shape, dilapidated; the roof was falling in. I think we ended up hauling 13 dumpster loads of garbage out of it. There were homeless people living there. It’s a wonder it didn’t burn down.”
But former Florida Representative Alzo J. Reddick and current Florida State Senator Geraldine Thompson had a vision for the hotel—and they knew TPL could help see it through. “We were known in the historic preservation world here in Florida,” says Abberger, who was a TPL project manager in Florida at the time. Reddick connected Abberger with Thompson, who is also founder of the Association to Preserve African American Society, History and Tradition (PAST), the nonprofit that runs the Wells’Built Museum.
In a previous, administrative position at Orlando’s Valencia College, Thompson started collecting artifacts and memorabilia related to Black history. She says it got to the point where her collection was taking over the shipping and receiving department, so she started thinking about a museum.
“Then I learned about Dr. Wells and how important both of those structures were in terms of the history of Central Florida,” she says. So she wrote a grant proposal to acquire the hotel, but there wasn’t much time: it was slated for demolition. In 1994, Trust for Public Land purchased the building. Meanwhile, PAST raised funds to cover the cost plus repairs. (TPL and PAST later received various grants to fund renovations and acquire exhibits.)
After being abandoned for 25 years, the Wells’Built Museum—which displays memorabilia of Orlando’s African American community and the civil rights movement as well as African art and artifacts—opened in February 2001, in celebration of Black History Month. “This is my calling,” says Thompson, “I’ve been given the privilege to share this information. There are so many stories that have been obscured and omitted, and they need to be brought to the forefront.”
Dr. Jocelyn Imani, TPL’s director of Black History and Culture, says good preservation work “goes down to the individual players, individual people.” TPL is creating a national mosaic of stories, but it’s “hyperlocal pieces” like the Wells’Built Museum that make up the greater narrative.
And it’s not just the interior of the hotel that holds meaning: the Wells’Built’s geography tells a racial story, too. “Like in so many other cities in the United States,” explains Abberger, “the interstate cuts right through downtown—on one side you’ve got the white, affluent, old Orlando, and on the other side is Parramore, which, like many African American urban areas, has suffered from years and years of disinvestment.” And Parramore is bordered to the east by South Division Avenue, a street “long associated with the dividing line between white and Black Orlando,” according to the Orange County Regional History Center.
Thompson’s favorite part of the collection? Dr. Wells’s ledgers, which were discovered in his former home. Also slated for demolition, the house was saved and relocated next to the museum (and will eventually become part of it). “The Wells’Built was one of Ray Charles’s favorite places,” says Thompson, pointing to a record of the venue’s performers and guests. “He would come into the building, register for his room . . . climb the stairs to the second floor, and enter the hallway. He would turn left, and he knew that when he ran into the wall, his room was right there to the left. We know when he was there and when Louis Armstrong was there. That’s one of my favorites because those books were intact.”
Jeff Rupert mentions the ledgers, too: “It’s incredible seeing some of the legendary names on there,” he says. “Count Basie and Duke Ellington, Louie Armstrong—a lot of important vocalists. Count Basie’s band was the first band I ever heard when I was 10 years old,” he adds. “To me, the Wells’Built is as vital as going to Beethoven’s house in Bonn or Wagner’s home in Lucerne. It’s really important. This is a profound place. This is America’s music.”
Beyond the stack of ledgers, exploring the museum feels like walking through a Black history textbook—a raw, honest textbook. Many displays are inspiring: paintings by Floridian Odell Etim depicting performers and crowds at the South Street Casino; an epic panoramic photo of an early African Methodist Episcopal (AME) gathering in Chicago; or a plain white shirt covered in campaign buttons for Thompson, Reddick, Jesse Jackson, and Barack Obama. But much is hard to take in, such as countless “mammy” figurines depicting a toxic stereotype of Blackness.
“You feel this sense of heaviness,” says Teneal, “but then you also feel a sense of freedom.” Expressing gratitude for the people and stories represented by the museum, she adds, “As a Black woman, they’ve given me the opportunity to have a better life.”
At the time of the Chitlin’ Circuit, this was no easy feat. But musicians, like weeds, are also tenacious—hard to keep down. Teneal, who’s opened for Wells’Built lodger B.B. King, agrees: “That’s the thing about music,” she says. “It kind of chooses you. If you don’t do it, you may not die a physical death, but you die inside. So I can imagine that drive in them. It’s probably what made them brave enough to actually just push forward and keep doing it.”
Amy McCullough is senior writer and editor for Trust for Public Land and managing editor of Land&People magazine. She is also the author of The Box Wine Sailors, an adventure memoir.
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https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Count_Basie
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New World Encyclopedia
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William "Count" Basie (August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was a prominent American jazz pianist and band leader. Like his contemporary Duke Ellington, Basie assembled a group of premiere musicians and through innovative use of rhythm and improvisation, and his spare yet suggestive piano work, Basie largely defined the distinctive Kansas City jazz style that would, in turn, influence the emergence of modern jazz. For his contribution to classic jazz and his anticipation of modern developments, Basie is regarded as one of jazz music’s all time greats.
Basie is known for his inimitable statements on the piano, but it has also been said that his real instrument was his band. Basie brought to perfection the union of opposites characteristic of much great art: His crisp, contrapuntal piano and the relaxed, even swing of the rest of his rhythm section; his incisive, minimalist piano and the powerful sound of his orchestra; and countless pairs of hard/soft soloists dialogging with each other. Combining soulful blues and upbeat, celebratory rhythms and solo performances, Basie's music possessed an emotional resonance that elevated Big Band jazz beyond the conventions of popular swing jazz.
Early life
Basie was born in Red Bank, New Jersey, to Harvey Lee Basie, and Lillian Ann Childs and lived on Mechanic Street. Later, he would be referred to as the “Kid from Red Bank” (the title of a tune). Bill had a brother, LeRoy Basie. His father worked as coachman for a wealthy family. After automobiles replaced horses, his father became a grounds keeper and handyman for several families in the area. His mother took in laundry, and was Basie's first piano teacher when he was a child. He was taught organ informally by Fats Waller. Along with Waller, James P. Johnson, Willie “The Lion” Smith, Lucky Roberts, and other pianists of the Harlem stride tradition would be Basie’s prime influences.
Basie toured the Theater Owners Bookers Association (T.O.B.A.) vaudeville circuit, starting in 1924, as a soloist and accompanist to blues singers. Sometimes, he would also provide musical accompaniment to silent movies. His touring took him to Kansas City, Missouri, where he met many jazz musicians in the area. Kansas City was then an important transit point and a musical scene connected to nightlife, similar to New Orleans’ Storyville, had begun to thrive there, giving birth to a distinctive Kansas City style. In 1928, Basie joined Walter Page's Blue Devils, and the following year became the pianist with the Bennie Moten band based in Kansas City.
Moten’s ensemble was a good "territory band," a term signifying the rising popularity of jazz outside of urban scenes and of popular bands that would range far from home for engagements. Moten himself was a capable, but unremarkable, ragtime pianist who had the good sense to put to use the young pianist he had recruited: Basie. Except for Basie, the really outstanding musician of the band was trumpeter Oran “Hot Lips” Page. The band had had its successes (notably a 1928 version of "South") but it was still a few steps away from the swing era. Occasionally, one could hear an accordion in the ensembles, which gave it a pleasant but unsophisticated rural sound.
Within a mere two years, the band had absorbed many of the best elements of Walter Page’s Blue Devils, a competing band that had dissolved. These included Page himself, a formidable bassist who gave the band a powerful new swing. Basie’s piano had become gradually more present ("Moten Swing," "Prince of Wails") and he soon came to all but own the band. He started his own band in 1934, but shortly after returned to Moten's band. When Moten died in 1935, the band soon dissembled, and in 1936, Basie, along with several of Moten’s key alumni, resurrected it under a new name, Barons of Rhythm, soon to become the Count Basie Orchestra.
The classic band: Basie’s “First Testament”
In addition to touring, the band performed nightly radio broadcasts, and serendipitously, the young Columbia Records producer and talent scout John Hammond—a music legend who had discovered the seventeen-year-old Billie Holiday in 1933, tracked down the forgotten Bessie Smith for a final recording session in 1937, and later launched the careers of Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, and Bruce Springsteen—picked up the Basie band on his car radio. Inspired by what he heard, Hammond set out for Kansas City to hear Basie in person, and in October 1936, the producer arranged a recording session in Chicago that he later described as "the only perfect, completely perfect recording session I've ever had anything to do with."
Basie's band honed their repertoire at a long engagement at a Chicago club. It was at this time that he was first called "Count" Basie by a local disk jockey, a term of distinction for outstanding jazz greats that included Joe "King" Oliver, Edward "Duke" Ellington, and Bessie Smith, who was crowned the Empress of the Blues. Soon the Basie band was expanded to the full big band size (13 musicians), and by the end of 1936 Hammond brought the band to New York, where it opened at the Roseland Ballroom. By the next year Basie took up residence at the Famous Door, and the Count Basie Orchestra continued to perform in New York until 1950.
Basie’s music was characterized by his trademark "jumping" beat and the contrapuntal accents of his own piano. Basie also showcased some of the best blues singers of the era: Billie Holiday, Helen Humes, and later Big Joe Turner and Joe Williams. Most congenial to the band was Jimmy Rushing, called “Mr. Five by Five” (due to his short stature and large girth). Rushing epitomized the spirit of Basie’s orchestral blues, a blues that was more urbane and often humorous than traditional blues. Even more importantly, Count Basie was a highly successful band-leader who was able to hold onto some of the greatest jazz musicians of the 1930s and early 1940s, like Buck Clayton and Lester Young, and the band's brilliant rhythm section, Walter Page, Freddie Green, and Jo Jones. He was also able to hire great arrangers that knew how to use the band's abilities, like Eddie Durham and Jimmy Mundy.
With his newly formed band, Basie quickly brought the Kansas City style of jazz to perfection. While not fundamentally different from the style played by other swing era bands in New York or Chicago, this way of playing was characterized by a supple, light beat and the astute use of riffs—short melodic patterns played repeatedly, especially towards the end of a piece, to heighten the atmosphere. The alternating playing of several riffs could go on indefinitely, until a climax was reached. Unfortunately, the recordings of that era were limited to about three minutes, so they cannot fully convey the equivalent of the band’s live performances.
Another Basie innovation was the introduction of two tenor saxophones “dueling” with each other. The first, historical pair consisted of Lester Young, with his detached, cool sound and Herschel Evans with his more traditional, intensely hot style. This was the starting point of a long history of saxophone duels within the Basie Band and beyond. On trumpet also, the elegant Buck Clayton and the powerful Harry “Sweets Edison” were a perfect complement to each other. On trombone too, there were usually two major voices at any given time, including Bennie Morton, Dickie Wells, and Vic Dickenson.
Basie the pianist
Most of the time, Basie played very few notes, but these were perfectly chosen to fill the silence he used with equal mastery. His unique, crisp style can immediately be recognized by knowledgable jazz fans(only Nat Pierce has been somewhat successful at imitating him). At times, his piano was reminiscent of Earl Hines’s jumpy and ethereal rhythmic playing ("Moten Swing," with Bennie Moten). Much of the time, the stable and powerful qualities of his stride piano heritage were obvious. His playing was often pure Fats Waller, with the stomping left hand the pearly flurries of the right hand (John’s Idea, 1937), except that it was also pure Basie. Over the years, Basie’s subtle sense of rhythm, combined with his powerful stride playing, would produce a unique synthesis that gradually evolved into his signature minimalist style. He would play next to nothing but fill the room with his few notes.
Many tunes also highlight Basie’s double role as soloist and accompanist of his key players (e.g., in Roseland Shuffle, 1937, in his dialogue with Lester Young). Occasionally, Basie would also produce piano solos ("How Long Blues," 1938) or contribute extended solos to his band’s performances ("Boogie Woogie").
The Basie rhythm section
Basie’s rhythm section has often been described as the best in jazz history. It was certainly the most cohesive of its time and has reached proverbial fame. Starting with Basie’s presence in the Moten band, it came into being over the years when, first, Walter Page’s bass gave real swing to the band. Later, Jo Jones on drums introduced the even 4 beats that contrasted with earlier drummers emphasizing 2 beats out of 4. Jones was also a formidable soloist. When finally Freddie Green added his guitar to the band, the section was complete. Over the next 50 years, Green would practically play nothing but a succession of chords that completed the even dynamism of the section. Interestingly, each time a new element of that section was added, the already existing members toned down their playing without changing it to reach the perfect balance that made the ensemble famous. Much of that subtle quality was lost once Jones and Page departed, but even the more muscular nature of drumming in the New Testament band maintained the essence of that quality thanks to the lasting presence of Freddie Green and Basie himself.
Basie’s “New Testament”
By the late 1940s the Big Band era appeared to be at an end, but (after downsizing to a septette and octette in 1950) Basie reformed his band as an even larger 16-piece orchestra in 1952, and led it until his death. Basie remained faithful to the Kansas City style and helped keep jazz alive with his distinctive piano playing. The new band gave its real meaning to the name big band. Its huge sound was brassier than that of the first band. It also relied on sophisticated arrangements, while the first band had mostly relied on star soloists and their ability to play "head arrangements." These were simple arrangements learned by heart by musicians who, for all their talent, were poor sight readers. In that sense, the new band was more professional and less dependent on particular key players. Any capable musician could fit in and replace a departing member of the band. What was gained in weight and in sophistication was perhaps compensated by a slight loss in originality over time. The new soloists of the band, while excellent, were not quite of the historical caliber of a Lester Young. The emotion-laden sound of the ensembles and Basie’s own input became all the more important.
Basie and modern jazz
With his New Testament band, Basie moved into the special realm of classic jazz being played in the era of bop and modern jazz—concurrently with developments that were of a totally different nature. While he and his musicians remained swing musicians in essence, they did evolve with the times, creating the big band music of after the swing era. The major soloists who passed through the new band through the years include Clark Terry on flugelhorn, Joe Newman on trumpet, Paul Gonsalves, Frank Foster, Frank Wess, and Eddie “Lockjaw Davis" on tenor, Sonny Paine and Louis Bellson (a white musician) on drums, and many more. All of them could be considered transitional artists, mixing elements of classic jazz with the complexities and tone of modern jazz.
The vocalists
By the mid 1950s, the Count Basie Band had become one of the preeminent backing big bands for the finest jazz vocalists of the time. Joe Williams was spectacularly featured on the 1957 album One o'Clock Jump, and 1956's Count Basie Swings, Joe Williams Sings. Ella Fitzgerald, the quintessential swing singer, recorded several times with the Count Basie Orchestra. These records are highly regarded by critics. Fitzgerald's 1963 album Ella and Basie! is remembered as one of Fitzgerald's greatest recordings. With the "New Testament" Basie band in full swing, and arrangements written by a youthful Quincy Jones, this album proved a swinging respite from the "Songbook" recordings and constant touring that Fitzgerald was engaged in during this period. She toured with the Basie Orchestra in the mid-1970s, and Fitzgerald and a much tamer Basie band also met on the 1979 albums Digital III at Montreux, A Classy Pair, and A Perfect Match.
Frank Sinatra had an equally fruitful relationship with Basie; 1963's Sinatra-Basie and 1964's It Might As Well Be Swing (both arranged by Quincy Jones) are two of the highest points at the peak of Sinatra's artistry. Jones provided the punchy arrangements for the Basie band on Sinatra's biggest selling album, the live Sinatra at the Sands.
In the 60s, Basie was often compelled to compromise on the choice of his material to maintain his band. In 1960, he appeared as himself (along with his band) in the Jerry Lewis film Cinderfella. But by the 70s, his fame had reached a peak, including with the public at large, not unlike the popularity achieved by Louis Armstrong. He was named the greatest jazz musician on earth by the British publication Melody Maker and was invited to perform for Queen Elizabeth before even Duke Ellington earned that distinction. Count Basie died of pancreatic cancer in Hollywood, Florida, on April 26, 1984 at the age of seventy-nine. The Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, New Jersey was named in his honor.
Legacy
“Basie's status as a great musician was not a matter of extension and elaboration of blues idiom basics as was the case of Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington," says jazz critic Albert Murray. "Basie's claim to fame and prestige was based on his refinement of the fundamentals that make jazz music swing. The Basie hallmark was always simplicity, but it is a simplicity that is the result of a distillation that produced music that was as refined, subtle and elegant as it was earthy and robust. There is no better example of the un-gaudy in the work of any other American artist in any medium."
Basie's consummate artistry, like Ellington's, is a credit to his visionary understanding of the jazz idiom and his leadership as much as to his innovative keyboard work. Basie's band is often cited as the most important precursor of the emergence of modern jazz, and it is not coincidental that the leading innovator of forties, the saxophonist Charlie Parker, was a native of Kansas City. Basie gathered many of the premiere jazz artists of the era. Saxophonist Herschel Evans and his distinctive "Texas moan;" the blues-based "Hot Lips" Page, who had earlier performed with Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith; jazz balladeers Jimmy Rushing and Joe Turner; and above all brilliant, boundary-breaking tenor sax improviser Lester Young (known affectionately as "Pres") established a style for the Basie band that drew from the excitement of traditional jazz and informed it with innovations in rhythm and phrasings that would lead jazz in radical new directions.
"Count Basie's music is not about protest," said Murray. "It is about celebration, and . . . what [Basie's music] generates is a sense of well-being that even becomes exhilaration."
References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees
Basie, Count. Count Basie Collection (Artist Transcriptions). Hal Leonard Corporation, 2004.
Basie, Count. The Piano Style of Count Basie: Some of Basie's Best of Advanced Piano. Alfred Publishing Company, 2001.
Dance, Stanley. The World of Count Basie. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1980.
Murray, Albert et al.Good Morning Blues: The Autobiography of Count Basie. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2002.
All links retrieved January 10, 2024.
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||||||
correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
|
1
| 44 |
https://lasvegassun.com/news/1999/jul/14/casino-lounge-piano-player-sims-dies-in-florida-at/
|
en
|
Casino lounge piano player Sims dies in Florida at 65
|
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1999-07-14T00:00:00
|
Bob Sims, a hulking piano player who packed Las Vegas Strip lounges for three decades, utilizing a great command of many musical styles and a wide-ranging repertoire to keep casino patrons spellbound, has died in Tampa, Fla. He was 65.
|
en
|
//assets.lasvegassun.com/media/assets/images/favicon.ico
|
Las Vegas Sun
|
https://lasvegassun.com/news/1999/jul/14/casino-lounge-piano-player-sims-dies-in-florida-at/
|
Bob Sims, a hulking piano player who packed Las Vegas Strip lounges for three decades, utilizing a great command of many musical styles and a wide-ranging repertoire to keep casino patrons spellbound, has died in Tampa, Fla. He was 65.
Sims, who as leader of the Bob Sims Trio performed at the Flamingo, Frontier, Sands, Caesars Palace and Tropicana lounges from the early 1960s through the 1980s, died June 20 of brain cancer and diabetes. His family disclosed his death this week.
The late legendary Las Vegas entertainment director Walter Kane in 1982 wrote of Sims: "I have been involved with many entertainers over the past 50 years, but I know of no one quite as excellent as Bob Sims at the keyboard."
Though probably remembered best for his unique jazz style, Sims was a versatile performer who would one minute play the nightclub standard "New York, New York" and the next minute break into a Rachmaninoff concerto.
It was not uncommon for a Bob Sims set to include such varying tunes as "MacArthur Park," "Feelings," and "Jesus Christ Superstar."
Sims, who stood 6 feet tall and weighed 230 pounds in his prime, displayed both great sensitivity and a powerful command of the instrument over which his chubby fingers would gracefully glide.
"He knew practically every song that was ever written so if you hung around long enough -- no matter what your taste -- you would eventually hear something you liked," said longtime Las Vegas Sun entertainment columnist Joe Delaney. "If you stayed more than five minutes, Bob would hook you."
Sims performed with such entertainment giants and Las Vegas favorites as Harry James, Sarah Vaughan, Fats Domino, Dizzy Gillespie, Billy Eckstine, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Buddy Rich, Della Reese, Xavier Cougat, the Mills Brothers, Frank Sinatra Jr., the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra and Lionel Hampton.
For the cover of his late 1960s' album "Bob Sims Plays Las Vegas Style," the Smothers Brothers comedic duo wrote: "We don't see what's so great about Bob Sims. Anyone with four hands could play just like he does."
Born Dec. 16, 1933, in Seminole, Okla., Sims started taking piano lessons at age 5. Seven years later, he performed the Gershwin classic "Rhapsody in Blue" at the Oklahoma City Municipal Auditorium before a crowd of 4,000.
Sims graduated from Mount St. Mary's High School in Oklahoma City in 1953 and over the next three years attended the University of Texas at Arlington and Oklahoma A&M (now known as Oklahoma State University) where he studied music and played football.
Sims served in the Marine Corps from 1956-57, and performed in its band. He put his first trio together in 1959, playing the wealthy oilmen's clubs of Texas and Oklahoma.
While performing at the Tent Club in Midland, Texas, Sims impressed then-Flamingo owner Morris Landsburgh, who was sitting in the audience.
Landsburgh signed Sims to a two-week contract in 1961. Sims wound up performing in the Flamingo's Driftwood Lounge for more than eight years. He later played the Frontier Hotel's Cabaret Room (1969-71) and the Sands Regency Lounge (1971-80).
Sims was a resident of St. Petersburg, Fla., at the time of his death.
Sims, who was buried in Seminole, Fla., is survived by his ex-wife, Pat Sims, a former Maitre 'D at the Top of the Dunes, who now is a resident of Chicago; two daughters, Mandalay Bay hotel-casino pit manager Judi Abbate and her husband, Michael, of Las Vegas, and Diane Rapp and her husband, William, of Schenectady, N.Y.; and four grandchildren.
archive
|
||||
correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
|
2
| 85 |
https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/national-international/natl-maria-cole-wife-of-nat-king-cole-dies-at-89-2/1900115/
|
en
|
Maria Cole, Widow of Nat King Cole, Dies at 89
|
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2012-07-12T04:15:38
|
Maria Hawkins Cole, widow of jazz crooner Nat “King” Cole and mother of singer Natalie Cole, has died in South Florida after a short battle with cancer. She...
|
en
|
NBC 6 South Florida
|
https://ots.nbcwpshield.com/qa/national-international/natl-maria-cole-wife-of-nat-king-cole-dies-at-89-2/2142825/
|
Maria Hawkins Cole, widow of jazz crooner Nat "King" Cole and mother of singer Natalie Cole, has died in South Florida after a short battle with cancer. She was 89.
A representative of the family confirmed that she died Tuesday at a Boca Raton hospice, surrounded by her family.
Before and after marrying the famed singer and piano player, Maria Cole had her own long singing career, performing with greats such as Count Basie and Duke Ellington.
Born in Boston in 1922, she lived as a child in North Carolina after her mother died, according to a statement from the family. She later moved to New York to pursue a music career
According to her family, Ellington heard recordings of Maria Cole singing and hired her as a vocalist with his orchestra. She stayed with him until 1946 when she began soloing at the city's Club Zanzibar as an opening act for the Mills Brothers. There she met Nat "King" Cole.
The two were married in 1948 by then-U.S. Rep. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. at Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church.
Maria Cole traveled and performed with her husband throughout the '50s. After her husband died from cancer in 1965, Maria Cole created the Cole Cancer Foundation.
Her children, Natalie, Timolin and Casey Cole, said in a joint statement, "Our mom was in a class all by herself. She epitomized, class, elegance, and truly defined what it is to be a real lady. ... She died how she lived — with great strength, courage and dignity, surrounded by her loving family."
At the time of her death Maria Cole lived in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. Private services will be held in Glendale, Calif.
|
|||||
correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
|
0
| 73 |
https://piano-play.com/countbasie.html
|
en
|
Count Basie transcriptions: Honeysuckle Rose, I'll always be in love with you, Mean to me, On the sunny sideof the street, Roots
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Transcriptions of Count Basie's jazz piano solos Honeysuckle Rose, I'll always be in love with you, Mean to me, On the sunny sideof the street, Roots
|
https://piano-play.com/countbasie.html
| ||||||||
correct_death_00034
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FactBench
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3
| 26 |
https://www.notablebiographies.com/Ba-Be/Basie-Count.html
|
en
|
Count Basie Biography
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| null |
Born: August 21, 1904
Red Bank, New Jersey
Died: April 26, 1984
Hollywood, Florida
African American bandleader and musician
Count Basie was an extremely popular figure in the jazz world for half a century. He was a fine pianist and leader of one of the greatest jazz bands in history.
Early years
William Basie was born in Red Bank, New Jersey, on August 21, 1904. His parents, Harvey and Lillian (Childs) Basie, were both musicians. Basie played drums in his school band and took some piano lessons from his
mother. But it was in Harlem, New York City, that he learned the basics of piano, mainly from his sometime organ teacher, the great Fats Waller (1904–1943).
Basie made his professional debut playing piano with vaudeville acts (traveling variety entertainment). While on one tour he became stranded in Kansas City, Missouri. After working briefly as house organist in a silent movie theater, he joined Walter Page's Blue Devils in 1928. When that band broke up in 1929, he Bennie Moten's band hired him. He played piano with them, with one interruption, for the next five years. It was during this time that he was given the nickname "Count."
After Moten died in 1935, Basie took what was left of the band, expanded the personnel, and formed the first Count Basie Orchestra. Within a year the band developed its own variation of the Kansas City swing style—a solid rhythm backing the horn soloists, who were also supported by sectional riffing (the repeating of a musical figure by the non-soloing brass and reeds). This familiar pattern was evident in the band's theme song, "One O'Clock Jump," written by Basie himself in 1937.
Success in the swing era
By 1937 Basie's band was, with the possible exception of Duke Ellington's (1899–1974), the most famous African American band in America. Basie's band regularly worked some of the better big city hotel ballrooms. With many of the other big bands of the swing era he also shared the less appealing one-nighters (a series of single night performances in a number of small cities and towns that were traveled to by bus).
