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correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
|
2
| 73 |
https://www.scribd.com/document/661561197/Count-Basie
|
en
|
African American Music
|
https://imgv2-1-f.scribdassets.com/img/document/661561197/original/c08fb2c440/1721399152?v=1
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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.
|
en
|
https://s-f.scribdassets.com/scribd.ico?2ff3db32a?v=5
|
Scribd
|
https://www.scribd.com/document/661561197/Count-Basie
| |||
correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
|
0
| 85 |
https://www.prestomusic.com/jazz/composers/7286--basie
|
en
|
William "Count" Basie (composer) - Buy recordings
|
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A profile of the composer William "Count" Basie (1904-84), along with a list of their works available to browse and buy.
|
en
|
Presto Music
|
https://www.prestomusic.com/jazz/composers/7286--basie
|
William James "Count" Basie 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, 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.
Read more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Count_Basie
|
|||||
correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
|
3
| 48 |
https://www.app.com/story/entertainment/music/2015/02/27/count-basie-orchestra-returns-red-bank/24128579/
|
en
|
Asbury Park Press
|
[
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] |
[] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[
"Alex Biese, Asbury Park Press",
"Alex Biese"
] |
2015-02-27T00:00:00
|
Jazz comes home to Monmouth Street theater
|
en
|
AsburyPark
|
https://www.app.com/story/entertainment/music/2015/02/27/count-basie-orchestra-returns-red-bank/24128579/
|
Count Basie Orchestra returns to Red Bank
Jazz is coming home.
The Count Basie Theatre, the historic Red Bank venue named after swinging icon and Red Bank native William "Count" Basie, has plenty of jazz shows on its calendar in the near future.
Leading the charge at the Monmouth Street theater is none other than the Count Basie Orchestra, the ensemble launched by the man himself back in 1935. The orchestra will celebrate its 80th anniversary year with a Sunday afternoon performance at the Count Basie Theatre, where it will be joined by the vocal stylings of New York Voices.
Other can't-miss shows for jazz lovers at the Basie include chanteuse Diana Krall on March 2, Fourplay with Spyro Gyra on April 16, Norah Jones on June 20 and Chick Corea with Bela Fleck on Oct. 16.
Basie, who was born on Mechanic Street in 1904, made his name in Kansas City and collaborated with American musical titans from Frank Sinatra to Billie Holiday to Clark Terry before his death in 1984 at the age of 79.
The Count Basie Orchestra is now under the direction of Scotty Barnhart, an Atlanta native who played trumpet with the orchestra for 20 years before being appointed director in September 2013. Barnhart, now based in Los Angeles and Tallahassee, Florida, is also a professor of jazz trumpet at Florida State University.
Is there any extra pressure on Barnhart and the orchestra when they take the stage at Basie's namesake venue in his hometown?
"No added pressure other than what there is every time we play," Barnhart said. "I just have to make sure we play the right thing and sound how we're supposed to sound. It's no different if we're playing in Red Bank or Carnegie Hall or the Blue Note in Tokyo. It's all the same for me, as far as making sure we're always 100 percent and living up to the legacy that Mr. Basie set."
Barnhart, a fan of Basie's work since the age of 9 or 10, explained the key to the orchestra's continued artistic success.
"Everything that we do, I act as if (Basie) is on that stage every night," he said. "To me, we take the stage every night and I think he's right there. I feel he's right there. We all feel that. That's why the orchestra still sounds the way it sounds. It's no accident.
"Basie was a heck of a band leader. I think he was the greatest band leader ever, when you really look at what this orchestra has been able to do. And still, if you close your eyes and listen to us play for two or three seconds, you know it's the Count Basie Orchestra. There's not even any doubt as to who we are. And, that's a testament to Basie. So, I just try to make sure I live up to everything that he left us, and I'm just working hard at it."
A two-time Grammy winner thanks to his work with the Count Basie Orchestra over the years, Barnhart described what set Basie's musical output apart from that of his peers.
"Immediately, it made you want to get up and dance — it made you feel good," he explained. "It was accessible. It wasn't too cerebral so you had to try to figure out what the horns were doing or what was going on. It immediately got straight to the point of making you want to get up and dance.
"So, even today, everything we play, you can dance to it. Even when some of the tempos are a little faster, when we start playing we've got the groove and the swing going on right away. We don't take a minute to get into it, we don't 10 seconds to warm up and get into the song. From beat one, we're right on."
THE COUNT BASIE ORCHESTRA
WITH: The New York Voices
WHEN: 3 p.m. Sunday, March 1
WHERE: The Count Basie Theatre, 99 Monmouth St., Red Bank
TICKETS: $25 to $49.50
|
|||||
correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
|
1
| 51 |
https://www.local802afm.org/allegro/articles/playing-it-on-the-fly/
|
en
|
Playing It On the Fly
|
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[
"Rob Mosher"
] |
2010-11-01T04:00:00+00:00
|
Charles Tolliver is one of the seminal hard bop trumpeters of that music’s golden age, the 1960’s and 1970’s. He’s also a prolific composer and arranger…
|
en
|
https://www.local802afm.org/wp-content/themes/sink_local802/images/favicon.ico?v=1721399337
|
Local 802 AFM
|
https://www.local802afm.org/allegro/articles/playing-it-on-the-fly/
|
Photo: John Abbott
Charles Tolliver is one of the seminal hard bop trumpeters of that music’s golden age, the 1960’s and 1970’s. He’s also a prolific composer and arranger, and has been teaching at the New School for over 15 years. In this candid conversation with Jazz Rep Todd Weeks, Tolliver talks about his early days in New York, and various moments of inspiration that led to his career in jazz.
Todd Bryant Weeks: Let’s talk about the Town Hall tribute to Thelonious Monk where you performed recently. How did that come about?
Charles Tolliver: I had just received the Grammy nomination for my big band CD “With Love.” A gentleman from Duke University contacted me and wanted to do this Thelonious Monk night, in honor of Monk’s concert at Town Hall 50 years ago. The original scores had been lost in a flood. My name came up. There are a lot of people who can transcribe, but they heard that I had transcribed John Coltrane’s “Africa Brass” exactly as it was recorded, for another project.
TBW: Was that the African American Legacy Project?
Tolliver: Yeah. With Reggie Workman. So the Town Hall thing ended up being a big deal. We went in there and took the exact same formation, the tentet, and played on the same stage. Fifty years later. We pulled it off.
TBW: Were you born in New York?
Tolliver: No. I was born in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1942. I’m a product of a family that had a lot of the original jazz recordings, those big 78’s, and a Victrola.
TBW: Were your parents musicians?
Tolliver: No, but my grandmother actually did play a C-melody saxophone. She’s responsible for me and music. At 8 years old, I said I wanted a trumpet. I’d seen one in a store window. And my grandmother saved her pennies and bought it for me. So, that was my first instrument. Prior to that, I can remember back to when I was 5 years old, and sitting down at the Victrola and putting on these Jazz at the Philharmonic recordings. By the age of 8 or so, I could scan all of those things. I just translated that to the instrument, what I heard on those records.
TBW: So you moved to New York in what year?
Tolliver: In 1952. Harlem at that time was still Harlem. All the remnants of the post-Renaissance period, all the original housing. Places associated with Langston Hughes, even the rooms that Charlie Parker played, they were still there, intact. The Savoy Ballroom. Incredible.
TBW: Those 78’s you listened to as a kid, do you remember anything specific about them?
Tolliver: Well, the ones I keyed in on were the small group performances with Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Charlie Shavers. At the time Shavers was the one who struck me.
TBW: Why?
Tolliver: Just the way he improvised. I can’t even put it into words.
TBW: How did you learn to play bebop?
Tolliver: By listening to the records over and over.
TBW: So, by ear?
Tolliver: By ear, but also by eye. By going to the jam sessions. We got to play with all the innovators who were still alive at that time.
TBW: And you’re talking about uptown?
Tolliver: I’m talking primarily about Count Basie’s, which was a famous bar on 7th Avenue and 132nd Street.
TBW: You were still a teenager.
Tolliver: Oh yeah, I started going to those places around the age of 12.
TBW: How did you get in?
Tolliver: Simply by putting on an overcoat and a hat and looking, you know, older.
TBW: What about formal musical training?
Tolliver: I took some reading lessons on a Saturday. 50 cents a pop. At the same time I was turning my ears to hundreds of jazz records.
Photo: Jimmy Katz
TBW: Sounds like you knew even then that’s what you wanted to do.
Tolliver: Yes and no. I also wanted to become a pharmacist because I liked chemistry. That was my goal, really. But then, when I got to Howard University in D.C., music was all around me. I couldn’t get away from it. In my freshman class, there was a fellow named Andrew White. He was later to become famous as the transcriber of all the John Coltrane solos.
TBW: Was he a saxophonist?
Tolliver: Yes. He also later became one of the world’s greatest oboists. At Howard, there was very little time that I sunk my whole heart into my pharmacy studies. Because they had just opened a new fine arts building. And I often found myself down there, in one of the practice rooms. And there I met another freshman who was the first wife of John Hicks, and her name was Olympia.
TBW: John Hicks, the famous hard-bop pianist?
Tolliver: Right. There she was practicing piano. And I said “Wow! What are those chords you’re playing?” Well, I was to find out later she was married to John. I said “How do you do this?” She said “Those are minor ninths.”
TBW: When did you return to New York?
Tolliver: Back up a bit. In my third year of school, I was practicing a lot, and I finally began to understand how the theory works – the scale-chord relationship – and how to rhythmically play it on the fly. But I wasn’t able to put that together until the last few months in 1963 when I was at Howard. And I said to myself, “I see it. There it is.”
TBW: How did you go from being an unknown guy in a practice room at Howard to suddenly recording with people like Jackie McLean and Max Roach?
Tolliver: My family – everybody, grandparents, all of us, had moved to Brooklyn. And in 1963, there was a place in Bedford-Stuyvesant called the Blue Coronet, which was a well-known local jazz club. And one night, a guy named Jim Harrison came in, and he said to me, “Hey, you know what? I’m running the Jackie McLean fan club, and he might need a trumpet player.” Now at that time, Jackie McLean was at Metropolitan Hospital drying out; there were times when he needed to do that. So, I went there and Jackie McLean appeared in a housecoat and slippers and he looked at me, and I said “Jim Harrison sent me, I play trumpet.” And he said, “Well, maybe. We’ll see.” And I waited until he came out. I went to see him, and I said, “Remember me? I came to the hospital.” And he said “I’m going to be doing a record.” He had not heard me play yet. He was going on Harrison’s word, and he asked, “Do you have any tunes?” He was already moving away from straight bebop. I wrote something which I thought would fit that sound, and Jackie liked what I wrote. So basically, an unproven young trumpeter, at age 21, was brought in to play his first record date with Jackie McLean. [The record is “It’s Time,” Blue Note (1964).]
TBW: Were you nervous?
Tolliver: My knees were shaking the whole time.
TBW: Didn’t you work with Gerald Wilson’s big band in LA at some point?
Tolliver: I went to California with a percussionist named Willie Bobo, and then I decided to stay on the coast.
TBW: Did you know you had the job with Wilson before you quit Willie Bobo’s band?
Tolliver: Nope. But I wanted to stay because there was a lot of activity in L.A. The great pianist and composer Andrew Hill was there. I had played with Andrew. So I got the job with Gerald, and that was just a great year, 1966, playing with him.
TBW: Where were you living in L.A.?
Tolliver: Near Venice and Hauser Boulevards on a place called Pickford Street. One day I got a call from Max Roach, and he said, “You’ve been pestering me, so get back here.” I had been calling him. This was in 1967. And that’s when I met Stanley Cowell, and Max started a band with me and Stanley and the great Jymie Merritt on bass, and Odean Pope on tenor saxophone. And Abbey Lincoln. Because Max was also thinking, “I want to go modern,” and Odean Pope was a free player. Max and Abbey Lincoln were married at that time. I was in that band for two years.
TBW: It’s been said that you’ve been influenced by John Coltrane in your playing. Is that safe to say?
Tolliver: In 1965, before going to California, I was living in a loft on Allen Street. And we all knew Naima, John’s wife. And she brought John Coltrane by my loft, so I got a chance to meet him. I had already been watching him play all that great stuff with Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner and Jimmy Garrison at the clubs, like we all were.
TBW: Did you find that you were able to break new ground musically in that quartet setting, ala Coltrane? Was it helpful to you?
Tolliver: It was, but so was working Stanley Cowell, my playing partner. We influenced each other. Sometimes I used John Hicks, and of course Cecil McBee. You have to remember what we were doing at that time was still considered very radical. It’s a different world today. When I came to New York, a good portion of the stars of the 1930’s and 1940’s were still alive. All the greats. Jimmy Rushing, Pee Wee Russell, you name it.
TBW: Of course Coleman Hawkins was still active through the 1960’s.
Tolliver: I saw him many times.
TBW: What about Don Byas?
Tolliver: He was one of the greatest saxophonists I’ve ever heard.
TBW: Charles Mingus?
Tolliver: I never wanted to work with him because he was disrespectful to his musicians on stage. But he was a great artist.
TBW: Booker Little?
Tolliver: I remember when Freddie Hubbard and I went and saw Booker at Small’s Paradise in 1959. He died a little over a year later – he was only 23. Booker Little was one of the greatest improvisers, and brass players, in the history of the music. Really in the world.
TBW: Thad Jones?
Tolliver: Oh yeah. He’s the end all and be all. The last word, for big band writing. People forget. He ranks up there with the greats. Thad Jones, man. The last word.
TBW: There are a lot of these cross genre groups that are appearing now. There’s this Winter Jazz Festival in New York every year, and there’s a lot of people who are mixing styles. Things are still happening, despite what the critics say. Do you think that’s possible in this day and age to find ways to bring musicians together around issues and get them to form some kind of collective?
|
||||
correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
|
2
| 53 |
https://www.tumblr.com/blackkudos/159979081937/count-basie
|
en
|
Count Basie
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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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correct_death_00034
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FactBench
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1
| 5 |
https://www.nytimes.com/1984/04/27/arts/count-basie-79-band-leader-and-master-of-swing-dead.html
|
en
|
COUNT BASIE, 79, BAND LEADER AND MASTER OF SWING, DEAD
|
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1984-04-27T00:00:00
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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
|
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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|
||||||
correct_death_00034
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FactBench
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2
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https://www.redlandsdailyfacts.com/general-news/20071224/jazz-pianist-oscar-peterson-dead-at-82/
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en
|
Jazz Pianist Oscar Peterson dead at 82
|
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2007-12-24T00:00:00+00:00
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Oscar Peterson, whose early talent, speedy fingers and musical genius made him one of the world’s best known jazz pianists, died at age 82. His death was confirmed by Neweduk Funeral Home in Mississauga, the Toronto suburb where Peterson lived. The city’s mayor, Hazel McCallion, told The Associated Press that he died of kidney failure […]
|
en
|
Redlands Daily Facts
|
https://www.redlandsdailyfacts.com/general-news/20071224/jazz-pianist-oscar-peterson-dead-at-82/
|
Oscar Peterson, whose early talent, speedy fingers and musical genius made him one of the world’s best known jazz pianists, died at age 82.
His death was confirmed by Neweduk Funeral Home in Mississauga, the Toronto suburb where Peterson lived. The city’s mayor, Hazel McCallion, told The Associated Press that he died of kidney failure but that she did not know when. The hospital and police refused to comment. The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported that he died on Sunday.
“He’s been going downhill in the last few months, slowing up,” 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 and Dizzy Gillespie. He is also remembered for touring in a trio 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 a Lifetime Grammy (1997) and a spot in the International Jazz Hall of Fame.
His growing stature was reflected in the admiration of his peers. Duke Ellington referred to him as “Maharajah of the keyboard,” while Count Basie once said “Oscar Peterson plays the best ivory box I’ve ever heard.”
In a statement, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said “one of the bright lights of jazz has gone out.”
“He was a regular on the French stage, where the public adored his luminous style,” Sarkozy said. “It is a great loss for us.”
Jazz pianist Marian McPartland called Peterson “the finest technician that I have seen.”
McPartland said she first met 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 goods friends, and he was always wonderful to me and I have always felt very close to him,” she said. “I played at his tribute concert at Carnegie Hall earlier this year and performed ‘Tenderly,’ which was always my favorite piece of his.”
The American jazz pianist Billy Taylor called Peterson one of the finest jazz pianists of his time.
“He set the pace for just about everybody that followed him. He really was just a special player,” Taylor said.
Born on Aug. 15, 1925, in a poor neighborhood southwest of Montreal, Peterson obtained a passion for music from his father. Daniel Peterson, a railway porter and self-taught musician, bestowed his love of music to his five children, offering them a means to escape from poverty.
Oscar Peterson learned to play trumpet and piano at a young age, but after a bout with tuberculosis had to concentrate on the latter.
He became a teen sensation in his native Canada, playing in dance bands and recording in the late 1930s and early 1940s. But he got his real break as a surprise guest at Carnegie Hall in 1949, after which he began touring the United States and Europe.
He quickly made a name for himself as a jazz virtuoso, often compared to piano great Art Tatum, his childhood idol, for his speed and technical skill.
He was also influenced by Nat King Cole, whose Nat King Cole Trio album he considered “a complete musical thesaurus for any aspiring Jazz pianist.”
Peterson never stopped calling Canada home despite his growing international reputation. But at times he felt slighted here, where he was occasionally mistaken for a football player, standing at 6 foot 3 and more than 250 pounds.
In 2005 he became the first living person other than a reigning monarch to obtain a commemorative stamp in Canada, where he is jazz royalty, with streets, squares, concert halls and schools named after him.
Peterson suffered a stroke in 1993 that weakened his left hand, but not his passion or drive for music. Within a year he was back on tour, recording “Side By Side” with Itzhak Perlman.
As he grew older, Peterson kept playing and touring, despite worsening arthritis and difficulties walking.
“A jazz player is an instant composer,” Peterson once said in a CBC interview, while conceding jazz did not have the mass appeal of other musical genres. “You have to think about it, it’s an intellectual form,” he said.
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correct_death_00034
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FactBench
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1
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https://nysmusic.medium.com/the-harlem-renaissance-counting-basie-s-life-and-legacy-4b69f652c70e
|
en
|
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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FactBench
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2
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https://musopus.net/musicians/basie-william-james-count/
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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.
|
en
|
SHEET MUSIC CATALOG OF CLASSICAL MUSIC
|
https://musopus.net/musicians/basie-william-james-count/
|
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.dailynews.com/obituaries/20160316/frank-sinatra-jr-dies-at-72-family-says/
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en
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Frank Sinatra Jr. dies at 72, family says
|
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2016-03-16T20:44:15+00:00
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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, Florida, the Sinatra family said in […]
|
en
|
Daily News
|
https://www.dailynews.com/obituaries/20160316/frank-sinatra-jr-dies-at-72-family-says/
|
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, Florida, the Sinatra family said in a statement to The Associated Press.
The statement said the family mourns the untimely passing of their son, brother, father and uncle. No other details were provided.
Related: Frank Sinatra Jr. sings the songs of his father
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 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 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.”
• PHOTOS: Frank Sinatra Jr. dies at 72
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.
|
|||||
correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
|
0
| 70 |
https://78sand45s.wordpress.com/2013/06/06/78-gone-with-what-wind-bw-blow-top-by-count-basie-and-his-orchestra-okeh-5629-recorded-in-new-york-city-053140/
|
en
|
78: “Gone With “What” Wind” b/w “Blow Top” by Count Basie and His Orchestra. Okeh 5629. Recorded in New York City, 05/31/40.
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2013-06-06T00:00:00
|
Born in Red Bank, New Jersey in 1904, William “Count” Basie was raised by a musical family—his father played the mellophone and his mother the piano; she taught him how to play. Reportedly, the teenaged Basie preferred playing drums to piano, but meeting musicians like fellow Red Banker Sonny Greer, who played drums with Duke…
|
en
|
https://s1.wp.com/i/favicon.ico
|
78s & 45s
|
https://78sand45s.wordpress.com/2013/06/06/78-gone-with-what-wind-bw-blow-top-by-count-basie-and-his-orchestra-okeh-5629-recorded-in-new-york-city-053140/
|
Born in Red Bank, New Jersey in 1904, William “Count” Basie was raised by a musical family—his father played the mellophone and his mother the piano; she taught him how to play. Reportedly, the teenaged Basie preferred playing drums to piano, but meeting musicians like fellow Red Banker Sonny Greer, who played drums with Duke Ellington’s band, made him reconsider his musical focus. Playing piano locally lead to gigs in Harlem, and soon enough Basie was on the road with bands like Katie Krippen and Her Kiddies and Walter Page and His Blue Devils, playing in jazz hotbeds like Chicago and Kansas City.
By 1937 Basie had his own group and had returned to the east coast, settling in Woodside, Queens and soon enough playing the Roseland in Manhattan. With advice and encouragement from producer John Hammond, Basie and his Orchestrawent from being a strong road act to an orchestra that was good enough for the most critical New York audiences. In 1938, they participated in a Battle of the Bands at the Savoy against Chick Webb’s orchestra. Each band had a promising young singer—Webb had Ella Fitzgerald, and Basie had Billie Holiday.
According to Metronome magazine, Basie’s band was the victor:
“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”.
An assured swing that never had to assert dominance by force was still evident in 1940, when “Gone With “What” Wind” was recorded.
Benny Goodman had recorded his version of the song a year before, with Lionel Hampton on vibes and Charlie Christian on a very new instrument called the electric guitar. Both versions benefit from the chosen iarrangements—Basie’s from the rich, full orchestra treatment that gets folks dancing, and Goodman’s from the sonic space that a jazz sextet allows for soloists to really shine.
Basie’s B side was just as jumping.
One wonders what was meant by the provocative title, “Gone With “What” Wind”. It’s a good litmus test for one’s cultural and political leanings; I lean to the left in those regards, so I was expecting something that would decry the injustice of the Jim Crow South—as if to say, in 1940, the racism that got whitewashed by the novel and movie “Gone With the Wind” is still very real and is not gone at all. But as you can tell, it’s a fun little number that gets your toes tappin’ and doesn’t seem to have an angry bone it’s musical body. Plus it’s an instrumental; Billie Holiday never actually recorded with Count Basie, so there’s no “Strange Fruit” truth-telling here. Maybe the intent was to convey the lively musical life of Southern cities like New Orleans and Mobile, Alabama: “the South isn’t gone at all—in fact, it swings, man!” Or it could mean something else entirely. Obviously, if I’d been able to find a definitive answer I’d have shared it with you good folks; if anyone has any insights, please do let me know in the comments section.
Here’s Count Basie and his Orchestra performing one of his signature tunes, “One O’Clock Jump,” in 1943. Starting at 2:23, it’s easy to imagine the doppler effect that the trombones could create if you saw them play this song live.
Count Basie would continue to perform well into his old age. Here he is in 1962, with the incredible Sonny Payne on drums.
And like so many folks my age, my introduction to Count Basie came from his performance of “April In Paris” in Mel Brooks’ incredible Blazing Saddles.
When I’m old and grey, I look forward to wearing a yachting cap, too. I don’t care about actually owning a yacht; I just want to be the eccentric old guy who wears a yachting cap with his early-90’s indie rock T shirts.
Count Basie died at the age of 79, in Hollywood, Florida. He left behind an incredible catalog of recordings and scores of musicians who could attribute to his easy-going, respectful attitude—ask anyone who toured with Buddy Rich about how refreshing basic respect from the bandleader could be.
Count Basie was a class act, all the way.
|
||||
correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
|
2
| 69 |
https://thefinalfootprint.com/2024/04/26/day-in-history-26-april-lucille-ball/
|
en
|
On this day 26 April death of Gypsy Rose Lee – Count Basie – Lucille Ball – Phoebe Snow – George Jones – Jonathan Demme
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2024-04-26T00:00:00
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en
|
https://thefinalfootprint.com/2024/04/26/day-in-history-26-april-lucille-ball/
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#RIP #OTD in 1970 burlesque entertainer, stripper and vedette, actress, author, playwright, her 1957 memoir was adapted into the 1959 stage musical Gypsy, Gypsy Rose Lee died of lung cancer in Los Angeles, aged 59. Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California
On this day in 1984, jazz pianist, bandleader, and composer Count Basie died of pancreatic cancer in Hollywood, Florida at the age of 79. Born William James Basie on August 21, 1904 in Red Bank, New Jersey. 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 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.
On 21 July 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 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, 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.
The Final Footprint
Basie and Catherine are entombed in Pinelawn Memorial Park, East Farmingdale, New York.
On this day in 2013, United States Marine Corp veteran, musician and singer, Thumper Jones, No Show Jones, The Possum, George Jones died, aged 81, from hypoxic respiratory failure in Nashville. Born George Glenn Jones on September 12, 1931 in Saratoga, Texas. He achieved fame for his long list of hit records, including perhaps his best known song “He Stopped Loving Her Today”, as well as his distinctive voice and phrasing. Waylon Jennings expressed his opinion on Jones in his song “It’s Alright”: “If we all could sound like we wanted to, we’d all sound like George Jones.” In 1959, Jones recorded “White Lightning,” written by J. P. Richardson, which launched his career as a singer. During his career, Jones had more than 150 hits, both as a solo artist and in duets with other artists.He married his first wife, Dorothy Bonvillion, in 1950, and was divorced in 1951. He married Shirley Ann Corley in 1954. His second marriage ended in divorce in 1968; he married fellow country music singer Tammy Wynette a year later. After his divorce from Wynette in 1975, Jones married his fourth wife, Nancy Sepulvado, in 1983 and became sober for good in 1999.
The Final Footprint
Former first lady Laura Bush was among those eulogizing Jones at his funeral on May 2, 2013. Other speakers were Tennessee governor Bill Haslam, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, news personality Bob Schieffer, and country singers Barbara Mandrell and Kenny Chesney. Alan Jackson, Kid Rock, Ronnie Milsap, Randy Travis, Vince Gill, Patty Loveless, Travis Tritt, the Oak Ridge Boys, Charlie Daniels, Wynonna and Brad Paisley provided musical tributes. Jackson sang “He Stopped Loving Her Today”. The service was broadcast live on CMT, GAC, RFD-TV, The Nashville Network and FamilyNet as well as Nashville stations. SiriusXM and WSM 650AM, home of the Grand Ole Opry, broadcast the event on the radio. The family requested that contributions be made to the Grand Ole Opry Trust Fund or to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Jones was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Nashville. Other notable final footprints at Woodlawn include; Eddy Arnold, Little Jimmy Dickens, George Jones, Johnny Paycheck, Webb Pierce, Jerry Reed, Marty Robbins, Dan Seals, Red Sovine, Porter Wagoner, and Tammy Wynette.
#RIP #OTD in 2017, film director (Melvin and Howard, The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia, Rachel Getting Married), producer and screenwriter Jonathan Demme died at his home in Manhattan from complications from esophageal cancer and heart disease, age 73.
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correct_death_00034
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FactBench
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3
| 25 |
http://www.myblackhistory.net/Count_Basie.htm
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en
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Count Basie: African American Musicians
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From the time Count Basie’s “Old Testament Band” surged out of Kansas City in 1936 and brought his irrepressible mixture of blues and riff-based head arrangements to New York until his death in 1984, Basie and the bands he led were a touchstone of jazz history.
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| null |
Count Basie
From the time Count Basie’s “Old Testament Band” surged out of Kansas City in 1936 and brought his irrepressible mixture of blues and riff-based head arrangements to New York until his death in 1984, Basie and the bands he led were a touchstone of jazz history. Nowhere else have blues musicians ever been more firmly dedicated to the proposition that "it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing" than in Kansas City in the early 1930s.
William James Basie was born to Harvey Lee Basie, and Lillian Ann Childs, who lived on Mechanic Street 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 families in the area. 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.
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. 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.
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. 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". 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 Hong Kong Inn, until a better player took his place
Before he was 20 years old, Basie 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. Stranded in Kansas City in 1927 while accompanying a touring group, he remained there, playing in silent-film theaters.
Count Basie became a member of the Walter Page Blue Devils in 1928 and ’29. Included in the ranks of the Blue Devils was a blues shouter who was later to play a key role as early male vocalist with Basie’s own big band, Jimmy Rushing. It was in fact the rotund Rushing who happened to hear Basie playing in Kansas City and invited him to attend a Blue Devil's performance. Basie soon joined the band after sitting in with them that night. After Page's Blue Devils broke up Count Basie and some of the other band members integrated into the Bennie Moten band.
After Moten's death, Basie started a group of his own and soon found a steady gig at the Reno Club in Kansas City employing some of the best personnel from the Moten band himself. The band gradually built up in quantity and quality of personnel and was broadcast live regularly from the club by a small Kansas City radio station. It was during one of these broadcasts that the group was heard by John Hammond, a wealthy jazz aficionado.
The Count Basie band enlarged its membership further and went to New York in 1936. Hammond installed Willard Alexander as the band’s manager and in January of 1937 the Count Basie band made its first recording with the Decca record label. In less than a year the big band had become internationally famous.
The 1940s were a period of transition for Basie as it was for all big bands facing the challenges that would end their heyday after the war. The bands were hurt by the first of two recording bans imposed by the American Federation of Musicians of the decade, from August 1942 and lasting up to July 1944. Thus much of the band’s best work from this period can be found on transcriptions, air checks, or the V-Discs and Jubilee broadcasts recorded for the armed forces during and after World War II.
A reconstituted Count Basie big band was born in 1952 with the encouragement of singer-bandleader Billy Eckstine, who needed a big band for a tour and wanted Basie at the helm. Eckstine, whose pioneering bebop band had folded in 1947, provided Basie with music stands and other equipment left over from his three years as a bandleader.
Other key ingredients of the Basie revival included his signing with Norman Granz and his Clef label in 1952 when long playing albums were catching on; the electrifying arrival two years later of singer Joe Williams; appearances at Birdland in New York and Basie’s friendships with record producer Teddy Reig and Morris Levy leading to his recordings for Roulette Records between 1957 and 1962. It was only in the 1950s that Basie became an enduring jazz institution, according to critic Whitney Balliett, who wrote in 1956 that the band was in the remaining tall hedges populated only by the bands of Ellington, Kenton and Herman.
More importantly, Balliett claimed that jazz audiences were only then becoming fully aware of what Basie had stood for musically since 1936. In 1958 Count Basie was elected to the Down Beat Hall Of Fame.
Count Basie's health began deteriorating in 1976 when he suffered a heart attack that put him out of commission for several months. Following another stay in the hospital in 1981 he began appearing on stage driving an electric wheel chair. Count Basie died of cancer at 79.
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correct_death_00034
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FactBench
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0
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https://www.mysticstamp.com/3096-1996-32c-big-band-leaders-count-basie/
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en
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1996 32c Big Band Leaders: Count Basie
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Buying and Selling U.S. and worldwide postage stamps for stamp collectors.
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https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-9xwo1raw7u/product_images/favicon.ico?t=1671623276
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Mystic Stamp Company
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https://www.mysticstamp.com/3096-1996-32c-big-band-leaders-count-basie/
|
US #3096
1996 Count Basie
Part of set featuring four legendary Big Bank Leaders
7th pane in the Legends of Music series
Stamps were issued on same day as Songwriters stamps in same series
Stamp Category: Commemorative
Set: Big Band Leaders, American Music series
Value: 32¢, First-Class mail rate
First Day of Issue: September 11, 1996
First Day City: New York, New York
Quantity Issued: 23,025,000
Printed by: Ashton-Potter (USA) Ltd.
Printing Method: Lithographed
Format: Panes of 20 (4 across, 5 down) from plates of 120 (12 across, 10 down)
Perforations: 11.1 x 11
Why the stamp was issued: The five stamps in the Big Band Leaders set honor talented individuals who contributed to the sound of Big Band music. They include Count Basie, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, and Benny Goodman.
About the stamp design: The portraits of the four big band leaders were made by Bill Nelson, who works in colored pencils on recycled charcoal paper. He had previously designed album covers for big band recordings compiled by Time-Life Records.
First Day City: The set of five Big Band Leaders stamps was dedicated at Shubert Alley in New York City. The Songwriters stamps from the same series were issued at the same time. It kicked off the US Postal Service’s American Music Stamp Festival 1996. Family members of the men featured on the stamps were present at the ceremony.
About the Legends of American Music Series: The Legends of American Music Series debuted on January 8, 1993, and ran until September 21, 1999. More than 90 artists are represented from all styles of music: rock ‘n’ roll, rhythm and blues, country and western, jazz and pop, opera and classical, gospel and folk. In addition to individual singers and Broadway musicals, subjects include band leaders, classical composers, Hollywood songwriters and composers, conductors, lyricists, and more. The Legends of American Music Series was a huge advancement for diversity because it honored many Black and female artists.
History the stamp represents: The success of the Benny Goodman Orchestra in 1935 led to the formation of other big bands led by such talented individuals as Count Basie, Tommy and jimmy Dorsey, and Glenn Miller.
Basie’s mother taught him to play piano when he was young and he began performing in his hometown as a young teenager. He learned to accompany the silent films that played at the local theatre. Basie preferred drums at first, but by the time he was 15 he realized his true talent was on the piano.
The band, with Basie’s musical contributions, began playing a style of music that soon became known as swing. After playing with Moten’s band for a number of years, Basie formed his own. One night they were broadcasting on a local radio station and had some time to fill at the end of the program. The group began improvising, and that session produced a song Basie called “One O’Clock Jump.” It became the band’s signature songs for many years.
By 1936, his band was called Count Basie and His Barons of Rhythm. They became known for their strong rhythm section and for using two tenor saxophones instead of just one. Other bands were soon copying the sound. That October, the band recorded some of their music. The producer later called it “the only perfect, completely perfect recording session I’ve ever had anything to do with.”
Count Basie was able to continue playing his piano and leading bands for decades. He played for such great soloists as Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, and Tony Bennett. During his career the Count earned nine Grammy awards and made a permanent mark on American music. He passed away on April 26, 1984, in Hollywood, Florida. The Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank is one of several places named in his honor.
|
||||
correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
|
3
| 7 |
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Count_Basie
|
en
|
Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
|
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"Contributors to Wikimedia projects"
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2009-09-03T11:52:24+00:00
|
en
|
/static/apple-touch/wikipedia.png
|
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Count_Basie
|
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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correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
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0
| 31 |
https://jazzprofiles.blogspot.com/2018/10/count-basie-by-alun-morgan-part-1.html
|
en
|
JazzProfiles: Count Basie by Alun Morgan
|
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[] |
[] |
[
""
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[
"Steven Cerra"
] | null |
A blog about Jazz featuring CD,and book reviews and postings about the music and its makers.
|
en
|
https://jazzprofiles.blogspot.com/favicon.ico
|
https://jazzprofiles.blogspot.com/2018/10/count-basie-by-alun-morgan-part-1.html
|
Focused Profiles on Jazz and its Creators while also Featuring the Work of Guest Writers and Critics on the Subject of Jazz.
|
|||||
correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
|
2
| 28 |
https://swingandbeyond.com/2020/01/04/blue-and-sentimental-1938-count-basie-with-herschel-evans-and-lester-young-and-1969/
|
en
|
“Blue and Sentimental” (1938) Count Basie with Herschel Evans and Lester Young; and (1969)
|
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[
""
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[] |
2020-01-04T00:00:00
|
“Blue and Sentimental” Composed by Count Basie; arranged by Eddie Durham. Recorded by Count Basie and His Orchestra for Decca on June 6, 1938 in New York. William J. “Count…
|
en
|
Swing & Beyond
|
https://swingandbeyond.com/2020/01/04/blue-and-sentimental-1938-count-basie-with-herschel-evans-and-lester-young-and-1969/
|
“Blue and Sentimental”
Composed by Count Basie; arranged by Eddie Durham.
Recorded by Count Basie and His Orchestra for Decca on June 6, 1938 in New York.
William J. “Count” Basie, directing: Ed Lewis (lead), Harry “Sweets” Edison and Wilbur “Buck” Clayton, trumpets; Benny Morton, Dan Minor and Eddie Durham, trombones; Earle Warren, first alto saxophone; Ronald “Jack” Washington, alto saxophone; Lester Young and Herschel Evans, tenor saxophones; Young solos on clarinet; Freddie Green, guitar; Walter Page, bass; Jonathan “Jo” Jones, drums.
The story:
Several aspects of “Blue and Sentimental” set it apart from other (songs composed by) Basie. One is its form: it is, among all of the Count’s jives, jumps and bounces, his only romantic ballad. Another rarity is the famous clarinet soloist, Lester Young — who was famous, however, for playing the tenor saxophone, not the clarinet. But what gives “Blue and Sentimental” its place in swing are the rhapsodic tenor saxophone solos played originally by Herschel Evans (May 1,1908 – February 9, 1939), who crowded a whole lifetime of fine music into his two and a half years with Basie. (At left: Herschel Evans, with Freddie Green in the background – 1938.)