Many of the band's arrangements were "heads"—arrangements worked out without planning in rehearsal and then written down later. The songs were often designed to showcase the band's brilliant soloists. Sometimes the arrangement was the reworking of a standard tune—"I Got Rhythm," "Dinah," or "Lady, Be Good." Sometimes a member of the band would come up with an original, written with a particular soloist or two in mind. Two of Basie's earliest favorites, "Jumpin' at the Woodside" and "Lester Leaps In," were created as features for saxophonist Lester Young. They were referred to as "flagwavers," fast-paced tunes designed to excite the audience. The swing era band (1935–45) was unquestionably Basie's greatest. The superior arrangements (reflecting Basie's good taste) and the skilled performers (reflecting Basie's sound management) gave the band a permanent place in jazz history.
Later years
The loss of key personnel (some to military service), the wartime ban on recordings, the 1943 musicians' strike, the strain of onenighters, and the bebop revolution of the mid-1940s all played a role in the death of the big-band era. Basie decided to form a medium-sized band in 1950, juggling combinations of all-star musicians. The groups' recordings were of the highest quality, but in 1951 Basie returned to his first love—the big band—and it thrived. Another boost was provided in the late 1950s by the recording of "April in Paris," which became the trademark of the band for the next quarter of a century.
A stocky, handsome man with heavy-lidded eyes and a sly smile, Basie was a shrewd judge of talent and character, and he was extremely patient in dealing with the egos of his musicians. He and his band recorded with many other famous artists, including Duke Ellington (1899–1974), Frank Sinatra (1915–1998), Ella Fitzgerald (1917–1996), and Sarah Vaughan (1924–1990). Perhaps the most startling of the band's achievements was its fifty-year survival in a culture that experienced so many changes in musical fashion, especially after the mid-1960s, when jazz lost much of its audience to other forms of music.
In 1976 Basie suffered a heart attack, but he returned to the bandstand half a year later. During his last years he had difficulty walking and so rode out on stage in a motorized wheelchair. He died of cancer in Hollywood, Florida, on April 26, 1984. His wife, Catherine, had died in 1983. They had one daughter. The band survived Basie's death, with trumpeter Thad Jones directing until his own death in 1986.
|
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correct_death_00034
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FactBench
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0
| 24 |
https://mrmedia.com/2007/05/remembering-count-basie/
|
en
|
18 Remembering Count Basie and his orchestra!
|
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2007-05-23T21:37:00-04:00
|
A fond remembrance of Count Basie.
|
en
|
Mr. Media® Interviews
|
https://mrmedia.com/2007/05/remembering-count-basie/
|
(Originally published October 16, 1985.)
“I’ve always played happy music,” William James Basie once explained. “Music that people can tap their feet to, music that folks wanted to dance to, happy swinging music. That’s what I intend to keep on playing.”
Count Basie, as he was known to millions around the world, died last year, but the orchestra he molded for decades continues under the direction of trumpeter Thad Jones.
Born on Aug. 21, 1904 in Red Bank, N.J., Basie was a man whose music transcended generations and traveled across the continents. He plated swing music whether it was in fashion or not.
The list of talented musicians who got their first break or greater exposure with Basie in lengthy. It includes tenor saxophonist Lester Young, swing drummer Jo Jones, guitarist Freddie Green and singer Joe Williams.
Similarly, the Basie song book is thick. Some of the best remembered entrie are: “One O’Clock Jump,” “Every Day (I have the Blues),” “April in Paris,” “Shiny Stockings,” “Jumpin’ at the Woodside,” “Panassie Stomp,” “Every Tub,” and “Li’l Darlin’.”
What follows is a chronological look at the career of the Count, the music he made and the musicians he led.
Bill Basie was a teen-age would-be drummer when he met pianist Fats Waller.
“I had dropped into the old Lincoln Theater in Harlem,” Basie told the New York Times many years later. “and I heard a young fellow beating it out on an organ. From that time on, I was a daily customer, hanging onto every note, sitting behind him all the time. He got used to seeing me, as though I were part of the show. One day he asked me whether I played the organ. ‘No,’ I said, ‘but I’d give my right arm to learn.’
“The next day he invited me to sit in the pit and start working the pedals. I sat on the floor watching his feet and using my hands to imitate him. Then I sat beside him and he taught me.”
“By 1928,” according to Rolling Stone, “he had joined bassist Waiter Page’s Blue Devils, the band that established Kansas City-style jazz. In 1929, Bennie Moten, (Harlem’s) ruling band leader, hired some of Page’s men, Basie among them. When Moten died in 1935, it was Basie who brought together most of the key players. They worked at the Reno Club, where beer was a nickel a glass, whiskey was 15 cents a shot, and the men took home $15 a week.”
“Basie’s attitude toward his music (in the 1950s) is well expressed in his response to a reporter’s: ‘What is your music about?’ Basie paused, then said quietly, ‘Pat your foot,’ ” according to the book Jazz Heritage.
“The very first singer that I ever saw was Nat King Cole,” recalled jazz singer Fred Johnson, “but the first time I ever stood in front of a band was at Fort Dix (circa 1955). It was the Count Basie Orchestra. The first autograph I ever got was Count Basie’s. So they’re pretty special to me.
“I was like 6 years old. My dad was really into big bands. He dressed me up in a little suit. I loved (Basie’s) drummer Sonny Payne, the way he played. My dad never missed Basie’s orchestra.
“It was such a feeling of power. All these brass instruments, all these black guys dressed up. That was a real important image.”
A 1959 press biography on Basie fills in some background on his famous orchestra.
“Except for a period in 1950-51 when he led a swinging sextet (the members included Clark Terry, Wardell Gray and Buddy De Franco), Basie has led a big band continuously for the past two decades and has gained a global reputation for his undying allegiance to the beat, his loyalty to the blues as a basic form, and his ability to produce, year after year, a series of records of unflaggingly high caliber. In 1954, when the band made its first tour of Europe, and 1955, when the Count completed his 20th year as a leader, many new stars were featured, among them Thad Jones, Joe Wilder and Joe Newman again on trumpets, Benny Powell and Henry Coker on trombones, Frank Foster and Frank Wess on tenor saxes. Most of the arrangements were by Neal Hefti and Ernie Wilkins. The Count was heard on the organ, an instrument whose rudiments he had picked up a long time ago from Fats Waller.”
1961: The Basie band played at President John F. Kennedy’s inaugural ball.
In December 1963, Basie tried to enter the Mecca, a student restaurant across from the Florida State University (FSU) campus in Tallahassee. Accompanied by a white professor, the band leader was refused admission. He then joined FSU and Florida A & M students on a picket line in front of the restaurant and carried a sign reading “Equal Rights for All Americans.”
Basie and his orchestra played a date at McKay Auditorium in Tampa on Feb. 26, 1968.
“Although Bill Basie has been in the dance band business for about 40 years,” the Times reviewer commented, “he is still an introvert. He sits at the piano, which is in the dark to the left of the stage, while the rest of the band is spotlighted. Basie’s microphone almost hides his face and he doesn’t wait for the applause to subside before he announces the next number.”
Discipline among members of his band was never a problem, Basie told the Chicago Tribune in August 1979. “The guys took care of that within themselves,” he said. “‘Everybody knew what was happenin’ and wanted to make a contribution to the organization. They respected themselves and the orchestra as a whole, and we all tried to keep it worthwhile. They took care of business; in fact, they took care of me sometimes – musically, I mean.”
Basie also said he continued to ride on the band bus because “that’s half the fun of being in the band.”
“This time he made his way to the grand piano on canes,” wrote a times reviewer about a March 4, 1981 concert by the Count. “Age is catching up with William ‘Count’ Basie, one of the last granddaddies of swing. But Basie, in a repeat of last year’s wonderful Tampa Theater performance, charmed his way through. . . .
“His head and shoulders rarely move at all. Just his jaws and eyebrows. He leaves the swinging to his music, and the body motion to the people in the audience who sway and tap. Basie’s music makes you want to swivel your hips even while you’re sitting down.”
Two very different pianists – Count Basie and Rudolph Serkin – joined actress Helen Hayes, actor Cary Grant and choreographer Jerome Robbins as recipients of the 1981 Kennedy Center Honors on Dec. 4. A few days later, the honorees were feted by Ronald Reagan at a White House reception.
The President described Basie as “among the handful of musicians that helped change the path of American music in the ‘30s and ‘40s. He revolutionized jazz.”
Two days before an Oct. 27, 1982 appearance at Le Club on Tierra Verde how he got his nickname from a Kansas City music promoter in the ‘30s.
“We had a Duke of Ellington, and the Earl of Hines, and in those days I think Paul Whiteman was known as the King of jazz. So someone said I could become the Count of Basie . . . I didn’t give it to myself.”
“Confidentially, I hated the name ‘Count,’” Basie told the Associated Press later in 1982. “I wanted to be called Buck or Hoot or even Arkansas Fats.”
Lionel Hampton described Basie as “one of the true greats of music. He had his own particular style. . . . It was one of the greatest styles you could hear.
“He leaves behind a great legacy in his writings and his records and his great bands. It’s a great loss. I hate to even think about it.”
“He’ll be remembered as long as there is a world,” said jazz artist Dave Brubeck in a Washington Post article. “. . . He’ll never leave us.”
Count Basie Website • Orchestra Website • Facebook • YouTube • Spotify • Wikipedia • Discography
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correct_death_00034
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FactBench
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https://www.statesboroherald.com/local/associated-press/pianist-jazz-great-oscar-peterson-dies-at-82/
|
en
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Pianist, jazz great Oscar Peterson dies at 82
|
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"ROB GILLIES"
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2007-12-25T04:30:23+00:00
|
TORONTO (AP) _ Oscar Peterson, whose speedy fingers, propulsive swing and melodic inventiveness made him one of the world's best known and influential jazz pianists, has died. He was 82.Peterson died at his home in the Toronto suburb of Mississauga on Sunday, said Oliver Jones, a family friend and jazz musician. He said Peterson's wife and daughter were with him during his final moments.
|
https://www.statesboroherald.com/local/associated-press/pianist-jazz-great-oscar-peterson-dies-at-82/
|
TORONTO (AP) _ Oscar Peterson, whose speedy fingers, propulsive swing and melodic inventiveness made him one of the world's best known and influential jazz pianists, has died. He was 82.
Peterson died at his home in the Toronto suburb of Mississauga on Sunday, said Oliver Jones, a family friend and jazz musician. He said Peterson's wife and daughter were with him during his final moments. The cause of death was kidney failure, said Mississauga's mayor, Hazel McCallion.
"He's been going downhill in the last few months," McCallion said, calling Peterson a "very close friend."
During an illustrious career spanning seven decades, Peterson played with some of the biggest names in jazz, including Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. He is also remembered for the trio he led with Ray Brown on bass and Herb Ellis on guitar in the 1950s.
Peterson's impressive collection of awards include all of Canada's highest honors, such as the Order of Canada, as well as seven Grammys and a Grammy for lifetime achievement in 1997.
"I've always thought of him as Canada's national treasure. All of Canada mourns for him and his family," said Jones.
"A jazz player is an instant composer," Peterson once said in a CBC interview. "You have to think about it, it's an intellectual form."
Peterson's stature was reflected in the admiration of his peers. Duke Ellington referred to him as the "Maharajah of the keyboard," while Count Basie once said "Oscar Peterson plays the best ivory box I've ever heard."
Peterson's keyboard virtuosity, propulsive sense of swing, and melodic inventiveness influenced generations of jazz pianists who followed him.
Herbie Hancock, another legendary jazz pianist, said Peterson's impact was profound.
"Oscar Peterson redefined swing for modern jazz pianists for the latter half of the 20th century up until today," Hancock said in an e-mail message. "I consider him the major influence that formed my roots in jazz piano playing. He mastered the balance between technique, hard blues grooving, and tenderness. ... No one will ever be able to take his place."
Jazz pianist and educator Billy Taylor said Peterson "set the pace for just about everybody that followed him. He really was just a special player."
The 20-year-old jazz pianist, Eldar Djangirov, said he wouldn't have become a jazz musician if he hadn't heard Peterson's records as a boy growing up in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan.
"He was the first I ever heard and my main artistic influence," said Djangirov, who included the fast-tempo Peterson tune "Place St. Henri" on his Grammy-nominated album "re-imagination."
Peterson's death also brought tributes from notable figures outside the jazz world.
In a statement, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he was adored by the French. "One of the bright lights of jazz has gone out."
Former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, a fan and friend of the pianist for decades, reminisced about inviting Peterson to a 2001 Ottawa event honoring South African leader Nelson Mandela.
Chretien recalled that Mandela glowed upon meeting the piano great.
"It was very emotional," said Chretien. "They were both moved to meet each other. These were two men with humble beginnings who rose to very illustrious levels."
Born on Aug. 15, 1925, in a poor neighborhood of Montreal, Peterson got his passion for music from his father. Daniel Peterson, a railway porter and self-taught pianist, bestowed his love of music to his five children, offering them a means to escape from poverty.
At 5 years old, Oscar Peterson learned to play trumpet and piano, but after a bout with tuberculosis, he chose to concentrate on the keyboards. During his high school years, he studied with an accomplished Hungarian-born classical pianist, Paul de Marky, who helped develop his technique and "speedy fingers."
He became a teen sensation in his native Canada, playing in dance bands and recording in the late 1930s and 1940s.
He quickly made a name for himself as a jazz virtuoso, often earning comparisons to jazz piano great Art Tatum, his childhood idol, for his speed and technical skill. He was also influenced by Nat "King" Cole, whose piano trio recordings he considered "a complete musical thesaurus for any aspiring Jazz pianist."
Jazz pianist Marian McPartland, who called Peterson "the finest technician that I have seen," recalled first meeting Peterson when she and her husband, jazz cornetist Jimmy McPartland, opened for him at the Colonial Tavern in Toronto in the 1940s.
"From that point on, we became such good friends, and he was always wonderful to me and I have always felt very close to him," she said.
American jazz impresario Norman Granz was so impressed after hearing him play at a Montreal club that he invited Peterson to come to New York for a concert at Carnegie Hall in 1949.
Jazz impresario and record producer Quincy Jones said it was a blessing to have worked with Peterson.
"He was one of the last of the giants, but his music and contributions will be eternal," Jones said.
In 1951, the pianist formed the Oscar Peterson Trio with a guitarist and bassist. When Ellis left the group in 1958, he replaced the guitarist with a series of drummers.
Peterson never stopped calling Canada home despite his growing international reputation, and probably his best known major composition is the "Canadiana Suite" with jazz themes inspired by the cities and regions of his native country.
But at times he felt slighted in Canada, where he was occasionally mistaken for a football player, at 6 foot 3 inches and weighing more than 250 pounds.
In 2005 he became the first living person other than a reigning monarch to be honored with a commemorative stamp in Canada, where streets, squares, concert halls and schools have been named after him.
Peterson suffered a stroke in 1993 that weakened his left hand, but not his passion or drive for music. After a two-year recuperation, he gradually resumed performances, and made a series of recordings for the U.S. Telarc label.
He kept playing and touring, despite worsening arthritis and difficulties walking, saying in a 2001 interview that "the love I have of the instrument and my group and the medium itself works as a sort of a rejuvenating factor for me."
"Until the end, Oscar Peterson could tour the world and fill concert halls everywhere," said Andre Menard, artistic director and co-founder of the Montreal International Jazz Festival where Peterson often performed.
"This is something that never diminished. His drawing power, his mystique as a musician, was so big that he remained at the top of his game until the end."
Peterson is survived by his wife, Kelly, and daughter, Celine.
———
AP writers Charles J. Gans and Lily Hindy in New York contributed to this story.
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https://www.facebook.com/DailyBlackHistoryFacts/photos/april-26-1984-count-basie-died-of-pancreatic-cancer-in-hollywood-florida-at-the-/435067289997689/
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en
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Facebook
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https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/yv/r/B8BxsscfVBr.ico
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https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/yv/r/B8BxsscfVBr.ico
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Sieh dir auf Facebook Beiträge, Fotos und vieles mehr an.
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https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/yv/r/B8BxsscfVBr.ico
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https://www.facebook.com/login/
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correct_death_00034
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FactBench
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1
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https://www.raintribute.com/
|
en
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A Tribute to the Beatles
|
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en
|
RAIN A Tribute to the Beatles
|
https://www.raintribute.com
|
Steve Landes
(Vocals, Rhythm Guitar, Piano, Harmonica)
A life-long, second-generation Beatles fan, Steve taught himself guitar at 10 listening to Beatles records and by 13 was fronting a Top 40 cover band in his native Philadelphia. At 17 he joined Beatlemania and further developed his musicianship, touring the world with the show. After 'passing the audition' with the existing RAIN band members in 1998, his career was set. On one of his travels to England, he found himself at Liverpool's Casbah Club, owned by pre-Ringo Beatles drummer Pete Best. Encouraged to get on stage, Steve belted out lead vocals to The Beatles rocker "Slow Down," while Best sat in on drums.
As a backup musician, Steve has performed alongside legendary sixties artists Peter Noone (Herman’s Hermits), Joey Molland (Badfinger), Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, and Tiny Tim. As an actor, he appeared in the films "Wedding Bell Blues," "For Which He Stands" and Tim Burton’s "Mars Attacks!" Steve writes and records his own original music.
Paul Curatolo
(Vocals, Bass, Piano, Guitar)
The Beatles became Paul's biggest influence as a child growing up with RAIN. At ten years old, his musical journey began when he taught himself the drums. He quickly adapted to guitar & piano which drove him to write and record his own music. When he was 14, as a member of the pop band "Wayward", he went on to record five albums. Until recently the band has toured the U.S. and was voted home town heroes in A.P. magazine. (Alternative Press). Paul's love for the Beatles has driven him to master the character of Paul McCartney down to every detail. From vocal inflections to turning the bass over to perform left-handed. Paul considers it an honor to pay tribute to his idol.
Alastar McNeil
(Vocals, Lead Guitar)
Born and raised on the island of Oahu, State of Hawaii, Alastar McNeil grew up surrounded by musicians who played ukulele and guitar. These instruments would play a pivotal role in his life as he became an ukulele luthier- for a time supervising a local factory- and eventually changed careers to fulfill the dream of being a full time musician. Alastar and his wife Miwa (herself a kiho'alu or Hawaiian slack key guitarist) have played with the iconic band Kupaina for years even as he earned a solid reputation for his instrumentation and adaptability playing with Honolulu bands doing everything from Irish to reggae, funk to classic rock and even a local Beatles tribute. "Playing with RAIN has challenged and improved my ability to express myself not just as a musician but as an actor and entertainer as well. Nothing is more thrilling!"
Dylan Verge
(Drums, Percussion, Vocals)
Like any Beatles fan, Dylan Verge was drawn to their magic by watching their “First U.S. Visit” DVD as early as he can remember. This was foundation for his musical journey. He started playing drums around age 5 and soon began playing professionally before his teenage years, as a self taught drummer. He later attended the Boston Arts Academy school, where his musicianship breaded exponentially through different styles and intense performance study. With his time at this school and studying with Berklee City Music all through high school, he was accepted into Berklee College of Music with the “J. Curtis Warner“ full tuition scholarship. In addition to gigging 3-4 times a week, he majored in Contemporary Writing and Production, studying: scoring for orchestras, advertisement writing, and arranging. In his time as Berklee he taught himself bass guitar, through learning every McCartney line he could, along with guitar and mandolin, in order to write and record on all of his assignments. He currently lives in Nashville, and is working as a performer and multi-instrumentalist, and the Beatle sound and influence has always been and will be with him in his work, no matter what.
Mark Beyer
(Keyboards, Percussion)
Mark Beyer began piano lessons at age 8, and at 12 was given special acceptance into a local University music school where he was privately trained in piano and music theory. At 14, he began experimenting with electronic keyboards and synthesizers from the 1970s, and played professionally in a progressive rock band. As keyboard technology advanced, Mark became known for his uncanny reproductions of elaborate sound textures, exotic instruments, and simulations of full orchestras. Mark is the primary programmer and sound designer for the keyboards currently used in RAIN's production.
You can learn more about Mark at his website: www.beatlekeys.com
Chris Smallwood
(Keyboard, Percussion)
Chris fell in love with music as a young kid, but didn’t fall onto a piano bench until high school, when he broke his leg. Just two years later, he was invited to Kentucky’s prestigious Governor’s School for the Arts program. In 2008, Chris received a bachelor of music from Belmont University and in 2010 earned his master of music from the University of Louisville. Chris has toured internationally with Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles since 2010 and loves sharing his passion for The Beatles’ music with fans all over the world. Chris currently serves as a collaborative pianist in the Musical Theatre department at Belmont University and works as Music Director/Performer with Chef Alton Brown’s touring productions, which have played extensively in the United States and Canada. Chris also writes and produces original music for some of Mr. Brown’s television shows and online content. His music contracting business, Mockingbird Musicians, has been providing live music for weddings and events in Nashville for over ten years.
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Count Basie
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William "Count" Basie (August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years. Many notable musicians came to prominence under his direction, including tenor saxophonists Lester Young and Herschel Evans, trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry "Sweets" Edison and…
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Paul Roth's Music Liner Notes
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https://musiclinernotes.wordpress.com/2010/08/26/count-basie/
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William “Count” Basie (August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years. Many notable musicians came to prominence under his direction, including tenor saxophonists Lester Young and Herschel Evans, trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry “Sweets” Edison and singers Jimmy Rushing and Joe Williams. Basie’s theme songs were “One O’Clock Jump” and “April In Paris“.
William James Basie was born to Harvey Lee Basie, and Lillian Ann Childs, who lived on Mechanic Street in Red Bank, New Jersey.[1][2] His father worked as a coachman and caretaker for a wealthy judge. After automobiles replaced horses, his father became a groundskeeper and handyman for several families in the area.[3] His mother, a piano player who gave Basie his first piano lessons, took in laundry and baked cakes for sale and paid 25 cents a lesson for piano instruction for him.[4][5]
Basie was not much of a scholar and instead dreamed of a traveling life, inspired by the carnivals which came to town. He only got as far as junior high school.[6] He would hang out at the Palace Theater in Red Bank and did occasional chores for the management, which got him free admission to the shows. He also learned to operate the spotlights for the vaudeville shows. One day, when the pianist failed to arrive by show time, Basie took his place. Playing by ear, he quickly learned to improvise music appropriate to silent movies.[7]
Though a natural at the piano, Basie preferred drums. However, the obvious talents of another young Red Bank area drummer, Sonny Greer (who was Duke Ellington‘s drummer from 1919 to 1951), discouraged Basie and he switched to piano exclusively by age 15.[4] They played together in venues until Greer set out on his professional career. By then Basie was playing with pick-up groups for dances, resorts, and amateur shows, including Harry Richardson’s “Kings of Syncopation”.[8] When not playing a gig, he hung out at the local pool hall with other musicians where he picked up on upcoming play dates and gossip. He got some jobs in Asbury Park, New Jersey, playing at the Hongkong Inn, until a better player took his place.[9]
Around 1924, he went to Harlem, a hotbed of jazz, living down the block from the Alhambra Theater. Early after his arrival, he bumped into Sonny Greer, who was by then the drummer for the Washingtonians, Duke Ellington‘s early band.[10] Soon, Basie met many of the Harlem musicians who were making the scene, including Willie “the Lion” Smith and James P. Johnson.
Basie toured in several acts between 1925 and 1927, including Katie Krippen and Her Kiddies as part of the Hippity Hop show; on the Keith, the Columbia Burlesque, and the Theater Owners Bookers Association (T.O.B.A.) vaudeville circuits; and as a soloist and accompanist to blues singers Katie Krippen and Gonzelle White.[11][12] His touring took him to Kansas City, St. Louis, New Orleans, and Chicago. Throughout his tours, Basie met many great jazz musicians, including Louis Armstrong.[13]
Count Basie, piano; Wardell Gray, tenor sax; Buddy DeFranco, clarinet; Clark Terry, trumpet; Freddie Green, guitar; Jimmy Lewis, bass; Gus Johnson, drums, from the film, “Rhythm and Blues Review,” October 1950 “One O’Clock Jump”
Back in Harlem in 1925, Basie got his first steady job at Leroy’s, a place known for its piano players and its “cutting contests”. The place catered to “uptown celebrities”, and typically the band winged every number without sheet music (using “head” arrangements).[14] He met Fats Waller, who was playing organ at the Lincoln Theater accompanying silent movies, and Waller taught him how to play that instrument (Basie later played organ at the Eblon Theater in Kansas City).[15] As he did with Duke Ellington, Willie “the Lion” Smith helped Basie out during the lean times arranging gigs at house-rent parties, introducing him to other top musicians, and teaching him some piano technique.[16]
In 1928 Basie was in Tulsa and heard Walter Page and his Famous Blue Devils, one of the first big bands, which featured Jimmy Rushing on vocals.[17] A few months later, he was invited to join the band, which played mostly in Texas and Oklahoma. It was at this time that he began to be known as ‘Count’ Basie (see Jazz royalty).[18]
“April In Paris”
The following year, Basie became the pianist with the Bennie Moten band based in Kansas City, inspired by Moten’s ambition to raise his band to the level of Duke Ellington’s or Fletcher Henderson‘s.[19] Where the Blue Devils were “snappier” and more “bluesy”, the Moten band was classier and more respected, and played in the “Kansas City stomp” style.[20] In addition to playing piano, Basie was co-arranger with Eddie Durham, who actually did the notating.[21] During a stay in Chicago, Basie recorded with the band. He occasionally played four-hand piano and dual pianos with Moten, who also conducted.[22] The band improved with several personnel changes, including the addition of tenor saxophonist Ben Webster.
When the band voted Moten out, Basie took over for several months as Count Basie and his Cherry Blossoms until the band folded, when he returned to Moten’s newly re-organized band.[23] When Moten died in 1935 after a surgical procedure, the band unsuccessfully attempted to stay together. Then Basie formed a new band, which included many Moten alumni, with the important addition of tenor player Lester Young. They played at the Reno Club and sometimes were broadcast on local radio. Late one night with time to fill, the band started improvising. Basie liked the results and named the piece “One O’Clock Jump“.[24] According to Basie, “we hit it with the rhythm section and went into the riffs, and the riffs just stuck. We set the thing up front in D-flat, and then we just went on playing in F”. It became his signature tune.[25
Ella with the Count. Gershwins’ “Lady Be Good”
At the end of 1936, Basie and his band, now billed as Count Basie and His Barons of Rhythm, moved from Kansas City and honed their repertoire at a long engagement at the Grand Terrace Ballroom in Chicago.[26] Right from the start, Basie’s band was noted for its rhythm section. Another Basie innovation was the use of two tenor saxophone players; at the time, most bands had just one. When Lester Young complained of Herschel Evans‘ vibrato, the two were split apart and placed one on each side of the alto players, and soon Basie had the tenor players engaged in “duels”. Many other bands later adapted the split tenor arrangement.[27]
One of my favorite tunes!! “Make Me Rainbows”
In that city in October 1936, members of the band participated in a recording session which producer John Hammond later described as “the only perfect, completely perfect recording session I’ve ever had anything to do with”.[28] Hammond, according to Basie, had heard Basie’s band over short-wave radio, then he went to Kansas City to check them out.[29] The results were Lester Young’s earliest recordings. Those four sides were released under the name Jones-Smith Incorporated, because Basie had already signed with Decca Records but had not started recording for them (his first Decca session was January 1937). The sides were “Shoe Shine Boy”, “Evening”, “Boogie Woogie”, and “Oh, Lady Be Good”.[30]
By now, Basie’s sound was characterized by a “jumping” beat and the contrapuntal accents of his own piano. His personnel around 1937 included: Lester Young and Herschel Evans (tenor sax), Freddie Green (guitar), Jo Jones (drums), Walter Page (bass), Earle Warren (alto sax), Buck Clayton and Harry Edison (trumpet), Benny Morton and Dickie Wells (trombone).[31] Lester Young, known as “Prez” by the band, came up with nicknames for all the other band members. Basie became known as “Holy Man”, “Holy Main”, and just plain “Holy”.[32]
Basie favored blues, and he showcased some of the most notable blues singers of the era: Billie Holiday, Jimmy Rushing, Big Joe Turner, Helen Humes, and Joe Williams. He also hired arrangers who knew how to maximize the band’s abilities, such as Eddie Durham and Jimmy Mundy.
When they arrived in New York, they made the Woodside Hotel their base (where they often rehearsed in the basement). Soon, they were booked at the Roseland Ballroom for the Christmas show. Basie recalled a review, which in his words was something like, “We caught the great Count Basie band which is supposed to be so hot he was going to come in here and set the Roseland on fire. Well, the Roseland is still standing”.[33] Compared to the reigning band of Fletcher Henderson, Basie’s band lacked polish and presentation.[34] Hammond advised and encouraged them, and they soon came up with some adjustments, including softer playing, more solos, more standards, and saving their hottest numbers for later in the show to give the audience a chance to warm up.[35] His first official recordings for Decca followed, under contract to agent MCA, including “Pennies from Heaven” and “Honeysuckle Rose“.[36]
Joe Wiliams and the Count Basie Orchestra, “I Can’t Believe That You’re In Love With Me.”
Hammond introduced Basie to Billie Holiday who was soon singing with the band. (Holiday didn’t record with Basie, however, as she had her own record contract and preferred working with small combos).[37] The band’s first appearance at the Apollo Theater followed, with vocalists Holiday and Rushing getting the most attention.[38] Eddie Durham came back to help with arranging and composing, but for the most part their numbers were worked out in rehearsal, with Basie, guiding the proceedings, and the results written out little if at all. Once they found what they liked, they usually were able to repeat it using their collective memory.[39]
Nancy Wilson with Joe Williams and the Count -Joe’s hit song with Count Basie, “All Right! Okay. You win!”
Next, Basie played at the Savoy, which was noted more for jitterbugging, while the Roseland was more of a place for fox-trots and congas.[40] In early 1938, the Savoy was the meeting ground for a “battle of the bands” with Chick Webb‘s group. Basie had Holiday and Webb countered with Ella Fitzgerald. As Metronome magazine proclaimed, “Basie’s Brilliant Band Conquers Chick’s”, then it went on in detail,
“Throughout the fight, which never let down in its intensity during the whole fray, Chick took the aggressive, with the Count playing along easily and, on the whole, more musically scientifically. Undismayed by Chick’s forceful drum beating, which sent the audience into shouts of encouragement and appreciation and casual beads of perspiration to drop from Chick’s brow onto the brass cymbals, the Count maintained an attitude of poise and self-assurance. He constantly parried Chick’s thundering haymakers with tantalizing runs and arpeggios which teased more and more force from his adversary”.[41]
The publicity over the battle, before and after, gave the Basie band a big boost and they gained wider recognition, as evidenced by Benny Goodman‘s recording of One O’Clock Jump shortly thereafter.[42]
A few months later, Holiday left for Artie Shaw‘s band, and was replaced by Helen Humes; she was also ushered in by John Hammond, and stayed with Basie for four years.[43] Co-arranger and trombone player Eddie Durham left for Glenn Miller‘s orchestra and was replaced by Dicky Wells. Basie’s 14-man band began playing at the Famous Door, a mid-town nightspot, with a CBS network feed and air conditioning. Their fame took a huge leap.[44] Adding to their play book, Basie received arrangements from Jimmy Mundy (who had also worked with Benny Goodman and Earl Hines) particularly for “Cherokee”, “Easy Does It”, and “Super Chief”.[45] In 1939, Basie and his band made a major cross-country tour, including their first West Coast dates. A few months later, Basie quit MCA and signed with the William Morris Agency, who got them better fees.[46]
“Everyday I Have The Blues”
In 1942, Basie moved to Queens with Catherine Morgan, after being married to her for a few years. On the West Coast, the band did a spot in Reveille With Beverly, a musical starring Ann Miller, and also a “Command Performance” for Armed Forces Radio with Hollywood stars Clark Gable, Bette Davis, Carmen Miranda, Jerry Colonna, and singer Dinah Shore.[47] Other minor movie spots followed including Choo Choo Swing, Crazy House, Top Man, and Hit Parade of 1943.[48] They also started to record with RCA.[49] The war years caused a lot of member turn over, and the band worked many play dates with lower pay. Dance hall bookings were down sharply as swing began to fade, the effects of the musicians’ strikes of 1942-44 and 1948 began to be felt and the public’s growing taste for singers. The big band era appeared to be over after the war (c. 1946), and Basie disbanded the group. For awhile, he performed in combos, sometimes stretched to an orchestra. In 1950, he headlined the Universal-International short film ‘Sugar Chile’ Robinson, Billie Holiday, Count Basie and His Sextet. He reformed his group as a 16-piece orchestra in 1952. Basie credits Billy Eckstine, a top male vocalist of the time, for prompting his return to Big Band and Norman Granz for getting him into the Birdland club and promoting the new band through recordings on the Mercury, Clef, and Verve labels.[50] The jukebox era had begun, and Basie shared the exposure along with early rock’n’roll and rhythm and blues artists. Basie’s new band was more of an ensemble group, with fewer solo turns, and relying less on “head” and more on written arrangements.
“Lil’ Darling”
Basie added touches of bebop “so long as it made sense”, and he required that “it all had to have feeling”. Basie’s band was sharing Birdland with bebop greats Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Miles Davis. Behind the occasional bebop solos, though, he always kept his strict rhythmic pulse, “so it doesn’t matter what they do up front; the audience gets the beat”.[51] Basie also added flute to some numbers, a novelty at the time that became widely copied.[52] Soon, they were touring and recording again. The new band included: Paul Campbell, Tommy Turrentine, Johnny Letman, and Idris Sulieman, Joe Newman (trumpet); Jimmy Wilkins, Benny Powell, Matthew Gee (trombone); Paul Quinichette and Floyd Johnson (tenor sax); Marshall Royal and Ernie Wilkins (alto sax); and Charlie Fowlkes (baritone sax).[53] Down Beat said “(Basie) has managed to assemble an ensemble that can thrill both the listener who remembers 1938 and the youngster who has never before heard a big band like this”.[54]
In 1954, the band made its first European tour. Jazz was especially strong in France, The Netherlands, and Germany in the 1950’s; These countries were the stomping grounds for many expatriate jazz stars who were either resurrecting their careers or sitting out the years of racial divide in the United States. Neal Hefti began to provide arrangements, notably “Lil Darlin’“. By the mid-1950s, Basie’s band had become one of the preeminent backing big bands for some of the most prominent jazz vocalists of the time. They also toured with the “Birdland Stars of 1955”, whose lineup included Sarah Vaughan, Erroll Garner, Lester Young, George Shearing, and Stan Getz.[55]
1962 Count Basie and Sarah Vaughan, “Lover Man”
In 1957, Basie released the live album Count Basie at Newport. “April in Paris” (arrangement by Wild Bill Davis) was a best-selling instrumental and the title song for the hit album.[56] The Basie band made two tours in the British Isles and on the second, they put on a command performance for Queen Elizabeth II, along with Judy Garland, Vera Lynn, and Mario Lanza.[57] In 1959, Basie’s band recorded a “greatest hits” double album The Count Basie Story (Frank Foster, arranger) and “Basie and Eckstine, Inc.”: album featuring Billy Eckstine, Quincy Jones (as arranger) and the Count Basie Orchestra. It was released by Roulette Records, then later reissued by Capital Records.
Later that year, Basie appeared on a television special with Fred Astaire, featuring a dance solo to “Sweet Georgia Brown“, followed in January 1960 by Basie performing at one of the five John F. Kennedy Inaugural Balls.[58] That summer, Basie and Duke Ellington combined forces for the recording First Time! The Count Meets the Duke, each providing four numbers from their play books.[59]
Sarah with Count Basie, “Until I Met You”
During the balance of the 1960s, the band kept busy with tours, recordings, television appearances, festivals, Las Vegas shows, and travel abroad, including cruises. Some time around 1964, Basie adopted his trademark yachting cap.[60] Through steady changes in personnel, Basie led the band into the 1970s. Basie made a few more movie appearances, such as the Jerry Lewis film Cinderfella (1960) and the Mel Brooks movie Blazing Saddles (1974), playing his arrangement of “April in Paris“.
Basie died of pancreatic cancer in Hollywood, Florida on April 26, 1984 at the age of 79.[15]
Basie hitched his star to some of the most famous vocalists of the 1950s and 1960s, which helped keep the Big Band sound alive and added greatly to his recording catalog. Jimmy Rushing sang with Basie in the late 1930s. Joe Williams toured with the band and was featured on the 1957 album One O’Clock Jump, and 1956’s Count Basie Swings, Joe Williams Sings, with “Every Day (I Have the Blues)” becoming a huge hit. With Billy Eckstine on the album Basie-Eckstine Inc., in 1959. Ella Fitzgerald made some memorable recordings with Basie, including the 1963 album Ella and Basie!. With the ‘New Testament’ Basie band in full swing, and arrangements written by a youthful Quincy Jones, this album proved a swinging respite from her Songbook recordings and constant touring she did during this period. She even toured with the Basie Orchestra in the mid-1970s, and Fitzgerald and Basie also met on the 1979 albums A Classy Pair, Digital III at Montreux, and A Perfect Match, the last two also recorded live at Montreux. In addition to Quincy Jones, Basie was using arrangers such as Benny Carter (Kansas City Suite), Neal Hefti (The Atomic Mr Basie), and Sammy Nestico (Basie-Straight Ahead).
Sinatra and Basie, “Luck Be A Lady”
Frank Sinatra recorded for the first time with Basie on 1962’s Sinatra-Basie and for a second studio album on 1964’s It Might as Well Be Swing, which was arranged by Quincy Jones. Jones also arranged and conducted 1966’s live Sinatra at the Sands. In May 1970, Sinatra performed in London‘s Royal Festival Hall with the Basie orchestra, in a charity benefit for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Sinatra later said of this concert “I have a funny feeling that those two nights could have been my finest hour, really. It went so well; it was so thrilling and exciting”.[61]
Judy Garland, and Count Basie, “I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm”
Basie also recorded with Tony Bennett in the early 1960s — their albums together included the live recording at Las Vegas and Strike Up the Band, a studio album. Basie also toured with Bennett, including a date at Carnegie Hall. Other notable recordings were with Sammy Davis, Jr., Bing Crosby, and Sarah Vaughan. One of Basie’s biggest regrets was never recording with Louis Armstrong, though they shared the same bill several times.[62]
Quick Bio Facts:
Count Basie AKA William Allen Basie
Born: 21-Aug–1904
Birthplace: Red Bank, NJ
Died: 26-Apr–1984
Location of death: Hollywood, FL
Cause of death: Cancer – Pancreatic
Remains: Buried, Pinelawn Memorial Park, Farmingdale, NY
Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: Black
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Pianist, Jazz Musician
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Big band pianist
Father: Harvey Lee Basie
Mother: Lilly Ann Childs
Omega Psi Phi Fraternity
Phi Mu Alpha Fraternity (uncertain)
Freemasonry
The Count Basie Orchestra Bandleader/Pianist 1937-49;1952-84
Kennedy Center Honor 1981
Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame 1981
NEA Jazz Master 1983
Grammy Best Jazz Performance, Group (1958)
Grammy Best Performance By A Dance Band (1958)
Grammy Best Performance By A Band For Dancing (1960)
Grammy Best Performance By An Orchestra – For Dancing (1963)
Grammy Best Jazz Performance By A Soloist (Instrumental) (1976)
Grammy Best Jazz Performance By A Big Band (1977)
Grammy Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Big Band (1980)
Grammy Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Big Band (1982)
Grammy Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Big Band (1984)
Grammy Hall of Fame Award (1979)
Grammy Hall of Fame Award (1985)
Grammy Hall of Fame Award (1992)
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (2002)
Stroke
Paralyzed
FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
Blazing Saddles (7-Feb-1974) Himself
Made in Paris (9-Feb-1966)
Sex and the Single Girl (25-Dec-1964) Himself
Cinderfella (16-Dec-1960) Himself
Stage Door Canteen (24-Jun-1943) Himself
Reveille with Beverly (4-Feb-1943) Himself
Author of books:
Good Morning Blues: The Autobiography of Count Basie (1985, memoir, with Al bert Murray)
Sources: Wikipedia, imdb.com, nndb.com, youtube
37.810448 -122.239864
August 26, 2010
Categories: Big Band / Swing, Blues, Composer/Arranger, Featured Performers, Hollywood, Instrumental, International, Jazz . Tags:afro-american, bing band music, composer, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, ella fitzgerald, harlem, jazz, joe williams, Lester Young, music, new york, One O'Clock Jump, pianist, Sonny Greer . Author: Paul Roth
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William James "Count" Basie (August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. His mother taught him to play the piano and he started performing in h…
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William James "Count" Basie (August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. His mother taught him to play the piano and he started performing in his teens. Dropping out of school, he learned to operate lights for vaudeville and to improvise accompaniment for silent films at a local movie theater in his home town of Red Bank, New Jersey. By age 16, he increasingly played jazz piano at parties, resorts and other venues. In 1924, he went to Harlem, where his performing career expanded; he toured with groups to the major jazz cities of Chicago, St. Louis and Kansas City. In 1929 he joined Bennie Moten's band in Kansas City, and played with them until Moten's death in 1935.
In 1935, Basie formed his own jazz orchestra, the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and their first recording. He led the group for almost 50 years, creating innovations like the use of two "split" tenor saxophones, emphasizing the rhythm section, riffing with a big band, using arrangers to broaden their sound, and others. Many musicians came to prominence under his direction, including the tenor saxophonists Lester Young and Herschel Evans, the guitarist Freddie Green, trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry "Sweets" Edison and singers Jimmy Rushing and Joe Williams.
Biography
Early life and education
William Basie was born to Harvey Lee and Lillian Basie in Red Bank, New Jersey. His father worked as a coachman and caretaker for a wealthy judge. After automobiles replaced horses, his father became a groundskeeper and handyman for several wealthy families in the area. Both of his parents had some type of musical background. His father played the mellophone, and his mother played the piano; in fact, she gave Basie his first piano lessons. She took in laundry and baked cakes for sale for a living. She paid 25 cents a lesson for piano instruction for him.
Not much of a student in school, Basie dreamed of a traveling life, inspired by touring carnivals which came to town. He finished junior high school but spent much of his time at the Palace Theater in Red Bank, where doing occasional chores gained him free admission to performances. He quickly learned to improvise music appropriate to the acts and the silent movies.
Though a natural at the piano, Basie preferred drums. Discouraged by the obvious talents of Sonny Greer, who also lived in Red Bank and became Duke Ellington's drummer in 1919, Basie at age 15 switched to piano exclusively. Greer and Basie played together in venues until Greer set out on his professional career. By then, Basie was playing with pick-up groups for dances, resorts, and amateur shows, including Harry Richardson's "Kings of Syncopation". When not playing a gig, he hung out at the local pool hall with other musicians, where he picked up on upcoming play dates and gossip. He got some jobs in Asbury Park at the Jersey Shore, and played at the Hong Kong Inn until a better player took his place.
Early career
Around 1920, Basie went to Harlem, a hotbed of jazz, where he lived down the block from the Alhambra Theater. Early after his arrival, he bumped into Sonny Greer, who was by then the drummer for the Washingtonians, Duke Ellington's early band. Soon, Basie met many of the Harlem musicians who were "making the scene," including Willie "the Lion" Smith and James P. Johnson.
Basie toured in several acts between 1925 and 1927, including Katie Krippen and Her Kiddies as part of the Hippity Hop show; on the Keith, the Columbia Burlesque, and the Theater Owners Bookers Association (T.O.B.A.) vaudeville circuits; and as a soloist and accompanist to blues singers Katie Krippen and Gonzelle White. His touring took him to Kansas City, St. Louis, New Orleans, and Chicago. Throughout his tours, Basie met many jazz musicians, including Louis Armstrong. Before he was 20 years old, he toured extensively on the Keith and TOBA vaudeville circuits as a solo pianist, accompanist, and music director for blues singers, dancers, and comedians. This provided an early training that was to prove significant in his later career.
Back in Harlem in 1925, Basie gained his first steady job at Leroy's, a place known for its piano players and its "cutting contests." The place catered to "uptown celebrities," and typically the band winged every number without sheet music using "head arrangements." He met Fats Waller, who was playing organ at the Lincoln Theater accompanying silent movies, and Waller taught him how to play that instrument. (Basie later played organ at the Eblon Theater in Kansas City). As he did with Duke Ellington, Willie "the Lion" Smith helped Basie out during the lean times by arranging gigs at "house-rent parties," introducing him to other leading musicians, and teaching him some piano technique.
In 1928, Basie was in Tulsa and heard Walter Page and his Famous Blue Devils, one of the first big bands, which featured Jimmy Rushing on vocals. A few months later, he was invited to join the band, which played mostly in Texas and Oklahoma. It was at this time that he began to be known as "Count" Basie (see Jazz royalty).
Kansas City years
The following year, in 1929, Basie became the pianist with the Bennie Moten band based in Kansas City, inspired by Moten's ambition to raise his band to the level of Duke Ellington's or Fletcher Henderson's. Where the Blue Devils were "snappier" and more "bluesy," the Moten band was more refined and respected, playing in the "Kansas City stomp" style. In addition to playing piano, Basie was co-arranger with Eddie Durham, who notated the music. Their "Moten Swing", which Basie claimed credit for, was widely acclaimed and was an invaluable contribution to the development of swing music, and at one performance at the Pearl Theatre in Philadelphia in December 1932, the theatre opened its door to allow anybody in who wanted to hear the band perform. During a stay in Chicago, Basie recorded with the band. He occasionally played four-hand piano and dual pianos with Moten, who also conducted. The band improved with several personnel changes, including the addition of tenor saxophonist Ben Webster.
When the band voted Moten out, Basie took over for several months, calling the group "Count Basie and his Cherry Blossoms." When his own band folded, he rejoined Moten with a newly re-organized band. When Moten died in 1935 after a failed tonsillectomy, the band tried to stay together but couldn't make a go of it.
Basie formed a new band that year, which included many Moten alumni, with the important addition of tenor player Lester Young. They played at the Reno Club and sometimes were broadcast on local radio. Late one night with time to fill, the band started improvising. Basie liked the results and named the piece "One O'Clock Jump." According to Basie, "we hit it with the rhythm section and went into the riffs, and the riffs just stuck. We set the thing up front in D-flat, and then we just went on playing in F." It became his signature tune.
John Hammond and first recordings
At the end of 1936, Basie and his band, now billed as "Count Basie and His Barons of Rhythm," moved from Kansas City to Chicago, where they honed their repertoire at a long engagement at the Grand Terrace Ballroom. Right from the start, Basie's band was noted for its rhythm section. Another Basie innovation was the use of two tenor saxophone players; at the time, most bands had just one. When Young complained of Herschel Evans' vibrato, Basie placed them on either side of the alto players, and soon had the tenor players engaged in "duels". Many other bands later adapted the split tenor arrangement.
In that city in October 1936, the band had a recording session which the producer John Hammond later described as "the only perfect, completely perfect recording session I've ever had anything to do with". Hammond had heard Basie's band by radio and went to Kansas City to check them out. He invited them to record, in performances which were Lester Young's earliest recordings. Those four sides were released on Vocalion Records under the band name of Jones-Smith Incorporated; the sides were "Shoe Shine Boy", "Evening", "Boogie Woogie", and "Lady Be Good". After Vocalion became a subsidiary of Columbia Records in 1938, "Boogie Woogie" was released in 1941 as part of a four-record compilation album entitled Boogie Woogie (Columbia album C44). When he made the Vocalion recordings, Basie had already signed with Decca Records, but did not have his first recording session with them until January 1937.
By then, Basie's sound was characterized by a "jumping" beat and the contrapuntal accents of his own piano. His personnel around 1937 included: Lester Young and Herschel Evans (tenor sax), Freddie Green (guitar), Jo Jones (drums), Walter Page (bass), Earle Warren (alto sax), Buck Clayton and Harry Edison (trumpet), Benny Morton and Dickie Wells (trombone). Lester Young, known as "Prez" by the band, came up with nicknames for all the other band members. He called Basie "Holy Man", "Holy Main", and just plain "Holy".
Basie favored blues, and he would showcase some of the most notable blues singers of the era after he went to New York: Billie Holiday, Jimmy Rushing, Big Joe Turner, Helen Humes, and Joe Williams. He also hired arrangers who knew how to maximize the band's abilities, such as Eddie Durham and Jimmy Mundy.
New York City and the swing years
When Basie took his orchestra to New York in 1937, they made the Woodside Hotel in Harlem their base (they often rehearsed in its basement). Soon, they were booked at the Roseland Ballroom for the Christmas show. Basie recalled a review, which said something like, "We caught the great Count Basie band which is supposed to be so hot he was going to come in here and set the Roseland on fire. Well, the Roseland is still standing". Compared to the reigning band of Fletcher Henderson, Basie's band lacked polish and presentation.
The producer John Hammond continued to advise and encourage the band, and they soon came up with some adjustments, including softer playing, more solos, and more standards. They paced themselves to save their hottest numbers for later in the show, to give the audience a chance to warm up. His first official recordings for Decca followed, under contract to agent MCA, including "Pennies from Heaven" and "Honeysuckle Rose".
Hammond introduced Basie to Billie Holiday, whom he invited to sing with the band. (Holiday did not record with Basie, as she had her own record contract and preferred working with small combos). The band's first appearance at the Apollo Theater followed, with the vocalists Holiday and Jimmy Rushing getting the most attention. Durham returned to help with arranging and composing, but for the most part, the orchestra worked out its numbers in rehearsal, with Basie guiding the proceedings. There were often no musical notations made. Once the musicians found what they liked, they usually were able to repeat it using their "head arrangements" and collective memory.
Next, Basie played at the Savoy, which was noted more for lindy-hopping, while the Roseland was a place for fox-trots and congas. In early 1938, the Savoy was the meeting ground for a "battle of the bands" with Chick Webb's group. Basie had Holiday, and Webb countered with the singer Ella Fitzgerald. As Metronome magazine proclaimed, "Basie's Brilliant Band Conquers Chick's"; the article described the evening:
"Throughout the fight, which never let down in its intensity during the whole fray, Chick took the aggressive, with the Count playing along easily and, on the whole, more musically scientifically. Undismayed by Chick's forceful drum beating, which sent the audience into shouts of encouragement and appreciation and casual beads of perspiration to drop from Chick's brow onto the brass cymbals, the Count maintained an attitude of poise and self-assurance. He constantly parried Chick's thundering haymakers with tantalizing runs and arpeggios which teased more and more force from his adversary".
The publicity over the big band battle, before and after, gave the Basie band a boost and wider recognition. Soon after, Benny Goodman recorded their signature "One O'Clock Jump" with his band.
A few months later, Holiday left for Artie Shaw's band. Hammond introduced Helen Humes, whom Basie hired; she stayed with Basie for four years. When Eddie Durham left for Glenn Miller's orchestra, he was replaced by Dicky Wells. Basie's 14-man band began playing at the Famous Door, a mid-town nightspot with a CBS network feed and air conditioning, which Hammond was said to have bought the club in return for their booking Basie steadily throughout the summer of 1938. Their fame took a huge leap. Adding to their play book, Basie received arrangements from Jimmy Mundy (who had also worked with Benny Goodman and Earl Hines), particularly for "Cherokee", "Easy Does It", and "Super Chief". In 1939, Basie and his band made a major cross-country tour, including their first West Coast dates. A few months later, Basie quit MCA and signed with the William Morris Agency, who got them better fees.
On 19 February 1940, Count Basie and his Orchestra opened a four-week engagement at Southland in Boston, and they broadcast over the radio on 20 February. On the West Coast, in 1942 the band did a spot in Reveille With Beverly, a musical film starring Ann Miller, and a "Command Performance" for Armed Forces Radio, with Hollywood stars Clark Gable, Bette Davis, Carmen Miranda, Jerry Colonna, and the singer Dinah Shore. Other minor movie spots followed, including Choo Choo Swing, Crazy House, Top Man, Stage Door Canteen, and Hit Parade of 1943. They also continued to record for OKeh Records and Columbia Records. The war years caused a lot of members turn over, and the band worked many play dates with lower pay. Dance hall bookings were down sharply as swing began to fade, the effects of the musicians' strikes of 1942–44 and 1948 began to be felt, and the public's taste grew for singers.
Basie occasionally lost some key soloists. However, throughout the 1940s, he maintained a big band that possessed an infectious rhythmic beat, an enthusiastic team spirit, and a long list of inspired and talented jazz soloists.