“Evans, a Texan, was brought to Kansas City by his cousin, Eddie Durham, who himself was starting his distinguished career as a trombonist, guitarist and arranger. ‘He was playing the alto,’ said Durham many years later, ‘but his tone was so bad that we had to put him on the tenor. Herschel …was a quiet man.’ Evans joined Basie in Kansas City in 1936, and almost immediately, he and Lester Young launched into their legendary tenor rivalry. Evans’s style, emotional and melting in the slow numbers, impetuous in the fast ones, contrasted with Young’s cooler, controlled approach.” (1)
Trombonist Dicky Wells, who played in the Basie band from mid-1938 through the time when Evans died (and for many years after that), remembered the Evans-Young musical rivalry: “When Young started a solo, part of the crowd would stand up and cheer him. When Evans took his, the rest of the crowd would cheer for him. Even when Herschel and Lester wasn’t talking to each other (not necessarily that unusual in swing era bands where musicians worked and lived together, often being in close contact for literally months on end), they were still friends.” (2)
Evans, like most other musicians working in top-flight bands during the swing era, was a young man. He did what the other musicians did, which entailed a lot of work and a lot of travel. No one ever suspected that any of these young men could have serious illnesses — too much was required of them, especially in their playing. Any weakness due to illness would immediately be noticed.The fraternity of jazz tenor saxophone players in top swing bands in the late 1930s was a small one. Most of the players in that select group were known either personally or by reputation by others who essentially did the same thing in other bands. One young tenor player, Jerry Jerome, had met Basie and Lester Young in Kansas City in 1935 or 1936, and had stayed in touch. Whenever whatever band Jerry was working with worked near to where the Basie band was, Jerry would make it a point to visit the Basie band on their job, and renew old acquaintances. Many years after the events he describes below, Jerome recalled an alarming meeting with Herschel Evans:
“I was playing in Hartford, Connecticut at a theater with Benny Goodman (NOTE: it was the State Theater in Hartford, on or about February 7, 1939. MZ), and Benny said to me ‘let’s go hear Basie, he’s playing at the Crystal Ballroom, which was a black night club in Hartford. Herschel Evans was a very good friend of mine. He and others (in the Basie band knew that I had studied medicine), and I would do things to help guys medically by either suggesting or (by actually) helping them. Anyway, we went over to hear Basie, and Herschel came over to me and he said, ‘Jerry, I’m having trouble breathing.’ I asked him how long this had been going on, and he said for about a week. He showed me that his pants were unbuttoned, he couldn’t button them (because he was so swollen). He said he had changed his mouthpiece from an Otto Link 7 opening to about a 4. I asked him if he had seen any doctors recently, and he said he had seen a doctor in Harlem who thought he had asthma. So during the break they had (between sets), I took him back into the dressing room and stretched him out on a bench, and I put my ear down, because he was so swollen, he couldn’t even tie his shoe laces. He had something going on. I listened to his belly, I rolled him from side to side, and I could hear a splashing. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. To me it was peritoneal ascites. That means body fluid had backed-up because the heart was not pumping properly. But I’m limited, I’m not a doctor. This was just clinical stuff. (Above right: Jerry Jerome and Benny Goodman – early 1939.)
So I said to Basie ‘get him to a hospital, right away! This man is seriously ill!’ I didn’t know exactly what ( was wrong), but he was all swollen and loaded with edema. Basie said he would do that because they were going right back to the city (New York).
Well, we went back (to where the Goodman band was in Hartford) in a taxicab, Benny and his manager and I, and I said to Benny, I think Herschel is in cardiac failure. I think he is dying. Benny shook his head and said, “What are you talking about, man? You’re such a quack.” (3)
Herschel Evans was in fact hospitalized after this, at Wadsworth Hospital in New York.(4) It is unclear how long he remained in the hospital, or if he ever left the hospital to return to the Basie band. Herschel Evans died on February 9, 1939, so it is unlikely that he ever left the hospital, and based on Jerry Jerome’s recollection, he was certainly in no condition to play.
Jerome provided the epilogue: “The next day or the day after, we were at a recording session, and Benny got a call from John Hammond who told him that Herschel Evans had died. (NOTE: The Goodman band did in fact make a recording session in New York on February 9, 1939.) It tore me apart. Later, I met his family in California. They gave me his mouthpiece.” (5)
Evans’s death shook everyone in the Basie band, but it shook no one more than Lester Young. “I was the last one to see him before he died. I even paid his doctor’s bills. He was a nice person. He loved his instrument and I loved mine.” (6)
The music:
As was mentioned above, “Blue and Sentimental” is unusual in the Basie canon for several reasons. The composer credit for this tune went to Count Basie, who probably had little, if anything, to do with its creation. (A lyric was added later, written by Mack David and Jerry Livingston.) The melody of “Blue and Sentimental” greatly resembles that of the earlier pop tune “Can’t We Talk It Over?” which was composed in 1931 by Victor Young (music) and Ned Washington (lyric). The sultry chanteuse Lee Wiley recorded one of the first versions of it (she and Victor Young were romantically involved at that time), and soon thereafter Bing Crosby made a hit recording of it. So by the mid-1930s, “Can’t We Talk It Over?” was a well-known pop song.
Insightful comments about the Basie recording of “Blue and Sentimental” have been made by historian and musician Loren Schoenberg: “Can’t We Talk It Over?” …had been a huge hit record for Bing Crosby a year before (Herschel) Evans came into the (Bennie) Moten/ Count Basie orbit in 1933. It’s possible that Evans had used it as a feature then, and by simply inverting the first melody notes and changing the middle section, (Eddie) Durham fashioned a new tune. (Durham is shown above right.)
Count Basie and His Orchestra at the Famous Door on 52nd Street in Manhattan – July 11 – November 12, 1938. L-R back: Walter Page, Jo Jones, Benny Morton, (not visible, Dan Minor and Dicky Wells); middle: Freddie Green, Buck Clayton (standing), Ed Lewis is obscured, Harry Edison; front: Herschel Evans, Earle Warren, Jack Washington and Lester Young. Basie of course is in front at the piano. Basie placed the trumpets in front of the trombones, which was quite unusual, for a part of the Famous Door gig.
Lester Young makes his (recording) debut as a clarinetist on this recording. (His solo) is played on the wood clarinet Benny Goodman gave him in early 1937, and on which he made all his recordings through 1939, and it’s one of his most beautiful creations. Indeed, Young is the one who does the real improvising, while Evans limits himself to melodic paraphrase, which perhaps inspired him to pour so much feeling into every note.
For over 70 years this was the only performance extant of this piece with Evans. The discovery of a broadcast version from the Famous Door made a few months later reveals that Young was followed by a Helen Humes vocal (in which Ms. Humes sings the David-Livingston lyric), which then led back to where we hear Evans return here.” (7)
I will add a few observations about the music. Careful listening to this performance leads to the conclusion that this piece was certainly used as a feature by Basie for the huge, rhapsodic sound of Herschel Evans’s tenor saxophone, which was very much in the tradition of his fellow Texas tenor artists. His playing is melodic, with some minor stylistic embellishments here and there. But Evans’s playing in this performance was but one part of a beautifully balanced arrangement put together by Eddie Durham, which included a number of contrasts. Listen to the haunting murmurs from the open brass (sometimes with the most gentle wa-wa effects) and three lulling saxophones behind Evans; they provide quiet but evocative harmonic pads for Herschel to play against.
Evans’s first chorus solo is bookended by the marvelously subtle yet stimulating piano playing of Count Basie. Basie, who plays a perfect four bar introduction before Evans’s solo, and then a sixteen bar improvisation after it, was never given adequate credit for his brilliance as a piano soloist. Of course he was also an absolutely masterful accompanist, which he also demonstrates throughout this performance.
After Basie’s improvised solo, lead trumpeter Ed Lewis plays a superbly controlled yet expressive eight bar solo on the tune’s bridge, using a plunger very minimally in front of the bell of his open trumpet.
Then the largest contrast of all appears: Lester Young’s other-worldly clarinet solo, first with quiet accompaniment, and then in dialog with the entire ensemble. Young’s sound on clarinet was unique, and his improvised solo here is stunning. (Young is shown at right playing clarinet – 1938.)
Evans returns to conclude this brilliant performance.
“Blue and Sentimental”
Recorded by Count Basie and His Orchestra at the Tropicana in Las Vegas, Nevada on January 28-30, 1969.
Count Basie, piano, directing: George “Sonny” Cohn, first trumpet; Oscar Brashear, Eugene Coe, Al Aarons and Harry “Sweets” Edison, trumpets; Grover Mitchell, first trombone; Richard Boone, Frank Hooks and Bill Hughes, trombones; Marshal Royal, first alto saxophone; Bobby Plater, alto saxophone; Eric Dixon and Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, tenor saxophones; Charlie Fowlkes, baritone saxophone; Freddie Green, guitar; Norman Keenan, bass, Harold Jones, drums.
The story continues:
Here is a performance of “Blue and Sentimental” by a latter-day Basie band, recorded live in performance at the Tropicana in Las Vegas in 1969. The arrangement was written by Sammy Nestico, and it used Basie’s superb saxophone section, led in inspired fashion by Marshal Royal on alto and anchored by Charlie Fowlkes on baritone, to pay tribute to the iconic tenor saxophone solo played by Herschel Evans. Nestico wisely steered clear of attempting to incorporate any part of Lester Young’s brilliant improvisation into this arrangement. In it’s place there is an improvisation by Harry “Sweets” Edison on Harmon-muted trumpet. Edison was there when the original recording was made, and was a guest soloist here. The open trumpet solo on the tune’s bridge is by Basie’s lead trumpeter of the time, Sonny Cohn.
The recordings presented in this post were digitally remastered by Mike Zirpolo.
Notes:
(1) The Swing Era, 1937-1938, (1971), (55), notes on the music by Joseph Kastner; hereafter Kastner.
(2) Ibid.
(3) Interview of Jerry Jerome done by Monk Rowe on April 12, 1996 in Sarasota, Florida; hereafter Rowe interview of Jerry Jerome.
(4) Count Basie …A Bio-Discography, by Chris Sheridan (1986), 64.
(5) Rowe interview of Jerry Jerome.
(6) Kastner, 56.
(7) Classic 1936-1947 Count Basie and Lester Young Studio Sessions, Mosaic Records (2016), 13.
Links: Here are links to other posts about Count Basie here at swingandbeyond.com:
https://swingandbeyond.com/2019/05/10/hay-burner-1968-count-basie-and-sammy-nestico/
https://swingandbeyond.com/2019/02/01/easy-does-it-1940-count-basie-with-lester-young-buck-clayton-and-sweets-edison/
https://swingandbeyond.com/2018/06/30/sent-for-you-yesterday-live-1939-count-basie-with-jimmy-rushing/
https://swingandbeyond.com/2017/07/21/with-a-little-help-from-my-friends-1969-count-basie/
https://swingandbeyond.com/2017/02/17/lady-be-good-1936-lester-young-and-count-basie/
https://swingandbeyond.com/2017/02/04/blues-in-hoss-flat-1958-count-basie/
https://swingandbeyond.com/2016/08/28/jumpin-at-the-woodside-1938-count-basie-and-lester-young/
https://swingandbeyond.com/2016/08/16/mosaic-classic-1936-1947-count-basie-and-lester-young-studio-sessions/
For a panorama of images that appear here at swingandbeyond.com, click on this link:
https://www.google.com/search?sa=N&sxsrf=ACYBGNSh-3CCg5-1zNhsxEQG5xBhtvi0Jg:1576754642771&q=swingandbeyond.com&tbm=isch&source=univ&ved=2ahUKEwi_h4XjzMHmAhXHGc0KHamMALo4FBCw
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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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Steve's Dead Rock Stars
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September 23, 1939 - August 14, 1988
Leroy "Roy" Buchanan was a guitarist and blues musician known as a pioneer of the Telecaster sound. His work as a sideman and as a solo artist is considered to be highly influential.
Buchanan made his recording debut in 1958, accompanying Dale Hawkins and playing the solo on "My Babe" for Chicago's Chess Records. Two years later, during a tour through Toronto, Buchanan left Dale Hawkins to play for his cousin Ronnie Hawkins and tutor Ronnie's guitar player, Robbie Robertson. Buchanan plays bass on the Ronnie Hawkins single "Who Do You Love?"
In the early 1960s, Buchanan often played as a sideman with various rock bands, playing guitar in recording sessions with Freddy Cannon, Merle Kilgore, and others. At the end of the 1960s, with a growing family, Buchanan briefly left the music industry and became a barber.
Buchanan's life changed in 1971, when he gained national notice as the result of an hour-long PBS television documentary. Entitled Introducing Roy Buchanan, leading to a record deal with Polydor Records and praise from John Lennon and Merle Haggard and, allegedly, an invitation to join the Rolling Stones. He turned down the offer, earning him the nickname "the man who turned the Stones down." He recorded five albums for Polydor, one of which, Second Album, went gold, and then three more albums for Atlantic Records, one of which, 1977's Loading Zone, also went gold.
In 1985, be began recording for Alligator Records, releasing When a Guitar Plays the Blues. His second Alligator LP, Dancing on the Edge (with vocals on three tracks by Delbert McClinton), was released in the fall of 1986. He released the twelfth and last album of his career, Hot Wires, in 1987. Buchanan's last show was on August 7, 1988, at Guilford Fairgrounds in Guilford, Connecticut.
In 1988, Buchanan was arrested for public intoxication after a domestic dispute. He was found hanged from his own shirt in his Fairfax County, Virginia jail cell on August 14, 1988. His cause of death was officially recorded as suicide, a finding disputed by Buchanan's friends and family. One of his friends, Marc Fisher, reported seeing Roy's body with bruises on the head.
After his death, compilation and other albums continue to be released, including in 2004 the never-released first album he recorded for Polydor, The Prophet.
Roy Buchanan is interred at Columbia Gardens Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.
07/29/198855Pete Drakepedal steel guitaristLung CancerNashville, Tennessee
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Poughkeepsie Journal from Poughkeepsie, New York
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Get this Poughkeepsie Journal page for free from Friday, April 27, 1984 in 0 0 0 0 0 Journal Friday, April 27, 1984 Obituaries- Jazz pianist and band leader, William 'Count.... Edition of Poughkeepsie Journal
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in 0 0 0 0 0 Journal Friday, April 27, 1984 Obituaries- Jazz pianist and band leader, William 'Count' Basie, 79, dies A look at Basie's page 42 HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (AP) Basie, whose bright, simple piano style brought him international fame in the "swing" era of jazz, died in his sleep early Thursday of cancer, a disease his doctors never told him he had. He was 79. "It's a great loss. I hate to even think about it," jazz musician Lionel Hampton said .
Basie was "one of the true greats of music. He had his own particular style It was one of the greatest styles you could "He'll be remembered as long as there is a world," said anist Dave Brubeck. loved composer all over the world and all the jazz musicians had tremendous respect for him and he'll never leave us." "He was the best. He was a cool said Anita 0'Day, who with Basie's orchestra in the 1940s. "Everything he played was always the right little riff in the right little place." Basie, who began his career in the 1920s as a $3-a-night piano player, was hospitalized for treatment of a severe ulcer, but doctors soon learned he had pancreatic cancer, said Dr .
Leo Schildhaus. he known or been aware that he had cancer he had such a fear of it he would have given up hope of living. Anyone that might have seen him in Hollywood would know that he did not look as though he had a Aaron Woodward, Basie's adopted son, said at a news conference. Basie was admitted to Doctors' Hospital Feb. 4 with jaundice, Schildhaus said .
He said that condition was relieved but Basie "had another upset." a bleeding ulcer. Basie was Genevieve RED HOOK Genevieve E. Nelson, 88. of Linden Avenue Extension, died Thursday at the Skilled Nursing Facility of Northern Dutchess Hospital. Mrs .
Nelson was a lifelong resident of Red Hook. She was born Sept. 13, 1895, in Milan, the daughter of Homer and Luella Friday Wildey. She was married Jan. 28 .
1922, to Clayton C. Nelson, who died June 16, 1961. cAn Donald Nelson, died in Journal file William "Count" Basie died Thursday of cancer, a disease doctors never told him he had. released from the hospital Feb. 14, then was readmitted March 27, Schildhaus said .
"The family was with him to the end," the doctor added. He had performed at the Hollywood Palladium in California March 19, his last public performance before he decided to return to the hospital. He had also given a private pertor jazz formance singer in Los Ella Angeles Fitzgerald. for a tribute number of people came to see him at the Palladium, including his longtime friends Quincy Jones, Joe Williams Scatman Crothers," said Woodward. "'Those individuals and the audience that heard him play on E .
Nelson 1971. Mrs. Nelson is survived by two grandsons, Donald Nelson and David Nelson, both of Red Hook; and several nieces, nephews and cousins. Services will be today at 2 p.m. at .
the E.C. Hand Funeral Home, 30 S. Broadway, Red Hook, with the Rev. David Young officiating. Burial will be Paul's Lutheran Cemetery, Red Hook .
Memorial donations may be made to charity. Lillian Doscher Lillian Lillian Doscher, 76, of the City of Poughkeepsie, died Wednesday at Vassar Brothers Hospital. Mrs. Doscher had been a Dutchess County resident since 1929. She was a member of the First Evangelical Lutheran Church in the City of Poughkeepsie .
She was. born July 21, 1907. in Brooklyn, the daughter of George and Lillian Palmay Braitling. She was married to Alfred A. Doscher, who died i in 1954 .
Mrs. Doscher is survived by two sons. Alfred Doscher and Bruce Doscher, both of Poughkeepsie; three brothers, Joseph Braitling of Long Island, George Braitling and William Braitling, both of Florida; and six grandchildren. Calling hours will be Sunday from 7 to 9 p.m. at the McCornac Funeral Home, 11 N .
Clinton City of Poughkeepsie. Services will be Monday at 11 a.m. at the funeral home with the Rev. Helmut Dietrich officiating. Burial will be in Union Cemetery, Hyde Park .
Gordon Wright POUGHQUAG Gordon Wright, majority leader of the Dutchess County Legislature, died Wednesday at Vassar Brothers Hospital. Mr. Wright, 43, of Route 55 in Poughquag, had been a lifelong of the area. He was also a teacher at the Arlington Middle School. Wright was a member of the Arlington Teachers Association, the Republican Club and Town of Beekman Recreation Board .
He was a graduate of Pawling High School and the State Univeristy of New York at Brockport. He was born Sept. 6, 1940, in Pawling. the son of the late Robert B. Wright and Edna Wilcox Wright of Ormond Beach, Fla .
He was married Aug. 11, 1974, in Peekskill to Concetta DiCasoli, who survives. Proust's housekeeper, PARIS (AP) Celeste Albaret, the secretary, housekeeper and nurse of French novelist Marcel Proust for the last nine years of his life, has died at age 92, her family announced Thursday. Mrs. Albaret, who was mentioned by name in Proust's autobiographi- Make your morning merrier! Check the great buys today's Journal Classified or 454 VHS MOVIES RCA VIDEO DISCS THE VIDEO STOP The largest RCA video disc rental library in the area with almost 1000 disc titles in stock Extensive children's library V.H S .
and video disc machine rentals Adult adult films not openly displayed ROUTE 55 Mile East of Noxon LaGrange HOURS: 010 AM-8 PM Closed Sundays 473-2202 Giuseppe Trocino Mark Morgan VERO BEACH, Fla. Mark Mor- He was born June 10, 1911, in Giuseppe Trocino, 72, a former resident of Poughkeepsie, died April 20 at his home in Petilia Policastro, Catanzaro, Italy. Mr. Trocino moved to Italy seven years ago after his retirement as a construction worker with Local 1000 in Poughkeepsie. Mr .
Trocino was born Feb. 11, 1912, in Petilia Policastro. He was married to the former Guila Giordano, who supvives. He was a member of Mount Carmel Church, Poughkeepsie. In addition to his wife, survivors include five daughters, Ida Pace and Elivra Ruzzi, both of Italy; Julia Lattero of New Jersey, Lola Casiero of Highland and Pina DelForno of Florida; four sons, Salvatore Trocino of Wappingers Falls and Frank Trocino, Peter Trocino and Victor Trocino, all of Poughkeepsie; one sister and one brother, both in Italy: 21 grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, several nieces and nephews .
Funeral services were held in Italy April 21. A memorial Mass will be held at 12:15 p.m. Sunday at St. Augustine's Church, Highland. Termites can invade your home and wruck it, without a sound or sign ABALENE the PEST CONTROL Good Guys today for a true termite inspection 223-5105 BEACON 831-3930 NIGHTS HOLIDAYS 471-7700 gan, who retired from IBM in 1975, died April 17 at his home in Vero Beach .
Mr. Morgan maintained a summer home in Poughkeepsie. He was a former chairman and president of the Mid-Hudson chapter of the Adirondack Mountain Club. He received his master's degree in electrical engineering from the Superior Institute of Technology in Milan, Italy. He also wrote several articles for engineering magazines .
Mr. Morgan is survived by his Dorothy Morgan of Vero Beach; one son, Kenneth Morgan of New York; one daughter, Cheryl-Anne Neal of Wilmette, one brother, Carlo Morgan of Parma, Italy; and two grandchildren. Burial was private. Memorial donations may be made to charity. I Am Wearing a Powerful Hearing Aid with NOTHING in Either Ear! JOSEPH K .
BUCKLEY SPECIAL DISCOUNT Wed. Thousands who suffered from hearing loss are amazed and delighted to discover that, at last, they too can hear again with almost unbelievable clarity, yet without any embarrassment. This is now possible, thanks to a remarkable patented invention which has NO receiver buttons in the ear NO dangling cords NO headbands and NO earmolds. A bone conduction method makes correction of hearing loss as easy as putting on a pair of attractive glasses. You owe it to yourself to discover all the facts about this hearing development that I HEAR with, FREE of cost or obligation .
Call TODAY for an appointment by a N. Y. State Registered Hearing Aid Dispenser. Joseph K. Buckley 897-9563 HUDSON VALLEY HEARING AID CENTER 114 Main Street .
Fishkill HERE WE GO SUNDAY GRAND OPENING SUNDAY P.M. 11-3 POOL PACKAGE SALE PACKAGE MINUS HEAD See Bonus SPARCO EZ WALL WESTROCK'S SKIMMER MANUAL COMPARE NO BACKWASH EXTRAS HANDLE with Patio available Deck purchase BONUS FILTER 000 JET.AIR HYDROTHERAPY of these any of FILTER TEST plus MEDIA SPARCO 6" FRESNO Wide ribbed, hot ROUND dipped galvanized top ledge Massive box upright Posi-lock frame wall construction Brown wood grain ALL 20 POOLS GAUGE 18'x48" $699 $869 $974; VIRGIN LINERS! $1029 All prices include family accessory package 21'x48" WANT FRESNO OVAL 6" wide ribbed, hot dipped galvanized top ledge Massive box upright Posi-lock frame construction 20 VINYL 12'x24" $1189 ALL POOLS Brown wood grain wall LINERS! $1289 ML $929 All prices include 1 family accessory package 12'x18" WAN AZURE WOOD ALL ALUMINUM ROUND ALL 20 VINYL 6" Massive wide all aluminum aluminum uprights top ledge POOLS Blue wood grain aluminum wall LINERS! 15'x24'x48" 12'x18'x48" $1469 $1099 ALL 21'x48" 15x48" 12'x24'x48" $1129 $1419 $799 ALUMINUM $879 18'x48" 24'x48" $1259 All prices include family accessory package Complete with Two Ladders purchase of any Pool and Accessory BONUS 3 Reg. with 4'x6' $204 Patio Ladder Now Only Deck $99 INCLUDED IN ALL OUR POOL PACKAGES HOURS: Thurs. Fri. til 8 Sat .
til 5:30, Sun. 11-3 swim spa westrock MEMBER VISA Card hot tub Mile North of Five Corners chemicals Route 32, New Windsor Neely Street, Middletown Next to Foti Florist, Across from Lloyd's NATIONAL AUTHORIZED 343-2992 SPA POOL DEALER 565-5777 343-3055 INSTITUTE Milan, Italy. that day helped to make his most recent time here (at the hospital) very special. They will never know what they did to make him happy." Basie, born William Basie in Red Bank, N.J... embarked on his career as a piano player in a Chinese restaurant on the New Jersey coast, and went on through a series of appearances in theaters, speakeasies, hotels and nightclubs across the country .
Flags were flown at half-staff throughout Red Bank on Thursday. wrote "One 'Jumpin' at the Woodside," "Don't You Miss Your Baby," and "I Left My Baby." And he perfected the Basie sound blasting brass ensembles, simple riffs and rousing solos all held together by his piano, playing background transitions and brief solos. In 1957 the band became the first American group to play a royal command performance for the queen of England. The band also played at President John F. Kennedy's inaugural ball .
In 1981, Basie was honored along with Cary Grant, Helen Hayes and other stars as a recipient of the Kennedy Center honors for achievement in the performing arts. The Black Music Association honored Basie in 1982 with a gala at Radio City Music Hall in New York. Lena Horne, Stevie Wonder, Joe Williams, Oscar Peterson and Quincy Jones were among the stars who paid tribute. Basie made his home in the Bahamas with his wife Catherine, a dancer with the Whitman Sisters whom he married in 1942. Mrs .
Basie died in 1983. Basie's body was to be flown to New York for services Monday. Murray J. Smith HYDE PARK Murray J. Smith, 66, who retired in 1978 after 34 years as a toolmaker for the former Shatz Federal Bearings Co .
in the City of Poughkeepsie, died Wednesday at St. Francis Hospital after a long illness. Mr. Smith had been a Hyde Park resident for 27 years. He previously lived in Poughkeepsie .
He was a member of Regina Coeli Church, 2 Harvey Hyde Park. served in the U.S. Army during World War II. He was born Dec. 3, 1917, in Bridgeport, the son of Philip and Hazel White Smith .
He was married Sept. 15, 1940, in Poughkeepsie to Florence M. Riley, who survives. In addition to his wife, Mr. Smith is survived by one daughter, Donna Stoughton of Hyde Park; two sons, Murray V .
Smith of Muskego, and Dr. T. Michael Smith of Austin, Texas; nine grandchildren, one great two nieces and two nephews. Calling hours will be tonight from 7 to 9 at Sweet's Funeral Home, Route 9, Hyde Park, with prayers at 8 p.m.' A Mass of the Christian Burial will be offered Saturday at 10 a.m. at Regina Coeli Church, Hyde Park .
Burial will be in Union Cemetery, Hyde Park. Memorial donations may be made to the Columbia Branch of the American Lung Association, 246 Church Poughkeepsie. In addition to his wife and mother, Mr. Wright is survived by two daughters, Lauren Wright and Meghan Wright, both of Poughquag: and one brother, Ronald G. Wright of Nanuet (Rockland County) .
Calling hours will be tonight from 7 to 9 and Saturday from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. at the Horn Thomes Funeral Home, 83 E. Main Pawling. Members of the Dutchess County Legislature will attend services tonight at 7. Services will be Sunday at 2 p.m .
at the United Methodist Church of Pawling, 4 Dutcher Pawling, with the Rev. Richard Guice officiating. Burial will be in Beekman Cemetery, Poughquag. Donations may be made to the Gordon Wright memorial scholarship fund, in care of Key Bank, Route 55, Poughquag, N.Y. 12570 .
Celeste Albaret dies cal work Temps (Time Rediscovered), died Wednesday of emphysema at her home. Born to a peasant family in the mountains of central France, she met Proust in 1913 after marrying the writer's chauffeur. She quickly began helping organize his work, taking his dictation, reading it back to him and assembling it for publication. Later, Mrs. Albaret nursed Proust through repeated spells of ill health until his death in 1922 at age 51, Most of the manuscripts she typed and assembled are preserved in France's National Library .
Daniel J. Daly RHINEBECK Daniel J. Daly, who retired from Consolidated on Corp. in New York City, died Wednesday at Northern Dutchess Hospital where he had been a patient for five weeks. Mr .
Daly, 85, had been a resident of Rhinebeck for 29 years. He was a member of the Good Shepherd Church, 3 Mulberry Rhinebeck. Mr. Daly was a former member of the Hillside Fire Department. He was born Jan .
5, 1899, in New York City, the son of James F. and Annie Waldmann Daly. Mr. Daly is survived by one sister, Anne O'Rourke of Rhinebeck; and two nieces, Patricia Daly of Rhinebeck and Susan Hartman of Harrisburg. Pa .
Calling hours will be today from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. at the William E. White Funeral Home, 91 E. Market Rhinebeck, with prayers at 8 p.m. Services will be Saturday at 9:30 a.m .
from the funeral home. A Mass of the Christian Burial will follow at 10 a.m. at the Good Shepherd Church, Rhinebeck. Burial will be in Gate of Heaven Cemetery, Hawthorne (Westchester County). PRICEO PLUNGE Starting As Low As $887 Completely Installed Call for FREE Video Pools SWIMMING Shop-At-Home POOL OPENING Service SERVICING Rt 376 N.Y (at the creek) FULL FINANCING AVAILABLE Sat Mon -Fri .
Sun. 9-8 10-5 Kind .
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correct_death_00034
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FactBench
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3
| 33 |
https://centraljersey.com/2020/09/09/count-basie-feature-sept-16/
|
en
|
Exhibit at cultural center will tell story of Red Bank native Count Basie
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2020-09-09T00:00:00
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The T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center, 94 Drs James Parker Blvd., Red Bank, will open its doors and front lawn on Sept. 25 for “A Love Letter to Count Basie: From The Great Migration to The Harlem Renaissance,” an exhibit that illuminates the Red Bank-born musical giant William “Count” Basie (1904-84). The exhibit will also […]
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en
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centraljersey.com
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https://centraljersey.com/2020/09/09/count-basie-feature-sept-16/
|
The T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center, 94 Drs James Parker Blvd., Red Bank, will open its doors and front lawn on Sept. 25 for “A Love Letter to Count Basie: From The Great Migration to The Harlem Renaissance,” an exhibit that illuminates the Red Bank-born musical giant William “Count” Basie (1904-84).
The exhibit will also pay homage to some of the most important eras from the Great Migration to the Harlem Renaissance, according to a press release.
A VIP opening reception will be held on the center’s front lawn. Attendees will be escorted inside the center to view the exhibit and featured items from 6-9 p.m.
Morgan Stanley is the lead sponsor of an educational experience that promotes excellence in black history and culture, according to the press release.
More than 1,000 Basie artifacts are archived at the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University, Newark.
This is the first time the collection – known formally as the William “Count” and Catherine Basie papers and artifacts – will be shared publicly since its 2018 acquisition by the institute. The collection is the only body of materials that traces directly to the Basie family and is one of the institute’s largest collections, according to the press release.
“This exhibit is especially fitting considering the racial tension we are experiencing in the nation,” said Gilda Rogers, vice president of the T. Thomas Fortune Foundation. “Count Basie’s music broke through racial barriers and brought people together during a time of lawful segregation in America.”
Visitors will learn how Basie used his celebrity as an activist, including standing on a picket line in late 1963 as black and white students demanded that Florida State University integrate, according to the press release.
Photographer, artist and former Red Bank resident Alan Burgess, founder of Benduka Arts, Los Angeles, will present a collection of photography exploring scenes from Asbury Park to Ghana.
Burgess was commissioned by the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center to create a Harlem literary mural collage, reflecting the Harlem Renaissance that occurred in the early 20th century.
Burgess is also a contributing writer of the Harlem Renaissance narrative of the exhibit, which shapes the segregated times during which Basie made a name for himself.
The VIP reception for “A Love Letter to Count Basie: From The Great Migration to The Harlem Renaissance,” will take place from 6-9 p.m. Sept. 25.
Tickets are available online for a $50 donation and include a preview of the exhibit, a souvenir book and light fare with beverages. Visit www.tthomasfortuneculturalcenter.org to purchase tickets.
All attendees are required to purchase tickets in advance and select the time slot during which they will attend. Visitors are required to wear a face mask and will not be allowed to view the exhibit without being escorted inside the center, according to the press release.
“A Love Letter to Count Basie: From The Great Migration to The Harlem Renaissance” was created in conjunction with the Institute for Jazz Studies and is sponsored by Morgan Stanley, OceanFirst Bank, Investors Bank, Denholtz Properties, the Community YMCA, Monmouth Arts, Two River Theater and Detour Gallery.
For more information, email [email protected]
Before the 2020 coronavirus pandemic began in New Jersey, musicians, artists, civic leaders and politicians gathered at the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center and kicked off “2020: Year of Basie,” a celebration of Count Basie, by sharing thoughts about the Grammy winner, according to the press release.
Clarence Banks, who joined the Count Basie Orchestra shortly before Basie’s death in 1984, was on hand to share recollections of his interactions with the bandleader and composer.
Dee Askew, who manages the orchestra, was also at the event and spoke.
Dorthaan Kirk, WBGO’s “First Lady” of Jazz, who was named a 2020 NEA Jazz Master, wrote a “Love Letter to Basie” that was shared at the event.
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correct_death_00034
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FactBench
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2
| 74 |
https://vizcaya.org/about/timeline/
|
en
|
Timeline
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2018-12-06T21:59:05+00:00
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Timeline of Vizcaya, Miami and US/World history
|
en
|
Vizcaya
|
https://vizcaya.org/about/timeline/
|
Timeline OF Vizcaya, Miami AND US/World history
Vizcaya’s story begins in 1910, less than 15 years after Miami was incorporated as a new city. The histories of the Estate and the city have been intertwined ever since. The timeline below illustrates events in Vizcaya’s history (blue), Miami and Florida history (yellow) and U.S. and world history (red). Select an event to learn more, and select and hold on the gray box at the bottom of the timeline to scroll to a specific year.
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correct_death_00034
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FactBench
|
1
| 21 |
https://www.app.com/story/news/local/red-bank-middletown-area/red-bank/2020/10/30/red-bank-count-basie-exhibit/5864670002/
|
en
|
'Destined to be the Count:' Red Bank exhibit spotlights native son Count Basie
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"Michael L. Diamond, Asbury Park Press",
"Michael L. Diamond"
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2020-10-30T00:00:00
|
Jazz icon William J. \
|
en
|
Asbury Park Press
|
https://www.app.com/story/news/local/red-bank-middletown-area/red-bank/2020/10/30/red-bank-count-basie-exhibit/5864670002/
|
RED BANK - Growing up, William J. Basie would spend his days here watching vaudeville at the Palace Theatre, where he eventually filled in playing tunes on the piano to entertain audiences between movie reels.
He was good at it. At age 16, he won a contest in Asbury Park, where each piano player was limited to three minutes. Four years later, he was off to New York to launch a career that established him as one of America's finest jazz artists.
"He was just destined," said Gilda Rogers, vice president of the T. Thomas Fortune Foundation & Cultural Center in Red Bank. "He was destined to be the Count."
Years in the works: Count Basie Center unveils The Vogel performance space in Red Bank
The center, housed in the restored former residence of one of America's pre-eminent Black journalists, is hosting "A Love Letter to Count Basie: From The Great Migration to The Harlem Renaissance," an exhibition that includes several of Basie's personal artifacts on loan from the Rutgers Institute of Jazz Studies and on display for the first time.
The exhibit traces African American history through Basie's life, connecting the past with the present. His parents moved from the South to escape racism. He used his celebrity to support the civil rights movement. And he was a pioneer of jazz, a uniquely American expression of sorrow and joy.
"He’s an American icon," said Elizabeth Surles, the archivist at the Rutgers Institute of Jazz Studies in Newark who oversees the collection. "His role in jazz history is immeasurable in a lot of ways."
Trailblazer: Oceanfirst names first Black board member; will other banks follow?
Affable yet shy, Basie made his mark with swing music, performing with legends such as Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett and collecting accolades along the way.
He was the first African American to win a Grammy Award. He played at John F. Kennedy's inaugural ball. But Red Bank was a common thread.
His songs included "The Kid from Red Bank" and "Red Bank Boogie." He played concerts in the borough, bringing Holiday with him to one in 1938 for a fundraiser to support the then-segregated YMCA on the borough's west side.
Basie grew up the east side of town, on Mechanic Street. The original house apparently was damaged in a fire, although a reporter couldn't verify that from newspaper archives. But Basie built the current home — a one-story structure that resembles those that were prefabricated — so his father wouldn't have to walk up stairs, his father often said.
State of the arts: Jersey Shore arts venues facing limited-capacity shows, funding crisis, uncertainty
The home's current occupants, Catherine Trasborg and her husband, John Burke, bought the home and moved from Jersey City two years ago, mainly because they liked the style.