Post-war and later years
The big band era appeared to have ended after the war, and Basie disbanded the group. For a while, he performed in combos, sometimes stretched to an orchestra. In 1950, he headlined the Universal-International short film "Sugar Chile" Robinson, Billie Holiday, Count Basie and His Sextet. He reformed his group as a 16-piece orchestra in 1952. Basie credits Billy Eckstine, a top male vocalist of the time, for prompting his return to Big Band. He said that Norman Granz got them into the Birdland club and promoted the new band through recordings on the Mercury, Clef, and Verve labels. The jukebox era had begun, and Basie shared the exposure along with early rock'n'roll and rhythm and blues artists. Basie's new band was more of an ensemble group, with fewer solo turns, and relying less on "head" and more on written arrangements.
Basie added touches of bebop "so long as it made sense", and he required that "it all had to have feeling". Basie's band was sharing Birdland with such bebop greats as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Miles Davis. Behind the occasional bebop solos, he always kept his strict rhythmic pulse, "so it doesn't matter what they do up front; the audience gets the beat". Basie also added flute to some numbers, a novelty at the time that became widely copied. Soon, his band was touring and recording again. The new band included: Paul Campbell, Tommy Turrentine, Johnny Letman, Idrees Sulieman, and Joe Newman (trumpet); Jimmy Wilkins, Benny Powell, Matthew Gee (trombone); Paul Quinichette and Floyd "Candy" Johnson (tenor sax); Marshal Royal and Ernie Wilkins (alto sax); and Charlie Fowlkes (baritone sax). Down Beat magazine reported, "(Basie) has managed to assemble an ensemble that can thrill both the listener who remembers 1938 and the youngster who has never before heard a big band like this." In 1957, Basie sued the jazz venue Ball and Chain in Miami over outstanding fees, causing the closure of the venue.
In 1958, the band made its first European tour. Jazz was especially appreciated in France, The Netherlands, and Germany in the 1950s; these countries were the stomping grounds for many expatriate American jazz stars who were either resurrecting their careers or sitting out the years of racial divide in the United States. Neal Hefti began to provide arrangements, notably "Lil Darlin'". By the mid-1950s, Basie's band had become one of the preeminent backing big bands for some of the most prominent jazz vocalists of the time. They also toured with the "Birdland Stars of 1955", whose lineup included Sarah Vaughan, Erroll Garner, Lester Young, George Shearing, and Stan Getz.
In 1957, Basie released the live album Count Basie at Newport. "April in Paris" (arrangement by Wild Bill Davis) was a best-selling instrumental and the title song for the hit album. The Basie band made two tours in the British Isles and on the second, they put on a command performance for Queen Elizabeth II, along with Judy Garland, Vera Lynn, and Mario Lanza. He was a guest on ABC's The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, a venue also opened to several other black entertainers. In 1959, Basie's band recorded a "greatest hits" double album The Count Basie Story (Frank Foster, arranger) and "Basie and Eckstine, Inc.": album featuring Billy Eckstine, Quincy Jones (as arranger) and the Count Basie Orchestra. It was released by Roulette Records, then later reissued by Capitol Records.
Later that year, Basie appeared on a television special with Fred Astaire, featuring a dance solo to "Sweet Georgia Brown", followed in January 1961 by Basie performing at one of the five John F. Kennedy Inaugural Balls. That summer, Basie and Duke Ellington combined forces for the recording First Time! The Count Meets the Duke, each providing four numbers from their play books.
During the balance of the 1960s, the band kept busy with tours, recordings, television appearances, festivals, Las Vegas shows, and travel abroad, including cruises. Some time around 1964, Basie adopted his trademark yachting cap.
Through steady changes in personnel, Basie led the band into the 1980s. Basie made a few more movie appearances, such as the Jerry Lewis film Cinderfella (1960) and the Mel Brooks movie Blazing Saddles (1974), playing a revised arrangement of "April in Paris".
During its heyday, The Gong Show (1976–80) used Basie's "Jumpin' at the Woodside" during some episodes, while an NBC stagehand named Eugene Patton would dance on stage; Patten became known as "Gene Gene, the Dancing Machine".
Marriage and family
Basie was a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity. On 21 July 1930, Basie married Vivian Lee Winn, in Kansas City, Jackson County, Missouri. They were divorced sometime before 1935. Some time in or before 1935, the now single Basie returned to New York City, renting a house at 111 West 138th Street, Manhattan, as evidenced by the 1940 census. He married Catherine Morgan on 13 July 1940 in the King County courthouse in Seattle, Washington. In 1942, they moved to Queens.The Basies bought a whites-only home in the new neighborhood of Addisleigh Park in 1946 on Adelaide Road and 175th Street, St. Albans.
On April 11, 1983, Catherine Basie died of a heart attack at the couple's home in Freeport, Grand Bahama Island. She was 67 years old.
Basie died of pancreatic cancer in Hollywood, Florida on April 26, 1984 at the age of 79.
The singers
Basie hitched his star to some of the most famous vocalists of the 1950s and 1960s, which helped keep the Big Band sound alive and added greatly to his recording catalog. Jimmy Rushing sang with Basie in the late 1930s. Joe Williams toured with the band and was featured on the 1957 album One O'Clock Jump, and 1956's Count Basie Swings, Joe Williams Sings, with "Every Day (I Have the Blues)" becoming a huge hit. With Billy Eckstine on the album Basie/Eckstine Incorporated, in 1959. Ella Fitzgerald made some memorable recordings with Basie, including the 1963 album Ella and Basie!. With the 'New Testament' Basie band in full swing, and arrangements written by a youthful Quincy Jones, this album proved a swinging respite from her Songbook recordings and constant touring she did during this period. She even toured with the Basie Orchestra in the mid-1970s, and Fitzgerald and Basie also met on the 1979 albums A Classy Pair, Digital III at Montreux, and A Perfect Match, the last two also recorded live at Montreux. In addition to Quincy Jones, Basie was using arrangers such as Benny Carter (Kansas City Suite), Neal Hefti (The Atomic Mr Basie), and Sammy Nestico (Basie-Straight Ahead).
Frank Sinatra recorded for the first time with Basie on 1962's Sinatra-Basie and for a second studio album on 1964's It Might as Well Be Swing, which was arranged by Quincy Jones. Jones also arranged and conducted 1966's live Sinatra at the Sands which featured Sinatra with Count Basie and his orchestra at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas. In May 1970, Sinatra performed in London's Royal Festival Hall with the Basie orchestra, in a charity benefit for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Sinatra later said of this concert "I have a funny feeling that those two nights could have been my finest hour, really. It went so well; it was so thrilling and exciting".
Basie also recorded with Tony Bennett in the early 1960s—their albums together included the live recording at Las Vegas and Strike Up the Band, a studio album. Basie also toured with Bennett, including a date at Carnegie Hall. Other notable recordings were with Sammy Davis, Jr., Bing Crosby, and Sarah Vaughan. One of Basie's biggest regrets was never recording with Louis Armstrong, though they shared the same bill several times. In 1968 Basie and his Band recorded an album with Jackie Wilson titled "Manufacturers of Soul".
Legacy and honors
Count Basie introduced several generations of listeners to the Big Band sound and left an influential catalog. Basie is remembered by many who worked for him as being considerate of musicians and their opinions, modest, relaxed, fun-loving, dryly witty, and always enthusiastic about his music. In his autobiography, he wrote, "I think the band can really swing when it swings easy, when it can just play along like you are cutting butter."
In Red Bank, New Jersey, the Count Basie Theatre, a property on Monmouth Street redeveloped for live performances, and Count Basie Field were named in his honor.
Mechanic Street, where he grew up with his family, has the honorary title of Count Basie Way.
In 2009, Edgecombe Avenue and 160th Street in Washington Heights, Manhattan, were renamed as Paul Robeson Boulevard and Count Basie Place. The corner is the location of 555 Edgecombe Avenue, also known as the Paul Robeson Home, a National Historic Landmark where Count Basie had also lived.
In October 2013, version 3.7 of WordPress was code-named Count Basie.
Representation in other media
Jerry Lewis used "Blues in Hoss' Flat" from Basie's Chairman of the Board album, as the basis for his own "Chairman of the Board" routine in the movie The Errand Boy.
"Blues in Hoss' Flat," composed by Basie band member Frank Foster, was used by the radio DJ Al "Jazzbeaux" Collins as his theme song in San Francisco and New York.
In Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), Brenda Fricker's "Pigeon Lady" character claims to have heard Basie in Carnegie Hall.
Drummer Neil Peart of the Canadian rock band Rush recorded a version of "One O'Clock Jump" with the Buddy Rich Big Band, and has used it at the end of his drum solos on the 2002 Vapor Trails Tour and Rush's 30th Anniversary Tour.
Discography
Bennie Moten's Kansas City Orchestra (1929–1932): Basie Beginnings (1929–1932, RCA/Bluebird Records)
The Swinging Count! (Clef 1952 [1956]) as The Count Basie Sextet
Count Basie Presents Eddie Davis Trio + Joe Newman (Roulette, 1958) with Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and Joe Newman
Atomic Swing (1958, Roulette Jazz)
Memories Ad-Lib (Roulette, 1958)
String Along with Basie (Roulette, 1960)
Count Basie and the Kansas City 7 (1962, Impulse!)
Basie Swingin' Voices Singin' (ABC-Paramount, 1966) with the Alan Copeland Singers
Loose Walk (with Roy Eldridge) (1972, Pablo)
Basie Jam (1973, Pablo)
The Bosses (with Big Joe Turner) (1973)
For the First Time (1974, Pablo)
Satch and Josh (with Oscar Peterson)
Basie & Zoot (with Zoot Sims) (1975, Pablo)
For the Second Time (1975, Pablo)
Basie Jam 2 (1976, Pablo)
Basie Jam 3 (1976, Pablo)
Kansas City 5 (1977, Pablo)
The Gifted Ones (with Dizzy Gillespie) (1977, Pablo)
Montreux '77 (Live) (1977 Pablo)
Basie Jam: Montreux '77 (Live) (1977, Pablo)
Satch and Josh...Again (with Oscar Peterson) (1977, Pablo)
Night Rider (with Oscar Peterson) (1978, Pablo)
Count Basie Meets Oscar Peterson – The Timekeepers (with Oscar Peterson) (1978, Pablo)
Yessir, That's My Baby (with Oscar Peterson) (1978, Pablo)
Kansas City 8: Get Together (1979, Pablo)
Kansas City 7 (1980, Pablo)
On The Road (1980, Pablo Today, Red Vinyl)
Kansas City 6 (1981, Pablo)
Mostly Blues...and Some Others (1983, Pablo)
20 Golden Pieces of Count Basie (1993, Bulldog)
Jazz & blues (1995, Editions Atlas)
Count Basie [K-Tel] (1996, K-Tel)
Count Basie's Got Rhythm (1998, Emporio; 2001, MCI)
Jumpin' (2000, Columbia River Entertainment Group)
The Memorial Album (2012, AAO Music)
Filmography
Hit Parade of 1943 (1943) – as himself
Sugar Chile Robinson, Billie Holiday, Count Basie and His Sextet (1950) – as himself
Cinderfella (1960) – as himself
Sex and the Single Girl (film) (1964) – as himself with his orchestra
Blazing Saddles (1974) – as himself with his orchestra
Last of the Blue Devils (1979) – interview and concert by the orchestra in documentary on Kansas City music
Awards
Grammy AwardsGrammy Hall of Fame
By 2011, four recordings of Count Basie had been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least 25 years old, and that have "qualitative or historical significance."
Honors and inductions
On May 23, 1985, William "Count" Basie was presented, posthumously, with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Ronald Reagan. The award was received by his son, Aaron Woodward.
On September 11, 1996 the U.S. Post Office issued a Count Basie 32 cents postage stamp. Basie is a part of the Big Band Leaders issue, which, is in turn, part of the Legends of American Music series.
In 2009, Basie was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.
National Recording Registry
In 2005, Count Basie's song "One O'Clock Jump" (1937) was included by the National Recording Preservation Board in the Library of Congress National Recording Registry. The board selects songs in an annual basis that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
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https://nj1015.com/broadway-at-the-basie-coming-this-fall/
|
en
|
Broadway at The Basie coming this fall
|
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[
"rain- a tribute to the beatles",
"beautiful",
"count basie center for the arts",
"rent",
"count basie theatre",
"red bank",
"",
"deminski & doyle",
"talking about ..."
] | null |
[
"Bill Doyle"
] |
2021-06-29T16:57:40+00:00
|
The series will get underway with 'Rain- A Tribute to the Beatles' on Oct. 24, followed by 'Beautiful: the Carole King Musical.'
|
en
|
https://townsquare.media/site/385/files/2020/05/favicon.ico
|
New Jersey 101.5
|
https://nj1015.com/broadway-at-the-basie-coming-this-fall/
|
The Count Basie Center for the Arts has announced a series of performances coming this fall called “Broadway at the Basie.”
The series will get underway with “Rain- A Tribute to the Beatles” on Oct. 24; tickets for that show are on sale now. Following that show will be “Beautiful: the Carole King Musical” on Nov. 16-18.
Once the calendar turns to 2022, “Stomp” will be featured; that show is on Jan. 9. “Rent: the 25th Anniversary Farewell Tour” will run on Jan. 19 &20. “Fiddler on the Roof” will finish up the “Broadway at the Basie” series on June 15-16.
“The Count Basie Center for the arts is an essential organization, and World Subaru is proud to support them as they continue to bring the arts and Broadway back to Monmouth County”, said Joe Wajda, Managing Partner of series sponsor World Subaru. “Theatre has the power to unite, transform and most importantly finally bring us together again… something we have sorely missed and most certainly need.”
The Basie, like other entertainment venues, halted all productions in March of 2020 due to the pandemic. They initiated their “Back to the Basie” campaign in May and have already resumed their “Concert on the Green” performances; shows at the Vogel, the Basie’s performance center have also resumed.
According to the center’s website, “the Count Basie Center for the Arts aims to be the premier center for the performing and visual arts, inspiring, educating and entertaining through its diverse and engaging offerings and reflecting the diversity of the region.”
For more information about any of the shows or to buy tickets, go here.
The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Bill Doyle. Any opinions expressed are Bill Doyle's own.
|
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FactBench
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| 29 |
https://www.violafair.com/hmrproject/b/basie-count.htm
|
en
|
Early Jazz: Count Basie
|
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Early jazz and Count Basie. What he composed when.
| null |
Count Basie
Count Basie
Source: Time Toast
Born William James Basie on 21 August 1904 in Red Bank, New Jersey, pianist and swing and jump band leader, Count Basie, began his musical career in Red Bank with drummer, Sonny Greer, playing at dances and resorts. About 1920 he made his way to Harlem where Greer, who had preceded him to NYC and was drumming for Duke Ellington, introduced him to his scene. Basie then began to tour the States with vaudeville acts. Returning to Harlem in 1925, his first employment of note was at a place called Leroy's where cutting contests were held for upper class clientele. Finally, in 1928 Basie joined Walter Page's Blue Devils in Tulsa. Beginning to make progress now (and beginning to be called the "Count"), he joined Bennie Moten's band the next year in Kansas City. It was with Moten that Basie started to shine as a talent to be dealt with, also making his debut issued recordings with Moten in Chicago on October 23, 1921, 'The Jones Law Blues' and 'Small Black' among several.
'The Jones Law Blues' Count Basie w Bennie Moten's Kansas City Orchestra
23 Oct 1929 in Chicago Matrix 57302-2 Victor 23357
Cornet: Ed Lewis / Booker Washington
Trombone: Thamon Hayes / Eddie Durham (valve)
Clarinet / sax: Harlan Leonard / Jack Washington / Woody Walder
Piano: Basie / Ira "Buster" Moten (accordion)
Drums: Willie McWashington
Composition: Bennie Moten / Count Basie
Basie briefly led Moten's orchestra upon the latter's eventual absence in the early thirties, renaming it the Cherry Blossoms. In 1936 he reshaped that orchestra, called it the Barons of Rhythm, and began a residency in Chicago at the Grand Terrace Ballroom. Basie's first recordings as a leader were with that orchestra credited as Jones-Smith Incorporated on November 9, 1936. They were also tenor saxophonist, Lester Young's, first four featured releases: 'Shoe Shine Boy', 'Evening', 'Boogie Woogie' and 'Oh, Lady Be Good'.
'Shoe Shine Boy' Count Basie w Jones-Smith Incorporated
9 Nov 1936 in Chicago Matrix C-1657-1 Vocalion 3441
Trumpet: Carl Smith Tenor sax: Lester Young
Piano: Basie Upright bass: Walter Page
Drums: Papa Jo Jones
Composition: Sammy Cahn / Saul Chaplin
In 1937 Basie moved his band to NYC for a residency at the Roseland Ballroom and began to record for Decca. Among early titles for that label was 'Pennies From Heaven' with vocalist, James Rushing, issued on Decca 1121 in 1937. Among Basie's many compositions were 'Swinging at The Daisy Chain' issued on Decca 1121 in 1937, 'One O'Clock Jump' issued on Decca 1363 in 1937 and 'Jumpin' at the Woodside' released on Decca 2212 in 1938. 'One O'Clock Jump', probably Basie's best-selling title overall, shot to #15 on the popularity charts followed by 'Jumpin' at the Woodside' at #10. However, 'Stop Beatin' Around the Mulberry Bush' of 1938 breached the Top Ten at #6. 'Open the Door, Richard!' topped Billboard at #1 in 1947. Music VF finds Basie placing twelve titles in the Top Ten of the Pop or R&B categories from 1938 to 1956:
Stop Beatin' Around the Mulberry Bush #6 1938
Rusty Dusty Blues #6 R&B May 1943
Red Bank Boogie #6 R&B March 1945
Jimmy's Blues #10 / #3 R&B Sep 1945
The Mad Boogie #10 April 1946
Blue Skies #8 Sep 1956
Open the Door, Richard! #1 / #2 R&B Feb 1947
Free Eats #7 April 1947
One O'Clock Boogie #8 June 1947
I Ain't Mad at You #7 Aug 1947
Every Day (I Have the Blues) #2 R&B July 1955
April in Paris #8 Jan 1956
'Pennies from Heaven' Count Basie and His Orchestra
21 Jan 1937 in NYC Matrix 61543-A Decca 1121
Trumpet: Buck Clayton / Joe Keyes / Carl Smith
Trombone: George Hunt / Dan Minor
Alto sax: Caughey Roberts / Jack Washington
Tenor sax: Herschel Evans / Lester Young
Piano: Basie Guitar: Claude Williams Upright bass: Walter Page
Drums: Papa Jo Jones Vocal: James Rushing Arrangement: Don Redman
Music: Arthur Johnston Lyrics: Johnny Burke
'One O'clock Jump' Count Basie and His Orchestra
7 July 1937 in NYC Matrix 62332-A Decca 1363
Composition: Count Basie
'Sent for You Yesterday and Here You Come Today' Count Basie and His Orchestra
16 Feb 1938 in NYC Matrix 63286-A Decca 1880
Vocal: James Rushing Composition: Count Basie
'Stop Beatin' 'Round the Mulberry Bush' Count Basie and His Orchestra
22 Aug 1938 in NYC 1 of 2 takes both issued on Decca 2004
Trumpet: Buck Clayton / Ed Lewis / Harry "Sweets" Edison
Trombone: Benny Morton / Dan Minor / Dickie Wells
Reeds: Lester Young / Herschel Evans / Earl Warren / Jack Washington
Piano: Basie Guitar: Freddie Green Upright bass: Walter Page
Drums: Papa Jo Jones Vocal: James Rushing
Composition: Clay Boland / S. Bickley Reichner
'You Can Depend on Me' Count Basie Sextet
2 Feb 1939 in NYC Matrix 64978-A Decca 3882
Trumpet: Shad Collins Tenor sax: Lester Young
Piano: Basie Guitar: Freddie Green Upright bass: Walter Page
Drums: Papa Jo Jones Vocal: James Rushing
Composition: Charles Carpenter / Earl Hines / Louis Dunlap
Basie also played at the Apollo Theater and the Savoy before hiring vocalist, Helen Humes, in 1938, who remained with him for the next four years.
'It´s Torture' Count Basie and His Orchestra backing Helen Humes
8 Aug 1940 in Chicago Matrix WC-3258-A OKeh 5773
Trumpet: Buck Clayton / Ed Lewis / Harry Edison / Al Killian
Trombone: Dicky Wells / Vick Dickenson / Dan Minor
Alto sax: Earl Warren / Jack Washington (baritone)
Tenor sax: Buddy Tate / Lester Young
Piano: Basie Guitar: Freddie Green Upright bass: Walter Page
Drums: Papa Jo Jones
Composition: Basie / Jack Washington
'Who Am I?' Count Basie and His Orchestra backing Helen Humes
13 Dec 1940 in NYC Matrix 29248-1 OKeh 5987
Trumpet: Buck Clayton / Harry Edison / Al Killian / Ed Lewis
Trombone: Vic Dickenson / Dan Minor / Dicky Wells
Alto sax: Tab Smith (soprano) / Earl Warren / Jack Washington (baritone)
Tenor sax: Paul Bascomb / Buddy Tate
Piano: Basie Guitar: Freddie Green Upright bass: Walter Page
Drums: Papa Jo Jones Arrangement: Buster Harding
Music: Jule Styne Lyrics: Walter Bullock
Following World War II Basie experimented with bebop while maintaining his own jumping rhythm. His operation from 1935 to 1950 is referred to as his Old Testament Band corresponding to the shellac recording period. His New Testament Band was shaped for recording on vinyl LPs stretching from 1952 into the eighties. Basie first took his orchestra to Europe in 1958, but didn't begin to wear his trademark yachting cap until 1964.
'Open the Door, Richard!' Count Basie and His Orchestra
3 Jan 1947 in Los Angeles Matrix D7VB406-1 Victor 20-2127 Billboard #1
Trumpet: Emmett Berry / Ed Lewis / Snooky Young / Harry Edison
Trombone: Ted Donnelly / George Matthews / Eli Robinson / Bill Johnson
Alto sax: Preston Love / Rudy Rutherford (clarinet)
Tenor sax: Buddy Tate / Paul Gonsalves Baritone sax: Jack Washington
Piano: Basie Guitar: Freddie Green Upright bass: Walter Page
Drums: Papa Jo Jones Vocals: Harry Edison / Bill Johnson
Music: John Mason / Don Howell Lyrics: Jack McVea / Frank Clarke
'Spasmodic' Count Basie and His Orchestra
14 Sep 1948 WOR radio broadcast from the Royal Roost in NYC
Issued on Spotlite Records SPJ134 in 1976
Trumpet: Clark Terry / Jimmy Nottingham / Harry Edison / Emmett Berry
Trombone: Bill Johnson / George Matthews / Ted Donnelly / Dickie Wells
Alto sax: Charles Q. Price / Earl Warren
Tenor sax: Wardell Gray / Paul Gonsalves Baritone sax: Jack Washington
Piano: Basie Guitar: Freddie Green Upright bass: Singleton "Cookie" Palmer
Drums: Rossiere "Shadow" Wilson
Composition: Jimmy Giuffre
'Little White Lies' Count Basie Octet
3 Nov 1950 in NYC 2nd of 2 takes CBS 54168 / Neatwork RP2066
Trumpet: Clark Terry Clarinet: Buddy DeFranco
Tenor sax: Wardell Gray Baritone sax: Serge Chaloff
Piano: Basie Guitar: Freddie Green Upright bass: Jimmy Lewis
Drums: Gus Johnson
Composition: Walter Donaldson
'Every Tub' Count Basie Orchestra
6 May 1951 WNEW radio broadcast of 'Make Believe Ballroom' In NYC Sabie 5302
Trumpet: Cydner "Paul" Campbell / Clark Terry / Lammar Wright
Trombone: Bennie Green / Jimmy Wilkins / Mitchell "Booty" Wood
Alto sax: Marshall Royal (clarinet) / Ernie Wilkins
Tenor sax: Wardell Gray / Paul Quinichette Baritone sax: Charlie Fowlkes
Piano: Basie Guitar: Freddie Green Upright bass: Jimmy Lewis
Drums: Gus Johnson
Composition: Basie
'Lover Man' Count Basie Orchestra backing Billie Holiday
25 Sep 1954 at Carnegie Hall in NYC Issued on Roulette RE-127 in 1975
Music: Jimmy Davis Lyrics: Ram Ramirez / James Sherman
'Blues in Frankie's Flat' Count Basie Orchestra
Taped live sometime 1960 in Milan
Trumpet: Thad Jones / Snooky Young / Sonny Cohn / Joe Newman
Trombone: Benny Powell / Al Grey / Henry Coker
Sax: Billy Mitchell / Frank Wess / Marshall Royal / Frank Foster / Charlie Fowlkes
Piano: Basie Guitar: Freddie Green Upright bass: Eddie Jones
Drums: Sonny Payne
Composition: Basie / Frank Foster
'Cute' Count Basie Orchestra
Taped live sometime 1960 in Milan
Trumpet: Thad Jones / Snooky Young / Sonny Cohn / Joe Newman
Trombone: Benny Powell / Al Grey / Henry Coker
Sax: Billy Mitchell / Frank Wess (flute) / Marshall Royal / Frank Foster / Charlie Fowlkes
Piano: Basie Guitar: Freddie Green Upright bass: Eddie Jones
Drums: Sonny Payne
Composition: Neil Hefti
'Who Me?' Count Basie Orchestra
Taped live sometime 1961 at the Juan-les-Pins Jazz Festival
Trumpet: Snookey Young Piano: Basie Drums: Sonny Payne
Composition: Frank Foster
'April in Paris' Count Basie Orchestra Television
Taped in London by BBC Four on 18 Sep 1965
Aired on 'Show of the Week' 11 Nov 1965
Trumpet: Wallace Davenport / Sonny Cohn / Al Aarons / Phil Guilbeau
Trombone: Grover Mitchell / Henderson Chambers / Al Grey / Bill Hughes
Reeds: Marshal Royal / Bobby Plater / Eric Dixon / Eddie Lockjaw Davis / Charlie Fowlkes
Piano: Basie Guitar: Freddie Green Upright bass: Norman Keenan
Drums: Rufus Jones
Composition: Yip Harburg / Vernon Duke
'I Needs to Be Bee'd' Count Basie Orchestra Television
Taped in London by BBC Four on 18 Sep 1965
Aired on 'Show of the Week' 11 Nov 1965
Trumpet: Wallace Davenport / Sonny Cohn / Al Aarons / Phil Guilbeau
Trombone: Grover Mitchell / Henderson Chambers / Al Grey / Bill Hughes
Reeds: Marshal Royal / Bobby Plater / Eric Dixon / Eddie Lockjaw Davis / Charlie Fowlkes
Piano: Basie Guitar: Freddie Green Upright bass: Norman Keenan
Drums: Rufus Jones
Composition: Basie
'All of Me' Count Basie Orchestra
Taped live in Stockholm on 12 Nov 1968
Composition: Gerald Marks / Seymour Simons
'Scott's Place' Count Basie Orchestra
9 Aug 1971 in Hollywood toward the album 'Have a Nice Day' on Daybreak DR2005
Trumpet: Paul Cohen / George Minger / Sonny Cohn / Waymon Reed
Trombone: Al Grey / Bill Hughes / Grover Mitchell / John Watson Sr. / Melvin Wanzo
Sax:
Bobby "Jersey Bounce" Plater / Curtis Peagler / Eddie Lockjaw Davis / Eric Dixon / J.C. Williams
Piano: Basie Guitar: Freddie Green Upright bass: Norman Keenan
Drums: Harold Jones
Composition / arrangement: Sammy Nestico
'Whirlybird' Count Basie Orchestra
Taped live on 13 July 1979 at the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam
Trumpet: Sonny Cohn / Pete Minger / Ray Brown / Paul Cohen
Trombone: Bill Hughes / Mel Wanzo / Mitchell Wood Jr. / Dennis Wilson
Sax: Eric Dixon / Charlie Fowlkes / Kenny Hing / Bobby Plater / Danny Turner
Piano: Basie Guitar: Freddie Green Upright bass: John Clayton
Drums: Butch Miles
Composition: Neal Hefti
Basie's final recordings may have been in Los Angeles in March of 1984. Tom Lord cites Chris Sheridan's 'Count Basie: A Bio-Discography' published by Greenwood Press in 1986, but doesn't list any of reportedly numerous titles. Prior to that Basie put away the album, 'Fancy Pants', in December of 1983 following a few other albums the same year: 'Me and You', '88 Basie Street' and 'Mostly Blues and Some Others'.