But they have done their research and wonder if the legend that Count Basie's piano is buried in the foundation is true.
"Every now and then we get people that come by and if I’m out watering the plants they are like, 'Oh is this Count Basie’s home?'" Trasborg said.
Basie died in 1984 at age 79. Rutgers acquired a collection of nearly 1,000 artifacts, including pianos, photos, clothing, home movies, from his estate in 2018. The price wasn't disclosed.
Rogers, who attended the official announcement of the acquisition, was on a mission.
Bring it back: Red Bank movie theater to reopen as Basie Center Cinemas
"They said, which was true, that they had brought Count Basie home to New Jersey," she said. "And I was like, 'Well, yes, you brought him home to New Jersey. But now let's get him to Red Bank, where he was born and raised.'"
Rogers spoke to the Asbury Park Press this week about Count Basie, the exhibit and its lessons.
Five takeaways:
1. Before he was the Count
Basie was born in 1904 to Harvey Lee and Lillian Basie, who had moved to Red Bank from Chase City, Virginia, as part of the Great Migration of African Americans. Harvey worked as a horse-and-buggy coachman; Lillian was a laundress.
Their son, known as Bill, took piano lessons when he was 5 years old from Grace Malchow, who taught at her studio on West Front Street. And he played the piano for the choir at Pilgrim Baptist Church, then on Pearl Street, where his father was a trustee.
"He's inspired right here in Red Bank," Rogers said. "He was inspired by the carnivals that used to come to town once a year. And I guess the entertainment and the jubilant environment inspired him. He writes about it in his memoir, 'Good Morning Blues.' And he says that when the carnival used to come to town, he hated for them to leave, because he wanted to go with them."
2. The Count of Basie
Basie didn't graduate from high school, finding his way instead to New York, where at the age of 20, he joined the jazz scene and became part of the Harlem Renaissance, a center for Black culture that emerged in the1920s.
Basie went on to Kansas City, where he took over the Bennie Moten band, renaming it Count Basie and his Cherry Blossom Orchestra. Radio broadcasted his concerts nationwide, reaching legendary record producer John Hammond.
Basie's career took off.
"He was playing at a club in Kansas City and the announcer said, 'We have the Duke of Ellington, the Earl of Hines. Now we have the Count of Basie,'" Rogers said. "And it stuck and he became Count Basie. William James “Count' Basie."
New and improved: Everything to know about Count Basie expansion
3. A common language
Basie was considered shy and unassuming, steering clear of booze and drugs, according to a 1974 Red Bank Register story.
He grabbed the spotlight nonetheless, teaming up with the biggest stars of the day.
"Frank Sinatra hired the Count Basie Orchestra to play with him," Rogers said. "If they traveled south and Count Basie couldn't stay at a particular hotel, Frank didn’t play. So he is in a crossroads at a particular time where race is definitely prominent. And he is eclipsing race through his music. So we have to understand how music, not just music, but art, is transformative and brings people together."
4. The activist Count
Basie and his wife, Catherine, were involved in the civil rights movement, lending their celebrity to end discrimination that had been part of their lives.
In 1963, Basie joined a protest in Tallahassee, Florida, after he was refused service at a restaurant after a performance at Florida State University.
"Here's this orchestra of basically all Black men, very polished, poised and great musicians," Rogers said. "So he's presenting himself in a way that is so professional and polished, and his artistry is so accomplished he can't be denied. He can't be denied. That's power. Even in the face of inequality, he took his art to a point where he could not even be denied."
Count Basie Center spent years on expansion: COVID-19 has it 'in dire straits'
5. The power of jazz
Basie was seen as affable, but if he was hurting beneath the surface, he had a perfect outlet: jazz.
"This is where the music comes from," Rogers said. "The depth of suffering. And jazz speaks to all of that. And jazz encompasses and brings everybody along with it. That's why jazz is so diverse. It speaks everybody's language. Everybody knows suffering. So jazz is that. And it was born right here in America."
If you go: "A Love Letter to Count Basie: From the Great Migration to the Harlem Renaissance is at the T. Thomas Fortune Foundation and Cultural Center; 94 Drs. James Parker Blvd., Red Bank.
Hours are Saturdays and Sundays from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $15 for adults, $5 for children and seniors.
Michael L. Diamond is a business reporter who has been writing about the New Jersey economy for 20 years. He can be reached at [email protected].
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FactBench
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3
| 38 |
https://swingandbeyond.com/2020/01/04/blue-and-sentimental-1938-count-basie-with-herschel-evans-and-lester-young-and-1969/
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en
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“Blue and Sentimental” (1938) Count Basie with Herschel Evans and Lester Young; and (1969)
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2020-01-04T00:00:00
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“Blue and Sentimental” Composed by Count Basie; arranged by Eddie Durham. Recorded by Count Basie and His Orchestra for Decca on June 6, 1938 in New York. William J. “Count…
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Swing & Beyond
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https://swingandbeyond.com/2020/01/04/blue-and-sentimental-1938-count-basie-with-herschel-evans-and-lester-young-and-1969/
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“Blue and Sentimental”
Composed by Count Basie; arranged by Eddie Durham.
Recorded by Count Basie and His Orchestra for Decca on June 6, 1938 in New York.
William J. “Count” Basie, directing: Ed Lewis (lead), Harry “Sweets” Edison and Wilbur “Buck” Clayton, trumpets; Benny Morton, Dan Minor and Eddie Durham, trombones; Earle Warren, first alto saxophone; Ronald “Jack” Washington, alto saxophone; Lester Young and Herschel Evans, tenor saxophones; Young solos on clarinet; Freddie Green, guitar; Walter Page, bass; Jonathan “Jo” Jones, drums.
The story:
Several aspects of “Blue and Sentimental” set it apart from other (songs composed by) Basie. One is its form: it is, among all of the Count’s jives, jumps and bounces, his only romantic ballad. Another rarity is the famous clarinet soloist, Lester Young — who was famous, however, for playing the tenor saxophone, not the clarinet. But what gives “Blue and Sentimental” its place in swing are the rhapsodic tenor saxophone solos played originally by Herschel Evans (May 1,1908 – February 9, 1939), who crowded a whole lifetime of fine music into his two and a half years with Basie. (At left: Herschel Evans, with Freddie Green in the background – 1938.)
“Evans, a Texan, was brought to Kansas City by his cousin, Eddie Durham, who himself was starting his distinguished career as a trombonist, guitarist and arranger. ‘He was playing the alto,’ said Durham many years later, ‘but his tone was so bad that we had to put him on the tenor. Herschel …was a quiet man.’ Evans joined Basie in Kansas City in 1936, and almost immediately, he and Lester Young launched into their legendary tenor rivalry. Evans’s style, emotional and melting in the slow numbers, impetuous in the fast ones, contrasted with Young’s cooler, controlled approach.” (1)
Trombonist Dicky Wells, who played in the Basie band from mid-1938 through the time when Evans died (and for many years after that), remembered the Evans-Young musical rivalry: “When Young started a solo, part of the crowd would stand up and cheer him. When Evans took his, the rest of the crowd would cheer for him. Even when Herschel and Lester wasn’t talking to each other (not necessarily that unusual in swing era bands where musicians worked and lived together, often being in close contact for literally months on end), they were still friends.” (2)
Evans, like most other musicians working in top-flight bands during the swing era, was a young man. He did what the other musicians did, which entailed a lot of work and a lot of travel. No one ever suspected that any of these young men could have serious illnesses — too much was required of them, especially in their playing. Any weakness due to illness would immediately be noticed.The fraternity of jazz tenor saxophone players in top swing bands in the late 1930s was a small one. Most of the players in that select group were known either personally or by reputation by others who essentially did the same thing in other bands. One young tenor player, Jerry Jerome, had met Basie and Lester Young in Kansas City in 1935 or 1936, and had stayed in touch. Whenever whatever band Jerry was working with worked near to where the Basie band was, Jerry would make it a point to visit the Basie band on their job, and renew old acquaintances. Many years after the events he describes below, Jerome recalled an alarming meeting with Herschel Evans:
“I was playing in Hartford, Connecticut at a theater with Benny Goodman (NOTE: it was the State Theater in Hartford, on or about February 7, 1939. MZ), and Benny said to me ‘let’s go hear Basie, he’s playing at the Crystal Ballroom, which was a black night club in Hartford. Herschel Evans was a very good friend of mine. He and others (in the Basie band knew that I had studied medicine), and I would do things to help guys medically by either suggesting or (by actually) helping them. Anyway, we went over to hear Basie, and Herschel came over to me and he said, ‘Jerry, I’m having trouble breathing.’ I asked him how long this had been going on, and he said for about a week. He showed me that his pants were unbuttoned, he couldn’t button them (because he was so swollen). He said he had changed his mouthpiece from an Otto Link 7 opening to about a 4. I asked him if he had seen any doctors recently, and he said he had seen a doctor in Harlem who thought he had asthma. So during the break they had (between sets), I took him back into the dressing room and stretched him out on a bench, and I put my ear down, because he was so swollen, he couldn’t even tie his shoe laces. He had something going on. I listened to his belly, I rolled him from side to side, and I could hear a splashing. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. To me it was peritoneal ascites. That means body fluid had backed-up because the heart was not pumping properly. But I’m limited, I’m not a doctor. This was just clinical stuff. (Above right: Jerry Jerome and Benny Goodman – early 1939.)
So I said to Basie ‘get him to a hospital, right away! This man is seriously ill!’ I didn’t know exactly what ( was wrong), but he was all swollen and loaded with edema. Basie said he would do that because they were going right back to the city (New York).
Well, we went back (to where the Goodman band was in Hartford) in a taxicab, Benny and his manager and I, and I said to Benny, I think Herschel is in cardiac failure. I think he is dying. Benny shook his head and said, “What are you talking about, man? You’re such a quack.” (3)
Herschel Evans was in fact hospitalized after this, at Wadsworth Hospital in New York.(4) It is unclear how long he remained in the hospital, or if he ever left the hospital to return to the Basie band. Herschel Evans died on February 9, 1939, so it is unlikely that he ever left the hospital, and based on Jerry Jerome’s recollection, he was certainly in no condition to play.
Jerome provided the epilogue: “The next day or the day after, we were at a recording session, and Benny got a call from John Hammond who told him that Herschel Evans had died. (NOTE: The Goodman band did in fact make a recording session in New York on February 9, 1939.) It tore me apart. Later, I met his family in California. They gave me his mouthpiece.” (5)
Evans’s death shook everyone in the Basie band, but it shook no one more than Lester Young. “I was the last one to see him before he died. I even paid his doctor’s bills. He was a nice person. He loved his instrument and I loved mine.” (6)
The music:
As was mentioned above, “Blue and Sentimental” is unusual in the Basie canon for several reasons. The composer credit for this tune went to Count Basie, who probably had little, if anything, to do with its creation. (A lyric was added later, written by Mack David and Jerry Livingston.) The melody of “Blue and Sentimental” greatly resembles that of the earlier pop tune “Can’t We Talk It Over?” which was composed in 1931 by Victor Young (music) and Ned Washington (lyric). The sultry chanteuse Lee Wiley recorded one of the first versions of it (she and Victor Young were romantically involved at that time), and soon thereafter Bing Crosby made a hit recording of it. So by the mid-1930s, “Can’t We Talk It Over?” was a well-known pop song.
Insightful comments about the Basie recording of “Blue and Sentimental” have been made by historian and musician Loren Schoenberg: “Can’t We Talk It Over?” …had been a huge hit record for Bing Crosby a year before (Herschel) Evans came into the (Bennie) Moten/ Count Basie orbit in 1933. It’s possible that Evans had used it as a feature then, and by simply inverting the first melody notes and changing the middle section, (Eddie) Durham fashioned a new tune. (Durham is shown above right.)
Count Basie and His Orchestra at the Famous Door on 52nd Street in Manhattan – July 11 – November 12, 1938. L-R back: Walter Page, Jo Jones, Benny Morton, (not visible, Dan Minor and Dicky Wells); middle: Freddie Green, Buck Clayton (standing), Ed Lewis is obscured, Harry Edison; front: Herschel Evans, Earle Warren, Jack Washington and Lester Young. Basie of course is in front at the piano. Basie placed the trumpets in front of the trombones, which was quite unusual, for a part of the Famous Door gig.
Lester Young makes his (recording) debut as a clarinetist on this recording. (His solo) is played on the wood clarinet Benny Goodman gave him in early 1937, and on which he made all his recordings through 1939, and it’s one of his most beautiful creations. Indeed, Young is the one who does the real improvising, while Evans limits himself to melodic paraphrase, which perhaps inspired him to pour so much feeling into every note.
For over 70 years this was the only performance extant of this piece with Evans. The discovery of a broadcast version from the Famous Door made a few months later reveals that Young was followed by a Helen Humes vocal (in which Ms. Humes sings the David-Livingston lyric), which then led back to where we hear Evans return here.” (7)
I will add a few observations about the music. Careful listening to this performance leads to the conclusion that this piece was certainly used as a feature by Basie for the huge, rhapsodic sound of Herschel Evans’s tenor saxophone, which was very much in the tradition of his fellow Texas tenor artists. His playing is melodic, with some minor stylistic embellishments here and there. But Evans’s playing in this performance was but one part of a beautifully balanced arrangement put together by Eddie Durham, which included a number of contrasts. Listen to the haunting murmurs from the open brass (sometimes with the most gentle wa-wa effects) and three lulling saxophones behind Evans; they provide quiet but evocative harmonic pads for Herschel to play against.
Evans’s first chorus solo is bookended by the marvelously subtle yet stimulating piano playing of Count Basie. Basie, who plays a perfect four bar introduction before Evans’s solo, and then a sixteen bar improvisation after it, was never given adequate credit for his brilliance as a piano soloist. Of course he was also an absolutely masterful accompanist, which he also demonstrates throughout this performance.
After Basie’s improvised solo, lead trumpeter Ed Lewis plays a superbly controlled yet expressive eight bar solo on the tune’s bridge, using a plunger very minimally in front of the bell of his open trumpet.
Then the largest contrast of all appears: Lester Young’s other-worldly clarinet solo, first with quiet accompaniment, and then in dialog with the entire ensemble. Young’s sound on clarinet was unique, and his improvised solo here is stunning. (Young is shown at right playing clarinet – 1938.)
Evans returns to conclude this brilliant performance.
“Blue and Sentimental”
Recorded by Count Basie and His Orchestra at the Tropicana in Las Vegas, Nevada on January 28-30, 1969.
Count Basie, piano, directing: George “Sonny” Cohn, first trumpet; Oscar Brashear, Eugene Coe, Al Aarons and Harry “Sweets” Edison, trumpets; Grover Mitchell, first trombone; Richard Boone, Frank Hooks and Bill Hughes, trombones; Marshal Royal, first alto saxophone; Bobby Plater, alto saxophone; Eric Dixon and Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, tenor saxophones; Charlie Fowlkes, baritone saxophone; Freddie Green, guitar; Norman Keenan, bass, Harold Jones, drums.
The story continues:
Here is a performance of “Blue and Sentimental” by a latter-day Basie band, recorded live in performance at the Tropicana in Las Vegas in 1969. The arrangement was written by Sammy Nestico, and it used Basie’s superb saxophone section, led in inspired fashion by Marshal Royal on alto and anchored by Charlie Fowlkes on baritone, to pay tribute to the iconic tenor saxophone solo played by Herschel Evans. Nestico wisely steered clear of attempting to incorporate any part of Lester Young’s brilliant improvisation into this arrangement. In it’s place there is an improvisation by Harry “Sweets” Edison on Harmon-muted trumpet. Edison was there when the original recording was made, and was a guest soloist here. The open trumpet solo on the tune’s bridge is by Basie’s lead trumpeter of the time, Sonny Cohn.
The recordings presented in this post were digitally remastered by Mike Zirpolo.
Notes:
(1) The Swing Era, 1937-1938, (1971), (55), notes on the music by Joseph Kastner; hereafter Kastner.
(2) Ibid.
(3) Interview of Jerry Jerome done by Monk Rowe on April 12, 1996 in Sarasota, Florida; hereafter Rowe interview of Jerry Jerome.
(4) Count Basie …A Bio-Discography, by Chris Sheridan (1986), 64.
(5) Rowe interview of Jerry Jerome.
(6) Kastner, 56.
(7) Classic 1936-1947 Count Basie and Lester Young Studio Sessions, Mosaic Records (2016), 13.
Links: Here are links to other posts about Count Basie here at swingandbeyond.com:
https://swingandbeyond.com/2019/05/10/hay-burner-1968-count-basie-and-sammy-nestico/
https://swingandbeyond.com/2019/02/01/easy-does-it-1940-count-basie-with-lester-young-buck-clayton-and-sweets-edison/
https://swingandbeyond.com/2018/06/30/sent-for-you-yesterday-live-1939-count-basie-with-jimmy-rushing/
https://swingandbeyond.com/2017/07/21/with-a-little-help-from-my-friends-1969-count-basie/
https://swingandbeyond.com/2017/02/17/lady-be-good-1936-lester-young-and-count-basie/
https://swingandbeyond.com/2017/02/04/blues-in-hoss-flat-1958-count-basie/
https://swingandbeyond.com/2016/08/28/jumpin-at-the-woodside-1938-count-basie-and-lester-young/
https://swingandbeyond.com/2016/08/16/mosaic-classic-1936-1947-count-basie-and-lester-young-studio-sessions/
For a panorama of images that appear here at swingandbeyond.com, click on this link:
https://www.google.com/search?sa=N&sxsrf=ACYBGNSh-3CCg5-1zNhsxEQG5xBhtvi0Jg:1576754642771&q=swingandbeyond.com&tbm=isch&source=univ&ved=2ahUKEwi_h4XjzMHmAhXHGc0KHamMALo4FBCw
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https://musiclinernotes.wordpress.com/2010/08/26/count-basie/
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Count Basie
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2010-08-26T00:00:00
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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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https://www.tumblr.com/blackkudos/159979081937/count-basie
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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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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://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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The man who brought music to Vero Beach
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news release Rusty Young Well over a decade ago, a man with music on his mind made a visit to Vero Beach to find a venue to house a concert with the legendary songstress Judy Collins. Not only did he happen upon the perfect intimate spot in The Emerson Center, but he quickly fell in love…
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news release
Well over a decade ago, a man with music on his mind made a visit to Vero Beach to find a venue to house a concert with the legendary songstress Judy Collins. Not only did he happen upon the perfect intimate spot in The Emerson Center, but he quickly fell in love with Vero Beach, and in short time he made it his home.
That man was Rusty Young, and his story didn’t stop there. Since that time in 2013, Rusty became a household name in this city, and he has presented over 100 concerts under the corporate name of MusicWorks; yet here in his newly found hometown, the series was named LIVE! From Vero Beach. With his largest series ever underway in 2024, presenting a total of 14 diversified concerts in this season alone, Rusty died unexpectedly on February 20.
To look back at where Rusty Young began, his bio would read that he hailed from Rumson, New Jersey where he graduated from Rutgers University, and worked in a variety of jobs including being a venture capitalist and an executive recruiter. And then in his early 50’s, Rusty made the bold move to stop doing everything and to begin doing what would truly make him happy. For Rusty, it was his passion for music.
And so it began when Rusty became the founder and CEO of the Count Basie Theatre Foundation in Red Bank, New Jersey. While at the Foundation, he produced and promoted numerous benefit concerts for the Theatre and for other local and national nonprofits. He used music and benefit concerts to raise the $15 million dollars to complete the renovation for the historic theatre that originally opened in 1926. The Basie later established 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 educational programs that would reflect and celebrate the diversity of the region.
When Rusty founded MusicWorks in 2010, he took a bit of that same thinking that was established during his tenure at the Basie Theatre and applied it to his mission for this newly found music venture that he established in Florida. In short time, Rusty became one of the leading concert promoters in the state, including venues as far north as Daytona Beach, as far south as Delray Beach and Fort Lauderdale and across the state to Fort Myers and St. Petersburg. Rusty ultimately promoted hundreds of events in major markets throughout Florida specializing in classic rock and folk acts of the 60’s and 70’s…..all while making sure they were quality entertainment, whether it was a tribute band or a celebrated performer from that era. Many performances included known names such as Felix Cavaliere’s Rascals, Leon Russell, Al Stewart, The Weight, the Yardbirds, Vanilla Fudge, the Kingston Trio, Peter Yarrow, Blood, Sweat&Tears, John Sebastian, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, Karla Bonoff, America, Bruce Hornsby, Christopher Cross, Dave Mason, Janis Ian and the late great David Crosby.
Rusty, a kind and giving soul, believed that music should do more than entertain; that it should make a difference in the community. To that end, Rusty made certain that a local or national non-profit would benefit from the performance, both in awareness and in making a portion from the ticket sales. Over his years here in Indian River County some of those partnering non-profits included The Cultural Council, The Source, Quail Valley Charities, Grand Harbor Community Outreach, VNA, Indian River Land Trust and The Veteran’s Council, just to mention a few.
Much can be learned about MusicWorks and Rusty Young with one visit to the website: www.MusicWorksConcerts.com.
Rusty’s wife, and MusicWorks partner Stacey Jill Young, who shares his passion of music and his pursuit in bringing the best of music to this Treasure Coast community, is making certain that his dreams and his legacy continues.
So, in respect and gratitude to Rusty for his foresight in bringing music to Vero Beach, and the first person to do so as a continuous and genuine pursuit of entertaining friends, neighbors and what became his family, LIVE! From Vero Beach, is here to stay. The music makes memories, and it most of all brings back memories for each and every member of the audience. It’s an escape, a brief respite from our busy days, and knowing that the best of music is on the agenda, it’s a reason to get up and out to do something special.
And for the audiences and the people who worked with Rusty Young locally and nationally, it’s about “The Man Who Brought Music to Vero Beach.” And for that, Rusty we will be forever saying….“Thank You For The Music.”
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Stephen Schaefer’s Hollywood & Mine
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[
"Stephen Schaefer"
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2020-12-10T00:00:00
|
Who reigns as America’s greatest jazz singer ever?Billie Holiday.And who had the saddest life story you could ever imagine?Billie Holiday.Holiday, known as Lady Day, is the subject of a truly original, unusual and unforgettable documentary, James Erskine’s ‘Billie’ — now in select theaters and available on TVOD (Amazon, iTunes, etc.). It begins as titles tell […]
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en
|
Boston Herald
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https://www.bostonherald.com/2020/12/10/stephen-schaefers-hollywood-mine-49/
|
Who reigns as America’s greatest jazz singer ever?
Billie Holiday.
And who had the saddest life story you could ever imagine?
Billie Holiday.
Holiday, known as Lady Day, is the subject of a truly original, unusual and unforgettable documentary, James Erskine’s ‘Billie’ — now in select theaters and available on TVOD (Amazon, iTunes, etc.). It begins as titles tell what happened to Linda Lipnack Kuehl, a freelance film writer who lived in Washington, D.C. For a decade she had been researching a comprehensive, definitive biography on Holiday. Kuehl never finished that book. We’re told she died, a suicide. Much later, we hear from her family, that ‘suicide’ is debatable. Why would anyone jump with their face mask on?! Why would a writer abandon her life’s work without leaving a note?!
‘Billie’ covers the singer’s life, beginning as an only child born out of wedlock in April 1915 Philadelphia. She grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, with a doting mother and absent father. As we hear the actual interviews, with subtitles to insure we clearly understand what’s being said, a mosaic becomes a full portrait of a Lady Day we’ve never, ever come close to knowing. Here is the teenager turning tricks to get by. She is bisexual. She is very serious about her singing, her composing, her writing lyrics. She broke barriers in 1939 with the extraordinary protest song ‘Strange Fruit’ about the lynchings that had begun early in the century with the revival of the Ku Klux Klan and continued with impunity until after WWII. ‘Strange Fruit’ which she first sang at the integrated Café Society nightclub in Manhattan was a song that changed the cultural landscape.
‘Billie’ lets us hear from musicians who were on the road with Billie who was, we are reminded, always angry about discrimination and segregation. The only woman on the band bus, the guys could go into the woods for relief which the lone woman on the bus, Holiday, could not. She routinely cussed, using expletives often and with great flair. We hear about affairs including one with the married Count Basie. There are horrible stories, one after another, about the men she married who beat and robbed her.
She loved to wear furs, jewels, slinky gowns. She was beautiful. She was an addict. She died with just $750 to her name. We see the Harlem crowds that mourned her open casket. We see the coffin leaving the church, placed in the hearse. We hear from the FBI agents who monitored her and never thought of arresting her because, ‘She was not trafficking in narcotics, only using.’ Until one of her husbands, an informer since 1934 the agent reveals, called to have the cops bust her so that she would get clean. She spent a year in jail, released in 1948.
‘Linda,’ says her sister Myra Luftman, ‘was conscious of being a white writer and writing about Billie.’ But Linda, thru the late ‘60s into the ‘70s, asked the questions from those that were there in the ‘30s, ‘40s and ‘50s. It’s a completely different energy to hear a source giving information than to read their quotes on a page. It makes ‘Billie’ a living, breathing look at a life that wasn’t lived in service to her great gifts but was truly tumultuous.
NEW DVDs:
DOG EAT DOG You (still) need a strong stomach to watch Alejandro González Iñárritu’s masterful epic of Mexican life, the three-part ‘Amores Perros’ (Blu-ray, Criterion Collection, R). Iñárritu’s sensational 2000 debut – he would go on to win consecutive Best Director and Best Picture Oscars for ‘Birdman’ (2014) and ‘The Revenant’ (2015) — first created a sensation at Cannes. With its mix of violence, an eclectic soundtrack, expansive emotional landscape and intriguing cast of characters, ‘Perros’ single-handedly revived the stagnant Mexican film industry. Gael Garcia Bernal, then 18, made his starring feature film debut as a hot-headed brother who covets his gangster brother’s wife and makes money dogfighting. There is the glam model set up in a high rise flat by her married lover and the third section follows the elderly hitman who collects stray dogs. The graphic dog fights seem so real, so visceral that walkouts were inevitable I suppose. The Criterion restoration, supervised by Iñárritu and cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto, boasts a bookshelf of extras: An extensive new COVID-era virtual interview in English between Iñárritu and Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski, a new conversation with the director and 3 of his leading actors, a new interview with the composer, two essays, a superb video essay examining the film’s multiple elements by scholar Paul Julian Smith.
Plus a fascinating documentary behind the scenes by Iñárritu that reveals how they managed to make those canine killings so vivid without ever harming an animal. Here too Iñárritu documents what looks like continual chaos on various locations to get the film he envisions. An actor is hurt in a simple scene where he’s attacked; the doctor is called. Bernal argues with Iñárritu about how he can safely be beaten behind a shower curtain. The spectacular car crash that begins and ends ‘Perros’ is seen as a complicated, dangerous (‘We’re losing the light!’) sequence with stuntmen, blocked streets, unsettled speeding car carburetors. It seems truly, dangerously life-threatening – yet no one died! And always we see Iñárritu determined in his make-or-break moment, always demanding, pushing and imploring, and fully succeeding in creating a modern masterwork.
STORM CLOUDS OVER SOUTHERN FRANCE Two titans of French cinema, Gerard Depardieu and Benoît Magimel, become political rivals in the 2016-18 series ‘Marseille: The Complete Series’ (Blu-ray, 16 episodes, 4 discs, Kino Lorber, Not Rated). France’s picturesque port city on the Mediterranean is naturally an ideal spot for double-dealing, romantic complications and disturbing revelations. Magimel, 46, was the mayor’s protégé but now he’s bared his ambitions to topple, after 25 years, his old mentor Depardieu, 71. This was the first original French language series commissioned by Netflix. It ran for 2 seasons. In French with optional English subtitles.
HAIL VERHOEVEN Reputations, like clothes, constantly change. And Dutch director Paul Verhoeven’s reputation is ascending. Always a popular filmmaker (‘Robo Cop,’ ‘Black Book,’ ‘Elle’ with Isabelle Huppert and ‘Starship Troopers’), Verhoeven’s ‘Total Recall’ (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray+ Digital Code, 3 discs, Lionsgate, R), now celebrating its 30th anniversary in a 4K upgrade, ranked as one of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s best.
Set in 2084 and co-starring Sharon Stone (whom Verhoeven would transform into a superstar 2 years later with ‘Basic Instinct’), ‘Recall’ tussles with issues of identity, implanted memories and a trip to Mars. Special features: An F/X featurette, a Making of, a documentary on ‘Imagining Total Recall,’ On the Scoring and the company, Carolco, behind the picture. And an Audio Commentary by Verhoeven and Schwarzenegger.
PRE-CODE GENDER QUESTIONING ‘The Kiss Before the Mirror’ (Blu-ray, Kino Lorber, Not Rated) merits interest mostly because it’s a 1933 James Whale picture and as a pre-Code picture before the Breen Office censored every Hollywood picture, it presents a possible emancipated lesbian character. ‘Kiss’ begins with a murder, a crime of passion where a husband shoots his cheating wife and her lover. His lawyer (Frank Morgan, the Wizard in ‘Wizard of Oz’) finds he is possessed by the idea of murdering his wife who is having an affair. Whale was Hollywood’s only ‘out & proud’ gay director, famous for ‘Frankenstein’ and ‘Show Boat.’ He was played by Ian McKellen (Best Actor nomination) in the 1988 biopic ‘Gods and Monsters.’ The audio commentary by Melbourne film historian Alexandra Heller-Nicholas is the essential here. She’s truly engaged and informative.
SNIPES SNIPS As the half-man, half immortal Blade in Stephen Norrington’s accomplished anti-vampire thriller ‘Blade’ (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray+ Digital Code, Warner Bros., R), Wesley Snipes had a career-defining role. One that sparked 2 sequels. Stephen Dorff is Deacon Frost, the evil vampire Blade must slay to save the world. Blade and Dorff do go to town and suggest a rivalry as to which actor can chew the most scenery. Special features: Audio commentary by cast & crew, including Dorff and Snipes, plus the isolated Mark Isham score with commentary by the composer.
BEST BUSTER ‘The Buster Keaton Collection Volume 4’ (Blu-ray, Cohen Media, Not Rated) spotlights 2 of the silent era’s supreme stone-faced clown. Both comedies have new 4K restorations and all-new music scores: ‘Go West’ (1925) has Keaton as director and star in and ‘College’ (1927). ‘West’ which Keaton co-wrote and produced as well, finds him failing spectacularly in Arizona, whether bronco busting, cattle wrangling or, pull those udders! dairy farming. The bonus: A 1923 Hal Roach short ‘Go West,’ new restoration trailers and a featurette, ‘Buster Keaton: Screenwriter.’
OH REN, OH STIMPY The animated series with a psychotic Chihuahua named Ren and a dim-witted cat named Stimpy gets an analysis with ‘Happy Happy Joy Joy The Ren & Stimpy Story’ (DVD, Gravitas Ventures, Not Rated). Here are clips ‘recognizable to any fan’ and a history of the celebrated show that premiered on Nickelodeon in 1991 and ran until ’95. Its creator John Kricfalusi was fired from the show in 1992 . Years later, in 2018, two former employees of his production company accused him of grooming and sexually assaulting them in the late 1990s when they were teenagers. Kricfalusi apologized, citing mental health and ‘poor impulse control.’ He has reportedly since retired from the animation industry. This DVD, with interviews with Kricfalusi and his fellow creators, looks at the show and asks: What is the role of media creators? How do we reckon with what we see onscreen and who they actually are?
EARLY ROCK ‘Rock Hudson Collection’ (Blu-ray, KL Studio Classics, Not Rated) is a box set of 3 of Hudson’s early films for Universal Pictures where he was under contract. It was Douglas Sirk who saw real talent in Hudson and made him a star in the 1954 ‘Magnificent Obsession’ opposite Oscar winner (and ex-Mrs. Ronald Reagan) Jane Wyman. Hudson shines in these early leads. The 1953 ‘Seminole’ is a well-regarded historical drama (director Budd Boetticher) about the destruction of the Florida Indian tribe’s homeland. Hudson followed that with the absurd ‘The Golden Blade,’ a Middle East fantasy of sorts with its Caucasian cast barely bothering to suggest supposedly ethnic roles.
Here, adapting the Excalibur legend to somewhere in Syria, a magical gold sword endows its owner (Hudson!) with magical powers. Piper Laurie (‘Carrie’), another Universal contract player, is the independent, rebellious Princess. ‘Bengal Brigade’ (’54) cast Hudson as a British Captain in 1857 British-ruled India who resigns in disgrace. Only to seek redemption when his fellow servicemen are attacked and he can rush to their aid. Technicolor definitely boosts these films’ charms and Hudson is more than fine – he’s good.
PREGNANT, PREGNANT Maybe I’ve seen too many similar set-ups like that in the Australian thriller series, ‘The Secret She Keeps’ (DVD, 6 episodes, 2 discs, Sundance Now, Not Rated). Adapted from a bestselling book, ‘Secret’ parallels, then intersects, two pregnant women. Agatha (Laura Carmichael, ‘Downton Abbey’) is the grocery store clerk living on the edge of poverty, proud of her pregnancy, especially considering her history which is revealed later. Meghan (Jessica De Gouw) is her opposite, a glam, cozily upper middle-class beauty who uses her pregnancy to promote her job as an online influencer. These women are destined to meet as, yes, secrets will be revealed. For myself, unfortunately, one ‘secret’ was too obvious from the very start. Bonus: Behind the scenes.
|
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correct_death_00034
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FactBench
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1
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https://www.memphisflyer.com/seventh-heaven
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en
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Seventh Heaven
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Now that Beale Street has been renovated, and neon warms its coldest nights, it’s hard to conjure up the feeling that must have greeted 37-year-old Calvin Newborn when he returned there after making his name in the jazz world. “I came back to Memphis in 1970,” he told author Robert Gordon. “Beale Street was being […]
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https://www.memphisflyer.com/undefined
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Support the Memphis Flyer
The Memphis Flyer is Memphis’ alternative newsweekly, serving the metro Memphis area of nearly a million residents. The Flyer was started in 1989 by Contemporary Media, Inc., the locally owned publishers of Memphis magazine. For over 30 years, The Memphis Flyer has hit the streets every Wednesday morning with a blend of serious hard news and Memphis’ best entertainment coverage.
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correct_death_00034
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FactBench
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2
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https://jazzprofiles.blogspot.com/2018/10/count-basie-by-alun-morgan-part-1.html
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en
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JazzProfiles: Count Basie by Alun Morgan
|
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] |
[] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[
"Steven Cerra"
] | null |
A blog about Jazz featuring CD,and book reviews and postings about the music and its makers.
|
en
|
https://jazzprofiles.blogspot.com/favicon.ico
|
https://jazzprofiles.blogspot.com/2018/10/count-basie-by-alun-morgan-part-1.html
|
Focused Profiles on Jazz and its Creators while also Featuring the Work of Guest Writers and Critics on the Subject of Jazz.
|
|||||
correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
|
3
| 55 |
https://discover.midhudsonlibraries.org/search/card%3Fid%3D7e323b1f-49a0-4469-b23b-1f49a004695f%26entityType%3DFormatGroup%26showcase%3Dresources%26identifier%3D7e323b1f-49a0-4469-b23b-1f49a004695f
|
en
|
https://discover.midhudsonlibraries.org/search/favicon.ico
|
https://discover.midhudsonlibraries.org/search/favicon.ico
|
[] |
[] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[] | null |
en
|
favicon.ico
| null | ||||||
correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
|
2
| 58 |
https://www.wvua23.com/today-in-history-april-26-2024/
|
en
|
Today in History: April 26, 2024
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[
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[
"WVUA 23 Digital"
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2024-04-26T18:08:09+00:00
|
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...
|
en
|
WVUA 23
|
https://www.wvua23.com/today-in-history-april-26-2024/
|
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
|
|||||
correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
|
0
| 41 |
https://thefinalfootprint.com/2024/04/26/day-in-history-26-april-lucille-ball/
|
en
|
On this day 26 April death of Gypsy Rose Lee – Count Basie – Lucille Ball – Phoebe Snow – George Jones – Jonathan Demme
|
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2024-04-26T00:00:00
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en
|
https://thefinalfootprint.com/2024/04/26/day-in-history-26-april-lucille-ball/
|
#RIP #OTD in 1970 burlesque entertainer, stripper and vedette, actress, author, playwright, her 1957 memoir was adapted into the 1959 stage musical Gypsy, Gypsy Rose Lee died of lung cancer in Los Angeles, aged 59. Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California
On this day in 1984, jazz pianist, bandleader, and composer Count Basie died of pancreatic cancer in Hollywood, Florida at the age of 79. Born William James Basie on August 21, 1904 in Red Bank, New Jersey. 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 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.
On 21 July 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 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, 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.