'Fancy Pants' Count Basie Orchestra
14 Dec 1983 in Hollywood toward the album 'Fancy Pants' on Pablo PACD-2310-920-2
Trumpet: Dale Carley / Sonny Cohn / Jim Crawford / Bob Summers / Frank Szabo
Trombone: Grover Mitchell / Dennis Wilson / Booty Wood / Bill Hughes
Alto sax: Danny Turner / Chris Woods (flute)
Tenor sax: Eric Dixon (flute) / Kenny Hing
Baritone sax: John C. Williams
Piano: Basie Guitar: Freddie Green Upright bass: Norman Keenan
Drums: Cleveland Eaton / Dennis Mackrel
Composition: Sammy Nestico
Basie died of pancreatic cancer in Hollywood, Florida, on 26 April 1984. He had been a Prince Hall Freemason.
Sources & References for Count Basie:
Count Basie
Count Basie Center for the Arts
Robert Dupuis (Musician Guide)
Dave Radlauer (Jazz Rhythm)
William Ruhlmann (All Music)
Soul Walking
VF History (notes)
Wikipedia
Audio of Basie: Internet Archive YouTube
Autobiographies:
Good Morning Blues: The Autobiography of Count Basie / Random House / 1985:
Paul Devlin
Popularity Charts (: Billboard): Music VF TsorT
Compositions: Second Hand Songs
Documentaries:
Count Basie Through His Own Eyes (directed by Jeremy Marre / 2018)
The Kid From Redbank (Massimo Götz / Cees Schrama for Dutch television / 1983)
Then As Now, Count's The King (directed by Gary Keys / 2008)
Count Basie in Film / Television: IMDb IMDb (text only)
Interviews:
1 Jan 1963 w Max Barker
Recordings: Catalogs: 45 Worlds Discogs Music Brainz RYM
Recordings: Compilations
Basic Basie / 1937-38 / Nostalgia NOST 7640 / 1982
Blues & Boogie Woogie / 1937-47 / Jazz Archives / 1998
Do You Wanna Jump...? / 1938 / Hep Records HEP CD 1027 / 1989:
All Music Discogs
Jazzotheque (label)
One O'Clock Jump: Count Basie and His Orchestra / 1938 / Decca 218 / 1941
Super Chief / 1936-42 / Columbia / 1972
Swingin' the Blues / Success / 1989/93
Recordings: Select:
The Atomic Mr. Basie / Roulette Records / 1958
Basie Talks: The New Testament Band / recorded 1952 / Ocium OCM CD 028
Chairman of the Board / Roulette Records / 1959
One O'Clock Jump / w Ella Fitzgerald and Joe Williams / 1957
Recordings: Sessions:
DAHR (Count Basie / 1929-68)
DAHR (Count Basie Orchestra/ 1937-67)
Tom Lord: leading 524 of 620 sessions 1929-84
Repertoire:
April in Paris (Vernon Duke / Yip Harburg / 1932)
One O'Clock Jump (Count Basie / 1937)
Linda Hillshafer
Matt Micucci
David Rickert
Tom Vitale
Wikipedia
John Wriggle (Blue Rhythm Fantasy / 2016)
Open The Door, Richard! (John Mason / Don Howell / Jack McVea / Frank Clarke / 1946)
Further Reading:
Count Basie Orchestra (current Count Basie Orchestra)
Grunge (Bill Basie becomes Count Basie)
Charlie Jennison (Some Reflections on Count Basie’s “New Testament” Band)
Marc Myers (Basie's New Testament Band)
Riverwalk Jazz
WRTI (Bill Basie becomes Count Basie)
Scott Yanow (Count Basie: The Old Testament Years / 1935-50)
Scott Yanow (Count Basie: The New Testament Years / 1952 thereafter)
Authority Search: VIAF
Classical Main Menu Modern Recording
About Contact Privacy
|
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https://www.biography.com/musicians/count-basie
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Songs, Band & Facts
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2014-04-02T09:22:32
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One of jazz music's all-time greats, bandleader-pianist Count Basie was a primary shaper of the big-band sound that characterized mid-20th century popular music.
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Biography
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https://www.biography.com/musicians/count-basie
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(1904-1984)
Who Was Count Basie?
A pianist, Count Basie played vaudeville before eventually forming his own big band and helping to define the era of swing with hits like "One O'Clock Jump" and "Blue Skies." In 1958, Basie became the first African American male recipient of a Grammy Award. One of jazz music's all-time greats, he won many other Grammys throughout his career and worked with a plethora of artists, including Joe Williams and Ella Fitzgerald.
Early Life
Basie was born William James Basie (with some sources listing his middle name as "Allen") on August 21, 1904, in Red Bank, New Jersey. His father Harvey was a mellophonist and his mother Lillian was a pianist who gave her son his first lessons. After moving to New York, he was further influenced by James P. Johnson and Fats Waller, with Waller teaching Basie organ-playing techniques.
Barons of Rhythm
Basie played the vaudevillian circuit for a time until he got stuck in Kansas City, Missouri in the mid-1920s after his performance group disbanded. He went on to join Walter Page's Blue Devils in 1928, which he would see as a pivotal moment in his career, being introduced to the big-band sound for the first time.
He later worked for a few years with a band led by Bennie Moten, who died in 1935. Basie then formed the Barons of Rhythm with some of his bandmates from Moten's group, including saxophonist Lester Young. With vocals by Jimmy Rushing, the band set up shop to perform at Kansas City's Reno Club.
Becomes 'Count'
During a radio broadcast of the band's performance, the announcer wanted to give Basie's name some pizazz, keeping in mind the existence of other bandleaders like Duke Ellington and Earl Hines. So he called the pianist "Count," with Basie not realizing just how much the name would catch on as a form of recognition and respect in the music world.
Hits That Swing
Producer John Hammond heard the band's sound and helped secure further bookings. After some challenges, the Count Basie Orchestra had a slew of hits that helped to define the big-band sound of the 1930s and '40s. Some of their notable songs included "One O'Clock Jump"—the orchestra's signature tune which Basie composed himself — and "Jumpin' at the Woodside."
With the group becoming highly distinguished for its soloists, rhythm section and style of swing, Basie himself was noted for his understated yet captivating style of piano playing and precise, impeccable musical leadership. He was also helming one of the biggest, most renowned African American jazz groups of the day.
Band's Second Incarnation
Due to changing fortunes and an altered musical landscape, Basie was forced to scale down the size of his orchestra at the start of the 1950s, but he soon made a comeback and returned to his big-band structure in 1952, recording new hits with vocalist Joe Williams and becoming an international figure. Another milestone came with the 1956 album April in Paris, whose title track contained psyche-you-out endings that became a new band signature.
Collaborations, Awards and Death
During the 1960s and '70s, Basie recorded with luminaries like Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Jackie Wilson, Dizzy Gillespie and Oscar Peterson. Basie ultimately earned nine Grammy Awards over the course of his career, but he made history when he won his first, in 1958, as the first African American man to receive a Grammy. A few of his songs were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame as well, including "April in Paris" and "Everyday I Have the Blues."
Basie suffered from health issues in his later years, and died from cancer in Hollywood, Florida, on April 26, 1984. He left the world an almost unparalleled legacy of musical greatness, having recorded or been affiliated with dozens upon dozens of albums during his lifetime.
QUICK FACTS
Name: Count Basie
Birth Year: 1904
Birth date: August 21, 1904
Birth State: New Jersey
Birth City: Red Bank
Birth Country: United States
Gender: Male
Best Known For: One of jazz music's all-time greats, bandleader-pianist Count Basie was a primary shaper of the big-band sound that characterized mid-20th century popular music.
Industries
Jazz
Astrological Sign: Leo
Interesting Facts
In 1958, Count Basie became the first African-American male recipient of a Grammy Award.
Death Year: 1984
Death date: April 26, 1984
Death State: Florida
Death City: Hollywood
Death Country: United States
Fact Check
We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right,contact us!
CITATION INFORMATION
Article Title: Count Basie Biography
Author: Biography.com Editors
Website Name: The Biography.com website
Url: https://www.biography.com/musicians/count-basie
Access Date:
Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
Last Updated: April 14, 2021
Original Published Date: April 2, 2014
QUOTES
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2017-04-28T18:46:47+00:00
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Originally opened in 1926 as Reade’s Carlton Theater, the Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank has grown to become of the nation’s most celebrated performing arts centers. The Basie Center’s 1,568-seat historic theater is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in America, consistently recognized by Pollstar magazine as one […]
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Count Basie Center for the Arts
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https://thebasie.org/history/
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Originally opened in 1926 as Reade’s Carlton Theater, the Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank has grown to become of the nation’s most celebrated performing arts centers. The Basie Center’s 1,568-seat historic theater is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in America, consistently recognized by Pollstar magazine as one of the nation’s top-performing live event venues, and everyone from Tony Bennett and Bruce Springsteen, to Ringo Starr and William J. “Count” Basie himself have performed on its historic stage.
In fact, Bennett has called the Basie “my favorite place.” Art Garfunkel once remarked, “This hall is to a singer what Steinway is to a pianist.” And Lyle Lovett, a frequent Basie Center performer, has long praised the theater, making a point to tell his audiences “this is one of the nicest sounding rooms in the whole United States of America.”
For 40+ years, Reade’s Carlton Theater hosted everything from vaudeville to films, local theater and touring productions, concerts and more. By the mid-1960s, like so much treasured, architectural wonders of the gilded age, the Carlton fell into disrepair, forgotten against the rise of shopping malls, home television and multi-theater cineplexes.
In 1971, funding from the Junior League of Monmouth County and New Jersey State Council on the Arts helped create the Monmouth County Arts Council (MCAC). With an eye on preserving the past, the MCAC almost immediately focused on preserving the Carlton.
The effort proved harder than planned. However, in 1973, an anonymous donation allowed the MCAC to purchase the Carlton for just $96,665 — several hundred thousand dollars less than it cost to construct 47 years earlier. A press release heralded, “The Monmouth County Arts Council has received an anonymous gift from a foundation enabling it to purchase the Carlton Theatre in Red Bank, with the stipulation that the theatre be renovated into an attractive and functional arts center for the entire county.” Along with the donation came a new name: the Monmouth Arts Center.
Thanks to the MCAC and an ever-growing area music scene, the Monmouth Arts Center became viable. In August 1974, just months after then-Rolling Stone journalist Jon Landau proclaimed him the future of rock and roll, local musician Bruce Springsteen and his E Street Band took the historic stage. A year later, just weeks after Springsteen appeared on the covers of both Time and Newsweek magazines, the band returned for a performance dubbed “The Homecoming.”
Decades before Bruce Springsteen, however, another area musician – jazz great William J. “Count” Basie – established himself as one of music’s all-time greats. In 1961, just weeks after performing for President John F. Kennedy’s inauguration, Basie made a homecoming performance at the Carlton, drawing more than 1700 fans in the theater’s seats and glass-lined lobby. Basie made several returns in the years to follow: in 1974 for a concert held in honor of his 70th birthday, and for a 1979 performance to benefit Shrewsbury’s A.M.E. Zion Church.
Just weeks after the death of his wife Catherine in 1983, Basie made his final appearance at the theater. Less than a year later, the jazz legend succumbed to cancer.
In November 1984, just six months removed from his death, the Monmouth Arts Center was renamed to honor Basie, then wholly recognized as Red Bank’s most famous son.
In years to come, the Basie would establish itself as a nonprofit organization, with a mission to serve the people of the State of New Jersey by providing a broad spectrum of quality entertainment and education programs that reflect and celebrate the diversity of the region.
The Basie Center’s Academy of the Arts has yielded stars in music and Broadway, and its work in area schools to promote the arts in education has been recognized throughout the state of New Jersey.
A monumental interior restoration was completed in 2008, funded in part by a performance by Springsteen and the E-Street Band. The project restored the theater to its original, Spanish-influenced 1926 luster. Two years later, the building’s iconic façade was restored.
And today, the Count Basie Theatre has become the Count Basie Center for the Arts, reflecting its celebrated $26 million capital campaign and the goal of expanding the facility into a true, regional center for the performing arts. Construction is underway on the west side of the facility, with the Jay And Linda Grunin Arts and Education Building set to house rehearsal spaces, additional classrooms and the Basie Center’s as-yet-unnamed second performance space. On the facility’s east side, plans are in place to create a spacious, glass-lined lobby, barrier-free amenities and upgrades, and the Stillwell-Larkin Pavilion, which will serve as the entrance to a new outdoor public arts plaza.
At 90 years old and growing stronger, the Count Basie Center for the Arts aims to be the premier center for the performing and visual arts, inspiring, educating and entertaining through its diverse and engaging offerings and reflecting the diversity of the region. As a nonprofit organization, the Basie is committed to creating opportunities for participation and understanding the arts by collaborating with creators, organizations, and schools, and as a catalyst to harnessing the economic vitality of the arts and enriching our region’s quality of life.
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William "Count" Basie (August 21, 1904 - April 26, 1983) was a jazz pianist, organist, and bandleader.
Basie was born in Red Bank, New Jersey. His father, Harvey Lee Basie, worked as coachman for a wealthy family. After automobiles replaced horses, his father became a groundskeeper and handyman for several area families. His mother, Lilly Ann Basie, 'took in laundry'. Basie learned how to play piano as a child.
Basie toured the vaudeville circuit starting in 1924 as a soloist and accompanist to blues singers. In 1928 he joined Walter Page's Blue Devils, and the following year became the pianist with the Bennie Moten band based in Kansas City, Missouri. After Moten died in 1935, Basie became leader and started referring to himself as "Count Basie".
At the end of 1936 he moved his band to New York City where the Count Basie Orchestra remained until 1950. The big band era appeared to be at an end, but Basie reformed his as a 16-piece orchestra in 1952 and led it until his death. Basie remained faithful to the Kansas City jazz style and helped keep jazz alive with his distinctive piano playing. Basies music was characterized by his trademark jumping beat and the contrapuntal accents of his own piano.
Basie also showcased some of the best blues singers of the era: Billie Holliday, Jimmy Rushing, Big Joe Turner, and Joe Williams
Count Basie died in Hollywood, Florida April 26 1983 at age 79.
One O'Clock Jump and Jumpin' at the Woodside were among Count Basie's more popular numbers.
See also
Jazz royalty
Samples
Download sample of "Jumpin' at the Woodside" by Count Basie & His Orchestra, a popular swing song by a jazz legend
External links
Count Basie at the Duke Jazz Archives (http://www-music.duke.edu/jazz_archive/artists/basie.count/03/bio.html)
Count Basie at PageWise (http://de.essortment.com/biographywillia_rgyr.htm)da:Count Basie
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The story of Count Basie is very much the story of the great jazz band that he led for close to 50 years (1935-1984), an orchestra with a distinctive sound, anchored by a subtle but propulsive beat,...
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Click here to Support Jazz on the Tube
Pianist and bandleader William James Basie was born August 21, 1904 in Red Bank, New Jersey.
He briefly played drums in a kid’s band before his mother gave him piano lessons.
Basie was encouraged early on by Fats Waller, who was playing organ for silent movies and gave the youngster a lot of tips on both piano and organ.
Basie played with several bands in New York and New Jersey, and toured with revues that played in theaters.
When one tour left him stranded in Kansas City in 1927, he liked what he saw and decided to become part of the city’s exciting music scene.
Basie was a member of Walter Page’s Blue Devils in 1928 before joining Bennie Moten’s Orchestra where he was the main pianist (even though Moten was himself a pianist) during 1929-35, making his first recordings with Moten.
When Moten unexpectedly died in 1935, Basie formed his own trio which was soon expanded to a large ensemble originally called the Barons Of Rhythm; he was called “Count” by a radio announcer and the name stuck.
Count Basie and his band were discovered by producer John Hammond who happened to hear one of the group’s radio broadcasts; Hammond soon made it possible for the group (which had to expand in a hurry) to debut in Chicago and New York where they began recording for the Decca label.
By then, Basie had pared his stride piano style down to the basics, playing the most with the least notes as part of an influential rhythm section with guitarist Freddie Green, bassist Walter Page and drummer Jo Jones that changed the sound of big bands.
Equally revolutionary was his light-toned tenor-saxophonist Lester Young; the early band also featured major soloists in trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry “Sweets” Edison, trombonist Dickie Wells and tenor-saxophonist Herschel Evans.
The Count Basie band became famous as the most swinging orchestra during the Swing era, lasting until financial troubles caused its breakup in late-1949.
After leading a septet for a couple of years, Count Basie formed a new orchestra in 1952 that, while having a similar rhythm section, had more of a reliance on tight arrangements and featured more modern soloists including trumpeters Thad Jones and Joe Newman, and tenors Frank Foster and Frank Wess (who doubled on flute).
Known as a swinging institution, the second version of the Count Basie band has been together since 1952, even surviving its leader’s death in 1984 and still touring the world.
This film clip from 1941 offers a spirited version of a tune by Count Basie and Eddie Durham published in 1938.
-Scott Yanow
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https://news.fsu.edu/news/arts-humanities/2024/02/09/fsu-music-professor-internationally-renowned-jazz-trumpeter-and-count-basie-orchestra-director-wins-grammy/
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FSU music professor, internationally renowned jazz trumpeter and Count Basie Orchestra director wins Grammy
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2024-02-09T00:00:00
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Scotty Barnhart — a Florida State University College of Music professor and internationally acclaimed Jazz trumpeter — won his third […]
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en
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Florida State University News
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https://news.fsu.edu/news/arts-humanities/2024/02/09/fsu-music-professor-internationally-renowned-jazz-trumpeter-and-count-basie-orchestra-director-wins-grammy/
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Scotty Barnhart — a Florida State University College of Music professor and internationally acclaimed Jazz trumpeter — won his third Grammy Award during the 66th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony held Feb. 4 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
Barnhart, director of the Count Basie Orchestra, received the Grammy for “Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album” for the Count Basie Orchestra’s “Basie Swings The Blues.” The Grammy is Barnhart’s first as the group’s director.
“I’m just happy for the orchestra, but more so happy for Mr. Basie,” Barnhart said. “He literally was a genius. This man started an orchestra 89 years ago that’s still at the top of its game. He died exactly 40 years ago, and his orchestra is still winning Grammys.”
Basie, the American jazz legend, founded the Count Basie Orchestra in 1935, leading the group for nearly 50 years. Barnhart has played as a featured trumpet soloist for the Orchestra since 1993. In 2013, he was announced as the group’s new director.
Count Basie Orchestra’s “Basie Swings The Blues” album features collaborations with some of the greatest living blues and jazz artists, including Buddy Guy, Bobby Rush, Keb’ Mo’, Shemekia Copeland, Robert Cray, Charlie Musselwhite, Betty LaVette, Ledisi and George Benson.
“I’m just fortunate to be at Florida State. I love doing it, and I’ll be there until I can’t play or walk or talk anymore. This is not work to me. This is what my passion in life is.” — Associate Professor Scotty Barnhart
Barnhart found inspiration for the album while attending the Blues Awards in 2019 — the same year Basie was posthumously inducted into the Blues Awards Hall of Fame. He wanted to record an album that featured one of the top jazz orchestras with the top blues artists.
“Then I started realizing that what I wanted to do had never been done before,” Barnhart said. “That floored me because I thought somebody surely has done this.”
As the world shut down for COVID in March 2020, Barnhart and the Orchestra were scheduled to play a private gig at a wealthy businessman’s wedding reception in Virginia. The show had to go on — and Barnhart was glad it did.
While the Orchestra played with seven substitute musicians to a pared-down guest list, the groom asked if he could sit in with them with his new Gibson electric guitar. Barnhart asked him, “What do you want to play?” He said, “The blues.”
The melding of the two genres was what had been on Barnhart’s mind for a year.
“I knew I finally heard it,” he said. “Under the most incredible — almost not going to happen circumstances — one guy asked me to sit in and I said yes. He started playing, and I was literally in tears.”
In preparation for recording the album, Barnhart listened to every blues album he could find and traveled to the Mississippi Delta to immerse himself in the land where blues began. He attended performances at blues clubs throughout the area and visited Clarksdale, Mississippi, also known as Devil’s Crossroads, where legend says that musician Robert Johnson sold his soul to the Devil for the ability to play the blues. Barnhart even shot the photo that graces the back cover of the album on the trip.
“These were all things I knew I needed to do so that this project was authentic in every way,” he said.
Barnhart is in his 21st year teaching at the College of Music and continues to give lectures at universities around the world and tours with the Count Basie Orchestra for three months of the year.
“I’m just fortunate to be at Florida State,” he said. “I love doing it, and I’ll be there until I can’t play or walk or talk anymore. This is not work to me. This is what my passion in life is.”
Todd Queen, dean of the FSU College of Music, lauded Barnhart’s accomplishment, as well as his work as a faculty member.
“Professor Barnhart’s impeccable work leading the Count Basie Orchestra continues to resonate across the national music landscape, as evidenced by his most recent Grammy award win,” Queen said. “Scotty is an integral part of the world-class jazz faculty here at FSU, and they continue to shine on the national stage, making this a top destination for any student wanting to study jazz.”
Barnhart is recognized as an expert in jazz trumpet history and has given two keynote lecture-demonstrations at the International Trumpet Guild Conference. Two of his former students have won first place in the National Jazz Competition.
“When I’m teaching, I’m learning,” Barnhart said. “I just love working with the students there. And any piece of information that I get, I give straight to them.”
Barnhart has performed or recorded with Frank Sinatra, Wynton Marsalis, Quincy Jones, Lena Horne and Barbara Streisand among others.
Profiled in the book “Trumpet Kings: The Players Who Shaped the Sound of Jazz Trumpet” by Scott Yanow, Barnhart is heralded amongst legendary jazz trumpeters like Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis. His own book, “The World of Jazz Trumpet – A Comprehensive History and Practical Philosophy,” received critical acclaim following its publication in 2005.
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https://www.allaboutjazz.com/news/count-on-the-coast-basie-58/
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en
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Jazz news: 'Count on the Coast': Basie, '58
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1970-01-01T00:00:00
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Jazz news: 'Count on the Coast': Basie, '58. Posted in “Recording” column. Published: January 10, 2014 @ All About Jazz
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https://www.allaboutjazz.com/icon/favicon.ico
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All About Jazz
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https://www.allaboutjazz.com/news/count-on-the-coast-basie-58/
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correct_death_00034
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FactBench
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https://tedpanken.wordpress.com/2012/02/27/on-dexter-gordons-89th-birthday-my-liner-notes-for-the-complete-prestige-recordings-of-dexter-gordon/
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en
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On Dexter Gordon’s 89th Birthday, my liner notes for The Complete Prestige Recordings of Dexter Gordon
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2012-02-27T00:00:00
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Several years ago, before Concord purchased the holdings of Fantasy Records, I had the honor of writing the liner notes for an immense box set of Dexter Gordon's complete recordings for Prestige. I researched and wrote the essay while simultaneously putting together a large assignment for DownBeat that involved interviewing a cohort of saxophonists about…
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https://s1.wp.com/i/favicon.ico
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Today Is The Question: Ted Panken on Music, Politics and the Arts
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https://tedpanken.wordpress.com/2012/02/27/on-dexter-gordons-89th-birthday-my-liner-notes-for-the-complete-prestige-recordings-of-dexter-gordon/
|
Several years ago, before Concord purchased the holdings of Fantasy Records, I had the honor of writing the liner notes for an immense box set of Dexter Gordon’s complete recordings for Prestige. I researched and wrote the essay while simultaneously putting together a large assignment for DownBeat that involved interviewing a cohort of saxophonists about either their favorite musician or their five favorites on a particular label (can’t remember which), which gave me an opportunity to inquire about their sense of the Gordon’s impact. Maxine Gordon graciously cooperated as well. Gordon’s 89th birth anniversary is today, and, for the occasion, I’m pleased to be able to append these notes.
The Complete Dexter Gordon on Prestige (Notes):
One day in 1945, on his way home from school, a 14-year saxophone beginner named Jackie McLean made a pit stop at a Harlem luncheonette on 125th Street and 7th Avenue. As he waited for his hot dog and root beer, he heard emanating from the backroom jukebox the joyful noise of two distinctly different tenor saxophones exchanging a string of choruses over a thunderous tom-tom shuffle.
“It was ‘Blowing the Blues Away’ by Billy Eckstine’s big band, and that was the first time I heard Dexter Gordon,” McLean recalls. Not long after that, a friend across the street played me ‘Dexter’s Deck.’ That did it. I had been in love with just one saxophone player—Lester Young. But listening to Dexter taught me how to swing.”