The Final Footprint
Basie and Catherine are entombed in Pinelawn Memorial Park, East Farmingdale, New York.
On this day in 2013, United States Marine Corp veteran, musician and singer, Thumper Jones, No Show Jones, The Possum, George Jones died, aged 81, from hypoxic respiratory failure in Nashville. Born George Glenn Jones on September 12, 1931 in Saratoga, Texas. He achieved fame for his long list of hit records, including perhaps his best known song “He Stopped Loving Her Today”, as well as his distinctive voice and phrasing. Waylon Jennings expressed his opinion on Jones in his song “It’s Alright”: “If we all could sound like we wanted to, we’d all sound like George Jones.” In 1959, Jones recorded “White Lightning,” written by J. P. Richardson, which launched his career as a singer. During his career, Jones had more than 150 hits, both as a solo artist and in duets with other artists.He married his first wife, Dorothy Bonvillion, in 1950, and was divorced in 1951. He married Shirley Ann Corley in 1954. His second marriage ended in divorce in 1968; he married fellow country music singer Tammy Wynette a year later. After his divorce from Wynette in 1975, Jones married his fourth wife, Nancy Sepulvado, in 1983 and became sober for good in 1999.
The Final Footprint
Former first lady Laura Bush was among those eulogizing Jones at his funeral on May 2, 2013. Other speakers were Tennessee governor Bill Haslam, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, news personality Bob Schieffer, and country singers Barbara Mandrell and Kenny Chesney. Alan Jackson, Kid Rock, Ronnie Milsap, Randy Travis, Vince Gill, Patty Loveless, Travis Tritt, the Oak Ridge Boys, Charlie Daniels, Wynonna and Brad Paisley provided musical tributes. Jackson sang “He Stopped Loving Her Today”. The service was broadcast live on CMT, GAC, RFD-TV, The Nashville Network and FamilyNet as well as Nashville stations. SiriusXM and WSM 650AM, home of the Grand Ole Opry, broadcast the event on the radio. The family requested that contributions be made to the Grand Ole Opry Trust Fund or to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Jones was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Nashville. Other notable final footprints at Woodlawn include; Eddy Arnold, Little Jimmy Dickens, George Jones, Johnny Paycheck, Webb Pierce, Jerry Reed, Marty Robbins, Dan Seals, Red Sovine, Porter Wagoner, and Tammy Wynette.
#RIP #OTD in 2017, film director (Melvin and Howard, The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia, Rachel Getting Married), producer and screenwriter Jonathan Demme died at his home in Manhattan from complications from esophageal cancer and heart disease, age 73.
|
||||||
correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
|
3
| 43 |
https://nypost.com/2015/10/17/friend-stole-70k-from-jazz-legends-disabled-daughter/
|
en
|
Friend ‘stole’ $70K from jazz legend’s disabled daughter
|
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[] |
[] |
[
"US News",
"disabilities",
"jazz",
"lawsuits",
"theft"
] | null |
[
"Julia Marsh"
] |
2015-10-17T00:00:00
|
A longtime friend of jazz legend Count Basie is facing possible jail time for allegedly stealing $70,000 from the late bandleader’s disabled daughter.
When...
|
en
|
New York Post
|
https://nypost.com/2015/10/17/friend-stole-70k-from-jazz-legends-disabled-daughter/
|
A longtime friend of jazz legend Count Basie is facing possible jail time for allegedly stealing $70,000 from the late bandleader’s disabled daughter.
When William James “Count” Basie died of cancer in 1984, he left his $1.5 million fortune in a trust to provide for his only child.
His daughter, Diane Basie, now 71 and living in Florida with full-time caregivers, is “severely retarded and only marginally communicative,” according to court papers.
Basie appointed Aaron Woodward, a Long Island Baptist pastor and accountant, to be Diane’s guardian.
But in 2012, Manhattan Surrogate’s Court Justice Kristin Booth Glen removed Woodward from his guardian role after he failed to account for money that belonged to Diane.
Now Joy Rosenthal, a court-appointed lawyer who is Diane’s replacement guardian, wants to jail or fine Woodward, 68.
|
|||||
correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
|
3
| 34 |
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Count_Basie
|
en
|
Count Basie
|
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[] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[] | null |
William James "Count" Basie 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.
|
en
|
Wikiwand
|
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Count_Basie
|
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.
Quick Facts Background information, Birth name ...
Close
|
|||||
correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
|
0
| 61 |
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.
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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
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] |
[] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[
"Charles Waring"
] |
2024-02-16T05:11:42+00:00
|
From iconic bandleaders to unique talents, the best jazz pianists both shaped the genre and revolutionized the role of the piano in music.
|
en
|
uDiscover Music
|
https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/best-jazz-pianists/
|
From the smoky jazz clubs of New Orleans to the grand concert halls of New York City, the sound of the piano has always been a cornerstone of jazz music. And there have been some truly legendary jazz pianists who have taken the art form to new heights with their technical skills, innovative improvisation, and sheer passion for the music. In this article, we’ll be celebrating the best of the best, the jazz pianists who have left an indelible mark on the genre and continue to inspire new generations of musicians.
While you’re reading, listen to our Jazz Piano Classics playlist here.
The piano’s importance in jazz stretches back to the time of Scott Joplin, at the turn of the 20th Century, when ragtime – with its jaunty, percussive rhythms – proved an important early building block in the evolution of jazz music.
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From ragtime piano came the more sophisticated and virtuosic “stride” style of James P Johnson and Willie “The Lion” Smith – with its locomotive, two-step, left-hand accompaniment – in the 20s and 30s, which in turn led to Fats Waller and ultimately culminated with Art Tatum. Hands down one of the best jazz pianists in history, Tatum was a blind genius who arguably created the most densely polyphonic and sophisticated pre-bebop piano style of all, fusing stride with swing.
In the mid-40s, the bebop revolution, instigated by horn players Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, resulted in a generation of artists (led by Bud Powell) who would enter the ranks of the best jazz pianists with an approach that treated the instrument like a trumpet or saxophone, picking out syncopated right-hand melodies with horn-style phrasing. When the 50s arrived, there were others, such as Bill Evans, who fused the bop aesthetic with a sensibility nurtured on classical and romantic music, producing a densely-harmonized piano style that was supremely lyrical and richly expressive. Evans’ influence – like Bud Powell’s before him – was pervasive, and many future jazz piano stars (from Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea to Keith Jarrett and, more recently, Brad Mehldau) are indebted to him.
The jazz world has produced an abundance of super-talented piano players – many more than can be accommodated in this list of the 50 best jazz pianists of all time. Indeed, whittling it down was not an easy task, but we’ve persevered and come up with a list of names that we believe represent the most important ivory-ticklers of the genre.
In our estimation, here are the 50 best jazz pianists of all time.
50: Lennie Tristano (1919-1978)
Opinions differ on the significance of this blind, Chicago-born pianist who played with Charlie Parker in the late 40s and went on to establish himself as a musician with a unique sound and style. What is certain is that Tristano was an uncompromising innovator whose unorthodox conception of melody and harmony presaged the birth of free jazz. He also experimented with multi-tracking recording in the early 50s – which most jazz musicians considered anathema – by overdubbing improvised piano parts. Tristano was also a noted jazz teacher and it is claimed that his influence affected Miles Davis (on Birth Of The Cool) as well as Dave Brubeck and Gerry Mulligan.
49: Kenny Kirkland (1954-1998)
From Brooklyn, New York, Kirkland had a fruitful association with the Marsalis brothers, Wynton and Branford, in the 80s and 90s, appearing as a sideman on many of their albums. Kirkland also played with jazz greats, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and drummer Elvin Jones, in the 80s, and appeared on five albums by ex-Police frontman, Sting. His own discography contains just one solo album, 1991’s Kenny Kirkland, for GRP, though it’s likely that, had he not died prematurely, aged 43, from congestive heart failure, Kirkland would have recorded many more solo albums.
48: Dave Grusin (born 1934)
A founding father of an accessible, R&B-inflected form of instrumental music called smooth jazz, Grusin is rare among the best jazz pianists for having also set up his own record label, GRP, in 1978. Originally from Colorado, Grusin began releasing piano-led albums under his own name in the early 60s, a decade that also saw him break into the world of television music, where he wrote themes for numerous US TV shows. Grusin went on to become a prolific composer of movie scores (among them On Golden Pond and The Fabulous Baker Boys) and has also released a raft of keyboard-oriented studio albums.
47: Duke Pearson (1932-1980)
Born Columbus Calvin Pearson in Atlanta, Georgia, Pearson’s career took off when he moved to New York City in 1959. That was the year he recorded his debut album for Blue Note, and he went onto become one of the best jazz pianists the iconic label signed. Enjoying a long association with Alfred Lion and Frank Wolff’s outfit, he not only recorded his own music, but worked as an in-house arranger and A&R man. A capable and versatile pianist, Pearson’s own records veered more towards the soul jazz style.
46: Elmo Hope (1923-1967)
A sideman for noted saxophonists Lou Donaldson, Sonny Rollins, Jackie McLean, and Harold Land in the 50s, New Yorker Hope (real name St Elmo Sylvester Hope) was a bebop pianist with a bright sound, dynamic touch, and, like Thelonious Monk, had a penchant for dissonance. He recorded for Blue Note, Prestige, and Pacific Jazz in the 50s. Sadly, his life was blighted by drug addiction, which hastened his premature death at the age of 43.
45: Kenny Barron (born 1943)
As a teacher, this capable Philadelphia pianist can count Maynard Ferguson pianist Earl MacDonald, and recent Blue Note signing Aaron Parks, as his star pupils. Barron’s own career began with sideman stints with Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Getz. A nine-time Grammy nominee, Barron has been recording since the late 60s and his many collaborators include fellow pianists Tommy Flanagan and Barry Harris. A master who is fluent in both the bebop and post-bop styles, Barron is one of the best jazz pianists alive today.
44: John Lewis (1920-2001)
As one of the charter members of The Modern Jazz Quartet, a pioneering group that fused bebop with classical music aesthetics, Lewis was an influential musician whose gleaming, staccato piano style was indebted to Count Basie and saxophonist Lester Young. Prior to the MJQ, he was a sideman for Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Miles Davis. Outside of his band, Lewis made many albums under his own name, the earliest in 1955.
43: Harold Mabern (1936-2019)
Originally from Memphis, Tennessee, Mabern is unique among the best jazz pianists for having begun as a drummer before switching to piano. Moving to Chicago, and then New York, he was regarded as a go-to sideman in the late 50s and early 60s (playing with the likes of Cannonball Adderley, Jackie McLean, Roland Kirk, and Wes Montgomery) before beginning his own recording career, which started at Prestige Records in 1968. A virtuoso who is fully fluent in bebop, modal, and post-bop jazz styles, Mabern is still actively recording and performing today at the age of 81.
42: Kenny Drew (1928-1993)
New York City-born Drew – who served his musical apprenticeship as a sideman for Buddy DeFranco, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, and Charlie Parker – was a highly-regarded bebop pianist and composer who enjoyed a long and fruitful association with tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon, when both musicians lived in Denmark during the 60s and 70s. Cutting his first solo LP in 1953, Drew recorded regularly for a variety of different labels up until his death. He died and was buried in Copenhagen.
41: Jaki Byard (1922-1999)
An eclectic, versatile pianist who also played saxophone, Massachusetts-born Byard’s own music drew on everything from ragtime to free jazz and also covered all styles in between. He played with trumpeter Maynard Ferguson in the late 50s, but his career really took off when he moved to New York City in the 60s. He spent two years with Charles Mingus, as well as working with Eric Dolphy and Roland Kirk. Though revered by the critics, Byard’s unique sound was less well-received by the public, but he remains one of the best jazz pianists in history, not only because of his impact on jazz in general, but also in relation to his role in the evolution of the piano itself.
40: Cedar Walton (1934-2013)
From Dallas, Texas, as a child this hard bop piano giant was raised on a diet of Art Tatum, Nat “King” Cole, Bud Powell, and Thelonious Monk. Though their music infused Walton’s own style, he found his own voice on the piano and, after a stint with Kenny Dorham, John Coltrane, and The Jazztet, he joined Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in 1961, going on to cut nine albums with the group. Walton’s own career as a leader began in 1967 and, in the 70s, he dabbled with jazz-funk and fusion. In addition to being a gifted pianist, Walton was also a noted composer, contributing “Bolivia” and “Mode For Joe” to the jazz standards repertoire.
39: Barry Harris (1929-2021)
Born and raised in Detroit, Harris, whose mother played piano in church, was an early starter, taking up his chosen instrument at the age of four. When he was older, he was smitten by jazz and fell under the spell of modernists Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk. By the 50s, Harris was a jobbing pianist and worked with Miles Davis, Sonny Stitt, and Gene Ammons; in the 60s he gigged with Cannonball Adderley. Stylistically, Harris is a staunch disciple of hard bop, which is reflected in the horn-like phrasing of his right-hand melodies, complex rhythmic syncopations, and dense harmonization. One of the best jazz pianists still with us from the bebop era.
38: Mary Lou Williams (1910-1981)
Born Mary Elfrieda Scruggs in Atlanta, Georgia, and raised in Pittsburgh, Williams was a self-taught pianist who rose to fame as a teenage prodigy in the 20s. By the 30s, she was working as a freelance arranger, writing charts for Earl Hines, Benny Goodman, and, later, Duke Ellington. When bebop arrived, in the mid-40s, she had an affinity for the revolutionary new style, and was a mentor to Thelonious Monk and Dizzy Gillespie. A prodigiously talented musician, Williams was an inspirational figure and paved the way for noted contemporary female pianists such as Tania Maria, the late Geri Allen, Eliane Elias, and Diana Krall.
37: Bobby Timmons (1935-1974)
One of a multitude of musicians who came through Art Blakey’s “Hard Bop Academy,” The Jazz Messengers, this Philadelphia musician was the son of a preacher and grew up playing in church. Gospel music left an indelible mark on Timmons and its DNA can be detected in his playing and much of the music he wrote, which included the classic tunes “Moanin’,” “This Here,” and “Dat Dere,” which earned him his place among the best jazz pianists for laying the blueprint for what became known as soul jazz in the late 50s and early 60s. Sadly, Timmons’ career was cut short, at 38, by his chronic alcoholism.
36: Andrew Hill (1931-2007)
Hailing from Chicago, as a boy Hill earned small change playing accordion on the Windy City’s streets. He worked mainly as a sideman in the 50s, but in 1963, after a move to New York, Hill began a long association with Blue Note Records that resulted in 16 albums. Though influenced by Thelonious Monk and Art Tatum, Hill forged his own distinctive and complex style, both as a pianist and composer. His music tended to be chromatic and angular, and while it pushed the barriers, it also remained rooted in jazz tradition.
35: Brad Mehldau (born 1970)
From Jacksonville, Florida, Mehldau is undoubtedly one of the leading pianists in contemporary jazz. Though, compared to many of the best jazz pianists, his influences are wide and varied – ranging from pop, rock, folk, and classical music, to bebop, country, and even electronic music – he has distilled them all into a unique style which is inspired by the lyricism of Bill Evans and spellbinding virtuosic improvisation of Keith Jarrett. Mehldau’s long-running piano trio has also continually broken new ground with its near-telepathic collective improvisation and eclectic repertoire.
34: Cecil Taylor (1929-2018)
A poet as well as a pianist/composer, this New Yorker was a leading light of the avant-garde movement in the late 50s and early 60s. Not for the faint-hearted, Taylor’s energetic style is often fiercely atonal, employing jarring cluster chords and a dense, polyrhythmic complexity. He released his debut LP in 1956 and recorded regularly for a raft of different labels up until 2009.
33: Nat “King” Cole (1919-1965)
Given his fame in the 50s as a pop singer with a silky croon, it’s perhaps not surprising that many often forget that Alabama-born Cole was also one of the best jazz pianists of his time. Starting out playing gospel music on the organ before being formally tutored in piano, Cole was schooled in classical music but quickly gravitated to jazz. He was especially influenced by Earl Hines, whose ornate, heavily embellished approach was the foundation for Cole’s own style, which developed within the confines of his own trio in the 30s and 40s. From 1943 onwards, it was Cole’s voice that drew more acclaim, however, and his success as a singer went on to eclipse his piano playing.
32: Sonny Clark (1931-1963)
Born Conrad Clark, this piano-playing exponent of hard bop from Herminie, Pennsylvania, enjoyed a brief period under the jazz spotlight between 1955 and 1961. Influenced by Bud Powell and noted for his horn-like right-hand melodies, Clark was a sideman for Dinah Washington, Sonny Rollins, and Charles Mingus, and also enjoyed a fecund five-year spell at Blue Note Records, where he served up nine albums, including the classic hard bop manifesto Cool Struttin’. Sadly, Clark was a heroin addict and died, aged 31, from a suspected (but never proven) overdose.
31: Michel Petrucciani (1962-1999)
Despite suffering from a genetic disease that stunted his growth, resulted in brittle bones, and gave him perpetual arm pain, France-born Petrucciani defied the odds to become one of the world’s best jazz pianists, and was inspired to take up the instrument after seeing Duke Ellington on TV. By 13, he was playing professionally, and at 18 recorded the first of many LPs. Though his lyrical approach to the piano was undoubtedly indebted to Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett, Petrucciani, who died at 36, nevertheless had an individual sound and style.
30: Hank Jones (1918-2010)
The elder sibling of trumpeter Thad, and drummer Elvin, Jones, this Mississippi-born/Michigan-raised pianist was initially influenced by Earl Hines and Fats Waller, but later fell under bebop’s spell. He recorded with Ella Fitzgerald and Charlie Parker before embarking on a stellar solo career that blossomed in the 50s. Hired for his impeccable musical taste and sonic eloquence, Jones’ myriad sideman credits ranged from Dizzy Gillespie and Dexter Gordon to Anita O’Day and Marilyn Monroe.
29: Scott Joplin (1868-1917)
This Texas pianist’s music was largely forgotten until his tune, “The Entertainer” – which was used on the soundtrack to the 1973 blockbuster film The Sting, starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman – revived interest in his work. In his heyday, in the early years of the 20th Century, Joplin was crowned King Of Ragtime, a jaunty, syncopated style of music that was an amalgam of African-American and Western European music. Though no recordings of Joplin exist, his status as one of history’s best jazz pianists is assured, thanks in part to piano rolls and sheet music from the time, illustrating his unique style, which went on to influence James P Johnson.
28: Ramsey Lewis (1935-2022)
Emerging on Chess Records in the 50s fronting a piano trio, Chicago-born Lewis racked up a trio of finger-clicking crossover pop hits in the mid-60s (the biggest was 1965’s “The In Crowd”) before plugging his piano into the mains socket and going the way of funk and fusion in the 70s. A classically-trained pianist, Lewis fused jazz with rhythm’n’blues and gospel music to forge a distinctive soul jazz style that spawned a host of imitators.
27: Wynton Kelly (1931-1977)
Influenced by Teddy Wilson and Bud Powell, Brooklyn-born Kelly is best remembered for his association with Miles Davis between 1959 and 1961 (he played on the iconic 1959 LP Kind Of Blue). He also recorded a slew of solo albums, all of which highlighted his glistening, horn-like right-hand melodies and penchant for block chordal accompaniment. Contemporary pianists who claim to have been influenced by him include Chick Corea and Brad Mehldau.
26: Willie “The Lion” Smith (1897-1973)
Together with James P Johnson and Fats Waller, William Henry Joseph Bonaparte Bertholoff Smith (to give him his full name) was a noted practitioner of the stride style of playing. Born in New York, he rose to fame in the 20s as an accompanist of blues singers. His propulsive, dynamic style, with its dazzling finger-work, exerted a profound influence on both Duke Ellington’s and George Gershwin’s approach to the piano.
25: James P. Johnson (1894-1955)
This New Jersey pianist helped bridge the transition from ragtime to jazz with his stride piano technique, which built on ragtime’s locomotive, see-saw jauntiness but added more sophisticated harmonies and a stronger blues element. Though his music is mostly forgotten now, Johnson – who was also a noted accompanist for singers Bessie Smith and Ethel Waters – was a pioneer who earns his place among the best jazz singers in part because of his powerful influence over Fats Waller, Count Basie, and Art Tatum.
24: Bob James (born 1939)
Though Missouri-born James is widely acknowledged as one of the founding fathers of smooth jazz, ironically, he began his career in the vanguard of the early 60s avant-garde scene. By the 70s, though, James’ star was on the rise thanks to his being the in-house arranger at producer Creed Taylor’s influential CTI label. He made four hugely popular, radio-friendly albums for CTI, where he established himself as the doyen of a lighter, more accessible version of jazz-fusion. Though he’s an undoubted master of the electric Fender Rhodes keyboard (which dominated his classic 70s records), in recent years James has returned to the acoustic piano.
23: George Shearing (1919-2011)
Blind from birth, the much-honored London-born George Shearing (who, uniquely among the best jazz pianists, was a Sir, having been knighted in 2007) displayed an aptitude for the piano and accordion at an early age. He eked a living as a jobbing pianist for hire until emigrating to the US in 1947, where he quickly made a name for himself with his synthesis of swing, bebop, and elements drawn from classical music. A pioneer of block chords, Shearing’s group – which including the distinctive sound of the vibraphone – became hugely popular and influential in the 50s.
22: Joe Zawinul (1932-2007)
Inspired to take up jazz after hearing Fats Waller’s “Honeysuckle Rose,” Austrian-born Zawinul ventured to the US in 1959, where he immediately made his mark as a pianist and composer in Cannonball Adderley’s band. Though Miles Davis tried to poach him (Zawinul worked on Miles’ groundbreaking In A Silent Way and Bitches Brew albums at the end of the 60s), the pianist stayed with Cannonball until 1970 and then co-founded famed fusion pioneers Weather Report.
21: Teddy Wilson (1912-1986)
Dubbed The Marxist Mozart for his espousal of left-wing political causes, Texas-born Theodore Wilson was a virtuosic pianist who gained prominence in the swing era and worked as a sideman with some of the biggest names in jazz, ranging from Louis Armstrong and Benny Goodman to Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald. He also made many recordings under his own name, but today is mostly remembered as Billie Holiday’s accompanist.
20: Horace Silver (1928-2014)
Born in Connecticut with Cape Verdean ancestry, Horace Silver was an archetypal hard bop pianist whose rise to fame began when he co-founded The Jazz Messengers (which Art Blakey later took over) in 1954. As well as a dexterous pianist who enjoyed a long and fruitful stretch at Blue Note between 1952 and 1980, Silver was a prolific tunesmith (among his most famous compositions is “Song For My Father”).
19: Red Garland (1923-1984)
For a jazz pianist who started out in life as a welterweight boxer, Texas-born William “Red” Garland had a decidedly delicate touch. He played as a sideman for Billy Eckstine and Charlie Parker, and was in bluesman Eddie Vinson’s band alongside a young John Coltrane. His path would cross with Coltrane’s again in the 50s, when both joined Miles Davis’ quintet and made several groundbreaking albums for Prestige and Columbia (among them Workin’ and ’Round About Midnight). Davis liked Garland for his Ahmad Jamal-like lightness of touch and use of space. Another hallmark of the Texan’s singular style was his use of two-handed block chords.
18: Tommy Flanagan (1930-2001)
For many, Detroiter Thomas Lee Flanagan’s name is synonymous with saxophone giant John Coltrane. He played on Trane’s totemic 1960 masterpiece, Giant Steps, and as a sideman also featured on significant LPs by Sonny Rollins (Saxophone Colossus) and guitarist Wes Montgomery (The Incredible Jazz Guitar Of Wes Montgomery). Describing his approach to piano, Flanagan once said, “I like to play like a horn player, like I’m blowing into the piano.” Though he was a valued sideman, he also made a slew of albums under his own name for a raft of different labels between 1957 and 1997.
17: Erroll Garner (1923-1977)
With his predilection for performing in an ornate style that comprised lush chords, liquid runs and complex syncopations, this Pennsylvanian from Pittsburgh was a child piano prodigy who first recorded in the 40s but blossomed spectacularly in the 50s. He would arguably earn his place among the best jazz pianists solely for giving the jazz world the perennially popular standard “Misty,” which he composed in 1954 and recorded many times thereafter. Arguably the most compelling album he made was 1955’s classic Concert By The Sea, which captures Garner in all his glory.
16: Dave Brubeck (1920-2012)
One of an elite handful of jazz artists to score a big crossover pop hit in the 60s (“Take Five”), California-born Brubeck, who grew up on a ranch, studied to be a vet but switched to music during college. A near-fatal diving accident in 1951 caused nerve damage to Brubeck’s hands and changed the way he played piano, where fleet-of-finger lines were replaced by dense block chords. Even so, Brubeck could still play with imagination and elegance, and often composed music using unusual and asymmetrical time signatures.
15: Jelly Roll Morton (1890-1941)
Given that he once claimed to have singlehandedly invented jazz, modesty was most certainly not a recognizable trait in the character of this New Orleans pianist born Ferdinand LeMothe – though he wholly deserves recognition among the best jazz pianists. As both a composer and arranger, Morton was a seminal figure in the development of early jazz – among his most famous recordings is “Black Bottom Stomp” – and he was also a noted pianist whose propulsive, jaunty style grew out of ragtime and anticipated the stride development.
14: Earl Hines (1903-1983)
From Duquesne, Pennsylvania, Earl “Fatha” Hines was a key figure in the evolution of jazz piano-playing. He started as an orthodox stride-style player but soon introduced innovations. In a bid to be heard in a big band ensemble, Hines began articulating melodies with octaves (or what he called “trumpet notes”), as well as using a tremolo effect (a rapid alternation of two notes). Though he began his recording career in 1923, he was able to adapt to changing styles in jazz and kept recording until 1981. A jazz piano colossus.
13: Count Basie (1904-1984)
Like fellow jazz aristocrat Duke Ellington, Count Basie’s prowess at the piano was often eclipsed by his role as a successful bandleader. Originally from Red Bank, New Jersey, Bill Basie rose to fame during the big-band swing epoch with popular tunes such as “One O’clock Jump.” He usually led from the piano, adhering to a minimalistic less-is-more aesthetic and employing forceful percussive accenting and octaves so that his bluesy notes cut through the full band sound.
12: Fats Waller (1904-1943)
Native New Yorker Thomas “Fats” Waller didn’t live to see his 40th birthday (he succumbed to pneumonia at 39), but nevertheless proved to be an influential pianist, particularly for his contribution to the evolution of the highly rhythmic stride style, an important foundation stone in jazz piano. Waller was also an organist and composer whose repertoire included the immortal tunes “Ain’t Misbehavin’” and “Honeysuckle Rose.”
11: Duke Ellington (1899-1974)
It’s often overlooked that Washington, DC-born Edward Kennedy Ellington was a tremendous jazz pianist with his own inimitable style. That’s because Ellington earned greater fame as a popular bandleader and composer during the big band swing era of the 30s. There are a few solo piano entries in the jazz aristocrat’s extensive discography (most notably, perhaps, 1953’s The Duke Plays Ellington) that reveal the full extent of Ellington’s skills.
10: Ahmad Jamal (born 1930)
Pittsburgh-born Ahmad Jamal possesses a delicate, nimble touch and intuitively knows how to use space to good effect. It was the latter quality that made Miles Davis such a big fan of his music in the 50s, attempting to replicate Jamal’s light piano style in his groups of that era. Jamal first recorded for OKeh in 1951, but it was later in the same decade when took his position among the best jazz pianists of all time, with the best-selling live album At The Pershing, which took his music to a larger audience. A master of musical understatement.
9: Chick Corea (1941-2021)
Like Keith Jarrett, Armando “Chick” Corea, from Chelsea, Massachusetts, was an early starter – he began playing piano aged four – and later rose to fame as a sideman with the great Miles Davis (replacing Herbie Hancock). Though influenced by the romanticism of Bill Evans, there’s always been a palpable Latin inflection to Corea’s music, which has ranged from straight-ahead jazz to electric fusion (he led the jazz-rock behemoth Return To Forever in the 70s).
8: Keith Jarrett (born 1945)
From Allentown, Pennsylvania, Keith Jarrett started playing piano at the age of two and rapidly blossomed into a precociously gifted child prodigy steeped in classical music. As a teenager, Jarrett was seduced by jazz and quickly became fluent in its idiom. He played with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in the mid-60s before joining the groups of Charles Lloyd and, later, Miles Davis. In the 70s, at ECM Records, Jarrett – eschewing electric instruments – patented a lyrical style and, in the same decade, released an improvised solo recital called The Köln Concert, which set a new benchmark for unaccompanied jazz piano. An intrepid improviser whose imagination knows no bounds.
7: Bud Powell (1924-1966)
This Harlem-born musician was the first pianist to approach the piano as if it were a horn instrument. Though he gleaned much from the left-hand stride-style of Art Tatum, alto saxophonist and bebop architect Charlie Parker was Bud Powell’s main inspiration. As a result, Powell proved highly influential, even though his career was short (he died aged 41, after years of mental health problems). The missing link between Art Tatum and bebop, his status as one of the best jazz pianists of all time is forever assured.
6: McCoy Tyner (1938-2020)
From Philadelphia, McCoy Tyner rose to fame as a member of John Coltrane’s groundbreaking quartet between 1960 and 1965, playing on the saxophonist’s iconic 1965 album, A Love Supreme. An exponent of modal jazz with a passion for blues, Tyner’s main hallmark is using chords with prominent fourths. He also often attacks the piano with brute force, though he can also play with extreme delicacy, employing staccato right-hand runs. After Coltrane, Tyner established himself as one of contemporary jazz’s pre-eminent pianists with a series of astounding albums for Blue Note and, later, Milestone.
5: Oscar Peterson (1925-2007)
Originally from Quebec, Canada, Peterson was a classically-trained child prodigy who fell under the influence of Art Tatum and Nat “King” Cole. He made his first recording in 1945, but it was in the 50s, after he joined jazz impresario Norman Granz’s Verve label and led a piano trio, that he became a household name. Renowned for ornate filigrees and a hard-swinging style, Peterson was a dextrous improviser.
4: Herbie Hancock (born 1940)
Though he’s flirted with funk, dabbled with disco, and even dallied with electro and hip-hop (exemplified by his 1983 global hit, “Rockit”), at heart this Chicago-born musical chameleon is a committed jazz pianist. Though influenced by Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock forged his own style in the 60s, both as a solo artist and as a member of Miles Davis’ pathfinding post-bop quintet. Though he’s almost 80, Hancock still has the musical inquisitiveness of a teenager.
3: Bill Evans (1929-1980)
A troubled soul, this New Jersey pianist was plagued with drug addiction problems throughout his adult life and professional career, but it didn’t stop him producing a remarkably beautiful and consistent body of work. Reflective romantic ballads with lush chords were his undoubted forte, but Evans – who drew on both bebop and classical music for inspiration – could also swing with verve, especially in a live setting. (Start with his legendary trio recordings with Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian, like Sunday at the Village Vanguard or Waltz for Debby for evidence of both.) Myriad pianists have fallen under Evans’ spell, including Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett, and, more recently, Brad Mehldau.
2: Thelonious Monk (1917-1982)
Misunderstood by many, this North Carolina-born maverick (who was rarely seen without a hat) is one of the most idiosyncratic of the world’s best jazz pianists. Emerging in the bebop dawn of the mid-to-late 40s, he pursued his own idiosyncratic path, creating a unique musical universe where angular but hummable melodies, dissonant cluster chords, and a lightly-swinging rhythmic pulse ruled. As a composer, Monk contributed several standards to the jazz songbook – including “’Round Midnight” and “Straight, No Chaser” – and, as a keyboardist, recorded several albums of unaccompanied piano, including the classic Thelonious Alone In San Francisco.
1: Art Tatum (1909-1956)
At the pinnacle of our list of the 50 best jazz pianists of all time is the man regarded as a keyboard deity. Visually impaired from infancy, Ohio-born Art Tatum learned to play the piano by ear as a child and, blessed with perfect pitch, quickly excelled at the instrument. He patented a technically advanced, uniquely florid style from an early age that melded elements from stride, swing and classical music. Though hugely influential – Oscar Peterson was one of his prime disciples – Tatum’s life came to an end shortly after his 47th birthday.
Looking for more? Discover the 50 best jazz trumpeters here.
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10 celebrities who died in Florida, from the famous to the infamous
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You probably remember that Anna Nicole Smith died at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Fla. (in Room 607, to be exact), and\u00a0Bob Marley passed away at what is now University of Miami Hos…
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https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/entertainment/local/2015/06/16/10-celebrities-who-died-in/7226347007/
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You probably remember that Anna Nicole Smith died at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Fla. (in Room 607, to be exact), and Bob Marley passed away at what is now University of Miami Hospital.
And, of course, Gianni Versace was murdered outside his Miami Beach home, and Dale Earnhardt died while racing the Daytona 500 in Daytona Beach.
But did you know about these celebrities who exited the world stage on Florida soil?
1. Al Capone: The notorious Chicago crime boss died in his Palm Island estate in Miami Beach on Jan. 21, 1947. After a long, syphilis-induced slide into poor health years earlier, he suffered a stroke a few days before his death, then contracted pneumonia, then had a heart attack. He was 48 years old.
2. Joe DiMaggio: The Yankee Clipper (and heavy smoker) underwent surgery for lung cancer at Hollywood’s Memorial Regional Hospital in October 1998 and died in his Hollywood, Fla., home on March 8, 1999. He was 84.
3. Count Basie: The jazz pianist, bandleader and composer died of pancreatic cancer in Hollywood, Fla., on April 26, 1984. He was 79.
4. Maurice Gibb: One of the voices of the disco generation, the Bee Gee died unexpectedly of cardiac arrest at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach on Jan. 12, 2003. The 53-year-old awaiting surgery for a twisted intestine.
5. Norman Schwarzkopf: The general known as “Stormin’ Norman” died of complications following a bout of pneumonia on Dec. 27, 2012, in Tampa. He was 78.
6. Donna Summer: The Queen of Disco died May 17, 2012 from complications related to lung cancer — although she didn’t smoke — at her Naples, Fla., home. She was 63 years old.
7. Evel Knievel: The 1970s daredevil didn’t crash and burn. After suffering from diabetes and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis for many years, the 69-year-old died on Nov. 30, 2007 in Clearwater.
8. Dave Thomas: The Wendy’s founder died at the age of 69 in his home in Fort Lauderdale on Jan. 8, 2002. He’d battled liver cancer for a decade and had quadruple heart bypass surgery.
9. Davy Jones: At the age of 66, the Monkees front man suffered a heart attack at his home in Stuart, Fla., on Feb. 29, 2012.
10. Leslie Nielsen: The “Naked Gun” actor died of complications from pneumonia on Nov. 28, 2010 in a hospital near his home in Fort Lauderdale. He was 84 years old.
Looking for more Florida-related celebrity dish?
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https://www.answers.com/t/count-basie
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Answers about Count Basie
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William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist as well as an orchestrator of big band music. Working alongside such legendary acts as Ella Fitzgerald, Quincy Jones, and Billie Holiday, "Count" Basie's music became standards in jazz with such diverse acts as Rush, Fred Astaire, and Frank Sinatra ...
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William 'Count' Basie died on April 26, 1984 at the age of 79.
Sign in to be notified when this answer changes. You'll also enjoy the man eating pirhanas and
William count basie got his name count ecause he liked counting
Big bands were how people entertained themselves before T.V. They went out and danced to their music.
in Red Bank , New Jersey. He dropped out of junior high school to work at the Palace Theatre
Count Basie lived in Red Bank, New Jersey, New York, New York and Kansas City, Kansas. He also lived in Hollywood, Florida.
Dizzy Gillespie went to school in laurinburg institute.in north carolina.
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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
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https://abc7.com/frank-sinatra-jr-obituary-celebrity-deaths-sinatras-son/1249237/
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en
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Frank Sinatra Jr. dies unexpectedly while on tour at 72
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2016-03-17T06:59:00+00:00
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Frank Sinatra Jr., who carried on his famous father's legacy with his own music career, has died at age 72.
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ABC7 Los Angeles
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https://abc7.com/frank-sinatra-jr-obituary-celebrity-deaths-sinatras-son/1249237/
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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, Florida, the Sinatra family said in a statement to The Associated Press.
The statement said the family mourns the untimely passing of their son, brother, father and uncle. No other details were provided.
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.
PHOTOS: Celebrities and notable figures who have recently passed away
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 years.
Sinatra Jr. was married in 1998, but divorced in 2000. He is survived by a son, Michael.
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https://louisarmstrongandallthatjazz.wordpress.com/2014/11/14/count-basie/
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2014-11-14T00:00:00
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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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https://louisarmstrongandallthatjazz.wordpress.com/2014/11/14/count-basie/
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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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correct_death_00034
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FactBench
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https://jpcavanaugh.com/2023/03/10/count-basie-goes-organic/
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en
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Count Basie Goes Organic
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2023-03-10T00:00:00
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I have come to understand that the concept of "centering" is worthwhile in all sorts of pursuits, whether it might be meditation, prayer or just settling down. I realized awhile ago that it has been a long time since Count Basie has graced this place with his musical gifts. And with Count Basie sort of…
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https://secure.gravatar.com/blavatar/c044e39a2c9260b978b7910cd3359182cd47f60b06d59ec4a7c379fdd276e392?s=32
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J. P.'s Blog
|
https://jpcavanaugh.com/2023/03/10/count-basie-goes-organic/
|
I have come to understand that the concept of “centering” is worthwhile in all sorts of pursuits, whether it might be meditation, prayer or just settling down. I realized awhile ago that it has been a long time since Count Basie has graced this place with his musical gifts. And with Count Basie sort of serving as my “musical center” when it comes to classic jazz, some centering is in order. We can do our centering in a very organic way today, because one of the things that made Basie unique was his long (if infrequent) association with the Hammond organ.
William James Basie was born in 1904 in Red Bank, New Jersey. He learned piano as a kid and later followed a typical path of playing in a band on the Vaudeville circuit and then with small area bands. It was luck that Basie became stranded in Kansas City when a band broke up during the Depression. KC was a part of the country where east meets west and it was there that Bill Basie developed a style merged two kinds of rhythm in a way that changed how jazz was played. East coast bands played with a four-beat rhythm that emphasized the 1 and the 3 beats while western bands played their 4 beats differently – with the 2 and the 4 as the strong pulses. Basie produced a smooth, lilting rhythm where all four beats were pretty much equal and matched it with a freewheeling musical style got him into Kansas City’s Reno Club. He was heard on a radio broadcast by a promotor, whose efforts helped Basie start a band that ran almost uninterrupted from 1936 into until shortly before the Count’s death in 1984.
Although he was a piano guy, Basie got some experience playing theater organs during his youth when Fats Waller offered some tutelage. Waller had been the son of a preacher and had a real command of the organ. Organs are like pianos in that they have keys, but with their multiple keyboards and numerous pedals are played quite differently Theater organs were, of course, the same basic pipe organs that had been featured in the cathedrals of medieval Europe, and made their music by blowing air through dozens (if not hundreds) of specially tuned pipes. The Hammond Organ was something entirely different.
Laurens Hammond was a mechanical engineer and all-around tinkerer. He started the Hammond Clock Company in the late 1920’s and was even building a bridge table of his invention that included a built-in automatic card shuffler. He had noticed the sounds made by the whirring works of his electric clocks and started fiddling with the idea of a musical instrument that worked on the same principles. His organ employed “tonewheels”, or ridged discs spun by an electric motor, each of which generated a specific sound frequency. Those frequencies were electrified by a coil and amplified through a speaker. Hammond was not a musician and required help to tune the tonewheels to musical notes. With that task completed, Hammond patented and began selling his electric organ in 1935.
The Hammond was never envisioned as a jazz instrument, but was originally marketed mostly to churches too small to afford a “real” organ. Shortly afterwards, Hammond suggested that every household needed an electric organ too. The Hammond was perceived as a threat by pipe organ manufacturers, who sued the company in an attempt to have it called something else. An organ, however, it remained. Fats Waller was the first to notice that an electric organ could be used for jazz, and at a mere 400 pounds (the organ, that is, although Waller was close) was more-or-less portable when compared to a pipe organ. But where Waller only tinkered with it, it seems to have been Count Basie who was the first to seriously put it to work in a recording studio.
In 1939, Basie had a band that played at all of the top venues. The Basie band of those years was built around star soloists and a peerless rhythm section. On February 13, 1939 Basie tapped key members for a four-side recording session in New York, to be credited as Basie’s Bad Boys. The 8-man group did one number that found the Count sliding onto the bench of a Hammond organ. “Live And Love Tonight” is a little-remembered song from an unremarkable 1934 film (“Murder At The Vanities”), and this is probably the only version anyone remembers.
After the Buck Clayton trumpet solo, the Count goes to work with the organ. In this first recorded example of Basie at the organ bench, he plays it a lot like a piano, and even keeps time with steady pulses of the low notes. He was clearly feeling his way around this new experience, and parts of the record sound like the accompaniment of a baseball game, or even radio soap opera. The last third of the record is hard to beat with the great Lester Young’s saxophone backed by Basie’s organ playing. There may be an earlier version of the Hammond organ being put to work in jazz, but if there is I have yet to come across it.
Fast forward to1949-50 – this was a really bad time for big swing bands, with one after another closing up shop because of an inability to make them pay in an era when young couples were staying home with little kids and not going out dancing or nightclubbing. Count Basie was not immune from the trend and pulled the plug on his group in the latter part of 1949. He spent the next year-and-a-half with a small group, but was convinced by several that his brand of music could still make a big band work. This second group, often referred to as his “New Testament” band, was less reliant on soloists and was more about tightly written and played arrangements that still featured plenty of solos. One thing that did make the transition was the Count’s continued (if only occasional) use of the organ.
A pair of small-group tracks show that by 1952 Basie had become more familiar with how to get his kind of music from the organ. After early years of playing a high-energy keyboard, Basie’s style gradually became more sparse and was more about rhythm and punctuation than it was about being all over the keys. The first of these examples, “Port Of Rico”, saw Basie and his guitarist Freddie Green sitting in with the group of saxophonist Illinois Jacquet. Basie loved the tenor saxophone, and Jacquet sounds amazingly like Lester Young (a favorite of mine) in this session. Basie’s organ work is mostly in the background behind the others, but his “less is more” style really shines here, as does the way he boosts the rhythm with his playing.
Jacquet, by the way, was an early jazz player whose influence seeped into R&B and early rock & roll. Here, however, he left his hard “honking” style behind and was a good host for Count Basie with a relaxed swinging session.
“Blues For Count And Oscar” is another small group collaboration, but this time Basie was the host and paired his organ with the piano of the young up-and-coming Oscar Peterson. The contrasts of two tenor saxes (the smooth Paul Quinichette and Eddie Lockjaw Davis’ rough and raw sound) is great. And the pairing of Basie and Peterson is not just about piano and organ, but of their contrasting styles too. Peterson would go on to a long career as one of the best to ever play the keyboard and would occasionally collaborate and appear with Basie multiple times over the ensuing decades. All in all, these guys make for three minutes of peerless jazz.
I was going to stop at three, but will add a bonus track from that same year. Lest you think that all of Basie’s organ playing was with small groups, we have another 1952 track where Basie did organ with the full band. “Paradise Squat”* is some more early work by longtime Basie saxophonist Lockjaw Davis. It is clear that by 1952 the Count had full command of the Hammond organ, being able to parry and thrust with his sax soloist and to even be heard with, through and even over an early version of that fabulous powerful band of the 1950s.
The 1950s would see the jazz organ come into its own, with players like Wild Bill Davis, Jimmy Smith and Shirley Scott (who was married with and recorded quite a bit with Lockjaw Davis). Although Count Basie only played organ as an occasional change of pace from his piano, there is no doubt that Basie is the guy who kickstarted the Hammond organ into the big leagues as a jazz instrument. Something Mr. Hammond probably never saw coming, but for which music fans are much the better for.
* Note – there are two recorded versions of Paradise Squat – this one, and a slightly shorter version used for a 78 rpm release. Mark this in your calendars, because this is one place I prefer the “album cut” to the 78 version.
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Allen, Henry “Red.” Born in Algiers, Louisiana, in 1908, Allen first played trumpet in his father’s brass band. In 1927 he joined King Oliver, as had Louis Armstrong before him. After working with the already well-known leader Luis Russell, he worked with Fletcher Henderson, the Mills Blue Rhythm Band, and with Luis Russell’s band again, now fronted by Armstrong. He recorded several wonderful 78s with his own band in the late Twenties and early Thirties. His period of greatest influence was in the late Thirties, when perhaps only Armstrong and Roy Eldridge were more popular and more critically acclaimed. His powerful style, though derived at first from Armstrong, later developed idiosyncratically to the point where his long, melodic lines and original ideas were admired by many modern players as well as devotees of older styles. In the Forties he formed his own sextet and worked at prominent clubs in New York into the Fifties. He was featured in the epochal CBS-TV show “The Sound Of Jazz,” which aired not long before the Big Picture was taken. Later he was still a very powerful mainstream player, though he often performed in Dixieland groups. Allen died in 1967.
Basie, William “Count.” Born in Red Bank, New Jersey, in 1904, Basie was a pianist, leader, composer and leading figure in the swing era with a long string of successful releases. After studying piano with his mother, he went as a young man to New York where he met and learned from James P. Johnson, Fats Waller (from whom he also learned to play the organ) and other stride piano giants. By the time Basie was 20 he was touring vaudeville circuits as a solo performer and working as an accompanist for blues singers, dancers and comedians. Stranded in the late Twenties in Kansas City with an out-of-work touring group, he decided to stay there, playing piano in a silent-film theatre. In July 1928 he joined Walter Page’s Blue Devils, which included another sometime pianist, blues shouter Jimmy Rushing. About two years later Basie left the Blue Devils with others to join the Bennie Moten Orchestra. When Moten died suddenly in 1935, Basie left and organized a band with several former members of the Moten band, including Jo Jones and Lester Young, calling themselves the Barons of Rhythm. It was this band which legendary record producer and talent finder John Hammond heard on the radio. Hammond went to Kansas City to scout, and brought the band to New York for eventual stardom as the Count Basie Orchestra. Basie came to New York in 1936 with a small band which he soon enlarged to the standard swing band size of five or six brass, four or five saxophones, and four rhythm. The band continued to thrive during World War II as one of the greatest of swing bands. Despite many personnel changes, it dropped down to a septet for only two years, 1950 through 1952. The band’s recordings and radio broadcasts from New York and other big cities brought Basie international fame for “One O’Clock Jump,” “Jumping at the Woodside” and many other classics. The band was particularly successful with its use of arrangements featuring Basie’s minimalist piano style (often using only one or two fingers) and the spectacular playing of its stars. Among them were saxophonists Lester Young, Herschel Evans and Buddy Tate; trumpeters Oran “Hot Lips” Page, Harry Edison and Buck Clayton; trombonists Dickie Wells and Benny Morton; and the legendary rhythm section of Jo Jones on drums, Freddy Green on guitar and Walter Page on bass. During and after the War Basie recruited younger, inspired soloists, including saxophonists Don Byas, Lucky Thompson, Paul Gonsalves and Illinois Jacquet; trombone players J.J. Johnson and Vic Dickenson; and trumpeters Al Killian, Joe Newman and Emmett Berry. In 1954 the band made its first tour of Europe. In 1955, Basie’s 20th year as a leader, it repeated the European tour. The band featured new stars Thad Jones and Joe Wilder on trumpets; Benny Powell and Henry Coker on trombones; and arrangements by Ernie Wilkins, Neal Hefti, Johnny Mandel and Manny Albam. In September 1957 the band became the first black group to play the Waldorf-Astoria, working there a record-setting 13 weeks. It began to make yearly overseas tours and appeared at major clubs. In addition to the many Basie band recordings, Basie made a number of records as a sideman, starting in 1929 with Walter Page and Bennie Moten and with blues singer Joe Turner. Basie remained a popular and permanent institution on the national and international scene until his death. Even today his band continues to play under the leadership of longtime veteran Frank Foster. The Basie band and its stars have garnered many awards, including several from the readers of Down Beat and Metronome. Basie died in 1984.
Blakey, Art. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1919, this drummer and bandleader was an important figure in the history of modern jazz, particularly hard bop. Blakey was known to many musicians by his Muslim name “Buhaina.” Early in his career he was a sideman in the later years of the famous Fletcher Henderson Orchestra (1939-1944). He also led his own big band briefly in the Boston area. In 1944 he joined the seminal Billy Eckstine band, an incubator of bop which sprang from the Earl Hines big band. It included many innovative musicians, notably Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon and Fats Navarro. In 1947, when the Eckstine group disbanded, Blakey formed a big rehearsal band he called the Jazz Messengers. The many incarnations of Jazz Messengers were proving grounds for a long list of important musicians, including Donald Byrd, Johnny Griffin, Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard, Keith Jarrett, Woody Shaw, and Branford and Wynton Marsalis. His later Messenger groups were smaller, usually quintets. Blakey’s first band, co-led with Horace Silver, featured trumpeter Kenny Dorham and tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley. When Silver left to form his own band, Blakey took over the group. In 1971-1972 he toured in the Giants of Jazz with Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Sonny Stitt and Kai Winding. Blakey, an innovative and influential drummer, fronted an unbroken series of Jazz Messengers until his death in 1990.
Clayton, Buck. Born in Parsons, Kansas, in 1911, Clayton was a trumpet player, composer and arranger. He learned piano from his father, who taught various instruments. He moved to California at 21, but left shortly thereafter to take a 21-piece band to Shanghai for two years. Back in the U.S. he replaced the prominent Hot Lips Page in Count Basie’s band in 1936, when promoter Joe Glaser attempted to make Page into another Louis Armstrong. Clayton is best known for his work with Basie from 1936 through 1943, as well as his excellent arrangements in mainstream swing style. His trumpet work was always inventive and inspired, showing great range and taste. As a result, he was chosen to play on many of the important Teddy Wilson-led Billie Holiday recordings of the late Thirties and early Forties. As an exciting but thoroughly logical and lyrical trumpeter, he was rivaled only by his contemporaries Roy Eldridge and Red Allen. After seven years with the Basie band as it rose to fame in the late Thirties and early Forties, Clayton joined the army in 1943. Discharged in 1946, he became a member of Norman Granz’ Jazz At The Philharmonic, touring France in 1949 and again in 1953. He was a member of Joe Bushkin’s quartet in New York from 1951 through 1953 and later made numerous records with bands assembled for specific occasions. He worked with Benny Goodman at the Brussels World’s Fair in 1958 and with Eddie Condon’s groups beginning in 1959. He toured Japan and Australia and made several annual tours of Europe in the Sixties, appearing at jazz festivals. In the mid-Sixties lip problems curtailed his trumpet playing, but he continued to arrange and compose, and fronted his own bands frequently into the late Eighties. Clayton died in New York in 1993.
Eldridge, Roy. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1911, Eldridge was a bridge between Louis Armstrong’s style and bop, and one of the most significant trumpet players and leaders of the Thirties and Forties. He was self-taught except for some instruction in theory from his elder brother Joe. He started playing semi-professionally at the age of 16, and within a couple of years was on the road with well-known bands, including those of Horace Henderson, Speed Webb, Zack Whyte and Elmer Snowden. Eldridge worked with Teddy Hill’s band in New York in 1935, where he teamed up with tenor star Chu Berry (Coleman Hawkins’ main challenger). Next, he joined Fletcher Henderson, one of the premier swing bands of its time, where he followed Red Allen as the principal trumpet soloist. Eldridge left Henderson in 1936 to lead his own explosive little band—three saxophones, four rhythm—in a famous extended stay at the historic Three Deuces Club in Chicago. For many months the band broadcast nightly at 1:00 A.M. During this period Eldridge says he “left the band business to study radio engineering for eight months,” a claim which turned out to be only wishful rewriting of history. (“I know because I was his electronics mentor for the rest of his life,” reports Charles Graham.) After a second stint with his band at the Three Deuces, Eldridge went on to national prominence both as horn player and vocalist with Gene Krupa’s big band, where he replaced his friend and admirer, the phenomenal trumpet player Shorty Sherock. He made memorable recordings with Krupa, two of which would be identified with him for the rest of his life: “Let Me Off Uptown” and “Rockin’ Chair.” Later Eldridge formed a larger band which played at the Arcadia Ballroom in New York and at Kelly’s Stable. He subsequently worked with many popular big bands, including those of Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw, and was on staff at CBS. During this time he toured for more than a year in Europe. In the Fifties he frequently performed with Jazz At The Philharmonic where he teamed with Coleman Hawkins, an association that continued as long as he traveled. Eldridge worked briefly with Count Basie’s band but found it too confining. Finally in 1970 he settled, for the rest of his performing life, at Jimmy Ryan’s club in New York. Even in this format, he managed to remain the surging, vital swing star he had always been. The Ryan’s job lasted for about 10 years, and though the club had been known as a 52nd Street Dixieland stronghold, during Eldridge’s long tenure it became a home of swing. Eventually doctor’s orders forced him to stop playing the trumpet. However, he continued to appear throughout the Eighties, singing on occasion and playing a little drums and piano (a role he had frequently filled while with Gene Krupa) and at school clinics. In 1989, three weeks after his wife of 52 years died, Eldridge stopped eating and was taken to a hospital where, according to the medical diagnosis, he died of malnutrition. Many who knew him consider loneliness to be the cause of his death.
Freeman, Bud. Born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1906, Freeman was a tenor saxophonist most often associated with Chicago-style jazz. Although the tenor saxophone had previously not been considered a proper instrument in Dixieland music, he made it acceptable. His style derived partly from the sound of prominent C-melody saxophonist Frank Trumbauer, longtime partner of Bix Beiderbecke. Lester Young often cited Freeman as one of his influences. Freeman’s solos were usually bouncy, as demonstrated in his original composition “The Eel,” which he recorded several times. He was part of the famous Austin High School Gang of Chicago, which often included guitarist, raconteur and promoter Eddie Condon as well as Gene Krupa, Pee Wee Russell and Jimmy and Dick McPartland. As early as 1928 Freeman played in Paris with his close friend, drummer Dave Tough. Later he was part of the saxophone sections of many famous big bands, led by such notables as Paul Whiteman, Ray Noble, Art Kassell, Roger Wolfe Kahn, Ben Pollack, Red Nichols, Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey. In 1939 Freeman formed a small recording band which he called the Summa Cum Laude Orchestra. After a relatively brief stint on the road with this group, he worked primarily as a soloist. Beginning in 1969 he played in The World’s Greatest Jazz Band. Freeman died in Chicago in 1988.
Gillespie, John Birks “Dizzy.” Born in Cheraw, South Carolina, in 1917, Gillespie was a trumpeter, leader and composer. At the time of the Big Picture, he was well on his way to becoming one of the premier jazz musicians in the world. He studied trombone in his early teens but soon switched to trumpet. Gillespie first came to prominence in the late Thirties when he was hired by Teddy Hill to replace Roy Eldridge. Lionel Hampton’s first recording for RCA Victor in 1939 starred Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Chu Berry and Benny Carter on saxophones, Cozy Cole and Milt Hinton in the rhythm section, and a 22-year-old Gillespie on trumpet. He was in the Cab Calloway band for more than two years before being fired for cutting up—both figuratively and literally. When he was about 26 or 27, Gillespie, Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk, along with a few other musicians, began to evolve swing into the complicated music called bebop (later bop). Gillespie worked for a while in the big band of Earl Hines and later with singer Billy Eckstine’s band, where he was the musical director. Both bands were strongly influenced by his ideas. After that he led his own groups, several radical large bands in the late Forties and early Fifties. Upon discovering that big bands were economically impractical, he spent the rest of his life leading small groups, although he often fronted big bands on special occasions. He had an unusually outgoing personality that radiated good humor, mimicry and self-parody in equal parts. His humorous stage manner, incredible trumpet improvisations and innovative compositions were the basis of his fame. At the time of his death, Gillespie was the most popular—and the most important—jazz musician in the world. His numerous works include “A Night in Tunisia,” “Manteca,” “Groovin’ High,” “Woody ‘n You” and many others among today’s jazz standards. Although he had joined the Baha’i religion, his wife Lorraine was a devout Catholic and kept a small Catholic chapel in their home. When he died in 1993, two major memorial ceremonies were held in New York. The first was in St. Peter’s Lutheran Church at 53rd Street in Manhattan (where Coleman Hawkins, Roy Eldridge and scores of other musicians’ final rites had taken place) attended by an overflow congregation of several hundred mourners. The second, a few days later, was held in the huge Cathedral of St. John the Divine, in upper Manhattan, attended by several thousand people.
Glenn, Tyree. Born in Corsicana, Texas, in 1912, Glenn played trombone and vibraphone. His professional career began in Washington, D.C., where he played with the Tommy Mills band from 1934 through 1936. By 1937 he was playing in New York City with Eddie Barefield, then Eddie Mallory and later Benny Carter (1937-1939). He joined Cab Calloway’s orchestra in 1940, where he remained until 1946. He toured Europe with Don Redman in 1946, and in 1947 joined Duke Ellington’s orchestra for five years. In 1953 he went to WPIX in New York as a staff musician. Next, he joined CBS radio, where he appeared daily on the Jack Sterling show and later on Arthur Godfrey’s daily radio show. Subsequently he worked at New York Studios and again for Ellington. While playing with Eddie Mallory, Glenn accompanied Ethel Walters on her U.S. tour. It was she who encouraged him to take up the vibes by giving him his first set, which he kept and used for the rest of his life. Soon after joining Ellington, Glenn added to his repertoire the growl and wah-wah sounds featured on many Ellington numbers, and used them in all his playing thereafter to great effect. In addition to his exceptionally clear ringing tone, special effects and fine vibraphone solos, Glenn’s easy, outgoing personality made him very popular in his frequent night club and radio appearances. During his last years (1965-1968) Glenn performed with Louis Armstrong & his All-Stars. While on the road with Armstrong, Glenn served as the band’s musical director, often going on ahead of the group to rehearse local rhythm sections for the band. Glenn died in New Jersey in 1972.
Hawkins, Coleman. Born in St. Joseph, Missouri, in 1904, this great tenor saxophonist went on the road with Mamie Smith’s Jazz Hounds in 1922 while still in his teens. In 1923 he joined Fletcher Henderson, at that time one of the hottest bands in the country, and stayed there for 10 years. Believing there was nowhere else for him to go in the U.S., Hawkins sent the leading English bandleader, Jack Hylton, a telegram saying, “I would like to come to England.” Hylton wired back at once, hiring him. Hawkins intended to stay only a year or so but stayed almost five. By the time he returned to the States, he was widely acknowledged to be one of the best tenor players in the world. In late 1939 Hawkins made his famous recording of “Body and Soul.” It was a runaway hit that remains a favorite of musicians. Consisting of a four-bar piano intro followed by several choruses of tenor sax and a protracted ending, it had no vocal chorus and was not arranged. Less than three minutes long, it is arguably the most admired saxophone solo of all time and a true masterpiece. Hawkins was associated with that tune for the rest of his life. After the record’s success, he quickly assembled a nine-piece band and went on the road for several years. He never again worked under any leader. At the time of the Big Picture, he was one of the best-regarded older jazzmen, reigning as “The Champ” until his decline in the mid-Sixties. Some assume that Lester Young had long ago challenged him and even toppled him from preeminence, but the two were exponents of widely differing schools—Hawkins “hot” and Young “cool”—and were never really in competition. Hawkins died in 1969.
Hinton, Milt. Born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, in 1910, Hinton was an excellent amateur photographer as well as a consummate bass player. Hinton grew up in Chicago and started playing with prominent bands in the Thirties. In the mid-Thirties he worked for Zutty Singleton at the Three Deuces Club in Chicago, until he was hired away in 1936 by Cab Calloway, with whom he stayed until 1951. From then on he freelanced extensively, working with such top leaders as Count Basie, Louis Armstrong and Benny Goodman. One of the most sought-after bassists in jazz, Hinton has appeared on innumerable recordings, often under his own name. Many of his thousands of photographs, taken over the course of 50 years, have been published in two books coauthored with his friend David Berger, Bass Line and Overtime, where some of the pictures in this film first appeared. Though active into the Nineties, Hinton was slowing down by 1997. His health continued to fail until he died in the year 2000.
Jackson, Chubby. Born in New York City in 1918, bass player Jackson was playing bass in popular bands by 1937, including those of Mike Reilly (“The Music Goes Down and Around”), Johnny Messner, Raymond Scott, Jan Savitt and Henry Busse. From 1941 through 1943 he was with Charlie Barnet before starting his greatest association, the first of several stints with various Woody Herman “herds.” As a key member of Herman bands, Jackson was widely regarded to be their spark plug. He composed several of the bands’ hits, including “Northwest Passage.” Jackson went to Europe with his own quintet in 1947 and led a band in New York in 1949. His ebullient personality and great drive made him a valuable addition to any group he played with during the bop era. He won numerous awards, including Esquire’s New Star award in 1945, its Gold Award in 1946 and 1947, and the Down Beat poll in 1945. It is interesting to note that Jackson’s son Duffy is an outstanding drummer who worked for years with various Count Basie bands and other bands around the world. Chubby died in 2003.
Jones, Hank. Born in Pontiac, Michigan, in 1918, pianist Jones was the elder brother of jazz musicians Thad (trumpet) and Elvin (drums). He started playing in Michigan and later moved to Buffalo, New York. He arrived in New York in 1944 and played in the groups of Hot Lips Page, Andy Kirk and John Kirby, and he also accompanied Billy Eckstine. In addition, Jones worked with Coleman Hawkins, and in 1947 was on one of the first Jazz At The Philharmonic tours. He accompanied Ella Fitzgerald from 1948 through 1953, including a tour of Europe, and made several great recordings with Charlie Parker for Norman Granz. He freelanced in New York until 1956, then joined with Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman. He did more freelancing until 1958, just before the Big Picture was taken. After that he joined the CBS network orchestra and stayed there until it disbanded 17 years later. Jones is the epitome of “session” musicians because he can readily fit into any musical style—old or new, traditional, swing or modern. He can read anything with great precision, a must in top professional work. He performed on the Ed Sullivan Show many times, and has played on hundreds of recordings. In the Seventies he was pianist and assistant to the conductor for the Broadway show “Ain’t Misbehavin’.” In recent years he has appeared and toured with innumerable prominent groups and has been a longtime member of a group called the New York Rhythm Section, consisting of Milt Hinton (bass), Barry Galbraith (guitar) and Osie Johnson (drums).
Krupa, Gene. Born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1909, Krupa is probably the most famous drummer ever, certainly in the era of swing music, starting with his place in the Benny Goodman band of the late Thirties and later with his own band. Apart from the many records he made with his own band and with Goodman, he was the nominal leader of an extraordinary 1935 recording called “Swing Is Here,” featuring Roy Eldridge, Chu Berry and Goodman. Supplementing Krupa’s own solid musical style was his superb showmanship. His remarkable work with Goodman at the beginning of the swing era and Goodman’s own meteoric rise to stardom combined to propel Krupa to a similar stardom himself. It is unfortunate that he is better remembered for his heavy drumming in “Sing, Sing, Sing” with Goodman than for his superb drumming with his own band. Hollywood made “The Gene Krupa Story” based loosely on his career, with the actor Sal Mineo as Krupa. When the picture failed to include Roy Eldridge, through no fault of Krupa’s, he gave Eldridge an expensive set of drums. Krupa’s group disbanded permanently in 1951 whereupon he performed with Jazz At The Philharmonic and later with his own small groups. In 1951 Krupa and Cozy Cole started a drum school in New York. He continued teaching, studying classical drumming and playing in small groups intermittently for the next 12 years. Krupa died in 1973.
McPartland, Marian. Born in Windsor, England, in 1920, this fine pianist came from a family of musicians, including a great-uncle, Sir Frederick Dyson (Mayor of the City of Windsor), who played cello. McPartland debuted as part of a traveling four-piano group, then, just before World War II, she formed a duo with the prominent British pianist Billy Mayerl. She married trumpeter Jimmy McPartland during World War II, and the couple came to the U.S. after the war in 1946 to start a group led by Jimmy. This band broke up in 1951. Marian then formed her first trio and worked at many popular spots, starting with The Hickory House. Gradually that club became a well-known musicians’ hangout and was Duke Ellington’s regular dining spot whenever he was in New York. McPartland became widely known, continuing to lead her trio as the house band there for a number of years. She also worked at The Composer in New York and at the London House in Chicago. She has appeared widely at jazz festivals and concerts all over the world and has made many recordings on her own label. She is currently known for her weekly radio program, “Piano Jazz,” on which she interviews and plays with pianists and other musicians. The program has been heard regularly for many years on hundreds of public radio stations throughout the U.S.
Mingus, Charles. Born in Nogales, Arizona, in 1922, Mingus was an extremely creative and innovative composer as well as a bass player, leader and pianist. His compositions were recorded on his own short-lived labels as well as on Columbia and Atlantic. He first came to national attention as a member of Red Norvo’s trio with guitarist Tal Farlow in 1950-1951. He also participated in the memorable Massey Hall concert in Toronto with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. In the mid-Fifties Mingus ran the Jazz Composers’ Workshop and was a key member, with Max Roach, of the Jazz Composers’ Guild, a successor to the Rebels’ Festival in Newport in the summer of 1960. He was noted for his egocentric yet generous personality, his habit of admonishing audiences and his self-destructive tendencies. In 1971 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship award and published his autobiography, Beneath the Underdog. “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” and “Better Git Your Soul” are two of the best-known titles among his immense body of original work. His life was stormy, and his legacy, carried on musically by The Mingus Dynasty and other orchestras in the Eighties and Nineties, continues to grow. Mingus died in 1979.
Monk, Thelonious Sphere. Born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, in 1917, this pianist, composer and leader moved to New York at a young age. At first a disciple of the great stride pianist James P. Johnson, he later became an early experimenter in what was to become bop, along with Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell and others at Minton’s and other uptown hangouts. He led his own quartet in relative obscurity for years, finally achieving recognition in the Fifties. His eccentric speech and onstage persona, combined with his unique, jagged piano style and offbeat titles for compositions, gained him much notice, even notoriety, for years. He was scheduled to appear on the cover of Time magazine in late November 1963, but was bumped from there by coverage of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination. (He did make the cover several months later, however.) Monk made many overseas tours with his quartet and traveled around the world with other leaders as The Giants of Jazz in the Seventies. He wrote numerous compositions, including “Epistrophy,” “Well You Needn’t” and “Crepuscule with Nellie.” In the Seventies he gradually faded from public view and became a recluse, living at the home of his most prominent champion, Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter. Since his death, his work has attracted ever-increasing attention. Many of his compositions have become jazz standards, most notably “Round Midnight.” Monk died in 1982.
Pettiford, Oscar. Born in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, in 1922, this noted bass and cello player, leader and composer was part of a large musical family. He learned to play several instruments at an early age, and by 1943, when he was not yet 20, had worked with Charlie Barnet’s big band and Roy Eldridge’s quintet. Soon afterward he joined the emerging bop scene in New York as co-leader with Dizzy Gillespie of a group on 52nd Street. From 1944 onward he was in many groups, large and small, including those of Woody Herman and Duke Ellington. By the mid-Fifties he had his own band but was not temperamentally suited to be a leader. A very important musician on bass as well as cello, he introduced much innovation to the playing of both instruments. More than anyone except perhaps the very short-lived Jimmy Blanton (and later Charles Mingus and Ray Brown), Pettiford established the bass as a solo instrument in addition to its role in the rhythm section. Pettiford in 1960.
Rushing, Jimmy. Born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in 1902, Rushing was a singer and pianist. He began singing in after-hours clubs in the mid-Twenties, and first met with success in and around Kansas City with Walter Page and his Blue Devils (1927-1928) and Bennie Moten’s band (1929-1934). In 1935 Rushing joined Count Basie and accompanied him to New York. It was as a member of that orchestra in the late Thirties that he came to national prominence. Known as “Mr. Five-by-Five” because of his girth, he was an entirely original and forceful blues singer and was greatly responsible for the popularity of the Basie band in its early years. Due to the exposure that band gave him, he was able to go out on his own in the Fifties, being replaced in Basie’s band by vocalist Joe Williams. Rushing toured and recorded solo and with his own groups, and appeared at many jazz festivals and on overseas tours, including one with Benny Goodman in 1958. He later performed with Eddie Condon and Buck Clayton. He recorded prolifically with the Basie band and one time with Goodman. His distinctive, high-pitched blues-shouting style was as instantly recognizable as Louis Armstrong’s. Among Basie’s many stars, none was more responsible for its early popular success than Rushing. He died in 1972.
Russell, Pee Wee. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1906, Russell was a clarinetist with the Austin High School Gang in Chicago in the early Twenties, and with numerous Dixieland groups thereafter. During the Twenties he also played with Jack Teagarden in Texas and with Bix Beiderbecke in St. Louis. In 1927 he moved to New York to play with Red Nichols & his Five Pennies, and from 1935 through 1937 he was with trumpeter Louis Prima. From the mid-Forties onward he played most often in groups led by Eddie Condon, frequently at New York Dixieland hangouts like Nick’s and Condon’s. Russell was famous for his plaintive tone smears, very unusual timbres and wandering melody lines. His unique, complex and inimitable style included a great variety of odd squeaks and growls, alternating soft and hard notes, rasping attacks and soaring, long-held or abruptly terminated phrases and notes. He played greatly contrasting rhythms, often widely varying the time values as well as the notes. Almost no one has attempted to emulate him, nor consciously demonstrated being influenced by his style. Nevertheless Russell was one of the best-known and widely admired clarinet players for years. He died in 1969.
Silver, Horace. Born in Norwalk, Connecticut, in 1928, Silver has been a pianist, composer and leader of his own quintets since the early Fifties. He started playing tenor saxophone in high school but gave it up when he heard Lester Young on records. He is recognized as one of the most important founders of the hard bop school. When Stan Getz made an appearance in 1950 in Hartford, Silver’s hometown, he heard Horace and his trio play and offered them a job then and there. The job lasted about a year and launched Silver’s career. In 1951 he moved to New York and worked with such important and prominent musicians as Lester Young, Oscar Pettiford and Coleman Hawkins. From 1953 until 1955 he was with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. In addition to his importance in establishing hard bop, he fused elements of rhythm & blues, gospel music and jazz, influencing pianists such as Ramsey Lewis, Bobby Timmons and Les McCann. He was largely responsible for setting what would become the standard instrumentation of bop groups in the late Fifties and Sixties: trumpet, saxophone, piano, bass and drums. He also nurtured many important younger players who joined his groups, including Art Farmer, Blue Mitchell, Donald Byrd, Woody Shaw, Benny Golson and Joe Henderson. He carried his piano style, hard “comping” (accompaniment), to a high level of musicianship while developing his own style of composing and arranging. He is one of the few musicians in jazz who records his own compositions almost exclusively. He has had numerous hit records and a number of his compositions have become jazz standards, including “The Preacher,” “Doodlin’,” “Sister Sadie” and “Song for My Father.” Since the mid-Sixties he has experimented with large ensembles, including voices, woodwinds, strings and other combinations. Although frequently plagued with arthritis of the hands, he has maintained a busy schedule well into the 21st century.
Smith, Willie “the Lion.” Born in Goshen, New York, in 1897, Smith was a pianist. Though he’s not in the Big Picture—he was tired and had sat down on steps next door—he appears in many other pictures taken that day. “The Lion” was almost always seen, as he was on that day, with a cigar clenched firmly in his teeth and wearing his derby hat. A most colorful individual, he sometimes bragged that he was Hebrew and even a cantor. He was one of the best known of the Harlem stride school, along with James P. Johnson, Fats Waller and Luckey Roberts. His style was particularly individual in that he adapted the flavor of 19th century impressionist composers Ravel and Debussy, whom he greatly admired, to stride piano. He penned many beautiful miniatures that combined impressionism with stride. In the late Thirties Smith became known to a wider public through several recordings. Artie Shaw and Tommy Dorsey performed memorable arrangements of his compositions, especially “Echo of Spring.” Smith was an early mentor to Ralph Sutton, Mel Powell and Duke Ellington, the latter of whom composed and recorded “Portrait of the Lion” in tribute to Smith. In the Fifties Smith performed often at the Central Plaza and elsewhere in New York. He toured Europe several times and appeared at many jazz festivals. His life was documented in an autobiography (with George Hoefer), Music on My Mind, published in 1964. Smith died in 1973.