Few jazz musicians have stamped the vocabulary of their instrument so definitively at such a tender age as Dexter Keith Gordon, who was not yet 22 when he recorded that iconic tenor battle with Gene Ammons. But he was already a seasoned veteran. The son of a Los Angeles doctor who counted Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton as patients, and a private student of noted L.A. educator Lloyd Reese, Gordon joined Hampton in December 1940, two months before his 18th birthday. A devotee of Lester Young’s records with Count Basie, he’d seen Young play the previous October on Basie’s first California visit. “Lammar Wright, Jr. and I ditched school that day to catch the first show, which I think was at eleven in the morning,” Gordon told Ira Gitler in Swing to Bop. “They opened with ‘Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie,’ and Lester came out soloing—he was just fantastic. I really loved the man. He was melodic, rhythmic, had that bittersweet approach. And of course, in his pre-Army days he had such a zest for living. It felt so good to hear him play.”
On the road with Hampton, Gordon mastered the ritualistic dueling tenors function, telling ebullient stories with pretty notes, Lester Young style, in counterstatement to the brash, declarative Herschel Evans tales of Illinois Jacquet. Midway through 1941, Hampton’s band came to New York to work Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom opposite Jay McShann, whose alto saxophonist was a 21-year-old virtuoso named Charlie Parker.
“Bird had a lot of Lester in his playing, and also Jimmy Dorsey, who was a master saxophonist,” Gordon recalled in Gary Giddins’s essay “Dexter,” from Visions of Jazz: The First Century. “He was playing so much saxophone, new tunes, new harmonic conceptions; he extended the chords, altering them fluidly. Pres stayed around ninths—he must have listened to Ravel and Debussy—but Bird went all the way up the scale.” On various New York visits in ́41 and ́42, the aspirant heard trumpet modernists Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Harris, and Victor Coulson. “I heard [the new sound] gradually here and there,” he told Gitler. “Not in an organized band or even with all the cats playing that kind of style in a group.”
Gordon wasn’t doctrinaire about his influences. He knew the Coleman Hawkins lexicon inside out, and drew inspiration from Dick Wilson (1911-1941), a much-admired tenorman with Andy Kirk’s Twelve Clouds of Joy. In The Swing Era, Gunther Schuller writes that Wilson executed “sinuous and unpredictable” lines “with consummate control. . .interposing quick flurries of notes with more sustained phrases,” and projected them with a tone distinctive for being “at once imbued with a searing old-style intensity and a subtle ‘modern’ coolness.”
During the first nine months of 1944, Gordon refined his skills on jobs with drummer Lee Young (Lester’s older brother), Fletcher Henderson, and Louis Armstrong. In October he received a call to join Eckstine’s seminal bebop orchestra at Washington, D.C.’s Howard Theater. Maxine Gordon, his widow, relates: “Dexter told Louis, ‘I’ve got to go; that’s my boys.’ ‘Is it a matter of money?’ He said, ‘No, the money’s fine.’ ‘Well, what is it?’ ‘I’ve got to play that music.’ He was like, ‘OK, I get it.’ Dexter said that the publicity about Louis being anti-bebop was way overstated, that Louis encouraged the young musicians. He said, ‘Try your new thing. What we played was new!’”
Soon after recruiting Gordon, Eckstine hired a young Chicago tenorist named Gene Ammons, a Coleman Hawkins disciple. For the next ten months, a Gordon-Ammons cutting contest became a highly anticipated nightly ritual, establishing both youngbloods as rising stars.
“Dexter was a child of Lester Young,” Maxine Gordon says. “He tried to play like Lester, thought he played just like him, looked like him and acted like him. Lester was his number-one man. But Gene Ammons was his favorite tenor player among his contemporaries. Dexter said that Gene Ammons could do something that he was never able to attain, which is to play one note and affect the people so much that they fall on the ground and faint. They didn’t have much time for their solos. Dexter would work out, play everything he knew, show all he’d been working on. Gene’s ears were so good that he would come up and play everything back, and then play a low B-flat or a note where people would just go ‘Wow!’ Dexter said he learned that if you only worked on technique and speed, and neglected tone, projection, and feeling, you weren’t playing the tenor.
“Dexter told me that he once yelled at Jug, ́Stop playing back my shit! Play your own shit; don’t play mine.` Gene was very sweet and quiet and sensitive, and he took it badly. Dexter and Lammar Wright went to hear Basie. They went out back, and Lester was there. Lester said to him, ́I heard you had a beef with Brother Gene.` People talk. Dexter said, ́Yeah. I’m tired of him stealing my shit.` And Lester said to him, ́Oh, really? You want to be careful about that.` Then Dexter was like, ́Oh my God, I’m stealing every note from Lester.` He was just mortified. ́Okay, I get it.` Then he went and apologized to Gene and tried to be quiet. He said he never forgot that.”
Blending harmonic lessons from Dizzy Gillespie—Eckstine’s musical director and first trumpet until the end of 1944—with tutelage from Ammons in the art of efficiently telling a story with notes and tones, Gordon learned to conjure concise, melodic riffs from extended chord structures. Although he retained Young’s horizontal phrasing and low-vibrato tone, he gradually shed the skin of his idol, projecting a robust timbre and surging attack that appealed to audiences in Southern tobacco warehouses, Western dance halls, and soul lounges in Northern inner cities. He sidemanned on Gillespie’s “Blue and Boogie” in February 1945 for Guild, and appeared with Charlie Parker on sessions led by trombonist Trummy Young and pianist Sir Charles Thompson. He led his first date in December 1945, and for the next three years—recording in New York for Savoy and in Los Angeles for Dial—tossed off a succession of attractive three-minute riff tunes with ad hoc quartets and quintets, including “The Duel,” a tenor joust with West Coast bop avatar Teddy Edwards, and “The Chase,” an epic encounter with L.A.-based tenorman Wardell Gray.
Both Gordon and Gray are in particularly good form on “Move,” taped at Hollywood’s Hula Hut on August 27, 1950. It was originally issued on The Wardell Gray Memorial Album, and is the first of the 88 tracks that comprise The Complete Prestige Recordings of Dexter Gordon. Over an unwavering, crackling beat from L.A. modernists Jimmy Bunn, Billy Hadnott, and Chuck Thompson, Gray uncorks a string of flaming, elegant, thematically linked choruses, constantly building momentum. There follows a classic solo by trumpeter Clark Terry, in town with the Count Basie Octet; fully cognizant of Dizzy Gillespie and Fats Navarro, he’s completely his own man. Perhaps aware that it was Young’s 41st birthday, Gordon leaps in (4:22) with an eloquent stream-of-consciousness monologue that continues for 3 minutes and 35 seconds. Swinging fiercely and never repeating himself, he choreographs a continuous flow of melodic ideas, referencing Lestorian fragments as signifying guideposts, throwing in for good measure a well-timed phrase from “Let’s Fall in Love.”
It’s the kind of well-wrought eruption that caused Gordon’s peers and acolytes to keep him firmly in their sights. “Dexter was a tough man to beat in a cutting session,’” says Von Freeman (b.1922), who had first-hand knowledge of the fact. “He was very modern-thinking, could play the stew out of the horn, and you could tell he had studied a whole lot. He was among the very first modern tenor players to break away from Pres, to start emphasizing minor IXs, major IXs, XIIIs, and flatted Vs. In other words, he had some Bird in him early, which gave him an edge among a lot of tenor players who were playing like Pres, since Pres didn’t stress those notes, though he used them in the context of his normal playing. In bebop you start in or end on those type of notes, and that makes your playing different to people who study music. Dexter to me was that stop on tenor between Pres and Hawk, and then Coltrane.”
“Besides the gods, Lester and Hawk and Don Byas, Dexter and Eddie ‘Lockjaw’ Davis were the guys that guys my age were listening to when we were coming up,” says Sonny Rollins (b.1930), who grew up in Harlem. “Dexter made a great contribution to the bebop language; in fact, I think he defined it during a certain period. He transcribed a lot of the stuff that Bird was doing, and brought that approach to the tenor without being a copier. He was an important figure in bringing people along. Coltrane at one time sounded a lot like Dexter, and I still hear that lineage. And one time when I was in Chicago, this guy had heard one of my records, and he said, ‘Yeah, man, you sound great; you sound like Dexter.’ I have nothing but praise for him.”
“Around Philadelphia, we all wanted to be like Dexter,” recalls Jimmy Heath (b.1926). “He had this relaxed, behind-the-beat way of playing that made him swing harder than most of the saxophone players. Coltrane, Benny Golson, and myself all were keyed into his sound, and we all were listening to his records, because we were so impressed with the way he adapted the bebop style for the tenor saxophone. One of his records was ‘Setting the Pace,’ and he set the pace.”
“Dexter could take those common chords and string a melody to it like an expensive necklace of pearl beads,” says Golson (b.1929). “His ideas were completely different than Don Byas and Lester Young. To me, they sounded a little more hip, and I guess they were, because he was much younger than them, and he came onto the scene with a new breath of air, so to speak. He had a lot of soul in what he was doing. He was suave—his movements were that way, and his speech was so smooth and deliberate; he thought about what he was going to say. He wasn’t a person that you knew for playing an abundance of notes, though that didn’t mean he couldn’t. He wasn’t approaching his tenor saxophone the same way Charlie Parker approached his alto saxophone. Charlie Parker played a lot of double-time things. With Dexter it wasn’t a flurry of notes. It was the way he played the notes that he played! It was like he gave more attention to each note rather than a slew of ideas. Charlie Parker came with rapid fire, and Dexter came with single shots, but they were well-aimed. And it was those shots that touched my heart and my brain.”
Six-and-a-half feet tall and bronze-complected, with sculpted, florid cheekbones, full lips, and lidded, ironic eyes, Gordon oozed charisma. “Dexter was a movie star on the saxophone,” says McLean. “My aunt Miriam opened my room door one day when I was practicing and said, ‘Jackie, last night I was on 52nd Street, and this tall, beautiful guy named Dexter something was playing, and oh my God, he was so great.’ I said, ‘Wait a minute! That’s Dexter Gordon.’ I had a little windup record player, and I wound it up and put on ‘Dexter’s Deck’ for her.”
McLean recalls hearing Gordon play several afternoon jam sessions at the Lincoln Square Center, a converted stable in Manhattan’s west sixties. “The first time, Ben Webster and a bunch of other people were playing,” McLean states. “The next time I went, I stepped up with my dollar to get in, and the guy asked me, ‘How old are you?’ I tried to drop my voice down. I said, ‘18.’ ‘No. Come on, kid. Get out of the line.’ I was dejected, and went outside. Then I saw Dexter coming, and I ran up to him in the street. ‘Mr. Gordon, I want to go in to see you play, but they won’t let me in—I’m too young.’ Dexter said, ‘How much does it cost?’ ‘A dollar.’ ‘Give me your dollar. Just stay with me.’ I walked right in with him. Every time he tried to get away from me, to talk to the ladies or something, there I was! When he went to unpack his horn, I was looking in his case. Finally, he said, ‘Go have a seat, man.’ Ben Webster was already playing onstage, and Dexter walked out and joined him on ‘Cottontail,’ and tried to steal the scene. Ben didn’t like it too much.
“Ten years later, I went to the West Coast with Art Blakey, and Dexter showed up and started talking. I walked up to him and said, ‘Hey, Dexter, do you remember me?’ He said, ‘You lost a lot of weight, man, but I know who you are. You’re the pest.’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ‘I remember you, man. You were a chubby little kid. You used to be in my face all the time.’”
In Eckstine’s band, Gordon and reed section mates Sonny Stitt, Leo Parker, and John Jackson dubbed themselves the Unholy Four; their experiments with heroin quickly led to addiction. Sonny Rollins recalls encountering Gordon at a Forties dance at the Hunts Point Ballroom in the Bronx. “Dexter was strung out at the time, and I was a young cat whose mother had just bought me my brand-new tenor,” Rollins recalls. “He didn’t have a horn, so I lent it to him. He was already an established star; I was just a kid. But he didn’t steal my horn!”
Around this time, Don Schlitten—who went on to produce four of the albums that appear on this collection—first saw Gordon at a Sunday afternoon jam session at the Club 845 on Prospect Avenue and 160th Street in the Bronx. Soon after, he went to Lincoln Square Center to see his idol at a welcome-home party for the Billy Eckstine band. “They had Sonny Stitt, Gene Ammons, Leo Parker, Fats Navarro, Art Blakey, Monk on piano, and John Simmons on bass,” Schlitten recalls. “Dexter was supposed to be there and so was Charlie Ventura. Charlie Ventura couldn’t make it, so he sent in a sub, who was Don Byas. The show was from 3 to 7, and everybody was waiting for Dexter. At 7 o’clock, the curtains parted, and Dexter stuck his head out of the curtains and waved to everybody hello. But he never played! Then Symphony Sid or one of those cats came out and said that Dexter would be here next week.”
Gordon remained enmeshed in his habit throughout the Fifties. He relocated to California in 1949, spent 1953 and 1954 incarcerated at the Chino State Penitentiary, and went back to jail soon after his encounter with McLean. He didn’t get out until 1960. Gordon didn’t like to talk about those years, telling friends simply, “It saved my life.” Maxine Gordon notes that, unlike Ammons, who spent most of the Sixties in a maximum security lockup in Joliet, Illinois, Gordon “always played, always had his horn. The jail had a band. All the best players were in jail at that time.”
On parole in 1960, Gordon led a house band at the Zebra Lounge and joined the Los Angeles production of The Connection, the Jack Gelber play about heroin addicts. Pianist Freddie Redd—who wrote the score—and McLean had performed in the famous 1959-60 New York stage and film production; in L.A., Gordon led an onstage quartet through several of his minor-key originals, and, writes Gitler in his vivid chapter on Gordon in Jazz Masters of the ‘40s, “handled an important speaking role that called for a lot of ad-libbing.”
During the play’s run, Cannonball Adderley approached Gordon to do a one-off date with Jazzland. The result is Resurgence, and a fine album it is, though the back story described by trumpeter Martin Banks (b.1936) indicates that Gordon was remaining in character outside the theater. “Leonard Feather and Shorty Rogers and all sorts of people were in the control room,” Banks told a reporter in Austin, Texas, his hometown, where he currently lives and plays. “Dexter had some manuscript up on the music stand, and he was pointing at it. But there was nothing written on the paper! He said, quietly: ‘We’re gonna make up this date, because they’ve already paid me for the music. And I’ve spent the money.’”
In point of fact, Gordon makes only two contributions to his comeback album. On the hard-charging “Home Run,” the front line slams out three bars of a chord not dissimilar to the opening of Thelonious Monk’s “Little Rootie Tootie” before resolving into the form of Ray Brown’s “Two Bass Hit.” Propelled by the unrelenting swing of Larance Marable, the “West Coast Philly Joe Jones,” Gordon, Banks, and trombonist Richard Boone—the latter an Arkansan who later gained notoriety with Count Basie for his authoritative “mumbles” vocalese, and moved in 1970 to Copenhagen and an eventual sinecure in the Danish Radio Orchestra—take concise, pithy solos. The tenorist also offers a soulful reading of “Jodi,” an original ballad that he would revisit in 1965 on the Blue Note album Clubhouse.
Saving the day is pianist Charles “Dolo” Coker (1927-1989), a Hartford, Connecticut native whose c.v. included gigs and recordings with Sonny Stitt, Art Pepper, and Philly Jones. The first of Coker’s four compositions is “Dolo,” a twisty “Rhythm” variant taken at a racehorse tempo. Gordon tears through the theme with impeccable articulation and, showing no strain, spins a solo that illustrates McLean’s contention that “Dexter was the master of swinging and playing just a little back of the beat, and then switching over and getting in front of the beat, like Bird often did.” Coker’s “Lovely Lisa” is a tipping blues with a Basie flavor, tight three-horn voicings, and nice changes that Gordon gobbles up; Boone’s vocalized solo crosses Bennie Green fluency with raspy Henry Coker tone. More a tango than a rumba, “Affair In Havana” affords everyone a solo, while “Field Day” finds Coker presenting his own take on the vocabulary of Tadd Dameron—Gordon’s strutting, pellucid solo is a highlight.
Not long after Resurgence hit the street, Gordon signed with Blue Note and moved to New York. Between April 1961 and August 1962 he made four superb studio albums—Doin’ Allright, Dexter Calling, Go, and A Swinging Affair—that reignited his career. Unable to procure a New York cabaret card, Gordon had trouble parlaying critical acclaim into work, and he extended a September 1962 engagement in London at Ronnie Scott’s into a two-year European sojourn. Gordon spent part of 1963 in France, where he made the classic Our Man in Paris with Bud Powell and Kenny Clarke, and received warm greetings in Copenhagen, which became his base until 1976. There he married, fathered a son, drove a Volvo station wagon and rode a bicycle, had a piano in his house in suburban Valby, performed steadily around Scandinavia and continental Europe as a combo leader and member of various big bands, and took working vacations in the Canary Islands.
“Dexter did things when he was living in Copenhagen that he never was able to do before,” says Maxine Gordon. “He would practice on his piano and work on music. But he wasn’t working on it because he had a record date that night or that week. It changed his way of playing and his way of thinking. He thought longer and worked with bigger ideas. You don’t want to think of his time in Europe as one when he fell into obscurity, and then comes back and is rediscovered. He was very active. He played with a lot of American musicians as well as Europeans. He played all the festivals. He could have worked all the time. He was very happy about this period of creativity, and I think his playing reflects it.”
After recording his final albums for Blue Note in New York on May 27-28, 1965, Gordon returned to Copenhagen, working most of the summer in town at the Jazzhus Montmartre. He took a break on July 31st to play the jazz festival in Molde, Norway, which included a jam session with tenor saxophonist Booker Ervin (1930-1970), an early Gordon admirer and an explosive stylist with a penchant for stratospheric flights through standard songs. Out of Dallas, Texas, Ervin signed with Prestige in 1963 after several strong sideman appearances with Charles Mingus and dates for Bethlehem, Savoy and Candid. By 1965 he’d recorded four freewheeling albums under Don Schlitten’s supervision, two with an anything-goes rhythm section—iconoclastic stride-to-avant pianist Jaki Byard, virtuoso bassist Richard Davis and Boston drum giant Alan Dawson. That October, Schlitten put together a tenor summit tour of Germany featuring Ervin, Gordon and Sonny Rollins, and booked a Munich studio to record Ervin with Byard, Dawson and bassist Reggie Workman. He decided to contract with Gordon to reprise the Molde meeting and documented a tenor battle between the master and his acolyte on two classic riff tunes from Gordon’s Savoy years.
The ensuing album, Setting The Pace, is a must-hear of the two-tenor genre. On the title track Gordon solos first and Ervin second, while on the Rhythm-rooted “Dexter’s Deck,” Gordon follows Ervin’s signifying deconstruction with a quote-laden down-the-middle testimonial that lasts 9 minutes and 35 seconds and justifies Schlitten’s comment: “It’s one of the classic saxophone solos ever put on record, like a summation of his entire playing before and after and during.”
Schlitten and Gordon remained in touch, and in February 1969, Gordon signed a two-album contract with Prestige. He arrived in New York in April, gigged a week at the Village Vanguard with Barry Harris, Ron Carter, and Mickey Roker, and recorded Tower of Power and More Power, his first studio dates in America since 1960. Their release over the next nine months caused elation amongst Gordon’s still sizable American fan base who had lost track of their hero over the preceding decade.
“We were going to do a session with James Moody and one with just the rhythm section,” Schlitten recalls. “Dexter came to my little studio on the Grand Concourse, and went through a batch of sheet music that I had there, took out his horn, and started to play all these different songs. I was sitting there, digging the private concert. He chose ‘Those Were the Days’ and ‘Meditation,’ which he recorded that week, and ‘Some Other Spring,’ which he didn’t.”
Blended for the LPs Tower of Power and More Power, the dates appear here in chronological sequence. Moody sounds out of sorts on the April 2nd performance, which has a tentative, edgy quality despite the synchronous rhythm section (Barry Harris, Buster Williams, and Albert “Tootie” Heath). Unfazed, Gordon roars through “Montmartre,” a up minor blues that he’d written about a year before the session. He navigates the sweet changes of Tadd Dameron’s “Lady Bird” with swinging lusciousness; at Schlitten’s instigation, the tenors juxtapose Dameron’s melody with “Half Nelson,” a Miles Davis variant that the trumpeter recorded on his first leader session, in 1947, with Charlie Parker on tenor saxophone. A Dameron connoisseur, Harris plays laid-back Bud Powell lines on both takes of “Lady Bird” and and comps valiantly throughout. On the alternate take of “Sticky Wicket,” a minor blues by Gordon, Moody responds disjointedly to Gordon’s quotefest; on the master take, Gordon concocts a new invention, and Moody plays only on the opening and closing unisons.
“Dexter usually took everything in his stride,” Schlitten notes. “He’d been around, understood everything and everybody, and did what he had to do.”
He’s in peak form on April 4th, which produced high-level performances. The tenorist digs into “Those Were the Days,” a Gene Raskin tune that was getting much airplay at the time. Inspired by the loose camelwalk tempo, Gordon—now 46—digs deep into the nostalgic lyric (“Once upon a time there was a tavern, where we used to raise a glass or two; Remember how we laughed away the hours, and dreamed of all the great things we would do. . .”). Shortly after his first jail stay, Gordon penned “Stanley the Steamer” for a 1955 Bethlehem date led by West Coast bop drummer Stan Levey. Fourteen years later, the pulse on this blues stomp shifts from mid tempo to a sleek up-medium, and Gordon devours the changes in his updated manner.
According to Thorbjørn Sjøren’s authoritative discography, Long Tall Dexter, Gordon first documented “Rainbow People” on a Stockholm radio broadcast the preceding January 20th, with pianist Bobo Stenson and expat bass giant Red Mitchell. Like much of his Copenhagen writing, it’s more a composition than a tune, with attractive changes that beg for a lyric. Gordon and Barry Harris swing deep into the melody deeply on both takes. Both bopwalk eloquently on two takes of “Boston Bernie,” a Gordon variant on the 1939 Jerome Kern song “All the Things You Are” (from the musical Very Warm for May) and on “Fried Bananas,” Gordon’s ingenious up tempo version of “It Could Happen to You,” by Rodgers and Hart. First documented in performance at Amsterdam’s Paradiso Club on February 5, 1969, “Fried Bananas” became an enduring staple of Gordon’s repertoire. Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “Meditation” is Gordon’s second investigation of a bossa nova (first was “Morning of the Carnival” from the 1965 album Gettin’ Around )As Ira Gitler wrote on the liner notes for More Power, “Talk about creating a mood—Dex does it in all registers of the horn with a gorgeous sound and a feeling that envelops one with fireside warmth. Heavy romance. I have often mused how groovy it would have been to hear Pres and Bird work out on a bossa nova. Now I have a better idea.”
The April 4th meeting concludes with the unissued “Dinner for One Please, James,” a bittersweet ballad by Michael Carr, perhaps chosen by Gordon to signify on Moody’s absence from the session. Barely straying from the melody, Gordon lets his tone do the work, wringing out all the bathos.
His trip already paid for, Gordon set up several gigs to make it all worthwhile. These included a May 4th engagement at Baltimore’s Left Bank Jazz Society with a strong pickup group featuring pianist Bobby Timmons (1935-1974). Out of Philadelphia, Timmons had risen to prominence a decade earlier with Art Blakey, for whom he composed such soul jazz classics as “Moanin’” and “’Dat Dere.” Here he draws on bop and blues roots, playing with great imagination, intensity, and finesse on a hopelessly out-of-tune piano. Bassist Victor Gaskin and veteran drummer Percy Brice round out the unit. Both sets were recorded for posterity, and Fantasy released them on the CDs LTD and XXL in 2001 and 2002, respectively. The famous Gordon joie de vivre is evident on every note.
“The way he plays on the Left Bank gig is incredible!” Joe Lovano states. “I played there a few times with Woody Herman’s band and also with Jack McDuff in the mid-Seventies. It was like an afternoon into the evening party. Now, Dexter got you in different ways in different periods. In the Sixties he was up on his articulation and up on the beat, and his tone and presence and interaction with the rhythm section changed. A lot of joy always came through in Dexter’s playing, and it’s probably the thing about him that influenced me most. Just the way he hit one note made you feel great.”
LTD annotator Larry Hollis counts 11 Gordon choruses on the set-opening “Broadway,” a flagwaver whose co-composer, tenorist Teddy McRae, brought the youngster to Armstrong in 1944. Lester Young made the song famous with Basie in 1940, and Gordon memorably covered it on Our Man in Paris in 1963. He uncorks a lengthy discourse on the various things that the aforementioned “Boston Bernie” is. The release of the Left Bank tapes would be worthwhile if only for Gordon’s sensual tenor reading of Duke Ellington’s “In a Sentimental Mood,” which he would record on soprano sax for Steeplechase in March 1975. Feeling his vonce before the soulfully enspirited Baltimore congregation, Gordon counts off the tempo for “Blues Up and Down,” the ritualistic set-closer, “roaring out the blocks hotter than a bowl of three-alarm chili, expatiating inventive verse after verse until the total rings up to an astounding 40,” in the words of Hollis.
The band picks up where they left off with Thelonious Monk’s “Rhythm-a-ning,” beginning with an intense 7:30 solo by Gordon. Timmons plays six blues-inflected minutes; Gaskin bows fiddle style for another four, and Brice steps out of his tipping role for an exciting five-minute display that exploits his quick hands and strong sense of organization. To the crowd’s delight, the leader digs into the famous refrain of Erroll Garner’s “Misty,” and develops the melody—with a nod to Eckstine’s “I Want to Talk About You”—at a leisurely lope. Timmons matches the mood, and Gordon returns for a heartfelt recapitulation and coda, quoting “How Are Things in Glocca Morra.” Gordon had recorded Cole Porter’s “Love for Sale” at the Montmartre in 1967, and addresses it similarly, stating the theme over a Latin groove, as played by Cannonball Adderley and Miles Davis on the 1958 album Something Else. At 3 minutes, the beat changes to 4/4 swing and Gordon notches up into the next gear, launching a four-minute explosion. Timmons and Gaskin have their final say, and Gordon swings through his summation and a stimulating series of exchanges with Brice, concluding an inspired sermon of tenor saxophony with the opening bars of “Soy Califa” (“I am the caliph”), a 1962 opus from A Swingin’ Affair.