Stewart, Rex. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1907, Stewart played cornet and trumpet. In his early years he played several instruments, but cornet was always his main focus. His most important early work was with Fletcher Henderson’s band as the replacement for Louis Armstrong (at Armstrong’s suggestion), who was leaving to form his own band. Initially Stewart felt uneasy about his ability to fill the shoes of his idol, and soon left Fletcher to join the band of Fletcher’s younger brother Horace. After a year or so with Horace, the now better-prepared Stewart rejoined Fletcher Henderson. He stayed with Fletcher more than four years this time, until 1934 when he left to join Duke Ellington’s band. By that time Ellington was in his golden era, well on his way to becoming what he would be ever after: the most original and longest-playing band leader ever. Stewart, a true master, stayed 10 years with the band for what would be his longest and most important job. There he invented the unique growling, almost human, half-valve sound featured nightly in the extended piece “Boy Meets Horn.” This was also the title of Stewart’s autobiography, published posthumously by Claire Gordon in 1982. Stewart wrote a number of other well-known Ellington numbers, but he remained forever identified with “Boy Meets Horn.” After Ellington, Stewart worked primarily with his own groups and made several U.S. and worldwide appearances, including Jazz At The Philharmonic. In the late Forties he stayed in France long enough to study at the famous cooking school, Le Cordon Bleu. While there, he also delivered several lectures on jazz at the Paris Conservatory of Music. Later he delivered similar ones at the University of Melbourne, Australia. In 1957 and 1958 he became musical director for a festival at Great South Bay, Long Island, celebrating the music of Fletcher Henderson with the Henderson Alumni Orchestra. He also played for two years at Eddie Condon’s jazz club in New York. Stewart went into semi-retirement in the Sixties, though he wrote frequently for Down Beat magazine and often appeared briefly at night spots blowing his incomparable cornet. A number of extremely interesting articles on music and musicians by Stewart were collected in Jazz Masters of the 30s, published by MacMillan as part of a series. Stewart died in 1972 in Los Angeles.
Ware, Wilbur. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1923, Ware was an extraordinary bass player whose strong tone and harmonic inventiveness made him much sought-after by a wide variety of groups, small and large. Even in his later years he worked with experimental groups while continuing to play in established mainstream and bop groups. Beginning in the mid-Forties he worked with such prominent leaders as Roy Eldridge, Joe Williams and Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson. By the Fifties he had worked with Johnny Griffin, Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and Thelonious Monk. Later, as house bassist at Riverside Records, Ware could be heard on many important recordings. In New York he played with John Coltrane in Monk’s quartet at the Five Spot. He also led his own small groups and played with the Sonny Rollins trio at the Village Vanguard. Being in great demand, he worked steadily in a wide variety of groups. In the early Sixties he joined Max Roach, Charles Mingus and others in the Newport Rebels, a group formed in protest against the Newport Jazz Festival. A number of significant recordings by this group and associated musicians were released later. In the mid-Sixties illness forced him to return to Chicago, but in the Seventies he returned to New York, where he was active with mainstream as well as avant-garde groups. Ware died in 1979.
Wilkins, Ernie. Born in St. Louis in 1922, Wilkins is recognized as a saxophonist, composer and arranger. He is best known for his arrangements for big bands, including those of Dizzy Gillespie, Tommy Dorsey, Harry James and Count Basie. He began playing professionally in a famous Navy band during World War II with such budding stars as Clark Terry, Gerald Wilson, Major Holley and earlier stars like alto saxophonist Willie Smith. In 1949 he was in the last Earl Hines big band. In 1951 he joined the Count Basie band, playing both alto and tenor saxophones. He gained prominence in the Fifties for his compositions and arrangements. He performed and arranged for Dizzy Gillespie’s big band and went overseas with it for the U.S. State Department in 1956. He then wrote for Harry James and was greatly instrumental in modernizing that band. His arrangements were largely responsible for the success of the Count Basie band in the Fifties. After that he worked for Earl Hines and others, concentrating mainly on arranging, and served as musical director for A & R Records. In the late Sixties Wilkins went to Europe with Clark Terry’s big band as musical director, and he settled in Copenhagen. In his later years, he was confined to a wheelchair after suffering a stroke, finally passing away in 1999.
Young, Lester “Pres.” Born in Woodville, Mississippi, in 1909, Young played tenor saxophone. By 1930 he was playing with various Midwest bands and in 1934 worked briefly with Count Basie. After short stays with several other bands he rejoined Basie, where he remained until he became a solo star. During his time with Basie he developed a very wide following among tenor men. He was perceived as the founder of a new, light, soaring way of playing tenor. It was very different from the husky, aggressive, punchy playing style of Coleman Hawkins, Chu Berry and Ben Webster, the most widely admired tenor players in the Thirties and early Forties. In the late Thirties Young made a number of historic recordings with Billie Holiday. In late 1944 he was drafted into the Army for what turned out to be a very harsh period in his life. He was released about a year later after months of Army confinement for using drugs. He then returned to playing music, and made his first solo recordings in addition to working every year with Jazz At The Philharmonic. Between his discharge from the Army in 1945 and the taking of the Big Picture, late 1958, he continued to drink and use drugs heavily, and in the late Fifties he was rarely at the peak of his powers. During and after the early years of bebop, Young continued to win admirers, most notably Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Stan Getz and Zoot Sims. Ultimately he developed even more adherents to his lyrical style of legato tenor. Although never really a bebop musician, Young was an important transitional figure between swing and bop, along with Roy Eldridge, Charlie Christian and others. He died in early 1959.
|
||||||||
correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
|
3
| 59 |
https://www.mtdemocrat.com/prospecting/legendary-count-basie-orchestra-comes-to-the-center/article_485b245a-26a8-11ef-a708-ab2383973013.html
|
en
|
Legendary Count Basie Orchestra comes to The Center
|
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"Leila Srouji"
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2024-07-05T10:00:00-07:00
|
GRASS VALLEY — The Center for the Arts presents the Count Basie Orchestra with special guest Gunhild Carling in the Marisa Funk Theater on July 13.
|
en
|
https://www.mtdemocrat.com/content/tncms/site/icon.ico
|
Mountain Democrat
|
https://www.mtdemocrat.com/prospecting/legendary-count-basie-orchestra-comes-to-the-center/article_485b245a-26a8-11ef-a708-ab2383973013.html
| |||||
correct_death_00034
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FactBench
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1
| 40 |
https://www.tallahassee.com/story/life/2016/10/21/famu-grad-finds-niche-playing-pocket-count-basie-orchestra/92475476/
|
en
|
All that Jazz: FAMU grad adds drumming talent to Count Basie Orchestra
|
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2016-10-21T00:00:00
|
Ray Nelson II is realizing childhood dream as professional musician
|
en
|
Tallahassee Democrat
|
https://www.tallahassee.com/story/life/2016/10/21/famu-grad-finds-niche-playing-pocket-count-basie-orchestra/92475476/
|
At the ripe ‘ole age of 23, Ray Nelson II already refers to his co-workers as “cats” and his work schedule as “gigs.”
That's just part of the jazz parlance the Florida A&M University graduate has picked up as the drummer and newest member of the 81-year-old Count Basie Orchestra.
Patrons attending last month’s inaugural Florida Jazz & Blues Festival at Casades Park will remember Nelson as the drummer who brought the crowd to its feet with a jaw-dropping solo during the orchestra’s performance of “WhirlyBirds.”
Nelson wasn’t able to attend last week’s homecoming activities. He was performing with the orchestra at New York’s Apollo Theater for the kick-off celebration honoring the 100th birthday of vocalist Ella Fitzgerald.
“Being a member of the Marching 100 means so much to me,” Nelson said in an interview from Los Angeles, where he now lives. “Growing up around this incomparable band taught me so many things, music-related and life-related.
“I always felt like if I could come up in the "100" that I could do anything,” he continued. “I learned so much about discipline and perfection, and pushing myself until you have no more to give; leaving it all on the field.”
Musical legacy
Actually, the interest in drumming and his subsequent journey to FAMU began before he entered kindergarten. He comes from a family of FAMU graduates and musicians.
His father, Ray Nelson, attended FAMU and played trumpet and French horn in the Marching 100 under its founder, William P. Foster. His mother, Terrion Nelson, attended FAMU, sang in the campus choir and was elected Miss FAMU in 1987. His grandfather, Edward Nelson, played drums for the Marching 100 and later worked as a jazz drummer.
“The moment they saw me playing on hymn books and Bibles at church and always going near the drums, they knew that music and drums were my gift," said Nelson, whose friends also call by his nickname, “Quasi.”
He recalls being 3 or 4 years old when he got his "First Act" drum set, a four-piece ensemble with a “Geoffrey the giraffe” chair.
“My first real instructions came from my "Papa,” he said, referring to his grandfather. “The moment when he realized how serious I was taking it at such a young age, he pulled down his vintage 1965 Rodgers drum kit and begin giving me lessons on rudiments and basic fundamentals before I could even touch the drum set.
“My goal at the time was to be great, that simple,” he added. “It was so many drummers that I looked up to in my hometown (West Palm Beach) … I wanted to be just like them; better even.”
Nelson spent a great deal of his childhood honing his skills and staying focused. He graduated from Alexander W. Dreyfoos High School for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach and headed to FAMU.
FAMU years
He credits Professor Shaylor James, assistant director of bands and director of percussion, as being a major influence.
“A huge shout out to Dr. Shaylor James, my percussion instructor at FAMU,” Nelson said. “These lessons have truly translated over to my everyday life. It’s an honor to have served as a member of the Marching 100 and being a part of a legacy.”
James, who has taught at FAMU for 52 years, remembers being equally impressed with Nelson.
“Since I've known him, he has displayed only the highest level of character, integrity and musicianship,” James said. “When I auditioned him as an entering freshman percussionist at FAMU, I was impressed with his unlimited talent and potential. During this period, he was a very talented and focused individual who continued to grow as a drummer, percussionist and consummate musician.”
At the same time, Nelson’s father, also was using his connections by reaching out to Scotty Barnhart, with whom he played in the Marching 100. Barnhart joined the Count Basie Orchestra in January 1993 but returned to graduate from FAMU in 1998. He was appointed band director in September 2013.
William “Count” Basie formed the Count Basie Orchestra in 1935 and served as director for nearly 50 years until his death in 1984 at 79. It has long been considered one the world’s most influential orchestras, attracting soloists from Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett to Billie Holiday and others.
The orchestra’s website describes it as “an American institution that personifies the grandeur and excellence of jazz." It has won every major jazz poll in the world at least once, won 18 Grammy Awards, performed for kings, queens and every major jazz festival and major concert hall in the world.
The recruit
Basie was known to recruit only the best musicians. As director, Barnhart's role is to continue that tradition. He remembers the senior Nelson calling him, saying, “He can really play, he’s only 2.”
That was followed up with another call, “He’s 5, he can really play.”
And then, “Better watch out, he’s 12, he can play.”
Barnhart later received a DVD of the son performing.
“I said, ‘OK!," Barnhart said, recalling how impressed he was with the student’s talent and natural ability.
Finally, in 2010 when he was conducting the Florida All-State Orchestra, one of the young drummers caught his eye. It was Ray Nelson II.
Barnhart shared some Count Basie and Duke Ellington's music, only to have Nelson blow him away after a few listens.
“I said, “Oh, my God,’ “ Barnhart recalled.
He started following Nelson’s development at FAMU and continued to be impressed with his technique.
“I said this cat has turned into a tremendous drummer,” Barnhart said. “If anything comes up, I will have to call him.”
In 2015, Nelson graduated from FAMU with an undergraduate degree in jazz studies with a minor in music industry. He returned to West Palm Beach and then decided to move to California. He had become enamored with California while participating in 2014 with the Disney All-American College Band at DisneyLand.
Barnhart remained in touch with Nelson. He gave him two CDs that covered most of the orchestra’s set list. He also started mentioning Nelson’s name to another jazz great, Wynton Marsalis, who was eager to meet him.
But Barnhart had first dibs.
Last October, he told Nelson to get ready. The Basie Orchestra was soon going to need a drummer . Nelson was invited to play two performances to fill in on drums.
When the orchestra’s drummer left a short while afterward, Barnhart hired Nelson full-time last October.
“When I got the official call (from Barnhart), I was driving down Interstate 5 at night,” Nelson said. “I hung up and called my parents, in tears, because I couldn't believe it. God truly keeps his word.”
James said the fact that Nelson was recruited to join the orchestra doesn't surprise him. He describes his former student as a person who wasn't just focused. He also understood the importance of being a serious musician.
"I am not surprised at Ray being successful in getting the job with the Count Basie Orchestra because he was never one to rely solely on talent," James said. "He has always been a conscientious young man with high ideals and an outstanding capacity for carrying out assigned tasks. In my opinion, his current job with the Count Basie Orchestra is only the beginning of a fabulous career. Ray is a phenomenal drummer and individual. They sky is the limit for him."
Nelson's skills are impressive, especially given his age.
"The main thing we look for is ability," Barnhart said. "We get the best people we can find."
Nelson remembers his “first official gig” was on January 23 at Symphony Hall in Chicago. The Count Basie Orchestra was sharing the stage with The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis.
“Talk about pressure,” Nelson said of the performance.
Performing with such noted musicians in the orchestra is an honor, said Nelson.
“I grew up on this music, so to actually play it for a living is sometimes surreal,” he said. “I also love the history lessons I get from all the cats in the band.
“In middle school and high school I was heavily involved in the jazz band but I honestly never saw myself being a "big band" drummer … so for this to be my first mainstream gig goes to show that the best is yet to come. It really shows me how I also have to do my part in making sure that "America’s music" doesn't die.”
Barnhart, an assistant professor of jazz studies at Florida State University, can’t say enough about the technique and natural ability Nelson brings as a drummer. He, along with Marsalis, marvel at Nelson’s skills.
“I do consider Ray to be in the top 1 percent of drummers alive today, period.”
|
|||||
correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
|
2
| 15 |
https://www.nytimes.com/1984/04/27/arts/count-basie-79-band-leader-and-master-of-swing-dead.html
|
en
|
COUNT BASIE, 79, BAND LEADER AND MASTER OF SWING, DEAD
|
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"The New York Times",
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1984-04-27T00:00:00
|
en
|
/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
|
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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|
||||||
correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
|
2
| 42 |
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/jazz-great-clark-terry-dies-94
|
en
|
Jazz legend Clark Terry dies at 94
|
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2015-02-22T15:19:21-04:00
|
Legendary jazz trumpeter and composer Clark Terry, who played alongside jazz greats such as Count Basie and Duke Ellington over a 70-plus year career, died on Saturday. He was 94.
|
en
|
PBS News
|
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/jazz-great-clark-terry-dies-94
|
Legendary jazz trumpeter and composer Clark Terry, who played alongside jazz greats such as Count Basie and Duke Ellington over a 70-plus year career, died on Saturday. He was 94.
His wife, Gwen, confirmed his death on his Facebook page saying her husband “joined the big band in heaven where he’ll be singing and playing with the angels.”
Terry rose to international fame in the 1960s when he became the first African-American staff musician at NBC, where he spent 12 years as one of the featured horn players on the Tonight Show.
According to his official online biography, the St. Louis-native is “one of the most recorded musicians in the history of jazz, with more than 900 recordings.”
Terry also enjoyed a long career in jazz education, organizing jazz camps, youth bands and teaching in educational institutions.
“Teaching jazz allows me play a part in making dreams come true for aspiring musicians,” he wrote on his website.
Terry received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010.
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https://www.famouscomposers.net/count-basie
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en
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Composer Biography, Facts and Music Compositions
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[
"https://www.famouscomposers.net/images/count-basie.jpg"
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2014-01-09T08:09:08+00:00
|
Count Basie Biography - William James Basie, also known by his stage name Count Basie, was an American Jazz Pianist and Bandleader. He was one of the most influential bandleaders
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https://www.famouscomposers.net/wp-content/themes/famouscomposers/images/favicon.ico
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FAMOUS COMPOSERS
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https://www.famouscomposers.net/count-basie
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William James Basie, also known by his stage name Count Basie, was an American Jazz Pianist and Bandleader. He was one of the most influential bandleaders of the modern swing era.
William Basie was born in Red Bank, New Jersey on August 21, 1904. Both of his parents had some basic knowledge about music theory. His father was a mellophone player whereas his mother was a pianist. Thus, music became a part of young Basie’s early childhood education. Basie was not very interested in school; however, he took his music very seriously. He would often spend time at the Palace Theatre of Red Bank; there he observed the various improvisation techniques that were used at those times and he soon incorporated them in his playing. When Basie was fifteen, his talent was noticed and he ultimately start performing at amateur gigs, clubs, resorts and dances with fellow drummer Sonny Greer. He continued this way of life until 1927, when the troupe that he was part of broke up at Kansas City. He then joined Walter Page’s legendary Blue Devils in 1928, and it was with this band that he developed the stage name “Count Basie”. With the fame that Basie achieved with the Blue Devils, he went on to play with Benny Moten in 1929. Moten’s bands were known to play in the “Kansas City Stomp” style. Basie often played four hand piano with Benny Moten and the band’s electric performances earned Basie and Moten the reputation as the masters of swing music.
However, Benny Moten’s death in 1935 meant that Basie would have to come up with a new band of his own, which he did in 1936. Basie called it “Count Basie and His Barons of Rhythm”. The band had many members from Benny Moten’s band and it earned widespread acclaim and attention. Their releases “Shoe Shine Boy”, “Boogie Woogie”, “Evening”, and “Oh, Lady Be Good” were highly successful. The band moved to New York City in 1937 and he was introduced to Billie Holiday by his band’s producer John Hammond. The band performed at the famous Apollo Theatre multiple times. The band was also famous for performing at the Roseland Ballroom and at the Savoy. Basie received plenty of positive reviews for his performances at Roseland.
Count Basie won a total of nine Grammy Awards during his lifetime, these included four awards for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, and one award for Best Jazz Performance by a Soloist. Four of his records were inducted to the highly prestigious Grammy Hall of Fame. These records included the 1937 record “One O’clock Jump”,1939 record “Lester Leaps In”, the 1955 records “Every day I have the blues” and “April in Paris”. He also received many honors posthumously, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Ronald Reagan in 1985.
William James Basie died on April 26, 1984 in Hollywood, Florida.
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https://www.biography.com/musicians/count-basie
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Songs, Band & Facts
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"Death Month/Day: April 26",
"Death City: Hollywood",
"Life Events/Experience: Music Hall of Fame",
"Group: Apollo Legends",
"Death State: Florida",
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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.
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en
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/_assets/design-tokens/biography/static/images/favicon.3635572.ico
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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
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https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/national-international/natl-maria-cole-wife-of-nat-king-cole-dies-at-89-2/1933468/
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en
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Maria Cole, Widow of Nat King Cole, Dies at 89
|
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2012-07-12T04:15:38
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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...
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en
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NBC10 Philadelphia
|
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.
|
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https://kids.kiddle.co/Count_Basie
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en
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Count Basie facts for kids
|
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Learn Count Basie facts for kids
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https://kids.kiddle.co/Count_Basie
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William James "Count" Basie ( August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) 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, 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.
Biography
Early life and education
William Basie was born to Lillian and Harvey Lee 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 Count Basie's piano instruction.
The best 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 switched to piano exclusively at age 15. 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 (featuring singer Katie Crippen) 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 singer Gonzelle White as well as Crippen. 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 match the level of those led by Duke Ellington or Fletcher Henderson. 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 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. 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". 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 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.
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 first heard Basie's band on the 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 "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). 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 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. 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.
Los Angeles and the Cavalcade of Jazz concerts
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. 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. 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.
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. 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. 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". 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). 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." 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, 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.
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. 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/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. 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 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.
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".
Marriage, family and death
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. 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.
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.
Count Basie died of pancreatic cancer in Hollywood, Florida, on April 26, 1984, at the age of 79.
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 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. 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.
Received an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music in 1974.
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.
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. The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on November 8, 2019 (M.P.C. 118220).
6508 Hollywood Blvd in Hollywood, California is the location of Count Basie's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
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.
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.
In 2021’s “Elvis,” a Count Basie poster is seen about 20 minutes into the movie.
Discography
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 (Verve, 1969)
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
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
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
*** 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
Grammy Awards
In 1958, Basie became the first African-American to win a Grammy Award.
Count Basie Grammy Award history 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
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 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 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.
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
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."
See also
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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.ellafitzgerald.com/biography/
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en
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Ella Fitzgerald
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[
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Biography Dubbed “The First Lady of Song,” Ella Fitzgerald was the most popular female jazz singer in the United States for more than half a century. In her lifetime, she won 13 Grammy awards and sold over 40 million albums. Her voice was flexible, wide-ranging, accurate and ageless. She could sing sultry ballads, sweet jazz […]
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en
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Ella Fitzgerald
|
https://www.ellafitzgerald.com/biography/
|
Biography
Dubbed “The First Lady of Song,” Ella Fitzgerald was the most popular female jazz singer in the United States for more than half a century. In her lifetime, she won 13 Grammy awards and sold over 40 million albums.
Her voice was flexible, wide-ranging, accurate and ageless. She could sing sultry ballads, sweet jazz and imitate every instrument in an orchestra. She worked with all the jazz greats, from Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Nat King Cole, to Frank Sinatra, Dizzy Gillespie and Benny Goodman. (Or rather, some might say all the jazz greats had the pleasure of working with Ella.)
She performed at top venues all over the world, and packed them to the hilt. Her audiences were as diverse as her vocal range. They were rich and poor, made up of all races, all religions and all nationalities. In fact, many of them had just one binding factor in common – they all loved her.
Humble but happy beginnings
Ella Jane Fitzgerald was born in Newport News, Va. on April 25, 1917. Her father, William, and mother, Temperance (Tempie), parted ways shortly after her birth. Together, Tempie and Ella went to Yonkers, N.Y, where they eventually moved in with Tempie’s longtime boyfriend Joseph Da Silva. Ella’s half-sister, Frances, was born in 1923 and soon she began referring to Joe as her stepfather.
To support the family, Joe dug ditches and was a part-time chauffeur, while Tempie worked at a laundromat and did some catering. Occasionally, Ella took on small jobs to contribute money as well. Perhaps naïve to the circumstances, Ella worked as a runner for local gamblers, picking up their bets and dropping off money.
Their apartment was in a mixed neighborhood, where Ella made friends easily. She considered herself more of a tomboy, and often joined in the neighborhood games of baseball. Sports aside, she enjoyed dancing and singing with her friends, and some evenings they would take the train into Harlem and watch various acts at the Apollo Theater.
A rough patch
In 1932, Tempie died from serious injuries that she received in a car accident. Ella took the loss very hard. After staying with Joe for a short time, Tempie’s sister Virginia took Ella home. Shortly afterward Joe suffered a heart attack and died, and her little sister Frances joined them.
Unable to adjust to the new circumstances, Ella became increasingly unhappy and entered into a difficult period of her life. Her grades dropped dramatically, and she frequently skipped school. After getting into trouble with the police, she was taken into custody and sent to a reform school. Living there was even more unbearable, as she suffered beatings at the hands of her caretakers.
Eventually Ella escaped from the reformatory. The 15-year-old found herself broke and alone during the Great Depression, and strove to endure.
Never one to complain, Ella later reflected on her most difficult years with an appreciation for how they helped her to mature. She used the memories from these times to help gather emotions for performances, and felt she was more grateful for her success because she knew what it was like to struggle in life.
“What’s she going to do?”
In 1934 Ella’s name was pulled in a weekly drawing at the Apollo and she won the opportunity to compete in Amateur Night. Ella went to the theater that night planning to dance, but when the frenzied Edwards Sisters closed the main show, Ella changed her mind. “They were the dancingest sisters around,” Ella said, and she felt her act would not compare.
Once on stage, faced with boos and murmurs of “What’s she going to do?” from the rowdy crowd, a scared and disheveled Ella made the last minute decision to sing. She asked the band to play Hoagy Carmichael’s “Judy,” a song she knew well because Connee Boswell’s rendition of it was among Tempie’s favorites. Ella quickly quieted the audience, and by the song’s end they were demanding an encore. She obliged and sang the flip side of the Boswell Sister’s record, “The Object of My Affections.”
Off stage, and away from people she knew well, Ella was shy and reserved. She was self-conscious about her appearance, and for a while even doubted the extent of her abilities. On stage, however, Ella was surprised to find she had no fear. She felt at home in the spotlight.
“Once up there, I felt the acceptance and love from my audience,” Ella said. “I knew I wanted to sing before people the rest of my life.”
In the band that night was saxophonist and arranger Benny Carter. Impressed with her natural talent, he began introducing Ella to people who could help launch her career. In the process he and Ella became lifelong friends, often working together.
Fueled by enthusiastic supporters, Ella began entering – and winning – every talent show she could find. In January 1935 she won the chance to perform for a week with the Tiny Bradshaw band at the Harlem Opera House. It was there that Ella first met drummer and bandleader Chick Webb. Although her voice impressed him, Chick had already hired male singer Charlie Linton for the band. He offered Ella the opportunity to test with his band when they played a dance at Yale University.
“If the kids like her,” Chick said, “she stays.”
Despite the tough crowd, Ella was a major success, and Chick hired her to travel with the band for $12.50 a week.
Jazzing things up
In mid 1936, Ella made her first recording. “Love and Kisses” was released under the Decca label, with moderate success. By this time she was performing with Chick’s band at the prestigious Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom, often referred to as “The World’s Most Famous Ballroom.”
Shortly afterward, Ella began singing a rendition of the song, “(If You Can’t Sing It) You Have to Swing It.” During this time, the era of big swing bands was shifting, and the focus was turning more toward bebop. Ella played with the new style, often using her voice to take on the role of another horn in the band. “You Have to Swing It” was one of the first times she began experimenting with scat singing, and her improvisation and vocalization thrilled fans. Throughout her career, Ella would master scat singing, turning it into a form of art.
In 1938, at the age of 21, Ella recorded a playful version of the nursery rhyme, “A-Tisket, A-Tasket.” The album sold 1 million copies, hit number one, and stayed on the pop charts for 17 weeks. Suddenly, Ella Fitzgerald was famous.
Coming into her own
On June 16, 1939, Ella mourned the loss of her mentor Chick Webb. In his absence the band was renamed “Ella Fitzgerald and Her Famous Band,” and she took on the overwhelming task of bandleader.
Perhaps in search of stability and protection, Ella married Benny Kornegay, a local dockworker who had been pursuing her. Upon learning that Kornegay had a criminal history, Ella realized that the relationship was a mistake and had the marriage annulled.
While on tour with Dizzy Gillespie’s band in 1946, Ella fell in love with bassist Ray Brown. The two were married and eventually adopted a son, whom they named Ray, Jr.
At the time, Ray was working for producer and manager Norman Granz on the “Jazz at the Philharmonic” tour. Norman saw that Ella had what it took to be an international star, and he convinced Ella to sign with him. It was the beginning of a lifelong business relationship and friendship.
Under Norman’s management, Ella joined the Philharmonic tour, worked with Louis Armstrong on several albums and began producing her infamous songbook series. From 1956-1964, she recorded covers of other musicians’ albums, including those by Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, the Gershwins, Johnny Mercer, Irving Berlin, and Rodgers and Hart. The series was wildly popular, both with Ella’s fans and the artists she covered.
“I never knew how good our songs were until I heard Ella Fitzgerald sing them,” Ira Gershwin once remarked.
Ella also began appearing on television variety shows. She quickly became a favorite and frequent guest on numerous programs, including “The Bing Crosby Show,” “The Dinah Shore Show,” “The Frank Sinatra Show,” “The Ed Sullivan Show,” “The Tonight Show,” “The Nat King Cole Show,” “The Andy Willams Show” and “The Dean Martin Show.”
Due to a busy touring schedule, Ella and Ray were often away from home, straining the bond with their son. Ultimately, Ray Jr. and Ella reconnected and mended their relationship.
“All I can say is that she gave to me as much as she could,” Ray, Jr. later said, “and she loved me as much as she could.”
Unfortunately, busy work schedules also hurt Ray and Ella’s marriage. The two divorced in 1952, but remained good friends for the rest of their lives.
Overcoming discrimination
On the touring circuit it was well-known that Ella’s manager felt very strongly about civil rights and required equal treatment for his musicians, regardless of their color. Norman refused to accept any type of discrimination at hotels, restaurants or concert halls, even when they traveled to the Deep South.
Once, while in Dallas touring for the Philharmonic, a police squad irritated by Norman’s principles barged backstage to hassle the performers. They came into Ella’s dressing room, where band members Dizzy Gillespie and Illinois Jacquet were shooting dice, and arrested everyone.
“They took us down,” Ella later recalled, “and then when we got there, they had the nerve to ask for an autograph.”
Norman wasn’t the only one willing to stand up for Ella. She received support from numerous celebrity fans, including a zealous Marilyn Monroe.
“I owe Marilyn Monroe a real debt,” Ella later said. “It was because of her that I played the Mocambo, a very popular nightclub in the ’50s. She personally called the owner of the Mocambo, and told him she wanted me booked immediately, and if he would do it, she would take a front table every night. She told him – and it was true, due to Marilyn’s superstar status – that the press would go wild. The owner said yes, and Marilyn was there, front table, every night. The press went overboard. After that, I never had to play a small jazz club again. She was an unusual woman – a little ahead of her times. And she didn’t know it.”
Worldwide recognition
Ella continued to work as hard as she had early on in her career, despite the ill effects on her health. She toured all over the world, sometimes performing two shows a day in cities hundreds of miles apart. In 1974, Ella spent a legendary two weeks performing in New York with Frank Sinatra and Count Basie. Still going strong five years later, she was inducted into the Down Beat magazine Hall of Fame, and received Kennedy Center Honors for her continuing contributions to the arts.
Outside of the arts, Ella had a deep concern for child welfare. Though this aspect of her life was rarely publicized, she frequently made generous donations to organizations for disadvantaged youths, and the continuation of these contributions was part of the driving force that prevented her from slowing down. Additionally, when Frances died, Ella felt she had the additional responsibilities of taking care of her sister’s family.
In 1987, United States President Ronald Reagan awarded Ella the National Medal of Arts. It was one of her most prized moments. France followed suit several years later, presenting her with their Commander of Arts and Letters award, while Yale, Dartmouth and several other universities bestowed Ella with honorary doctorates.
End of an era
In September of 1986, Ella underwent quintuple coronary bypass surgery. Doctors also replaced a valve in her heart and diagnosed her with diabetes, which they blamed for her failing eyesight. The press carried rumors that she would never be able to sing again, but Ella proved them wrong. Despite protests by family and friends, including Norman, Ella returned to the stage and pushed on with an exhaustive schedule.
By the 1990s, Ella had recorded over 200 albums. In 1991, she gave her final concert at New York’s renowned Carnegie Hall. It was the 26th time she performed there.
As the effects from her diabetes worsened, 76-year-old Ella experienced severe circulatory problems and was forced to have both of her legs amputated below the knees. She never fully recovered from the surgery, and afterward, was rarely able to perform. During this time, Ella enjoyed sitting outside in her backyard, and spending time with Ray, Jr. and her granddaughter Alice.
“I just want to smell the air, listen to the birds and hear Alice laugh,” she said.
On June 15, 1996, Ella Fitzgerald died in her Beverly Hills home. Hours later, signs of remembrance began to appear all over the world. A wreath of white flowers stood next to her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and a marquee outside the Hollywood Bowl theater read, “Ella, we will miss you.”
After a private memorial service, traffic on the freeway was stopped to let her funeral procession pass through. She was laid to rest in the “Sanctuary of the Bells” section of the Sunset Mission Mausoleum at Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, Calif.
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FactBench
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https://www.britannica.com/biography/Count-Basie
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en
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Count Basie | Jazz Pianist, Bandleader, Composer
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1999-05-04T00:00:00+00:00
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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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en
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/favicon.png
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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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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
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en
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Weekly Music Commentary
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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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https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Basie-6
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William James Basie (1904-1984)
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"William Basie genealogy"
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1904-08-21T00:00:00
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Is this your ancestor? Explore genealogy for William Basie born 1904 Red Bank, Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States died 1984 Hollywood, Broward County, Florida, United States including ancestors + children + 1 photos + more in the free family tree community.
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/favicon.ico
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https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Basie-6
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William James "Count" Basie
Born 21 Aug 1904 in Red Bank, Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States
Ancestors
Brother of Leroy Basie
Father of Diane Lillian Basie
Died 26 Apr 1984 at age 79 in Hollywood, Broward County, Florida, United States
Profile last modified 2 Aug 2023 | Created 16 Dec 2020
This page has been accessed 1,038 times.
Biography
William Basie is Notable.
William Basie was a New Jerseyan.
Count Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. [1]
William James Basie was born in 1904 in Red Bank, New Jersey,[2] the son of Harvey L. and Lillian Basie.
He married in Vivian Lee Winn in Jackson, Missouri in 1930.[3]
He married Catherine Morgan in Seattle, Washington in 1942.[citation needed]
He was 79 when he died in Hollywood, Florida on 26 April 1984.[4][5]
William was a Freemason, Wisdom Lodge No. 102, Chicago, Illinois.
Count Basie was inducted into the Prince Hall Freemason, Wisdom Lodge No. 102 in Chicago, Illinois. [6]
He has a memorial with his wife in Pinelawn Memorial Park in East Farmingdale, New York.[7]
Sources
↑ wikipedia:Count Basie
↑ Military: "U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947"
National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; WWII Draft Registration Cards for New York City, 10/16/1940 - 03/31/1947; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147
Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 2238 #194230321 (accessed 28 July 2022)
Name: William James Basie; Race: Negro (Black); Age: 37; Birth Date: 21 Aug 1904; Birth Place: Red Bank, New Jersey; Registration Date: 16 Feb 1942; Registration Place: Red Bank, New Jersey; Employer: Wm Morris Agency; Height: 5 6; Weight: 200; Complexion: Dark brown; Hair Color: Black; Eye Color: Brown; Next of Kin: Harvey L Basie;
Household Members Age:
William James Basie 38.
↑ "Missouri, County Marriage, Naturalization, and Court Records, 1800-1991," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:WGR9-VB6Z : 1 October 2019), William Basie, 21 Jul 1930; citing Marriage, Jackson, Missouri, United States, Missouri State Archives, Jefferson City; FHL microfilm 007118686.
↑ "Florida Death Index, 1877-1998," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VV63-7NG : 25 December 2014), William James Basie, 26 Apr 1984; from "Florida Death Index, 1877-1998," index, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : 2004); citing vol. , certificate number 33439, Florida Department of Health, Office of Vital Records, Jacksonville.
↑ "United States, GenealogyBank Obituaries, 1980-2014," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV57-GYNX : accessed 16 December 2020), William Or Count Basie, San Diego, California, United States, 26 Apr 1984; from "Recent Newspaper Obituaries (1977 - Today)," database, GenealogyBank.com (http://www.genealogybank.com : 2014); citing , born-digital text.
↑ https://phaohio.org/famous-prince-hall-masons
↑ Memorial: Find a Grave (has image)
Find A Grave: Memorial #1664 (accessed 25 November 2022)
Memorial page for Count Basie Famous memorial (21 Aug 1904-26 Apr 1984), citing Pinelawn Memorial Park and Arboretum, East Farmingdale, Suffolk County, New York, USA (plot: Mausoleum, South Forsythia Court, Row 57, Tier D); Maintained by Find a Grave.
1910 Census: "United States Census, 1910"
citing enumeration district (ED) ED 105, sheet 17A, family 359, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 901; FHL microfilm 1,374,914.
FamilySearch Record: MKBD-ZWK (accessed 28 July 2022)
FamilySearch Image: 33SQ-GRKQ-Z83 Image number 00747
William J Basie (6), single son, in household of Harvey L Basie (38) in Red Bank, Monmouth, New Jersey, United States. Born in New Jersey.
1920 Census: "United States Census, 1920"
citing Affiliate Publication Number: T625; Affiliate Film Number: 1059; Line: 3; FHL microfilm: 1821059; Record number: 34036;
FamilySearch Record: M4TT-ND3 (accessed 28 July 2022)
FamilySearch Image: 33SQ-GRTP-QR3 Image number 00707
William J Basie (15), single son, in household of Harvey L Basie (47) in Monmouth, New Jersey, United States.
1950 Census: "1950 United States Federal Census"
United States of America, Bureau of the Census; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Record Group: Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790-2007; Record Group Number: 29; Residence Date: 1950; Home in 1950: New York, Queens, New York; Roll: 938; Sheet Number: 72; Enumeration District: 41-2028
Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 62308 #285347871 (accessed 28 July 2022)
C William Basie (45) head of household in New York, Queens, New York, USA. Born in New Jersey.
Prince Hall Freemason inductee, https://www.chicofreemasons.org/lodge-news/2019/2/21/black-history-month-celebrating-famous-black-freemasons
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JazzProfiles: Count Basie by Alun Morgan
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"Steven Cerra"
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A blog about Jazz featuring CD,and book reviews and postings about the music and its makers.
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https://jazzprofiles.blogspot.com/favicon.ico
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https://jazzprofiles.blogspot.com/2018/10/count-basie-by-alun-morgan-part-1.html
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Focused Profiles on Jazz and its Creators while also Featuring the Work of Guest Writers and Critics on the Subject of Jazz.
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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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Jazz legend Clark Terry dies at 94
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[
"https://www.youtube.com/embed/eJuFDvH8wGs"
] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[
"Rebecca Lee"
] |
2015-02-22T15:19:21-04:00
|
Legendary jazz trumpeter and composer Clark Terry, who played alongside jazz greats such as Count Basie and Duke Ellington over a 70-plus year career, died on Saturday. He was 94.
|
en
|
PBS News
|
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/jazz-great-clark-terry-dies-94
|
Legendary jazz trumpeter and composer Clark Terry, who played alongside jazz greats such as Count Basie and Duke Ellington over a 70-plus year career, died on Saturday. He was 94.