Prestige renewed Gordon’s option, and assigned Schlitten to produce the summer 1970 sessions that became The Panther and The Jumpin’ Blues. Three weeks before this American sojourn, he joined the Junior Mance Trio for a radio broadcast from the Montreux Jazz Festival. Mance’s label, Atlantic, couldn’t use it, and sold the master to Prestige in 1974, enabling Gordon to fulfill his contractual obligations to the label.
Addressing a good piano, Mance—out of Chicago, he was Gene Ammons’s pianist of choice from 1947 to 1950 and Cannonball Adderley’s from 1956 to 1958—solos and comps with as much authority and vigor as any pianist who appears on this corpus. Gordon responds in kind; playing with all the power and discursive invention he customarily brought to club sets, he projects a polish and concision apropos to a concert setting. He surges fluently through “Fried Bananas,” evokes the bittersweet aura of Ellington’s voluptuous “Sophisticated Lady,” and roars cohesively through Monk’s “Rhythm-a-ning.” After Mance postulates a few McCoy Tyner chords, Gordon states the melody of “Body and Soul”—the first citation in Sjøren is a February 1968 Frankfurt concert; later that year, Gordon recorded it with Teddy Wilson on Danish TV—and cuts to the chase for a soaring, operatic improvisation on the “Coltrane changes,” concluding with an extended coda that references Burt Bacharach’s “Alfie” and Tadd Dameron’s “If You Could See Me Now.” Gordon first tackled “Blue Monk” on a May 1970 recording with vocalist Karin Krog and pianist Kenny Drew. Here, backed by Mance’s soulful chords and Oliver Jackson’s subtle backbeat, he develops an ingeniously anthological treatise with vocal inflections, including a variation on “Parker’s Mood,” inexorably building the dramatic arc. Mance plays the blues as only he can, bassist Martin Rivera has a tasty solo, and Gordon starts his final chorus with the “Reinhardt, Reinhardt” motif of “Harvard Blues,” a 1942 Jimmy Rushing-Don Byas vehicle with Count Basie. The set concludes with the premiere performance of “The Panther,” an original minor blues in 5/4 with a catchy melody and a funky feel.
In New York’s RCA studios three weeks later with Tommy Flanagan (1930-2001) on piano, Larry Ridley on bass, and Alan Dawson on drums for his first formal session of the summer, Gordon has chiseled out a point of view on “The Panther.” Midway through his decade-long stint as Ella Fitzgerald’s pianist and musical director, Flanagan follows the leader’s sturdy arcs and planes with a graceful sketch. Thus begins a cohesive session on which, as Schlitten says, “the stars were aligned, the elements were right, and everyone was in the mood to play beautiful.” On this “Body and Soul”—“I always ask my favorite players to play it; it’s a sick thing I have,” says Schlitten—Gordon goes bel canto, subtly deploys timbre, his huge enveloping tone more Ben Websterish than Lestorian on an immortal reading. If “Body And Soul” implies a waltz feel, “Valse Robin”—Gordon’s dedication to his daughter—is explicitly so. “It floats along on a strong, buoyant pulse under an orb that is both Manakoorish Moon and Midnight Sun, and yet neither,” wrote Gitler in the notes. Named for the title character of a 1942 film in which Greer Garson was the female lead, the third original, “Mrs. Miniver,” is a medium swinger with another imprintable melody and meaty changes. It’s hard to imagine anyone extracting a more viola-like sound from a metal tube with holes than what Gordon achieves on Mel Tormé’s “The Christmas Song”—it’s pure tenor melody, like Ben Webster playing “Danny Boy.” The six-hour session ends with another brawny, architectonic Gordon solo on Clifford Brown’s “Blues Walk.” Flanagan lays out for about a minute at 1:55, and Gordon stretches the harmony, referencing “Chasin’ the Trane,” coming back inside after the pianist rejoins the fray.
“Europe has been very good because my lifestyle is much calmer and relaxed,” Gordon told Down Beat in 1972. “I can devote more time to music, and I think it is beginning to show.” In a sense, The Panther is the first extended document of Gordon’s mature style. Still functioning at a peak of physical prowess, he kept the fierce attack, deep swing, and populist imperatives of the Blue Note years, while internalizing the developments of the preceding decade.
“Dexter loved Trane,” Maxine Gordon. “He used to say, ‘Maybe if I didn’t give him that mouthpiece, I’d play as good as him.’ I said, ‘You do play as good as Trane.’ ‘No, I don’t.’”
“When Coltrane lived in Philly, I know he was listening to Dexter’s records, and Dexter later started playing some of Trane’s tunes,” says Jimmy Heath. “Dexter was over in Europe, and this revolution was happening here. He caught up with it later. There were a lot of people on his tail, so he had to move. Everybody has to. The free jazz movement influenced all of us to get a little freer in our playing, to try to get away from such a structured style. If you’re a musician who’s trying to get better all the time and improve your craft, you’re always looking for different substitutions, different ways to play on chords—or without chords. Different ways of expressing yourself. The search continues, and it continued with Dexter.”
“Dexter’s approach changed in the late Sixties and early Seventies,” says Eric Alexander, an astute Gordon student from a later generation. “When he resurfaced with Blue Note in the early Sixties, he was already playing with heavier articulation and swaggering swing, and more so by the late Sixties. Plus, he was listening to what was going on around him, and he started to extract bits and pieces of stuff he heard avant-garde players doing which start to show up in his playing. He didn’t stay in one place. He was constantly morphing into something else, even though he was Dex always.”
Piggybacking on the favorable reception for the Power albums, Gordon criss-crossed the States in the summer of 1970. He gigged at the Newport Jazz Festival, made a return visit to Baltimore, stopped in Philadelphia, Detroit, Milwaukee, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, and took two bookings in Chicago. On the first Chicago visit, Windy City impresario Joe Segal hired Gordon to play afternoon and evening jam sessions at the North Park Hotel in the company of fellow expat Don Byas and old pal Gene Ammons. It was the first Gordon-Ammons recording since the Eckstine days, and Segal recorded the proceedings, placing a pair of Gordon-Ammons dialogues and one solo turn by each on The Chase.
Now we can hear the music in sequence, beginning with two quartets by Gordon and the afternoon rhythm section—idiosyncratic swing-to-bop pianist John Young (b.1921), bassist Cleveland Eaton of the Ramsey Lewis group, and drummer Steve McCall, who would become well-known later in the decade for his deft textural drumming with Air, an avant-garde collective trio. A staple of Gordon’s late Seventies repertoire, “Polka Dots and Moonbeams” does not appear in his discography until an October 1969 TV broadcast with the Oscar Peterson Trio. Presumably omitted from the original LP for reasons of length, but included on the subsequent double-LP 25 Years of Prestige, “Wee Dot” is a J.J. Johnson blues first recorded for Savoy on December 19, 1947 by a septet under the nominal leadership of baritone saxophonist Leo Parker, joined by Johnson, Gordon, Leo Parker, Joe Newman, Hank Jones, Curly Russell, and Shadow Wilson. Gordon would wax a fire-and-brimstone version on a 1974 album for Steeplechase. Here he uncorks a solo as long and effervescent as his personality, quoting “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” and “Here Comes the Bride” along the way. Ammons comes on board for a long ballad medley, sounding wistful on “Lover Man” and heart-on-the-sleeve on “My Funny Valentine,” while Gordon puts a light touch on “I Can’t Get Started” and “Misty.”
Manning the piano for the evening set is Chicago first-caller Jodie Christian, joined by local drum king Wilbur Campbell and bassist Rufus Reid, a member of Gordon’s working American quartet at the end of the decade. The surviving selections are a lively reprise of “The Chase,” Gordon’s notoriously popular 1947 tenor battle with Wardell Gray, and two versions of the popular Eckstine feature “Lonesome Lover Blues.” According to Segal, the intention was to record a new version of “Blowing the Blues Away,” with alto saxophonist/vocalist Vi Redd singing Eckstine’s lyric, but Redd—who had not heard the tune for several decades—opens the first version [Disc 7:8] singing what Joe Segal describes in the original notes as “a combination lyric best described as “Blowin’ the (Lonesome Lover) Blues Away.” In response to her repeated request to “blow Mr. Gene, blow Mr. Dexter, too,” Gordon and Ammons begin with several choruses of call-and-response. Gordon sets forth a string of citations (the original line from his own solo on the Eckstine recording, “I Say a Little Prayer,” “Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better,” “Candy”) before resolving into several choruses of blues invention. Ammons starts slow, making each note count, belting out his phrases like a Kansas City blues shouter, moving into the upper register as he builds the dramatic arc of his testimony, quoting “Frankie and Johnny” back at his old partner. John Young solos, Ammons ripostes, and the tenors banter to a conclusion over an extended, sloppy vamp. On the second version, which seems to conclude the concert, the saxophonists play the heads more cleanly and are more organized on the vamp, but stay closer to the vest on the solos.
“If you want to learn how to really phrase the saxophone and slow your actions down, listen to Dexter Gordon,” says tenorist David Murray in a comment relevant to Gordon’s playing on the Chicago concert. “This is a guy who had the ability to think ballad during an up tempo piece, and that’s why he sounds so smooth and so full. The way he played was effortless. He wasn’t racing anywhere. He could play fast if he wanted, but he didn’t really need to. I played opposite him and Johnny Griffin, and Johnny prefers to play fast. But when Johnny soloed opposite Dexter, Dexter always—unless he was completely torched—would come out and get house because he was grounded. In complete command.”
Gordon returned to New York for another Lester Young birthday visit to the studio in the company of a A-list rhythm section selected by Schlitten. On piano, out of Brooklyn, is Wynton Kelly (1931-1972), slightly past his prime but still swinging hard, and on bass is Florida native Sam Jones (1924-1981), whose down-the-center beat, huge tone, and melodic conception gave him steady work with Cannonball Adderley from 1959 to 1965 and with Oscar Peterson from 1966 to 1970. Detroiter Roy Brooks (b.1938), a Barry Harris disciple and Horace Silver alumnus with a bop-friendly disjunctive time feel, has the drum chair.
While Gordon selected repertoire for The Panther that framed him with contemporary beats and harmonies, he harks back to his early years on The Jumpin’ Blues, and plays with unwavering consistency and focus throughout—there’s little to choose between his solos on the alternate takes and the masters. Written for the session, “Evergreenish” is an attractive AABA form with a Dameronian connotation. Gordon’s solo swings with staunch precision, but Kelly is tentative in his solo, and the flow peters out. Brooks strokes an introductory train bell tone on his cymbal, cuing the tenorist into a streamlined “Rhythm-a-ning.” Gordon puts himself in the mood to swing with “Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better”; Kelly finds his vonce; Sam Jones plucks a walking chorus; and Gordon and Brooks embark on bracing 16-, 8- and 4-bar exchanges. “I Love You (For Sentimental Reasons)” was a Billboard #1 hit for Nat Cole in 1946-47, and was subsequently charted by Ella Fitzgerald, Charlie Spivak, Dinah Shore, Sam Cooke, and the Cleftones. Had jazz been the zeitgeist in 1970, Gordon’s orotund, mellifluous version—hewing to Lester Young’s dictum that knowledge of lyrics is the basis of informed interpretation—might have been as popular. Gordon had interpolated the climactic coda of Tadd Dameron’s “If You Could See Me Now” in both his recorded codas of “Body and Soul.” Here he caresses the lyric bop melody of the 1946 Sarah Vaughan Musicraft hit, gives way to a gentle Kelly solo, and returns for a rippling final chorus. He closes this paean to bebop with two homages to Charlie Parker. Springboarding off Bird’s rumba-like intro to his famous 1950 recording of “Star Eyes,” Gordon launches another graceful solo over a rolling, medium-up 4/4, breaking up his phrases and moving easily up and the down the horn. Recording with Jay McShann in 1941 for Decca, Bird introduced his concept to the world with pungent solos on “The Jumping Blues” and “Hootie Blues.” Gordon digs into the former, a prototype riff tune, and gets creative, weaving a quote of “Raincheck”—a 1941 Ben Webster feature by Billy Strayhorn—into the end of his solo.
Gordon won the 1971 Down Beat Critics Poll for top tenor saxophonist on the strength of his four LPs with Schlitten, and signed his third and final contract with Prestige on July 14, 1971, to do two more albums. Much of the jazz fraternity was plugging in—on the heels of Bitches Brew, Miles Davis was about to record Jack Johnson; Herbie Hancock had cut Mwandishi at the end of 1970; and Weather Report had recently recorded their first album—and it probably seemed like a good deal. But hardcore jazz was Gordon’s game, and he was not about to change.
Asked by a Down Beat interviewer in 1972 to choose between the terms “jazz” or “black music” as a self-description, Gordon responded: “I prefer to call it jazz, because to me it’s not a dirty word. It’s a beautiful word—I love it. To call it black music would be untrue, because many of the harmonic structures of bebop come from European music—from Stravinsky, from Handel, from Bartók. So to say ‘black music’? I don’t know what that is, unless it would be some African drums or something.”
Prestige got three LPs out of Gordon’s two sessions at the end of June 1972. First comes Generation, supervised by veteran A&R man Ozzie Cadena. Gordon shares the front line with trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, then under contract to CTI, as he had done on his Blue Note debut, Doin’ Allright, and 1965’s Landslide. The rhythm section is pianist Cedar Walton, who had gigged with Gordon the previous November; bassist Buster Williams; and Gordon’s favorite drummer, Billy Higgins.
Though he’s a bit low in the mix, Higgins’s buoyant ride cymbal and subtle touch propels the soloists through the master take of “Milestones,” a John Lewis line for which Miles Davis took credit on his 1947 Savoy debut with Charlie Parker on tenor. Gordon again mirrors Bird’s asymmetrical phrasing and structural logic; Hubbard eschews pyrotechnics for a fat, burnished tone on a reflective solo; Walton is typically witty and incisive. On “Scared to Be Alone,” a 1968 song by Dory Previn [“When someone is around us/We don’t know what we’re seeing/We take a Polaroid picture/To find the human being”], Gordon again makes you feel the lyric message with his keening, commanding sound. Hubbard’s virtuosic solo includes clean upper-register triplet trills. Composed by Gordon for the occasion, “The Group” has an extended form and tasty bridge that propels declarative solos by Gordon and Hubbard—the latter struts into the upper register for much of his declamation, followed by a brief Walton summation. Composed by Henry Mancini for a Jack Lemmon–Lee Remick vehicle directed by Blake Edwards, “Days of Wine and Roses” is an extended ballad feature for the tenorist, who constructs his solo over Higgins’s inimitable medium bounce, before giving way for several well-conceived Walton choruses. All parties stretch out on Thelonious Monk’s “We See”—originally recorded by Monk on a May 1954 Prestige session with Frank Foster—to conclude a satisfying, no-nonsense convocation.
A week later, Gordon entered Van Gelder’s studio with a quintet of jazz virtuosos, and recorded seven tunes, several of blatantly commercial intent. His front–line partner is Thad Jones, one month Gordon’s junior, who worked in the Basie trumpet section from 1954 to 1963, and co-led the Thad Jones–Mel Lewis Orchestra from 1966 until 1978. Working with Gordon for the first time since the 1947 “Wee Dot” date is pianist Hank Jones (b.1918), who was then too busy in the New York commercial studios to get around much any more to serious jazz dates. After graduating from the Philadelphia Academy of Music the previous year, bassist Stanley Clarke had accumulated New York credits with Art Blakey, Horace Silver, Joe Henderson, and Stan Getz; with Chick Corea and Return to Forever, formed also in 1972, he’d bring the bass to the front of the band, inaugurating a successful career in electric jazz/fusion. Detroit-born drummer Louis Hayes (b.1938) hit the scene with Horace Silver in 1956, and spent much of the Sixties working with Cannonball Adderley and Oscar Peterson.
After Gordon intones the title, Clarke and Hayes lay down a relentless Afro-funk groove on “Ca’Purange,” recorded by Gene Ammons in 1962 and by Stevie Wonder in 1970. Gordon signifies on Ammons in his improvisation, substituting punchy phrases for his trademark long melodic lines. Thad Jones displays his singular harmonic concept and phrasing on an economical solo, and Hank Jones digs in as well. The leader returns to familiar ground on “Tangerine,” composed by Johnny Mercer and Victor Schertzinger for the 1942 film The Fleet’s In, and taken here as a up tempo burner. Roberta Flack won the 1972 Grammy for Song of the Year and Album of the Year with “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” and Gordon sticks close to the melody, again channeling the manly, warm mid-register voice that his fans could never get enough of. Propelled by a churchy Stax-Volt backbeat, “What It Was,” penned by Gordon, features another Ammons-centric effort by the leader and a fleet turn by Thad Jones, who manages to interpolate a fragment of “Fascinating Rhythm.” Gordon finds some changes he can dig into on two takes of “Airegin,” a Sonny Rollins line that debuted on a 1954 Miles Davis quintet session for Prestige. Laconic on the master take, Thad Jones blows a mouthful on the alternate, which also features a solo chorus by Hayes. A classic Hank Jones intro brings on Gordon’s second original of the date, “Oh! Karen O,” a medium-slow blues on which the tenorist and Thad Jones testify at length. The pianist does the same on the attractive theme of Gordon’s sprightly “August Blues,” perhaps cooked up on the spot, and offers his meatiest solo of the day, following some harmonic twists and turns from his little brother and yet another example of Gordon’s consistent ability to find new things to say on the most elemental forms.
In the ensuing week, Gordon participated in two recorded all-star jam sessions for the first Newport Jazz Festival in New York at Radio City Music Hall, before returning to Europe. Though these would be his last New York performances until 1976, American enthusiasts enjoyed numerous Gordon recordings with the Danish Steeplechase label, which signed him in the latter part of 1972. Over the next four years, he did several tours on a circuit that took him from Western Canada to his native Los Angeles. On one such L.A. engagement in July 1973, documented on the Up Front label, Gordon revisited the music he’d written for The Connection 13 years before with old friend Hampton Hawes on piano, Bob Cranshaw on bass, and ur–bop drummer and fellow expat Kenny Clarke.
A July 7th radio broadcast with that quartet at the Montreux Jazz Festival, issued contemporaneously on Prestige as Blues a la Suisse, wraps up this package. It may be the most swinging record of 1973. After perfunctorily outlining the theme on Jimmy Heath’s “Gingerbread Boy,” Gordon bridges into a long, lick-filled solo, playing all over the horn with impeccable timing and a thick, ravishing tone. Hawes is guitaristic and percussive on the Rhodes, and Clarke precisely syncopates his off-beat accents on the snare drum. The title track is another name for John Coltrane’s “Some Other Blues,” which Sjøgren cites Gordon playing on two gigs the previous November. A slick klook-a-mop figure on the hi-hat and a tasty Hawes intro escort Gordon into the theme, and without further ado, boosted by Clarke’s crisp, inventive timekeeping, he essays a joyous declamation. Hawes again morphs the Rhodes into tuned drums, and Clarke says a mouthful with a minimum of strokes. There follows a stunningly beautiful, almost plainsong reading of Irene Kitchings’s “Some Other Spring,” introduced by Billie Holiday in 1939, and an extended romp at an unwavering boptrot tempo through Sammy Fain’s Oscar-winning “Secret Love,” written for the 1953 film Calamity Jane and sung by Doris Day. The quartet ends their hour with “Tivoli,” a gentle minor waltz by Gordon with nice melodic motion within the changes. Gordon is poetic, expressive and transparent; if this concert were the only recording of his oeuvre, he would rank as one of the great voices on any instrument.
Fittingly, the 88th and final track is a rousing Dexter Gordon–Gene Ammons tenor battle, augmented by Nat and Cannonball Adderley, on a spontaneous Ammons riff titled “’Treux Bleu,” in honor of the venue. Gordon inserts “3 O’Clock in the Morning,” “Candy,” “Mona Lisa,” “Stranger in Paradise,” “Chicago,” “Salt Peanuts,” and other good old good ones; Nat Adderley blows a few strong choruses before losing his lip; Ammons rip-roars through an ascendant oration with many “Wow!” moments; and Cannonball explores the lower depths of the alto with complete control, meeting the tenors on their own terms and adding something else.
Three years later, Gordon would sign with Columbia and relocate to the Apple to embark on his efflorescent final act. Until his death in 1990, he gigged around the world on a regular basis with several top-shelf American quartets, made records with good budgets and adequate rehearsal time, and brilliantly portrayed the shambling, dissipated jazzman Dale Turner in Bertrand Tavernier’s film ́Round Midnight. “I saw Dexter in the early days of the filming and asked how he was feeling,” says producer Todd Barkan, who booked Gordon into San Francisco’s Keystone Korner on a regular basis during his pre-“homecoming” years. “He said, ‘I have been preparing for this movie all my life.’ He considered it to be his life story.”
Long before he became a movie star, Gordon brought to bandstands on a nightly basis the emotional transparency that made him so effective in the film. His music was an ongoing memoir. The Fantasy holdings give us a clear picture of how consistently he was able to access his creative muse on impromptu jam sessions, concert performances, and studio dates executed with various degrees of rehearsal. Loyal to old-school values, he continued to grow, navigating the here-and-now on his own terms.
“Nobody was more hip than Dexter, or less doctrinaire or more liberal,” says Barkan. “I think he fit perfectly into the zeitgeist of the Sixties. His warmth and graciousness made him stand out in the musical community—an especially likable and well-liked guy. He was very urbane and appreciated the finer things in life, but he had a common touch with people—he got along with a whole spectrum.”
“Dexter could charm anybody,” Jimmy Heath affirms. “His personality was very open. The ladies loved him, but everyone liked him a lot. They liked his playing, they liked the way he looked, the image he had.”
And people still like Dexter Gordon. Consider this appreciation from Joshua Redman, who won the 1991 Thelonious Monk Saxophone Competition with a version of “Second Balcony Jump”:
“The thing about Dexter that hits me more than anything else is the depth and hugeness and commanding power of his sound. Dexter makes you realize that the sound is everything. Because if you have the sound, all the ideas and vocabulary flow through it. Dexter showed me that it’s clearly not about which notes you play or how many, and it’s not about your technical prowess. It’s not necessarily about harmonic sophistication, even though he was very sophisticated harmonically. It’s about your voice. He was such a master of strong, declarative playing. And so relaxed, so behind the beat. You can hear it in his phrasing. Just taking his time. Allowing that big voice to speak at its own pace. There’s something very joyful about his personality, a subtle sense of humor that makes you smile. Those corners of your mouth start to go up as the solo progresses.
“For me as a saxophonist, trying to learn the language of jazz, and specifically the language of bebop, there was no better tenor player than Dexter Gordon to learn that from. Dexter’s improvisations lay out the language of bebop in very clear, strong, simple terms. He trimmed all the fat off of it. There’s no ornament. It’s pure substance. Pure content. It’s raw material spoken through this strong, elegant, powerful, and gentle voice.”
Even as life chipped away at Dexter Gordon’s constitution, that voice remained constant. However much he abused his body, he always sounded comfortable in his own skin. “Dexter liked the jazz world,” says Maxine Gordon. “He loved jazz musicians. He wanted to be remembered as the bebop tenor saxophonist.” When you’re done listening to this boxed set from beginning to end, you’ll agree that he was.
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https://www.facebook.com/TheCountBasieOrchestra/videos/rip-count-basie/1407734296729804/
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#OnThisDay The legend William "Count" Basie died of pancreatic cancer in Hollywood, Florida, at the age of 79 in 1984. #RIP
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#OnThisDay The legend William "Count" Basie died of pancreatic cancer in Hollywood, Florida, at the age of 79 in 1984. #RIP
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https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/yT/r/aGT3gskzWBf.ico
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https://www.facebook.com/TheCountBasieOrchestra/videos/rip-count-basie/1407734296729804/
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| 89 |
https://www.news-press.com/story/news/local/amy-williams/2015/03/25/belong-area-premiere-film-festival/70457584/
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en
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The News
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"AMY BENNETT WILLIAMS, The News-Press",
"AMY BENNETT WILLIAMS"
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2015-03-25T00:00:00
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McCollum Hall builder relative's killing of white doctor scandalized the segregated South
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https://www.news-press.com/story/news/local/amy-williams/2015/03/25/belong-area-premiere-film-festival/70457584/
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"You Belong to Me" has area premiere at film festival
In Fort Myers, the name is most often associated with an abandoned building just east of the railroad tracks that long divided the city into black and white worlds: McCollum Hall.
Once a prime stop on the chitlin' circuit, the still-handsome shell once hosted the likes of Count Basie and B.B. King in a then-segregated city, as well as serving as a commerce center - a place where you could buy a suit or a life insurance policy, which bore the name of community leader Clifford "Buck" McCollum, who built it in 1938. Its $500,000 restoration is set to begin soon.
But in 1952, the name McCollum gained another kind of fame after Buck's sister-in-law, Ruby shot and killed a white doctor and senator elect in Live Oak, a nearly unprecedented act that rocked the Jim Crow South. An independent documentary exploring what led the wealthy 42-year-old mother to pull the trigger, "You Belong to Me" has its Southwest Florida premiere Friday at the Fort Myers Film Festival.
The details that emerged at trial were as shocking as the crime itself, says producer Jude Hagin: a long-term sexual relationship between the town's beloved doctor and the wife of an insurance man who also ran the local bolita gambling racket.
Could such a relationship, in the days when the Klan ran entire counties, have been consensual? Most of the academics and historians interviewed in the film doubt it, but as Hagin points out, "We'll never truly know what happened."
A 1954 article that ran in Ebony magazine reported, "At the trial the lawyers felt helpless. They tried only to disprove pre-meditation in the hope of escaping the death penalty. They maintained that Ruby 'had no idea of killing the doctor when she went to the office.' Ruby was the only defense witness, and she was a poor one. She sat listlessly, forlornly, in the witness chair, a broken little woman whose feet wouldn't touch the floor.
She was allowed to state that "more than a doctor-patient relationship" existed between her and Doctor Adams; that they had had sexual relations at her home and in his office for several years; that her youngest child, Loretta, was his; that she had been pregnant by him at the time of the murder. The defense was not allowed to present the child to the court."
McCollum testified, "I was just so worried, I had to either yield or maybe die, I suppose that was what would happen." Though she was convicted and sentenced to death, she avoided the death penalty after a judge declared her insane. She died in 1972 without her side of the story ever having been told.