His wife, Gwen, confirmed his death on his Facebook page saying her husband “joined the big band in heaven where he’ll be singing and playing with the angels.”
Terry rose to international fame in the 1960s when he became the first African-American staff musician at NBC, where he spent 12 years as one of the featured horn players on the Tonight Show.
According to his official online biography, the St. Louis-native is “one of the most recorded musicians in the history of jazz, with more than 900 recordings.”
Terry also enjoyed a long career in jazz education, organizing jazz camps, youth bands and teaching in educational institutions.
“Teaching jazz allows me play a part in making dreams come true for aspiring musicians,” he wrote on his website.
Terry received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010.
|
|||||
correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
|
1
| 41 |
https://www.coursehero.com/file/28351661/Jazz-Essay-2docx/
|
en
|
[] |
[] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[] | null | null | ||||||||||
correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
|
0
| 76 |
https://norwalkreflector.com/news/517854/today-in-history/
|
en
|
Today in History
|
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[
""
] | null |
[] | null |
April 26: Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster
|
en
|
https://media.myteamscoop.com/images/custom/112/favicon.ico
|
https://norwalkreflector.com/news/517854/today-in-history/
|
Email Rejected!
x
We attempted to send a notification to your email address but we were unable to verify that you provided a valid email address. Please click here to update your email address if you wish to receive notifications. Otherwise, you may click here to disable notifications and hide this message.
|
|||||
correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
|
2
| 80 |
http://www.detroitnews.com/story/entertainment/music/2016/03/16/frank-sinatra-jr-dies-tour/81895096/
|
en
|
The Detroit News
|
[
"https://www.gannett-cdn.com/appservices/universal-web/universal/icons/icon-instagram_24.png"
] |
[] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[
"Sandy Cohen and Andrew Dalton, The Detroit News"
] |
2016-03-16T00:00:00
|
Performer who carried on his iconic father’s musical legacy dies of cardiac arrest in Florida, family says
|
en
|
AP
|
http://www.detroitnews.com/story/entertainment/music/2016/03/16/frank-sinatra-jr-dies-tour/81895096/
|
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, Florida, the Sinatra family said in a statement to the Associated Press.
The statement said the family mourns the untimely passing of their son, brother, father and uncle. No other details were provided.
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.
|
|||||
correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
|
3
| 23 |
https://www.tallahassee.com/story/entertainment/2016/09/22/make-count-talking-basie-barnhart/90839078/
|
en
|
Make it Count: Talking Basie with Barnhart
|
[
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[] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[
"Mark Hinson, Tallahassee Democrat",
"Mark Hinson"
] |
2016-09-22T00:00:00
|
Recently appointed director Scotty Barnhart brings the Count Basie sound to the first Florida Jazz & Blues Festival
|
en
|
https://www.tallahassee.com/story/entertainment/2016/09/22/make-count-talking-basie-barnhart/90839078/
|
Florida State jazz professor and trumpet player Scotty Barnhart is one of the world’s leading experts when it comes to legendary pianist-songwriter-bandleader Count Basie (1904-1984).
There’s a good reason for it, too, because it’s his job.
Barnhart spent 20 years as a soloist with the Count Basie Orchestra before being tapped as the big band’s director three years ago. He’s played two concerts in Tallahassee as a member of the orchestra. On Saturday night, he will make his debut as director of the Basie Orchestra in front of the hometown crowd during the inaugural Florida Jazz & Blues Festival in Cascades Park.
“Coming here to do it is something hard to describe,” Barnhart, 51, said earlier this week. “It’s like it’s my first gig or something.”
To add a little extra pressure, Barnhart also is serving as the artistic director for the Florida Jazz & Blues Festival. He reached out to friends and colleagues such as pianist Marcus Roberts, singer-pianist Freddy Cole, blues guitarist Johnnie Marshall, vocalist Avis Berry, drummer Leon Anderson and Grammy Award-winner Brian Lynch to join the musical maiden voyage.
“People are going to have a lot of world-class talent in their backyard,” Barnhart said. “I’ve never seen a new festival with this level of talent. Especially for the first time.”
When the 17-piece Count Basie Orchestra takes the amphitheater stage as the evening’s closer on the second night of the three-day festival’s run, it will showcase a mixture of the old and the new.
“I try to make sure we have every decade, every period of the band covered from 1935 to today,” Barnhart said.
Expect the setlist to include such standards as “April in Paris,” a salute to Basie’s pal Frank Sinatra and, of course, “One O’Clock Jump,” the Basie Orchestra’s signature tune. Every member of the band will get a shot at taking a solo, including the new drummer Ray Nelson Jr., 23, who graduated from FAMU last year.
“Both his (Nelson’s) parents are musicians, his whole family is musicians, so he was born with music in his ears,” Barnhart said. “He’s part of the future of this orchestra.”
Basie was born in New Jersey and got his start playing the vaudeville circuit in New York when he was very young. The legendary Fats Waller gave him a few keyboard lessons. In the mid-’20s, Basie ended up in Kansas City, Mo., which was a hotbed for jazz during the Roaring Twenties. In the mid-’30s, Basie formed the Barons of Rhythm band, which eventually morphed into the Count Basie Orchestra after a return to New York City.
Starting in 1937, Basie’s big band scored smash hits with “One O’Clock Jump” and “Jumpin’ at the Woodside.” If The Duke Ellington Orchestra was the sophisticated sound of the Big Band Era, the County Basie Orchestra was its swinging dance band.
“Those two orchestras set the standards for all the orchestras that followed,” Barnhart said.
Even though Big Band Era faded after the end of World War II, the Count Basie Orchestra defied the odds and returned to popularity starting in the ‘50s thanks to recordings with singers such as Joe Williams, Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis Jr., Tony Bennett and Sinatra. In 1958, Basie became the first black male artist to win a Grammy Award.
Racial barriers were harder to break down when Basie and his band toured the South during the Jim Crow days.
In December 1963, The Count Basie Orchestra played a concert at Florida State University. After the show, Basie and FSU sociologist James Geschwender went to The Mecca restaurant on campus, near the corner of Copeland Street and Park Avenue. They were refused service.
The next day, Basie joined protestors on the sidewalk who were picketing outside The Mecca. The world-famous bandleader held a sign that read: “All We Asked Was Equality and Justice.” The photo of Basie’s defiance was published in newspapers across the nation.
Despite the bad publicity, The Mecca remained segregated until 1964 when the Civil Rights Act was passed.
“Man, can you imagine what all they had to put up with in those days?” Barnhart said. “We have it easy today. They paved the way. They did all the hard work.”
Not all racism was as blatant as The Mecca incident. Basie, who liked to wear a yachting captain’s cap in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, was often racially profiled in a more benign manner while out on the road. Barnhart retold a story he heard from saxophonist John Williams about Basie being mistaken as a bell hop while he was waiting for his tour bus outside an upscale hotel in Detroit.
“This cab pulls up and these two little old white ladies get out,” Barnhart said. “They looked like they had a little bit of money, had their furs on. So Basie just happened to be standing right there where they were, so they put their suitcases at his feet and said, ‘Sonny, will you follow us.’ Basie didn’t flinch. He picked up them up and said, ‘Yes, ma’m.’ He followed them to the elevator and waited there with them. The guys in the band couldn’t believe he was doing this. The elevator doors open and he got on with them. He gets to their room, drops the luggage down and they gave him a quarter. They had no idea who he was. That’s a true story, man.”
Drummer Harold Jones, in his memoir titled “The Singer’s Drummer,” corroborated Barnhart’s bell hop tale: “He (Basie) was often mistaken for being a porter. Women would approach him to ask for help with their baggage. Sometimes he would actually do it and take the tip. But usually he would refer the traveler to a real porter or to another band member, as a joke. When Paul Probes was the roadie, Basie would always refer these requests to him. Basie got a kick out of this since Probes was white.”
Basie’s sense of humor and playful nature helped attract musicians who were loyal to their boss.
“The thing about Basie is that we are the only band that’s still on the road 32 years now after the leader’s death with members in it that he hired,” Barnhart said. “Basie was always the guy with the slowest turnover rate. ... When you got someone like that as your leader, you want to play for someone like that, you’re not afraid to play for someone like that. You want to have a good time and that’s what he was all about. He wanted the guys in the band to be happy. And I try to understand that, too.”
Watch Count Basie Orchestra rehearse
The Count Basie Orchestra is holding an open rehearsal at 11 a.m. sharp Saturday in the FAMU Band Rehearsal Hall, 1660 Pinder Ave. It’s free and open to the public. Parking will be available on campus. Orchestra director Scotty Barnhart will also give a brief talk about the band and its legacy.
|
||||||
correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
|
3
| 74 |
https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/national-international/natl-maria-cole-wife-of-nat-king-cole-dies-at-89-2/1933468/
|
en
|
Maria Cole, Widow of Nat King Cole, Dies at 89
|
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[
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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
|
NBC10 Philadelphia
|
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
|
3
| 1 |
https://countbasie.rutgers.edu/biography/
|
en
|
Biography – Count Basie
|
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[
""
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en
|
/apple-touch-icon.png
|
https://countbasie.rutgers.edu/biography/
|
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.
|
||||||
correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
|
1
| 82 |
https://www.wlrn.org/2016-08-24/king-of-highlife-anthology-finally-does-justice-to-african-bandleader-mensah
|
en
|
'King of Highlife Anthology' Finally Does Justice To African Bandleader Mensah
|
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[] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[
"Milo Miles",
"www.wlrn.org",
"milo-miles"
] |
2016-08-24T00:00:00
|
E. T. Mensah, who died 20 years ago, played highlife, an offshoot of jazz that for years was the most popular style of music in southern Africa. Milo Miles reviews a new anthology of Mensah's music.
|
en
|
/apple-touch-icon.png
|
WLRN
|
https://www.wlrn.org/2016-08-24/king-of-highlife-anthology-finally-does-justice-to-african-bandleader-mensah
|
DAVE DAVIES, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. Music critic Milo Miles has a review of a new anthology devoted to the pioneer African bandleader of the '40s and '50s, E. T. Mensah. He was called the King of Highlife, an offshoot of jazz that, for years, was the most popular style of music in southern Africa. Here's Milo's review.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "KWAME NKRUMAH")
E T MENSAH AND THE TEMPOS: (Singing in foreign language).
MILO MILES, BYLINE: If I told you there was an African bandleader with the touring and organizing skills of a Count Basie, a legacy of spin-off performers as rich as Duke Ellington and a historical influence not unlike Louis Armstrong, and that he even jammed once with Louis Armstrong, you have to ask - who can this be? The answer is E. T. Mensah from Ghana, known as the King of Highlife. The reason Mensah could be so accomplished and yet remain rather obscure in America is because he retired by the 1980s, just as African pop stars began more international tours, eventually even to the United States. Fortunately, Mensah's songs have lost none of their immediate appeal and are properly presented at last in the four-disc set, "King Of Highlife Anthology," which includes everything recorded by Mensah and the various incarnations of his band, the Tempos. A strong example is "Day By Day."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DAY BY DAY")
E T MENSAH AND THE TEMPOS: (Singing) Day by day, night by night, if you born pikin na (ph) girl, you want her to go to school. What a girl she going to be, what a woman to go to school. And she close to come for home, on her way she meets her friend. Now her friend go be na boy, and he take her hand for go.
MILES: Like jazz, highlife is a complex fusion of a number of modes, including jazz itself and African folk forms. There were many other highlife groups even well before Mensah, but none as successful or as sharp. In a move that would shape all subsequent African pop, the Tempos added melodies taken from the Caribbean, Brazil and Latin rhythms, particularly from Cuba, so the anthology includes sprinkled examples of highlife sambas and calypsos. Not all the lyrics are in English, but a surprising number are. Mensah was clearly determined to reach as many audiences as possible without pandering. No matter what the subject, the positive impression delivered by the 69 tracks here remains fun to play, fun to hear, fun to dance to.
(SOUNDBITE OF E. T. MENSAH AND THE TEMPOS SONG, "JOHN B. CALYPSO")
MILES: E. T. Mensah also shines as the first postcolonial music superstar of Africa. Taking off with his own band right after World War II, he soon became as popular in Nigeria as he was back in Ghana. He would sometimes assemble a version of the Tempos to keep doing shows back home while he toured. He was also a hit in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. However, he only played a few shows in Europe in the 1980s, when his music was finally issued there. One standout track included on those initial releases was "Munsuro."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MUNSURO")
E T MENSAH AND THE TEMPOS: (Singing in foreign language).
MILES: Mensah died 20 years ago, and "King Of Highlife Anthology" finally does him complete justice. The very classy packaging must be praised, including a definitive 60-page condensation of Professor John Collins' biography of Mensah, an essential item for African pop devotees. A couple vocal performances are a bit drab, and the later music is more assured and vivid than the earliest, but those are tiny gripes. For those who want more samples, a batch of Mensah tunes are available on YouTube. Finally, to underscore the influence of Mensah, it's worth noting that superstar Fela Kuti started out running a highlife group, essentially imitating Mensah. The old master was dismissive of Kuti's later Afrobeat. As far as E. T. Mensah was concerned, Fela had stopped following the class act.
DAVIES: Milo Miles reviewed the "King Of Highlife Anthology" on the RetroAfric label.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ALL FOR YOU")
E T MENSAH AND THE TEMPOS: (Singing) All for you, E. T. (ph), all for you. All for you, E. T., all for you. Are they with you, papa? Are they with you, mommy? Are they with you, papa? All for you. All for you, E. T., all for you. All for you, E. T., all for you. All for you, E. T., all for you. All for you, E. T., all for you. Are they with you, papa?
DAVIES: On tomorrow's show, we'll talk with investigative reporter Seth Freed Wessler, who's reported on troubling conditions at privately operated prisons which hold non-citizen federal inmates. The Department of Justice recently announced it would be ending its contracts with the operators. Wessler's series appeared in The Nation. Hope you can join us.
FRESH AIR's executive producer is Danny Miller. Our senior producer is Roberta Shorrock. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. Our associate producer for online media is Molly Seavy-Nesper. John Sheehan directed the show. For Terry Gross, I'm Dave Davies. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
|
||||
correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
|
0
| 37 |
https://rvm.pm/count-basie/
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en
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RVM [Radio.Video.Music]
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2024-04-26T04:00:38+00:00
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This day (April 26, 1984), in Hollywood, Florida, died William 'Count' Basie a.k.a Count Basie, an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader and composer.
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en
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RadioVideo.Music [RVM]
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https://rvm.pm/count-basie/
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Wikipedia : This day (April 26, 1984), in Hollywood, Florida, died William ‘Count’ Basie a.k.a Count Basie, an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader and composer.
Official Site : William Basie, a New Jersey native from Red Bank, grew up with the tempos of The Swing Era in New York City live big bands were filling ballrooms with dance rhythms. Jazz experts maintain that Basie at the keyboard signaled the beginning of the Moten band’s historical significance, starting with discs cut in 1932.
@Facebook : 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.
@last.fm : In addition to Basie, the swinging “All American Rhythm Section” of his orchestra included greats such as Walter Page (bass), Jo Jones (drums), and Freddie Green (guitar).
@Discogs :
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1
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https://www.gainesville.com/story/entertainment/2024/03/13/scene-calendar-live-and-local-concert-spring-festival-and-more/72925095007/
|
en
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Scene Calendar: Noah Hunton Band, 'Misery,' Irish dancers and more
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[
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"Gainesville Sun"
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2024-03-13T00:00:00
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A comprehensive list of Gainesville-area entertainment events.
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en
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The Gainesville Sun
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https://www.gainesville.com/story/entertainment/2024/03/13/scene-calendar-live-and-local-concert-spring-festival-and-more/72925095007/
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MUSIC
Noah Hunton Band: 6-9 p.m. Friday, Celebration Pointe, Northwest Corner of Interstate 75 and Archer Road. Free. (facebook.com/celebrationpointeFL/events) Live music on the promenade stage. Seating is first come first served, so feel free to bring a chair.
Live and Local Concert Series: 7-9 p.m. Friday, Bo Diddley Plaza, 111 E. University Ave. Free. (tinyurl.com/livelocal24) Live performances by Jane K Collective, In Full Swing and Jernie.
Third Friday Concert: 7 p.m. Friday, St Patrick Catholic Church, 500 NE 16th Ave. Free; offering for Gainesville Community Band. (tinyurl.com/tfcsmarch24) The Gainesville Community Band will perform an Irish concert in honor of St. Patrick’s Day.
Santa Fe Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Combo: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Santa Fe College, 3000 NW 83rd St. Tickets: $15 adults; $9 seniors, students, children and military service members; free to SF students, faculty and staff with college ID cards. (395-4181, showpass.com/jazz-up-spring-2) 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.
Get the Led Out: 8 p.m. Friday, Florida Theatre, 128 E. Forsyth St., Jacksonville. Tickets: $29.50-$55. (floridatheatre.com, 904-355-5661) Get The Led Out will bring recordings of Led Zeppelin — “All My Love,” “Ramble On,” “Tangerine,” “Kashmir” and more — to life in this high-energy concert experience.
Zach Top: 8-11 p.m. Friday, Heartwood Soundstage, 619 S. Main St. TIckets: $15-$20. (heartwoodsoundstage.com) When contemporary influences expand country music’s parameters, you’ll hear “country music ain’t like it used to be” as a common refrain. But 25-year-old Zach Top is reviving the spirit of ’90s traditionalists with classic vibes that evoke the dancehalls of Texas, the roar of the rodeo and jukebox ballads with a cold beer in hand.
UF Carillon Studio Concert Series — Florida Carillon Festival, Malgosia Fiebeg: 6:15 p.m. Saturday, Century Tower Carillon, 375 Newell Drive. Free. (arts.ufl.edu/sites/carillon-studio/welcome) The University of Florida Carillon Studio is made up of students who have auditioned and committed to upholding the tradition of performing in Century Tower. The UF Carillon Studio Concert Series offers a chance to hear the UF Carillon during a 45-minute recital. Listeners are encouraged to find a location at least 100 feet from the tower for an optimal listening experience.
Colin Hay: 8 p.m. Saturday, Ponte Vedra Concert Hall, 1050 A1A N., Ponte Vedra Beach. Tickets: $59.50-$99.50. (pvconcerthall.com) The former Men at Work singer and now solo star will perform.
Ying Li: 2 p.m. Sunday, Squitieri Studio Theatre, Phillips Center, 3201 Hull Road. Tickets: $35, $12 UF students. (performingarts.ufl.edu) Twenty-four-year-old pianist Ying Li has received top awards in numerous national and international competitions. Beginning piano at the age of 5, she has studied in Beijing, Philadelphia and at The Juilliard School. Since then, Li has performed with many leading orchestras such as The Philadelphia Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony and the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, among others.
The Weight Band: 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Ponte Vedra Concert Hall, 1050 A1A N., Ponte Vedra Beach. Tickets: $34-$44. (pvconcerthall.com) Featuring members of The Band and the Levon Helm Band.
Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Phillips Center, 3201 Hull Road. Tickets: $20-$40, $12 UF students. (performingarts.ufl.edu) Canada’s reigning couple of Celtic music is coming to the Phillips Center — and they are bringing their family with them! Natalie and Donnell Leahy’s high level of skill and palpable joy at playing the fiddle together has earned them both industry acclaim and built up a loyal fan base. They combine their talents to give audiences an electrifying musical experience.
Pat Metheny: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Phillips Center, 3201 Hull Road. Tickets: $40-$60, $12 UF students. (performingarts.ufl.edu) Twenty-time Grammy Award-winning guitarist Pat Metheny is known to bring something unique to every performance. This show is no exception, focusing on the various ways of playing solo he has explored across the decades in an evening that will be very special. The set features personal and fan favorite tracks from his nearly 50-year career, creating an almost orchestral range from bass to soprano within the realm of guitar.
Emery and The Almost: 7 p.m. Thursday, Ponte Vedra Concert Hall, 1050 A1A N., Ponte Vedra Beach. Tickets: $33-$38. (pvconcerthall.com) The emo rock bands will perform.
“Sing Into Spring”: 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Santa Fe College, 3000 NW 83rd St. Tickets: $15 adults; $9 seniors, students, children and military service members; free to SF students, faculty and staff with college ID cards. (395-4181, showpass.com/sing-into-spring-2) 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.
Air Supply: 8 p.m. Thursday, Florida Theatre, 128 E. Forsyth St., Jacksonville. Tickets: $39.50-$79.50. (floridatheatre.com, 904-355-5661) Air Supply is the Australian rock duo of Graham Russell and Russell Hitchcock. They had worldwide success with the major hits “All Out of Love,” “Make Love Out of Nothing At All,” “Lost In Love,” “Here I Am," “The One That You Love” and more. They are members of the Roc ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame.
THEATER
“Misery”: 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, Acrosstown Repertory Theatre, 3501 SW Second Ave., Suite O. Tickets: $25 general admission; $20 students, seniors, military and teachers. (acrosstown.org) “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.
Tom Segura: 8 p.m. Friday, St. Augustine Amphitheatre, 1340C A1A South, St. Augustine. Tickets: $62.50-$112.50. (904-209-0367, theamp.com) Actor/Comedian/Writer Tom Segura is one of the biggest names in the comedy business. Segura is best known for his Netflix specials “Ball Hog” (2020), “Disgraceful” (2018), “Mostly Stories” (2016) and “Completely Normal” (2014). His fifth Netflix special “Sledgehammer” was released July 4, 2023, and debuted at No. 1 on the streamer.
Kountry Wayne: 7:30 p.m.Saturday, Florida Theatre, 128 E. Forsyth St., Jacksonville. Tickets: $39-$79. (floridatheatre.com, 904-355-5661) Recently named one of Variety’s 10 Comics to Watch in 2021, Kountry Wayne has garnered a loyal following from his widely popular digital sketches and standup, generating an extraordinary amount of buzz among his peers within the entertainment industry as one of comedy’s most notable rising stars.
The Cancelled Podcast with Tana Mongeau and Brooke Schofield: 7 p.m.Sunday, Florida Theatre, 128 E. Forsyth St., Jacksonville. Tickets: $25-$45. (floridatheatre.com, 904-355-5661) Get up close and personal for a discussion with your favorite co-host besties Tana Mongeau and Brooke Schofield in this exclusive live show.
“Who’s in The Box? 2”: 6-8 p.m. Monday, Phillips Center, 3201 Hull Road. Free. (tinyurl.com/witb224) With the increase in gun violence in communities, “Who’s in The Box? 2” is a realistic dramatic presentation addressing youths and gun violence.
DANCE
Gainesville Dance Academy Irish Dancers: Noon Sunday, Shoppes at Thornebrook, 2441 NW 43rd St. Free. (gvilledance.com/performing) St. Patrick's Day community performance.
Gainesville Dance Academy Irish Dancers: 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Mother's Pub and Grill North, 1017 W. University Ave. Free. (gvilledance.com/performing) St. Patrick's Day community performance.
Gainesville Dance Academy Irish Dancers: 6 p.m. Sunday, The Bull, 18 SW First Ave. Free. (gvilledance.com/performing) St. Patrick's Day community performance.
Gainesville Dance Academy Irish Dancers: 6-7 p.m. Monday, The Village, 8000 NW 27th Blvd. Free. (gvilledance.com/performing) Academy dancers join Irish music duo Celtic Ray to bring merry luck onstage for a St. Patrick's Day party.
ET CETERA
Rooterville Animal Sanctuary Visit: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Friday-Sunday, Rooterville Animal Sanctuary, 5579 Darwood St., Melrose. Cost: Suggested $10 donation per person. (tinyurl.com/rasvmar24, rooterville.org) From playful pigs to gobbling turkeys, there's something for everyone to enjoy. Connect with rescued animals and learn about the importance of animal welfare. All proceeds help care for the animals. You are welcome to bring snacks to feed the critters or buy them on site. They love baby carrots, strawberries, grapes, sliced apples and some veggies. Tickets are limited to 20 guests per 1.5-hour time slot.
Weekly Walk and Talk: 3-4 p.m. Friday, Santa Fe River Preserve, 27025 N. SR 121, Alachua. Free. (facebook.com/AlachuaConservationTrust/events) River basin hike.
St. Patrick’s Day Fundraiser: 4:30-8:30 p.m. Friday, High Springs Brewing Co., 18562 NW 237th St., High Springs. Contact the GFWC High Springs New Century Woman’s Club for pricing information. (386-518-3276, Ext. 2) The GFWC High Springs New Century Woman’s Club will be serving homemade shepherd's pie, corned beef sliders, hot dogs and dessert. Proceeds will support Al’z Place, a daycare located in Gainesville for Alzheimer’s patients.
“Florida Skies (Spring)”: 7 p.m. Fridays through May 31, Kika Silva Pla Planetarium, 3000 NW 83rd St. Tickets: $7.19 for adults; $6.17 ages 4-12, ages 60 and older, UF affiliates, military and first responders. (showpass.com/florida-skies-spring-4) Join James Albury, former co-host of the PBS TV Show “Star Gazers,” as he takes you on a personally guided tour of the night sky using the GOTO Chronos Space Simulator.
Ichetucknee Springs 5K Trail Run: 7 a.m. Saturday, Ichetucknee Springs State Park, 12087 SW U.S. 27, Fort White. Cost: $6 entrance fee per car to enter the park plus $47 race fee. (runsignup.com/Race/FL/FortWhite/IchetuckneeSprings5K) Race fee includes commemorative shirt, finisher medal, patch, accurately measured and well-marked course, chip timing with awards three deep in five-year age groups for both events, post-race food and drinks, and more. A portion of each entry fee will benefit the Florida Springs Council.
Sunrise Hike: 7:30-8 a.m. Saturday, Sweetwater Wetlands Park, 325 SW Williston Road. Cost: $5 per vehicle; $2 for pedestrians, vans and bikes. (tinyurl.com/sh24a) Join a ranger on a 30- to 45-minute walk into the wetlands while you enjoy the sunrise and learn about the importance of the sun throughout the world in the past and present. End with a brief guided meditation to enjoy the sun's energy throughout your day.
Family Fishing Day: 8 a.m.-noon Saturday, 7922 NW 71st St. Free; cash donations welcomed. (ffgs.ifas.ufl.edu) Family oriented fresh-water fishing with loaner poles and bait available. Railed fishing deck with two handicapped accessible ramps.
Guided Hike on Rim Ramble: 10-11 a.m. Saturday, La Chua Trail Horse Barn, 4801 Camp Ranch Road. Cost: $4 per vehicle. (prairiefriends.org) Rangers from Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park will lead adventures through the La Chua Trail. Limited space available to the first 25 people who are present at the time of each event. Heavily suggested items for the trip include hiking shoes, comfortable clothing, binoculars, camera, drinking water and field guides. Insect repellent is highly recommended in warmer weather.
Carson Springs Wildlife Conservation Foundation Tour: 10 a.m.-noon Saturday, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Monday, Carson Springs Wildlife Conservation Foundation, 8528 E. County Road 225. Tickets: $35 adults, $15 ages 2-11, free ages 1 and younger; $45 motorized-vehicle tours. (carsonspringswildlife.org, 468-2827, [email protected]) Take a tour — on foot or in a tour vehicle — of Carson Springs Wildlife Conservation Foundation with big-cat feeding demonstrations and up-close encounters with the animals.
Historic Haile Homestead Tour: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturdays, noon-4 p.m. Sundays, Historic Haile Homestead, 8500 Archer Road. Entrance: $5 ages 12 and older, free ages 11 and younger. (hailehomestead.org) The Historic Haile Homestead is unique in the nation for its "Talking Walls.''
Gainesville Street Rods Car and Truck Show: 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, Santa Fe College, 3000 NW 83rd St. Free for spectators; items and food for sale. (stopchildrenscancer.org) Annual event in its 42nd year featuring automobiles, food, music and vendors. Show benefits Stop Children’s Cancer.
Trenton Spring Festival: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, Douberly Farms, 830 NE Trenton Blvd., Trenton. Free entry; items and food for sale. (tinyurl.com/tsf24) Celebration of spring featuring more than 100 vendors, food trucks, kids zone and more.
Horse Feeding: 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, Mill Creek Farm Retirement Home for Horses, 20307 NW CR 235A, Alachua. Entrance: Bag of carrots. (millcreekfarm.org) The Retirement Home for Horses provides lifetime care to elderly horses seized by law enforcement agencies, rescued by the SPCA or humane societies, as well as horses retired from government service such as police patrol or state and federal parks.
Nowruz and International Festival: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, Shoppes at Thornebrook, 2441 NW 43rd St. Free entry; items and food for sale. (tinyurl.com/nif24) Event to celebrate both the Persian New Year as well as all cultures in attendance. Wear your culture's costume to this diverse event that will educate attendees through food, music, dance, clothing and flags.
Spring Festival: 1-6 p.m. Saturday, Frog Song Organics, 4317 NE U.S. 301, Hawthorne. Free entry; donations accepted; items and food for sale. (tinyurl.com/sf24a) Annual event featuring strawberry U-pick and prepared foods available for sale, live music, food trucks and farm-to-table menu, guided walking tours, farm stand, educational workshops and kids’ activities.
Downtown High Springs Artwalk: Noon-5 p.m. Saturday, downtown High Springs. Free entry; items and food for sale. (facebook.com/downtownhighsprings/events) Monthly event featuring local artists and makers, as well as specials from downtown businesses.
“Tales of the Maya Skies”: 5-5:30 p.m. Saturdays through March 30, Kika Silva Pla Planetarium, 3000 NW 83rd St. Tickets: $6.17-$8.22. (showpass.com/tales-of-the-maya-skies-2) Digital fulldome show that immerses the audience in Mayan astronomy, art and culture through a custom score and visuals. Produced by Chabot Space and Science Center, “Tales of the Maya Skies” inspires and educates through its description of the Maya's accurate astronomical achievements and how astronomy connected them to the universe. The program is accompanied by an extensive educator's guide.
Two Hawk Hammock Happy Hour: 5-7:30 p.m. Saturday, Two Hawk Hammock, 17950 NE 53rd Lane, Williston. Tickets: $5 ages 13 and older, free ages 12 and younger. (twohawkhammock.com) Live music, food and drinks, and barn animals.
Martin Luther King Jr. Banquet: 6-9 p.m. Saturday, Archer Community Center, 16671 SW 137th Ave., Archer. Cost: $20, free for children. (tinyurl.com/mlkjb24) Annual event. This year’s speaker is Marsha Kiner.
“Eclipse”: 7-7:45 p.m. Saturdays through April 8, Kika Silva Pla Planetarium, 3000 NW 83rd St.Tickets: $8.22 for adults; $6.17 ages 4-12, ages 60 and older, UF affiliates, military and first responders. (showpass.com/eclipse) "Eclipse: The Story of Our Nearest Neighbor in Space" takes you on a journey of discovery to our nearest celestial neighbor. Learn about the origins, composition and mechanics of the moon. Discover how the ancients were able to predict eclipses with great accuracy, and find out when/where you can view the next eclipse.
Sunday Assembly: 11 a.m. Sunday, Pride Center located in the Springhill Professional Center, 3850 NW 83rd St., Suite 201. Free. ([email protected], sagainesville.weebly.com) Sunday Assembly will host 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 with the opportunity to sing along. It also is possible to attend via Zoom.
“Mesmerica 360”: 2, 3:15 and 4:30 p.m. Sunday, Kika Silva Pla Planetarium, 3000 NW 83rd St. Tickets: SOLD OUT. (tickets.mesmerica.com/gainesville2gxp) “Mesmerica” is a visual music journey that brings the mesmerizing music of Grammy-nominated composer and percussionist James Hood together with visually-hypnotic, 3-D animated art curated from artists around the world, creating an immersive experience designed to transcend time, relax, soothe and stimulate your mind and senses.
St. Patrick’s Day Block Party: 5 p.m. Sunday, Haile Village Bistro and Queen’s Arms Pub, 5323 SW 91st Terrace. Free entry; food and drinks for sale. (tinyurl.com/spdbp24) Annual event featuring kids’ station, music, food and more. Don’t forget to wear green.
Sublime Frequencies: Film Screening with Director Hisham Mayet: 7:30-9:30 p.m. Sunday, Heartwood Soundstage, 619 S. Main St. TIckets: $15. (heartwoodsoundstage.com) Screenings of “The Divine River” and “Oulaya’s Wedding.”
Sweetwater Wetlands Park Wednesday Bird Walks: 8:30-11 a.m. Wednesdays through May 29, Sweetwater Wetlands Park, 325 SW Williston Road. Admission: $5 per vehicle; $2 for pedestrians, vans and bikes. (alachuaaudubon.org) Discover the rich diversity of birds at one of north central Florida's premier birding hotspots during a two- to three-hour guided walking tour. Birders of all levels welcome. Walks are led by volunteers from Alachua Audubon Society with assistance from Sweetwater Wetlands Park rangers.
Barnyard Buddies: 3-4 p.m. Wednesdays through May 29, Morningside Nature Center, 3540 E. University Ave. Free. (bit.ly/barnbuds) Weekly program where youngsters, with an adult, can meet and greet farm animals by helping staff with afternoon feeding. Animals love donations of carrots, squash, apples, sweet potatoes and melons.
Community Afro-Haitian Dance Masterclass: 6:30-8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Eastside Recreation Center, 2841 E. University Ave. Free. (tinyurl.com/cahdm24a) The Center for Arts, Migration and Entrepreneurship welcomes Adia Whitaker, director of the Àṣẹ Dance Theatre Collective, for a residency in Gainesville as she develops her dance film project, “Following the Road to Ose Tura.” Along with leading dance masterclasses in the community and on campus, Whitaker will host a public discussion on the creative process of choreographing and producing the project. Light refreshments will be offered.
Celebration Pointe Farmers Market: 4-7 p.m. Thursdays, Celebration Pointe, Celebration Pointe Avenue. Free entry; items and food for sale. (celebrationpointe.com/events/farmers-market-2023, [email protected]) Weekly farmers market featuring a wide selection of products, including grass-fed local meat, fruit smoothies and hand-poured soy candles. Discover the flavors of the season and support local farmers and small businesses.
Easter Egg Hunt: 5-7:30 p.m. Thursday, Magnolia Ridge Health and Rehabilitation, 6517 NW 39th Ave. Free; items and food for sale. (tinyurl.com/mrrceaster24) Annual event in its second year featuring petting zoo, vendors, food trucks, photo opportunities and the Easter Bunny.
CASTING CALL
Tioga’s Got Talent: Auditions: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, Watson Realty Corp Tioga, 12921 SW First Road, No. 117, Newberry. Free. (tinyurl.com/tgt24) Inaugural event that will be held live on stage at the Tioga Town Center Square from 7 to 9 p.m. April 20. There will be two age groups; the Junior Division for ages 8-17, and the Adult Division for ages 18 and older. Prizes will be provided by local businesses, and will be awarded after each division performs. All performances are limited to 5 minutes, and must be age-appropriate and family friendly.