Part of the reason is that the judge at McCollum's trial forbade reporters from talking to her - even acclaimed writers Zora Neale Hurston and William Bradford Huie.
The day after the shooting, McCollum's husband, Sam, died of an apparent heart attack, though rumors have long circulated that he committed suicide.
One thing about which Hagin is certain: The killing of Dr. Clifford Leroy Adams' was a seminal moment. "Ruby put whites on notice that maybe blacks weren't going to stand for this any more," she said. "Yet the price she paid was that her children grew up without their mother. Or their father."
IF YOU GO
• What : Screening of "You Belong to Me"
• When: 11 a.m. tomorrow
• Where: Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center, 2301 1st St., Fort Myers
• Cost: $10 at the door or online: vendini.com
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3
| 8 |
https://www.nytimes.com/1984/04/27/arts/count-basie-79-band-leader-and-master-of-swing-dead.html
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en
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COUNT BASIE, 79, BAND LEADER AND MASTER OF SWING, DEAD
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"The New York Times",
"John S. Wilson"
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1984-04-27T00:00:00
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en
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/vi-assets/static-assets/favicon-d2483f10ef688e6f89e23806b9700298.ico
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https://www.nytimes.com/1984/04/27/arts/count-basie-79-band-leader-and-master-of-swing-dead.html
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Count Basie, the jazz pianist whose spare, economic keyboard style and supple rhythmic drive made his orchestra one of the most influential groups of the Big Band era, died of cancer yesterday morning at Doctors' Hospital in Hollywood, Fla. He was 79 years old and lived in Freeport, the Bahamas.
Mr. Basie was, along with Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman, one of the pre-eminent bandleaders of the Big Band era in the 1930's and 40's. Mr. Basie's band, more than any other, was the epitome of swing, of jazz that moved with a built-in flowing intensity.
This stemmed primarily from the presence in the rhythm section, from 1937 to the present, of both Mr. Basie on piano and Freddie Green on guitar.
As one critic put it, they ''put wheels on all four bars of the beat,'' creating a smooth rhythmic flow over which Mr. Basie's other instrumentalists rode as though they were on a streamlined cushion. Among his band's best-known numbers were ''One O'Clock Jump,'' ''Jumpin' at the Woodside,'' ''Li'l Darlin' '' and ''April in Paris.''
Directing With a Glance Mr. Basie, a short, stocky, taciturn but witty man who liked to wear a yachting cap offstage, presided over the band at the piano with apparent utmost casualness. He flicked out tightly economical, single-finger passages, directing his musicians with a glance, a lift of an eyebrow or a note hit gently but positively in passing.
His piano style, which often seemed bare and simple, was an exquisitely realized condensation of the florid ''stride'' style of Fats Waller and James P. Johnson with whom Mr. Basie started.
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https://jazzburgher.ning.com/m/group/discussion%3Fid%3D1992552%253ATopic%253A549544
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Duffy Jackson, Ebullient Drummer with Lionel Hampton, Count Basie and Others, Dies at 67 – Pittsburgh Jazz Network
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Duffy Jackson, a drummer whose swinging exuberance propelled him from child stardom to a prolific career behind Lionel Hampton, Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne and many others, died on Wednesday in Nashville, Tenn. He was 67.
The cause was complications from hip surgery, Sandra Anton, his first cousin, tells WBGO.
Show business was a proud birthright for Jackson, who began to learn his craft before he was in grade school. His father, Chubby Jackson, was a bass player and bandleader who became a popular children’s television host, and Duffy earned a reputation as a boy wonder — initially through his appearances on Chubby Jackson's Little Rascals, which aired on ABC. At age 5, his picture appeared in DownBeat magazine, with a caption noting that “Duff, who has nicknamed himself Jazz Jackson, has only one ambition in life: to run away with Count Basie’s band.”
He realized that dream in his 20s, when he became the youngest member hired by Basie at the time. His bedrock time and tasteful embellishments were a natural fit for the band; here he is on the 1980 Pablo album Kansas City Shout, playing a tune cowritten by Basie and saxophonist Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson.
Basie’s was just one of the many swinging bands that Jackson played with over the years. He worked with saxophonists Benny Carter, Sonny Stitt and Illinois Jacquet, along with vibraphonist Lionel Hampton and bassist Ray Brown. He also powered the band behind Sammy Davis, Jr. on network television for two years, and spent a year on tour with Lena Horne.
Among Jackson’s other close affiliations was one with Jamaican pianist Monty Alexander, beginning in the early 1970s with Here Comes the Sun. On that album’s title track, the Beatles hit by George Harrison, Jackson shows the ease with which he can hold down a funkier groove.
Still, Jackson considered himself something of a specialist. “I can play beautifully in a trio or whatever,” he said in a 2019 interview with the Nashville publication Music Mecca, “but when I’m in the driver’s seat of a big band, that’s where I can take you to places that you’ve probably never been before.”
Duff Clark Jackson was born on July 3, 1953 in Freeport, N.Y. The first indication of his musical talent came when he was a toddler, keeping time to records on a set of bongos. At 4, he began taking lessons with his first drum teacher — Don Lamond, who’d played alongside Chubby Jackson in the Woody Herman Orchestra. He also received encouragement from master big band drummers like Buddy Rich, Louis Bellson and Sonny Payne.
Jackson developed his precocious talent on the most public platform available at the time: by his own estimation, made 300 television appearances between the ages of 5 and 12. The primary outlet was his father’s Little Rascals show, airing in Chicago and New York. “My dad had access to the ABC local musicians on staff,” he recalled, “so at eight in the morning, you’d hear an 18-piece band swingin’ so hard. Now all the guys were all drunk or stoned or stayed up all night, but the thing is my dad had little kids dancing and singing in front of the band.”
The razzle-dazzle of an entertainer was always something Jackson could access musically, and in his later career he made it a trademark, as a drummer and a scat singer. Though there’s just one album under his name — Swing! Swing! Swing! on the Milestone label, made in the mid-‘90s — he was a seasoned bandleader, and a cornerstone of the jazz ecology in Nashville.
Jackson moved to Nashville in the late 2000s, from his previous home base in South Florida. He quickly found a niche in Music City — playing residencies at Rudy’s Jazz Room and Acme Feed and Seed; sitting in with the Time Jumpers at 3rd & Lindsley; and engaging with the Nashville Jazz Workshop, as both an instructor and a featured artist.
“Playing with Duffy felt like a glove,” pianist Lori Mechem, cofounder of the Nashville Jazz Workshop, tells WBGO. “His groove was infectious, and his sense of swing was flawless. He truly lived to play and loved everyone to the fullest.”
He is survived by his wife, Marina, and two sisters, Myno Tayloe and Jai Jackson.
Jackson often talked about his relationship to an audience in terms of crackling excitement. “Sometimes an audience will sit very quietly like an oil painting, and be subservient to the jazz musicians that demand your respect by not talking,” he told Music Mecca. “I want people to go nuts when I’m playing, as long as I can still hear myself. I want people to react.”
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| 64 |
https://www.jazzhistorydatabase.com/content/collections/scrapbook_jazz_photos/mary_mardirosian.html
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Scrapbook
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A CONVERSATION WITH MARY MARDIROSIAN
by Toni Ballard
July 28, 1989
Anyone who lives within earshot of Worcester's two public radio stations WICN and WCUW and who is at all interested in jazz, knows that familiar voice. The first time you hear it, you're surprised. It's not that slick, "I'm hip" voice that most jazz radio announcers adopt. It's more like well, it's like talking to your best friend on the phone. You know she can't lie to you, and you always know, just by the sound of her voice, whether or not she likes something. Mary Mardirosian has been the host of the most popular jazz radio show in Worcester for ten years. Five of thosewere spent doing a Saturday afternoon mainstream jazz show on WCUW. She has spent the last five years of Saturdays at WICN, a National Public Radio affiliate. At both stations, her show has brought in the most money during fund-raising. Mary went to WCUW ten years ago looking for something to do after the death of her husband. The two had been avid jazz fans, and, in fact, had been friends of Count Basie and had traveled to various cities around the country to hear his band. Her love of music, combined with her need to brush up on some office skills, led her to WCUW. After doing a guest spot with host Tom Reney, who was doing a Basie special,the station offered her the chance to do her own show.
Toni: What motivates you to do those jazz shows?
Mary: In the beginning, it was very therapeutic for me, because, when I lost my husband, I was lost completely. I was a person who was very shy and never thought that I could do this. And that's why it's been rewarding. It's proved to me that I can do something, however it comes through.
Toni: It does come through. So, why jazz?
Mary: Why jazz? That's been my love all my life. I grew up with jazz. I was born on a farm, and when you're brought up on a farm, you do a lot of work. My only source of entertainment was the radio, and every spare moment that I had, my ear was tuned into the radio. And the music of that day was big band music and vocalists. So, I became tuned into that music. And I loved it! I loved it so much. My first favorite big band was the Benny Goodman Band. My first favorite vocalist was Ella Fitzgerald. I saw something and heard something in her at the time that I loved. It's always been that music that has been fulfilling for me. (My husband) got interested in the music to please me, and practically every week, there was a big band at the auditorium here in Worcester. Once in a while we'd dance, but I was there to listen to the music. It was fantastic. I saw all the bands there. The first time I saw the Count Basie band, it was at the auditorium. And, of course, they used to have the bands come to the theaters, so we'd go to those things, too. And we used to go to Boston to hear the different artists at Storyville. . . Chris Connor, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughn. The very first time I heard Dakota Staton, it was at Storyville. Then we used to go to the Jazz Workshop, and Paul's Mall, Lennie's, places like that.
In the late fifties, my husband came in and said he had gotten tickets, and we were going to the auditorium again to hear this Birdland review show. And it was the Count Basie Orchestra, Billy Eckstein, Sarah Vaughn, Zoot Sims and Al Cohn, Chet Baker -- who did not show -- , Terry Gibbs, Gerry Southern, Joe Williams. All these people were on the one show. I enjoyed it tremendously. And it was after this that we started to go into Boston to Storyville, and all those other places that I mentioned. One day my husband came and said to me the Basie band was going to be appearing at the Crystal Room in Milford and that we were going. We sat right up front, and the band members had friends sitting at the same table that we were sitting at. So, when the band members would come off for a break, they were all at the table. And they were all very friendly. And so, about a month or two later, they came back to the Crystal Room, and we went again. And this time we really met some of the guys. The first person that we became friendly with was Sonny Cohn, who I'm still friendly with. I think he became friendly with us because he was new in the band. By then, that second time, Joe Williams had left the band, so we didn't get to know Joe at that particular time. So, then, if we heard the band was around the area, we'd go to hear them. My husband loved that band. I liked it too, very much. Anyway, this is how we started to follow that band around. It took us a while to get to meet Count Basie himself. He'd see us, but you just didn't approach him. He was not that approachable. It wasn't that he was stuck up or anything. It was just that -- well, you just knew . . . you just didn't. And it took a while. And then, we finally did get to know him.
Toni: Was it more your being shy about approaching him, or his not being receptive?
Mary: I think it was both. He wasn't an overly friendly type. He was not like Duke Ellington. Duke, if you met Duke, he'd be putting you on, and friendly, and all that. He was a different personality. Basie was not like that. But once you became friendly with Basie, you were his friend for life.
Toni: So, eventually, you started to plan vacations around where the band was playing. Where did you follow them to?
Mary:Well, to Florida, Chicago, Kansas City, New York, an awful lot. To Florida we would fly, or to Chicago, or Kansas City. But to New York, we would drive. And we'd be in touch with them. We knew where they stayed. So, if they were doing gigs, say in Philadelphia, or around the New York area, we'd go on the bus with them. We always sat in the seat opposite Count Basie. The fellow who had that seat would always relinquish it to us. They treated us very nicely and allowed us to go with them as part of their entourage into any gig they played. If we went by car to someplace in New York or, if we met up with them, we were told to say that we were from the office. And if we dared to pay, they'd say, "What did you do that for? You know you're part of us." I just felt very priviledged to be able to do this. I got to go more places because of that man that I never, ever would have seen. I mean, they played some ritzy places, and they placed some dumps, you know, and we just got to go everywhere. They were very protective of us, and after Mardy died, they were still protective of me, and have been very nice to me. When Mardy died, (Basie) was told about it, and he sent flowers, and he used to send him telegrams at the hospital. The first time Mardy was in the hospital, he sent him a telegram -- "What the hell are you doing there? Get the" -- I still have it -- "get the hell out of there!" And then afterwards, when he knew Mardy was not going to make it, he used to call up at the hospital, just to check in with him, which was very nice. After they knew that Mardy was dying, we still used to go around to hear the band. And the last time that he went, we went to the Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island. He went backstage, and he got autographs of the guys, and he never did that, and they all wrote something nice, because they knew -- they all knew. He hadn't let on to me that he knew he was dying, but he knew he was dying at that time.
Toni: Do you ever wonder how Mardy would react to your doing a radio show?
Mary:I know he'd be very proud of me. I know I never would have done it, had he lived, because I would have been living my other life. And I wouldn't have been thrown out into the world. So, you wonder about things happening the way they do. And I got into an environment that I've always loved -- the music environment, and that's always been fascinating for me. I've lost a lot, but what I have gained has been rewarding. You know, I have met some very young musicians -- like Chris Hollyday -- growing, watching them grow. I've seen Marshall Wood grow. I've seen Makoto Ozone grow. I've seen Becky [Parris] come along. I've seen you come along. And I like to think that I have helped in my little way, in trying to bring their music out. As I was saying to someone that I interviewed on my program Saturday -- he wanted to know why some people make it and some don't. And I said, "Well, first of all, you have to be true to yourself." And it's a question of being at the right place at the right time -- who you know, luck, fate -- I believe in all those things. "But", I said, "basically, it's being true to yourself." I mean, that's how I do my program. There'll always be some people that will not like everything I do. You can't please everyone. You can't play every cut that will please the majority of the people. You hope you're pleasing and reaching a lot people. For instance, we know there are people who like small groups, and we know there are people who like big bands; and we know there are people who love vocalists. I know people who hate vocalists.
Toni:Like musicians, for instance.
Mary:Yeah. (Laughs.) People have told me, "I love your show, but I hate when you do that lady vocalists set." Well, it's too bad. There are a lot of people who just wait for that portion of the program. So, what can I do? I'm doing what I think is best, and, hopefully, people are enjoying what I'm doing. And I know there are some people that I'm not able to please, but, well, I've said many times, just turn the dial.
Toni:So, what's been the most exciting, or fulfilling part of doing the show? Has it been discovering and watching these new talents like Christopher Hollyday seeing him starting out, and then watching him blossom into, maybe, this major force?
Mary:I don't know what is the most exciting. But in doing the show, I have gotten to meet so many nice people -- all the local musicians and the Boston people -- Dave McKenna, Grey Sargent -- and all the great talents I have admired throughout the years -- Arthur Prysock, Jackie and Roy, Carmen McRae. She's always been one of my very favorite vocalists, and she's been to my house for dinner! And I've gotten to know everyone. And that's kind of exciting. I think the interviews I've done have been quite exciting. I'm always under a lot of tension to do them, and sometimes very apprehensive about doing certain people. But when it works well, that makes you feel so good. I have gotten to meet a lot of the different people who come to the El Morocco. I met Toshiko Akiyoshi recently. She was lovely -- funny and fun, and I loved her playing. I met Cedar Walton about a month ago. He's a darling, and can he play! After my husband died, the El became a great outlet for me -- someplace right at my doorstep where I could go to hear the music I love. Then, when I had started doing the radio show, Charlie Lake called me and asked me if I wanted to interview Scott Hamilton, who was appearing at the El. That was my first interview -- by phone. Phil Wilson was the first person that came in live to 'CUW, and he brought in Makoto Ozone. I've had the opportunity of introducing all these musicians that come to the El Morocco. I'm still scared to death of doing that, and I am determined to overcome it. I perhaps never will, but I keep trying, because I do want to overcome that shyness. I have to tell you, the first time that I introduced the Basie band at the end of last August, I was shaking in my boots hours before -- before I even got to the El! I was so bad. I was so scared, because they're my people. And I never, ever dreamt that I would be standing in front of that Count Basie band to introduce them. I mean, that was something unthinkable for me to do. You know, I'm in awe of them, as much as I've traveled around with them. To be able to get up and introduce that band, to me -- you said, what is the most exciting thing? Maybe that is.
Toni: Some of the same guys in that band were in the band when you traveled on the bus?
Mary:Yes. They're old friends.
Toni: I want to ask you a little more about the interviews. What kind of preparation do you do? Do you have the questions planned out in advance?
Mary:Not if they're coming in live. If they're coming in live, I sort of wing it, unless they're there to speak about a specific thing. And I'll know that and lead into that. But generally I wing those. By having someone in live, you can watch their face, and you kind of know where you're going with it, because you have the eye contact. So, that's a little bit easier for me to handle. But when it's a telephone interview, that's pretty difficult -- especially when you don't know the person. So, then, I do prepare some basic questions. Some people are very easy to do. They'll take it and roll with it, and it just goes. And I let them go where they want to go with it. But there are some people that you just don't get that much out of, and it's pretty difficult. You're doing everything live, and you just hope it comes off well. I did Bob Flanagan of the Four Freshman two weeks ago. I thought that one came off very well. He had a lot to say. I didn't have to struggle with him at all. I had some questions planned to ask him, and he floored them very nicely. I feel that when a person has been around quite a bit, they have a lot to say. Some have been around, and they're kind of -- well, the word I'm going to use is "jaded". They've been asked the same darn questions so many times that -- "Oh, God, do I have to answer that again?" It just depends on the individual. Some are too shy, too, and I realize that. So, you never know when you start one how it's going to go. But I still enjoy doing them. I love doing Dick Johnson because he's very easy to talk to. The first time I did him, it went beautifully, and I was very happy with it. And I'd love to have Dick on live. I've been trying to get him. We had it all worked out once, and we had a bad ice storm. So, he cancelled, and I didn't blame him because I didn't know how I was going to get in to the station myself that day. I somehow made it, but I certainly didn't want him to travel in from Brockton. I'd love to have him in live because I know it would be a ball. I love having Herb Pomeroy come in live. He's just a joy.
Toni:I saw him recently. He was the guest artist at Zachary's at the Colonade with Mike Jones and Peter Kontrimas.
Mary:Sir Charles Thompson used to be the host pianist there for awhile. And when Basie used to play in Boston, that's where he used to stay -- at the Colonade. So, once, after my husband had died -- the year after -- the band was playing at, well, it's the Wang Center now -- they were working there with Sarah Vaughn. I had gone down for that. And Joe Williams was there. He wasn't on the bill, but he happened to be there. So, a whole bunch of us were going back to the Colonade to hear Sir Charles Thompson. So, Joe rode in the car with us. And Joe Williams was the first guy I danced with after my husband had passed away. Talk about Joe -- I got to meet Joe after he left the Basie band. He was playing at Lennie's. I always loved Joe Williams when he was with the [Basie] band. Anyway, he had left the band, and I was extremely disappointed. So, when he played around the area, we'd always go to hear him. And we did, eventually get to meet him. And, of course, he has appeared at various times with the band as a guest, so I know him very well. I still love his work, and I'm very happy that he's finally making it after all these years.
Toni:Have you ever interviewed Carmen McRae?
Mary:Yes, I have interviewed her. I saw her and I asked her if I could interview her -- it was at Great Woods, exactly two years ago. She said, "Do you have your tape recorder with you? Come back to the room." I said I didn't have one with me. Furthermore, I couldn't go because I had come in with the Basie band again, and I had to come back home. But I said, "I'd love to do one by telephone with you sometime." And she said, "O.K. I'll give you my telephone number. Don't give it out! Call me and we'll set up something." And I said, "Fine." So, we did do a telephone interview. Ironically, I never got to do one with Count Basie, but I'm sure he would have been very willing. But I think he would have been a poor interview. He did a promo for my show -- you know, "Listen to Mary Mardirosian" -- but that's when I was at 'CUW.
Toni:How did you do that?
Mary: I had my tape recorder, and he really wanted to do that for me. But I never pursued him to do an interview, which I know he would have done, because I used to sit in on other interviews that he did with other people. We'd be different places, and they were always interviewing him. And we'd sit in and listen. He's kind of evasive, so it wouldn't have worked out too well, I'm afraid.
Toni: Did he think the music should speak for itself?
Mary:Yeah. And he never commits himself. If we went to gigs, we were always in his dressing room. There'd be three or four different conversations going on around the room. That man -- you could be talking to him, but he used to hear everything that was going on in the room. He was that foxy. He'd pretend like he didn't know anything or hear anything, but he heard everything and knew everything. He was a man of few words, but when he said something, it meant something. It was a great joy to know him. And it was a great joy for me to have met Duke Ellington and to have gotten to know him because he was a completely different type of person. But so much -- so much charisma. I've said this before about him -- he'd be putting you on, and you knew he was putting you on, but it was fun to be put on by him. He used to be so flattering to all the women. He'd go into his dressing room. There'd be about eight or nine women around, and Duke would sit there holding court, so to speak. He was fun to know.
Toni: How did you feel when you found out that Basie had died?
Mary:I felt very badly about it because, although I knew that was going to happen -- I knew he was sick, there at the end, I knew he was pretty bad -- naturally, I felt very badly because, for one thing, you lost a friend; for another thing, you lost a legend in the music world. And to go to hear the band, it was never the same for me without him there. It still isn't. I want to see him sitting up there. I remember I did a five hour show after he passed away. Gene [Petit, WICN program manager] allowed me to go the extra hours because I had so much to say with his music. And I remember the statement I made. I said, "I knew this day was eventually coming, and I dreaded to have it come, but here it is. And I'm doing what I knew I was going to do." And I made a vow on that program that day, and I said I will never do a show without playing one Basie cut. And some people say, "She plays a lot of Basie." I don't play a lot of Basie, but I do play one Basie a week, because I said I was going to do it, and I'm going to do it. I feel that Igot so much out of his music that I want to give that out to the people. He made me happy, and I feel like I'm going to do my little part -- as many people are doing -- in keeping his music alive. It deserves to be alive. And I think Frank Foster's doing a very nice job fronting the band. I think they floundered around for awhile there, after Basie passed away, but I think they've got their act together. I've met so many nice people. It's nice to meet the listeners. It makes you feel good to have people come up and say to you, "You made my day. You make my Saturdays. I do my housework to your show." Those are the exciting things, I think. I've worked with some nice people in doing my show. I've had some terrific engineers, right down the line. They've all been very loyal to me -- each and every one that I have worked with. I had quite a few at 'CUW. They were lovely people to work with. Never did anyone leave me hanging. They always were there. And, going on to WICN, I had the same feeling there with whomever I worked with. We've always gotten along well. I think I'm hard on myself because I want to please, and I want to do a good show. I know I screw up a lot when I'm talking, but that's me! And it wouldn't be Mary if I didn't screw up! I think people get a kick out of it.
On one of her visits to Kansas City, Mary visited the Charlie Parker Institute. She was given a souvenir a gold coin bearing Parker's image with the inscription, "Bird lives." Several years ago, after hearing Christopher Hollyday play his second engagement at the El Morocco, she handed him the coin. "This belongs to you," she said.
|
|||||||
correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
|
2
| 31 |
https://fromthevaults-boppinbob.blogspot.com/2013/08/count-basie-born-21-august-1904.html
|
en
|
FROM THE VAULTS: Count Basie born 21 August 1904
|
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[] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[
"View my complete profile"
] | null |
William "Count" Basie (August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Commonly regar...
|
en
|
https://fromthevaults-boppinbob.blogspot.com/favicon.ico
|
https://fromthevaults-boppinbob.blogspot.com/2013/08/count-basie-born-21-august-1904.html
| ||||||
correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
|
0
| 28 |
https://bestofnj.com/features/black-history-nj-count-basie/
|
en
|
Black History NJ: Count Basie
|
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[
"Patrick Lombardi"
] |
2016-02-29T17:00:04+00:00
|
William James “Count” Basie was born in Red Bank, New Jersey on August 21, 1904. Basie grew up in a music-oriented family; his father played the mellophone, and his mother played piano (she gave Basie lessons in his youth). During junior high school, he spent much of his time at the Palace Theater in Red […]
|
en
|
Best of NJ
|
https://bestofnj.com/features/black-history-nj-count-basie/
|
William James “Count” Basie was born in Red Bank, New Jersey on August 21, 1904. Basie grew up in a music-oriented family; his father played the mellophone, and his mother played piano (she gave Basie lessons in his youth). During junior high school, he spent much of his time at the Palace Theater in Red Bank, where he gained free admission from doing smalls jobs for the theater. It was here he adapted impressive improvisational piano methods.
Even though he was a natural pianist, Basie preferred the drums; he got discouraged by the remarkable skills of popular drummer Sonny Greer (also of Red Bank), however, and decided to play piano exclusively. Basie actually played with Greer until Greer went off to play with Duke Ellington in 1919. By that time, Basie was playing at resorts and various other shows and adult dances.
Early Success
Basie decided to venture to Harlem in 1920, where he ran into Greer who introduced him to the Harlem jazz scene. Though Basie’s career did not immediately take off, he began playing many more shows with various different acts in the mid-1920s, improving his already dynamic skills. He and his bandmates would often improvise their songs, rarely (if ever) using any sheet music.
In 1928, a few months after hearing the Oklahoma City Blue Devils in Tulsa, Basie was asked to join the band. While with the very popular Blue Devils, Basie adopted the nickname “Count.”
The Oklahoma City Blue Devils experienced significant changes over the next eight years, and by 1936 when they relocated to Chicago, they had changed their name to Count Basie and His Barons of Rhythm. Their shows garnered great responses from patrons, and in October of 1936, the band began their first recording session.
Later Life
Though the group recorded a number of songs together, the new formation was short-lived; Basie continued his musical career solo, performing with numerous other popular jazz and blues artists; including Billie Holiday, Joe Williams, Helen Humes, and Big Joe Turner.
Count Basie continued his immensely significant musical career throughout the swing era, World War II, and the decades to follow; introducing the country to his momentous Big Band sound. He received great praise from fans and critics alike, even performing at one of John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Balls. On April 26, 1984, one year after his wife’s passing, Basie died of pancreatic cancer in Hollywood, Florida, leaving behind a monumental jazz and blues legacy.
|
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