ART
Artisans' Guild Gallery: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. March 23 “Earth Bound,” featuring folk art and fine crafts from around the world along with a presentation from Laurie Wilkins about how she came to acquire the artifacts. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Friday-Saturday. 224 NW Second Ave. (378-1383, artisansguildgallery.com)
Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention: “Imagination in Motion: Animation and Optical Illusions,” a world of endless possibilities where reality blurs and creativity takes center stage. Unveil the secrets of animation’s evolution, immerse yourself in optical illusions and discover the science behind your favorite animated films; “Reel Revolution: The Rise of Animation,” where attendees can explore how the future of animation is being shaped within the minds of visionaries just like them. Step through time to uncover the origins of some of the most well-loved movies, shows and characters of all time. Tickets: $12.50, $10 seniors and college students, $7.50 ages 5-17, free ages 4 and younger. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday-Sunday. 811 N. Main St. (371-8001, cademuseum.org)
Cedar Key Arts Center: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. open studio Friday-Saturday; 10 a.m.-4 p.m. open studio Sunday; 9 a.m. Wednesday Boat Builders; 2:30-5 p.m. Wednesday Shark Sewing Club; 4-7 p.m. Thursday Mixed Medium Spring Wreath with Sonja Rine. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. 457 Second St., Cedar Key. (543-5801, cedarkeyartscenter.org)
Florida Museum of Natural History: “Antarctic Dinosaurs” on display through April 21. 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. Tickets: $10 adults; $9 Florida residents, seniors and non-UF college students; $7 ages 3-17; free ages 2 and younger, UF students and museum members. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday. 3215 Hull Road. (floridamuseum.ufl.edu, 846-2000)
Gainesville Fine Arts Association Gallery: “An Elegy to Rosewood” on display through March 23; “Crossroads of Western and Eastern Europe — The Center for European Studies at UF” on display March 26-April 20; “Disruption” on display April 23-May 25; “Weeklong Solo/Curated Shows and Member Postcards” on display May 28-June 22; “Summer Showcase 2024” on display June 25-July 20; “Hair” on display July 23-Aug. 24; “Biennial National Juried Exhibition — Heat” on display Aug. 27-Oct. 19; “Nostalgia” on display Oct. 22-Nov. 23; “Winter Showcase 2024” on display Nov. 26-Dec. 20. Gallery hours are 1 to 6 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. 1314 S. Main St. (gainesvillefinearts.org, [email protected])
Harn Museum of Art: “Surrealism at the Harn,” a centennial celebration, on display through June 2; “Gateway to Himalayan Art” on display through July; “Metamorphosis: Reshaping Contemporary Art,” featuring artists who are rethinking traditional materials and techniques to create innovative works of art, on display through Oct. 26, 2025. Museum hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday. 3259 Hull Road. (392-9826)
Matheson History Museum: “Return to Forever: Gainesville’s Great Southern Music Hall,” showcasing dozens of John Moran‘s performance photos from his two years as the Great Southern Music Hall house photographer. Also featured is a display of Bo Diddley artifacts, including one of Bo’s signature square box guitars. Written by music journalist Bill DeYoung and designed by historian Rick Kilby, this unique exhibit celebrates a golden age in the University City’s musical history, the likes of which may never be seen again. On display through May 4; “Weaving a Community: 30 Years of the Matheson History Museum,” an all-encompassing view of the Matheson’s history and its origins; “When Johnny Came Marching Home: Some Gave All – All Gave Some,” remembering those who came home from war with both physical and mental wounds, on display outside. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday. 513 E. University Ave. (378-2280, mathesonmuseum.org)
Melrose Bay Art Gallery: Open Air Arts on display Saturday-April 28, with Artwalk reception 6-9 p.m. April 5. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday or by appointment. 103 State Road 26, Melrose. (475-3866, melrosebayartgallery.com)
Santa Fe College’s Blount Hall: A large art collection from local collector Hector Puig on display. Hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Corner of West University Avenue and North Sixth Street.
Sweetwater Print Cooperative: "No Words," an exhibit of watercolors and other works by Joon Thomas, on display through March 26. Gallery hours: By appointment. 117 S. Main St. (514-3838)
UPCOMING CONCERTS
Live and Local Concert Series: 7-9 p.m. March 22, Bo Diddley Plaza, 111 E. University Ave. Free. (tinyurl.com/livelocal24) Live performances by Half Gone, Earworms and Boat Stuff.
Playlist at the Pointe: 7-9 p.m. March 22, Celebration Pointe, Celebration Pointe Avenue. Free. (celebrationpointe.com) Jamie Davis will perform. Food will be available from area restaurants.
UF Carillon Studio Concert Series: 1:55 p.m. March 24, Century Tower Carillon, 375 Newell Drive. Free. (arts.ufl.edu/sites/carillon-studio/welcome) The University of Florida Carillon Studio is made up of students who have auditioned and committed to upholding the tradition of performing in Century Tower. The UF Carillon Studio Concert Series offers a chance to hear the UF Carillon during a 45-minute recital. Listeners are encouraged to find a location at least 100 feet from the tower for an optimal listening experience.
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields: 7:30 p.m. March 24, Phillips Center, 3201 Hull Road. Tickets: $45-$75, $20 UF students. (performingarts.ufl.edu) Music director and virtuoso violinist Joshua Bell returns to the stage to lead the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. Retaining the flexibility and spirit of their origin as a small, conductorless ensemble, the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields has gained an enviable international reputation as one of the world’s finest chamber orchestras. Renowned for their polished, innovative interpretations of distinctive orchestral music, they present both symphonic and chamber repertoire on a grand scale at prestigious venues around the globe.
Community Choral Singing: 4-6 p.m. March 29, Oakview Community Center, 810 NW Eighth Ave. Free. (tinyurl.com/ccsmar24) Come together to enjoy singing madrigals, anthems, spirituals, pop, jazz and holiday classics.
Live and Local Concert Series: 7-9 p.m. March 29, Bo Diddley Plaza, 111 E. University Ave. Free. (tinyurl.com/livelocal24) Second annual Teen Artist Showcase.
Eli Lev: 6 p.m. April 6, Satchel's Pizza, 1800 NE 23rd Ave. Free. (satchelspizza.com) The rising singer-songwriter pens lyrics and melodies for everyday enlightenment — songs that resonate because they’re heartfelt and earthy, and offer the wisdom he’s gained through lifelong travel and self-discovery.
Harold López-Nussa: 7 and 9 p.m. April 11, UpStage at the Phillips Center, 3201 Hull Road. Tickets: $50 for 7 p.m., $35 for 9 p.m., $12 UF students. (performingarts.ufl.edu) UpStage is an intimate, cabaret-style setting on the Phillips Center Mainstage. The 7 p.m. seating includes heavy hors d’oeuvres and cash bar; the 9 p.m. seating includes desserts and cash bar. Pianist Harold López-Nussa reflects the richness of Cuban music with his distinctive combination of classical, folkloric and improvisation. This fresh take is an exhilarating personification of the ritmo of the modern music scene’s bustling soul. With astonishingly fresh performances that showcase the full range and richness of the genre, López-Nussa has earned significant national and international awards in the classical and jazz worlds.
The Crane Wives: 7 and 9 p.m. April 12, UpStage at the Phillips Center, 3201 Hull Road. Tickets: $50 for 7 p.m., $35 for 9 p.m., $12 UF students. (performingarts.ufl.edu) UpStage is an intimate, cabaret-style setting on the Phillips Center Mainstage. The 7 p.m. seating includes heavy hors d’oeuvres and cash bar; the 9 p.m. seating includes desserts and cash bar. A four-piece indie band, The Crane Wives defies musical stereotype with eclectic instrumentation and lively stage presence. They perform homegrown Indie folk with candor and touching, soulful harmonies, and are not afraid to experiment with jazz influences and instruments.
UF Carillon Studio Concert Series: 1:55 p.m. April 21, Century Tower Carillon, 375 Newell Drive. Free. (arts.ufl.edu/sites/carillon-studio/welcome) The University of Florida Carillon Studio is made up of students who have auditioned and committed to upholding the tradition of performing in Century Tower. The UF Carillon Studio Concert Series offers a chance to hear the UF Carillon during a 45-minute recital. Listeners are encouraged to find a location at least 100 feet from the tower for an optimal listening experience.
Playlist at the Pointe: 7-9 p.m. April 26, Celebration Pointe, Celebration Pointe Avenue. Free. (celebrationpointe.com) TJ Brown Band will perform. Food will be available from area restaurants.
UPCOMING EVENTS
“Ordinary Days”: 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays March 22-April 14, Gainesville Community Playhouse, 4039 NW 16th Blvd. Tickets: $24 general admission, $20 seniors, $12 students. (gcplayhouse.org) Experience the beauty of simplicity and the extraordinary in the ordinary with “Ordinary Days.” 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.
“Giselle”: 2 and 7:30 p.m. March 23, Phillips Center, 3201 Hull Road. Tickets: $35-$65. (performingarts.ufl.edu) Presented by Dance Alive National Ballet. The ultimate romantic ballet, “Giselle” is the tragic story of a beautiful, young peasant girl who falls in love with a nobleman disguised as a commoner. Ultimately dying of a broken heart, she becomes one with the “Wilis,” ethereal ghosts of unmarried girls. Family friendly performances.
“White”: 7 p.m. March 27-28 previews, then 7 p.m. Wednesdays-Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays March 29-April 14, Hippodrome Theatre, 25 SE Second Place. Tickets: $25 previews, then $20-$50. (thehipp.org) When a major museum seeks to showcase diverse voices in its next exhibition, Gus, an artist, enlists Vanessa’s help to create an audacious new artistic persona of color to get him in the show. From there it all spins out of control in this modern comedy, exploring white privilege, racial politics and the fine line between appropriation and opportunity.
Sunrise Hike: 7:20-8 a.m. March 30, Sweetwater Wetlands Park, 325 SW Williston Road. Cost: $5 per vehicle; $2 for pedestrians, vans and bikes. (tinyurl.com/sh24a) Join a ranger on a 30- to 45-minute walk into the wetlands while you enjoy the sunrise and learn about the importance of the sun throughout the world in the past and present. End with a brief guided meditation to enjoy the sun's energy throughout your day.
“On Your Feet!”: 7:30 p.m. March 30, Phillips Center, 3201 Hull Road. Tickets: $45-$75, $20 UF students. (performingarts.ufl.edu) The inspiring true story about heart, heritage and two people who believe in their talent — and each other — to become an international sensation: Gloria and Emilio Estefan.
Agatha Christie’s “Murder on the Orient Express”: 8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays April 5-28, High Springs Playhouse, 23416 NW 186 Ave., High Springs. Tickets: $15 general admission, $10 students and ages 65 and older. (highspringsplayhouse.com) Just after midnight, a snowdrift stops the Orient Express in its tracks. The luxury train is surprisingly full for the time of the year, but by the morning it is one passenger fewer. An American tycoon lies dead in his compartment, stabbed eight times, his door locked from the inside. Isolated and with a killer in their midst, the passengers rely on Detective Hercule Poirot to identify the murderer — in case he or she decides to strike again.
Pancakes on the Prairie: 9-11:30 a.m. April 6, Poe Springs boat ramp, 28800 NW 182nd Ave., High Springs. Free. (alachuaconservationtrust.org) Join ACT for a pancake breakfast at the cabin on Tuscawilla Prairie. This event is first come, first served; pancakes and coffee will be available while supplies last.
Perspectives in the Park Speaker Series: Noon-1 p.m. April 7, Hogtown Creek Headwaters Park 1500 NW 45th Ave. Free. (facebook.com/cityofgainesvillenature/events) Monthly event. Learn from experts in their field about nature, history and art, and hear some of their stories. “Wandering in Wiregrass” with Raelene Crandall.
Spring Arts Festival: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. April 13, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. April 14, Santa Fe College Northwest Campus, 3000 NW 83rd St. Free entry; items and food for sale. (sfcollege.edu) Artists and craftspeople from across the country and around the world will highlight their talents in mediums including painting, sculpture, jewelry, glass, ceramics and more.
Yoga in the Park with Emma Sugarman: 2 p.m. April 13, Matheson History Museum, 513 E. University Ave. Free. (mathesonmuseum.org) Yoga class on the front lawn of the historic Matheson House. All levels and abilities are welcome. Bring your own yoga mat or towel.
360 Allstars: 4 p.m. April 14, Phillips Center, 3201 Hull Road. Tickets: $25-$45, $12 UF students. (performingarts.ufl.edu) An energy-packed performance for the whole family complete with basketball, breakdancing, beatboxing, acrobatics, BMX biking and more. 360 Allstars is a supercharged urban circus showcasing the phenomenal physical fusion of the artistry from street culture.
Houston Keen Band: 6-9 p.m. April 16, Celebration Pointe, Northwest Corner of Interstate 75 and Archer Road. Free. (facebook.com/celebrationpointeFL/events) Live music on the promenade stage. Seating is first come first served, so feel free to bring a chair.
“Beyond Therapy”: 8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays, April 19-May 4, Acrosstown Repertory Theatre, 3501 SW Second Ave., Suite O. Tickets: $25 general admission; $20 students, seniors, military and teachers. (acrosstown.org) Bruce and Prudence, two modern, neurotic urbanites searching for love and sanity — with the questionable help of their offbeat therapists. This delightful comedy will keep you laughing as the couple learn to live beyond therapy.
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo: 7:30 p.m. April 23, Phillips Center, 3201 Hull Road. Tickets: $25-$45, $12 UF students. (performingarts.ufl.edu) Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo is a world-famous, all-male, classically trained ballet troupe that delivers hilarious parodies while performing both men’s and women’s roles. Described as “a kick from a steel toe cap in a silky pointe shoe,” this irreverent, beloved dance troupe is celebrating its 50th anniversary season of toeing the line between high art and high camp with their humorous blend of deep knowledge of ballet with absolute silliness. Their performances offer satire of the rigid world of dance through their playful, fresh, tongue-in-cheek concept.
Ann Weimer Moxley: “Just Call Me Rae: The Story of Rae O. Weimer, Founder of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications”: 7 p.m. April 24, Matheson History Museum, 513 E. University Ave. Free; registration required. (mathesonmuseum.org) Rae O. Weimer founded the University of Florida’s first school of journalism in 1949. Ann Weimer Moxley, Weimer’s daughter, has written an eye-opening chronicle of her late father’s lasting legacy to journalism in the state of Florida.
The Harlem Globetrotters: 7 p.m. April 25, Stephen C. O’Connell Center, 250 Gale Lemerand Drive. Tickets: Prices vary; see website for details. (bit.ly/globetrotters24) The trick-performing basketball team will go head-to-head against the Washington Generals, who will stop at nothing to try and defeat the world’s winningest team.
“Once Upon a Time in Florida: Roots and Rivers” with Jacki Levine, Jack E. Davis and Cynthia Barnett: 6:30 p.m. reception, 7 p.m. panel discussion May 1, Matheson History Museum, 513 E. University Ave. Free; registration required. (mathesonmuseum.org) This is the final stop in the Florida Humanities’ statewide book tour for “Once Upon a Time in Florida.” This book marks Florida Humanities' 50th anniversary with a collection of 50 timeless stories from the archives of FORUM, the award-winning magazine of Florida Humanities. This tour stop will focus on Florida’s environment.
Floridiana Show: Time TBD May 4, Matheson History Museum, 513 E. University Ave. Free. (mathesonmuseum.org) The Floridiana Show is back featuring Florida kitsch and vintage Florida from a variety of vendors from Gainesville and around the state.
I Heart Art: 10 a.m.-3 p.m. May 4, Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park, 11016 Lillian Saunders Drive, White Springs. Free entry; items and food for sale. ([email protected]) Traditional arts-and-crafts demonstrations and items for sale. Items range from weaving, painting, wood working, soap making, photography and other handmade items.
“Treasure Island”: 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays May 24-June 9, Gainesville Community Playhouse, 4039 NW 16th Blvd. Tickets: $24 general admission, $20 seniors, $12 students. (gcplayhouse.org) Picture a world where pirates rule what we call Earth. Humanity’s desire to find hidden treasures will take them to heights they never imagined. Based on the masterful adventure novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, “Treasure Island” is an epic adventure from Ken Ludwig. It begins at an inn on the Devon coast of England, and quickly becomes an unforgettable tale of treachery and mayhem featuring a host of legendary swashbucklers including the dangerous Billy Bones, the sinister two-timing Israel Hands, the brassy woman pirate Anne Bonny, and the hideous form of evil incarnate Blind Pew. Sail the vastness of space to find Captain Flint’s treasure in this coming-of-age tale that is out of this world! Join Jim Hawkins as he navigates the universe longing for adventure with the infamous Long John Silver, perhaps the most famous hero-villain of all time. Silver’s greedy quest for gold, coupled with his affection for Jim, cannot help but win the heart of every soul who has ever longed for romance, treasure and adventure.
“Cabaret”: 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays June 7-23, Acrosstown Repertory Theatre, 3501 SW Second Ave., Suite O. Tickets: $25 general admission; $20 students, seniors, military and teachers. (acrosstown.org) In a Berlin nightclub, as the 1920s draw to a close, a garish master of ceremonies welcomes the audience and assures them they will forget all of their troubles at the Cabaret. With the emcee’s bawdy songs as wry commentary, “Cabaret” explores the dark, heady and tumultuous life of Berlin’s natives and expatriates as Germany slowly yields to the emerging Third Reich. Cliff, a young American writer newly arrived in Berlin, is immediately taken with English singer Sally Bowles.
“Dead Man’s Cellphone”: 8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays June 7-30, High Springs Playhouse, 23416 NW 186 Ave., High Springs. Tickets: $15 general admission, $10 students and ages 65 and older. (highspringsplayhouse.com) An incessantly ringing cellphone in a quiet cafe. A stranger at the next table who has had enough. And a dead man — with a lot of loose ends. So begins “Dead Man’s Cellphone,” a wildly imaginative new comedy by Sara Ruhl. A work about how we memorialize the dead — and how that remembering changes us.
“In The Heights”: 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays July 19-Aug. 11, Gainesville Community Playhouse, 4039 NW 16th Blvd. Tickets: $24 general admission, $20 seniors, $12 students. (gcplayhouse.org) “In the Heights,” created by Lin-Manuel Miranda, tells the universal story of a vibrant community in New York’s Washington Heights neighborhood — a place where the coffee from the corner bodega is light and sweet, the windows are always open and the breeze carries the rhythm of three generations of music. It’s a community on the brink of change, full of hopes, dreams and pressures, where the biggest struggles can decide which traditions you take with you and which ones you leave behind.
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World renown Miami musician Charles Austin Jr. dies at 93
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[] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[] | null |
CHARLES AUSTIN JR.: “Music has been my life,” he said. “When I found out I could do it and do it well, I worked at ...
|
en
|
https://www.sfltimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/sftimes.org_.ico?x18240
|
South Florida Times
|
https://www.sfltimes.com/obits/world-renown-miami-musician-charles-austin-jr-dies-at-93
|
CHARLES AUSTIN JR.: “Music has been my life,” he said. “When I found out I could do it and do it well, I worked at it.” STOCK PHOTO
MIAMI – Miami musician Charles Austin Jr., a saxophonist who performed with legends such as Dizzy Gillespie, B.B. King and Marvin Gaye, and taught generations of students, died at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood on Jan. 16 from natural causes, his daughter Sheila Austin said.
He was 93.
Austin, a Miami native, also performed with “Godfather of Soul” James Brown, Count Basie and Cannonball Adderley.
He blazed trails not only as a saxophonist but also as a multi-instrumentalist, educator and composer, while balancing his career and being a family man to his late wife, Judith, his six children, eight grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
Music was his passion from an early age and the sounds of his horn echoed throughout the United States and Europe, as the jazz impresario was the epitome of a renaissance man.
Austin was the first African American musician to play in the orchestra at the Eden Roc Hotel in Miami Beach; was musical conductor of the Broadway hit “Purlie”; and winner of a 1954 edition of the “Ed Sullivan Show,” in which he simultaneously played two saxophones, holding one upside down.
Austin said one of his proudest moments came when he was handpicked by the Nixon administration to accompany George Crumb, a renowned classical composer, to play at an American library erected in Romania during a time when they weren’t so welcoming of Americans, and more particularly of Blacks.
“Many people had submitted their music to the State Department, but they chose mine," Austin told the South Florida Times in 2020. "I went and I was so scared. But I got out there and I played some of the pieces I’d written and some music by Romanian composers. The people loved it. It was one of the most important times in my life."
Austin made a bigger impact in his hometown when he was a regular performer at Miami’s historic Hampton House, where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X stayed during their visits because Blacks weren’t allowed at white hotels in Miami Beach and Miami.
Austin also started a music program at Brownsville Middle School when it first opened, and co-founded the Performing and Visual Arts Center, also known as PAVAC, at Miami Northwest Senior High School in Liberty City.
Austin’s parents’ divorce and a brush with death when he suffered from pneumonia when was 13 years old led him to pick up the saxophone after he moved to Memphis, Tenn. to live with his uncle, Dr. W.A. Bisson.
Bisson, who was the top Black physician in the city, bought his nephew the instrument in hopes that playing it would help develop his lungs.
Austin fell in love with it and immediately began studying to hone his craft.
“Music has been my life. When I found out I could do it and do it well, I worked at it. I studied under some of the top teachers, including Howard Brubeck for jazz music theory,” Austin said.
Sheila Austin said her parents met while serving in the U.S. Navy and her father began his music career, first as a music teacher, after he was discharged.
She said her mother would accompany her father to his gigs and their marriage was the picture of bliss.
"In between gigs they had date nights," she said. "They were the talk of the town because of the love they had for each other."
Austin put his music career on hold to take care of his wife when she was diagnosed with cancer.
The couple had been married for 44 years when she died in 1997.
Sheila Austin said following her mother’s death, her father played at local scenes and collaborated with many artists performing at festivals and music workshops.
She said she and her siblings were required to pick up a musical instrument and learn to play.
"We all played … that was a must in our house," said Sheila Austin, who played the flute. "We all had to learn how to play instruments."
Her niece, Dawn Michelle Johnson, followed in her father’s footsteps. Johnson earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music from the Juilliard School of Music in New York, and is a member of The Strings Queens which is currently on tour and scheduled to perform at South Dade Cultural Arts Center this year.
Austin said Johnson started performing at 15 years old including performances with Miami Beach’s New World Sympathy conductor Michael Tilson Thomas.
Johnson also has performed all over the globe including Russia. "My dad always wanted his students to go to Julliard but he did one better when his own granddaughter attended the school," Sheila Austin said. "My father was so proud of her."
Like her father, Sheila Austin made an impact on Miami’s cultural arts while serving 21 years at the MiamiDade Department of Cultural Affairs. "I was part of the Miami cultural development scene," she said.
Visitation for Charles Austin is set for Tuesday, Jan. 30 from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Richardson Mortuary, 4500 N.W. 17th Ave. in Miami.
A memorial service is scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 31 at 10 a.m. at Church of the Open Door, 6001 N.W. 8th Ave. in Miami.
|
||||
correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
|
0
| 60 |
https://recordsale.de/en/artists/count-basie
|
en
|
Count Basie Albums Vinyl & LPs
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[
""
] | null |
[] |
1955-07-19T00:00:00
|
Count Basie - Large selection of New and second-hand Vinyl of Count Basie. Order now at Recordsale.Count Basie was an American jazz pianist, bandleader, and composer. He was born on August 21, 1904 in Red Bank, New Jersey, and passed away on April 26, 1984 in Hollywood, Florida.
Basie's band was known for its swinging, rhythmic sound, and he became one of the most influential and successful bandleaders of the swing era. Some of his best-known recordings include "One O'Clock Jump," "Jumpin' at the Woodside," and "April in Paris."
|
en
|
/assets/logo-mask-30afa657a65c59b990a7d8943dd91ef85f656a99933ee1c06a26815e75e27691.svg
|
recordsale.de
|
https://recordsale.de/en/artists/count-basie
|
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|
||||
correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
|
2
| 79 |
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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[] |
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[
"Frank Sinatra"
] | null |
[] |
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
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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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correct_death_00034
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FactBench
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3
| 35 |
https://www.thecountbasieorchestra.com/review/count-basie-orchestra-a-musical-legacy/
|
en
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Count Basie Orchestra a musical legacy
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www.nonpareilonline.com Posted: Thursday, medical February 20, 2014 12:00 am By Teri Davis Nonpareil Theater Reviewer A legacy is something that lives on after your death and The Count Basie ...
|
en
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https://www.thecountbasieorchestra.com/wordpress/wp-content/themes/musicpro/favicon.ico
|
The Legendary Count Basie Orchestra
|
https://www.thecountbasieorchestra.com/review/count-basie-orchestra-a-musical-legacy/
|
A legacy is something that lives on after your death and The Count Basie Orchestra obviously fits that description. Count Basie passed away in 1984, but his music lives on in this group. Two of the present members of the orchestra actually performed with him.
At the Holland Performing Arts Center in Omaha on Feb. 13, The Count Basie Orchestra combined the best of the blues, jazz, swing and Big Band to create an evening of musical delights for the large audience.
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correct_death_00034
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FactBench
|
3
| 42 |
https://www.cliffsnotes.com/tutors-problems/Music/49741061-REPLY-TO-THE-FOLLOWING-POST-What-were-the-musical-strengths-of/
|
en
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correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
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2
| 4 |
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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de
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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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0
| 17 |
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Basie-6
|
en
|
William James Basie (1904-1984)
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[
"William Basie genealogy"
] | null |
[] |
1904-08-21T00:00:00
|
Is this your ancestor? Explore genealogy for William Basie born 1904 Red Bank, Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States died 1984 Hollywood, Broward County, Florida, United States including ancestors + children + 1 photos + more in the free family tree community.
|
en
|
/favicon.ico
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https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Basie-6
|
William James "Count" Basie
Born 21 Aug 1904 in Red Bank, Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States
Ancestors
Brother of Leroy Basie
Father of Diane Lillian Basie
Died 26 Apr 1984 at age 79 in Hollywood, Broward County, Florida, United States
Profile last modified 2 Aug 2023 | Created 16 Dec 2020
This page has been accessed 1,035 times.
Biography
William Basie is Notable.
William Basie was a New Jerseyan.
Count Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. [1]
William James Basie was born in 1904 in Red Bank, New Jersey,[2] the son of Harvey L. and Lillian Basie.
He married in Vivian Lee Winn in Jackson, Missouri in 1930.[3]
He married Catherine Morgan in Seattle, Washington in 1942.[citation needed]
He was 79 when he died in Hollywood, Florida on 26 April 1984.[4][5]
William was a Freemason, Wisdom Lodge No. 102, Chicago, Illinois.
Count Basie was inducted into the Prince Hall Freemason, Wisdom Lodge No. 102 in Chicago, Illinois. [6]
He has a memorial with his wife in Pinelawn Memorial Park in East Farmingdale, New York.[7]
Sources
↑ wikipedia:Count Basie
↑ Military: "U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947"
National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; WWII Draft Registration Cards for New York City, 10/16/1940 - 03/31/1947; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147
Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 2238 #194230321 (accessed 28 July 2022)
Name: William James Basie; Race: Negro (Black); Age: 37; Birth Date: 21 Aug 1904; Birth Place: Red Bank, New Jersey; Registration Date: 16 Feb 1942; Registration Place: Red Bank, New Jersey; Employer: Wm Morris Agency; Height: 5 6; Weight: 200; Complexion: Dark brown; Hair Color: Black; Eye Color: Brown; Next of Kin: Harvey L Basie;
Household Members Age:
William James Basie 38.
↑ "Missouri, County Marriage, Naturalization, and Court Records, 1800-1991," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:WGR9-VB6Z : 1 October 2019), William Basie, 21 Jul 1930; citing Marriage, Jackson, Missouri, United States, Missouri State Archives, Jefferson City; FHL microfilm 007118686.
↑ "Florida Death Index, 1877-1998," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VV63-7NG : 25 December 2014), William James Basie, 26 Apr 1984; from "Florida Death Index, 1877-1998," index, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : 2004); citing vol. , certificate number 33439, Florida Department of Health, Office of Vital Records, Jacksonville.
↑ "United States, GenealogyBank Obituaries, 1980-2014," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV57-GYNX : accessed 16 December 2020), William Or Count Basie, San Diego, California, United States, 26 Apr 1984; from "Recent Newspaper Obituaries (1977 - Today)," database, GenealogyBank.com (http://www.genealogybank.com : 2014); citing , born-digital text.
↑ https://phaohio.org/famous-prince-hall-masons
↑ Memorial: Find a Grave (has image)
Find A Grave: Memorial #1664 (accessed 25 November 2022)
Memorial page for Count Basie Famous memorial (21 Aug 1904-26 Apr 1984), citing Pinelawn Memorial Park and Arboretum, East Farmingdale, Suffolk County, New York, USA (plot: Mausoleum, South Forsythia Court, Row 57, Tier D); Maintained by Find a Grave.
1910 Census: "United States Census, 1910"
citing enumeration district (ED) ED 105, sheet 17A, family 359, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 901; FHL microfilm 1,374,914.
FamilySearch Record: MKBD-ZWK (accessed 28 July 2022)
FamilySearch Image: 33SQ-GRKQ-Z83 Image number 00747
William J Basie (6), single son, in household of Harvey L Basie (38) in Red Bank, Monmouth, New Jersey, United States. Born in New Jersey.
1920 Census: "United States Census, 1920"
citing Affiliate Publication Number: T625; Affiliate Film Number: 1059; Line: 3; FHL microfilm: 1821059; Record number: 34036;
FamilySearch Record: M4TT-ND3 (accessed 28 July 2022)
FamilySearch Image: 33SQ-GRTP-QR3 Image number 00707
William J Basie (15), single son, in household of Harvey L Basie (47) in Monmouth, New Jersey, United States.
1950 Census: "1950 United States Federal Census"
United States of America, Bureau of the Census; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Record Group: Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790-2007; Record Group Number: 29; Residence Date: 1950; Home in 1950: New York, Queens, New York; Roll: 938; Sheet Number: 72; Enumeration District: 41-2028
Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 62308 #285347871 (accessed 28 July 2022)
C William Basie (45) head of household in New York, Queens, New York, USA. Born in New Jersey.
Prince Hall Freemason inductee, https://www.chicofreemasons.org/lodge-news/2019/2/21/black-history-month-celebrating-famous-black-freemasons
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correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
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3
| 15 |
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...
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/assets/images/fg-icon.svg
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https://de.findagrave.com/memorial/1664/count-basie
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correct_death_00034
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FactBench
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0
| 56 |
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/nation-world/story/2024-04-25/today-in-history-april-26-chernobyl-nuclear-plant-disaster/
|
en
|
Today in History: April 26, Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster
|
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2024-04-25T00:00:00
|
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 […]
|
en
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San Diego Union-Tribune
|
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/nation-world/story/2024-04-25/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
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FactBench
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3
| 54 |
https://thefinalfootprint.com/2024/04/26/day-in-history-26-april-lucille-ball/
|
en
|
On this day 26 April death of Gypsy Rose Lee – Count Basie – Lucille Ball – Phoebe Snow – George Jones – Jonathan Demme
|
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2024-04-26T00:00:00
|
en
|
https://thefinalfootprint.com/2024/04/26/day-in-history-26-april-lucille-ball/
|
#RIP #OTD in 1970 burlesque entertainer, stripper and vedette, actress, author, playwright, her 1957 memoir was adapted into the 1959 stage musical Gypsy, Gypsy Rose Lee died of lung cancer in Los Angeles, aged 59. Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California
On this day in 1984, jazz pianist, bandleader, and composer Count Basie died of pancreatic cancer in Hollywood, Florida at the age of 79. Born William James Basie on August 21, 1904 in Red Bank, New Jersey. 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 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.
On 21 July 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 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, 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.
The Final Footprint
Basie and Catherine are entombed in Pinelawn Memorial Park, East Farmingdale, New York.
On this day in 2013, United States Marine Corp veteran, musician and singer, Thumper Jones, No Show Jones, The Possum, George Jones died, aged 81, from hypoxic respiratory failure in Nashville. Born George Glenn Jones on September 12, 1931 in Saratoga, Texas. He achieved fame for his long list of hit records, including perhaps his best known song “He Stopped Loving Her Today”, as well as his distinctive voice and phrasing. Waylon Jennings expressed his opinion on Jones in his song “It’s Alright”: “If we all could sound like we wanted to, we’d all sound like George Jones.” In 1959, Jones recorded “White Lightning,” written by J. P. Richardson, which launched his career as a singer. During his career, Jones had more than 150 hits, both as a solo artist and in duets with other artists.He married his first wife, Dorothy Bonvillion, in 1950, and was divorced in 1951. He married Shirley Ann Corley in 1954. His second marriage ended in divorce in 1968; he married fellow country music singer Tammy Wynette a year later. After his divorce from Wynette in 1975, Jones married his fourth wife, Nancy Sepulvado, in 1983 and became sober for good in 1999.
The Final Footprint
Former first lady Laura Bush was among those eulogizing Jones at his funeral on May 2, 2013. Other speakers were Tennessee governor Bill Haslam, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, news personality Bob Schieffer, and country singers Barbara Mandrell and Kenny Chesney. Alan Jackson, Kid Rock, Ronnie Milsap, Randy Travis, Vince Gill, Patty Loveless, Travis Tritt, the Oak Ridge Boys, Charlie Daniels, Wynonna and Brad Paisley provided musical tributes. Jackson sang “He Stopped Loving Her Today”. The service was broadcast live on CMT, GAC, RFD-TV, The Nashville Network and FamilyNet as well as Nashville stations. SiriusXM and WSM 650AM, home of the Grand Ole Opry, broadcast the event on the radio. The family requested that contributions be made to the Grand Ole Opry Trust Fund or to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Jones was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Nashville. Other notable final footprints at Woodlawn include; Eddy Arnold, Little Jimmy Dickens, George Jones, Johnny Paycheck, Webb Pierce, Jerry Reed, Marty Robbins, Dan Seals, Red Sovine, Porter Wagoner, and Tammy Wynette.
#RIP #OTD in 2017, film director (Melvin and Howard, The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia, Rachel Getting Married), producer and screenwriter Jonathan Demme died at his home in Manhattan from complications from esophageal cancer and heart disease, age 73.
|
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correct_death_00034
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FactBench
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2
| 18 |
https://jpcavanaugh.com/2023/03/10/count-basie-goes-organic/
|
en
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Count Basie Goes Organic
|
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2023-03-10T00:00:00
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I have come to understand that the concept of "centering" is worthwhile in all sorts of pursuits, whether it might be meditation, prayer or just settling down. I realized awhile ago that it has been a long time since Count Basie has graced this place with his musical gifts. And with Count Basie sort of…
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https://secure.gravatar.com/blavatar/c044e39a2c9260b978b7910cd3359182cd47f60b06d59ec4a7c379fdd276e392?s=32
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J. P.'s Blog
|
https://jpcavanaugh.com/2023/03/10/count-basie-goes-organic/
|
I have come to understand that the concept of “centering” is worthwhile in all sorts of pursuits, whether it might be meditation, prayer or just settling down. I realized awhile ago that it has been a long time since Count Basie has graced this place with his musical gifts. And with Count Basie sort of serving as my “musical center” when it comes to classic jazz, some centering is in order. We can do our centering in a very organic way today, because one of the things that made Basie unique was his long (if infrequent) association with the Hammond organ.
William James Basie was born in 1904 in Red Bank, New Jersey. He learned piano as a kid and later followed a typical path of playing in a band on the Vaudeville circuit and then with small area bands. It was luck that Basie became stranded in Kansas City when a band broke up during the Depression. KC was a part of the country where east meets west and it was there that Bill Basie developed a style merged two kinds of rhythm in a way that changed how jazz was played. East coast bands played with a four-beat rhythm that emphasized the 1 and the 3 beats while western bands played their 4 beats differently – with the 2 and the 4 as the strong pulses. Basie produced a smooth, lilting rhythm where all four beats were pretty much equal and matched it with a freewheeling musical style got him into Kansas City’s Reno Club. He was heard on a radio broadcast by a promotor, whose efforts helped Basie start a band that ran almost uninterrupted from 1936 into until shortly before the Count’s death in 1984.
Although he was a piano guy, Basie got some experience playing theater organs during his youth when Fats Waller offered some tutelage. Waller had been the son of a preacher and had a real command of the organ. Organs are like pianos in that they have keys, but with their multiple keyboards and numerous pedals are played quite differently Theater organs were, of course, the same basic pipe organs that had been featured in the cathedrals of medieval Europe, and made their music by blowing air through dozens (if not hundreds) of specially tuned pipes. The Hammond Organ was something entirely different.
Laurens Hammond was a mechanical engineer and all-around tinkerer. He started the Hammond Clock Company in the late 1920’s and was even building a bridge table of his invention that included a built-in automatic card shuffler. He had noticed the sounds made by the whirring works of his electric clocks and started fiddling with the idea of a musical instrument that worked on the same principles. His organ employed “tonewheels”, or ridged discs spun by an electric motor, each of which generated a specific sound frequency. Those frequencies were electrified by a coil and amplified through a speaker. Hammond was not a musician and required help to tune the tonewheels to musical notes. With that task completed, Hammond patented and began selling his electric organ in 1935.
The Hammond was never envisioned as a jazz instrument, but was originally marketed mostly to churches too small to afford a “real” organ. Shortly afterwards, Hammond suggested that every household needed an electric organ too. The Hammond was perceived as a threat by pipe organ manufacturers, who sued the company in an attempt to have it called something else. An organ, however, it remained. Fats Waller was the first to notice that an electric organ could be used for jazz, and at a mere 400 pounds (the organ, that is, although Waller was close) was more-or-less portable when compared to a pipe organ. But where Waller only tinkered with it, it seems to have been Count Basie who was the first to seriously put it to work in a recording studio.
In 1939, Basie had a band that played at all of the top venues. The Basie band of those years was built around star soloists and a peerless rhythm section. On February 13, 1939 Basie tapped key members for a four-side recording session in New York, to be credited as Basie’s Bad Boys. The 8-man group did one number that found the Count sliding onto the bench of a Hammond organ. “Live And Love Tonight” is a little-remembered song from an unremarkable 1934 film (“Murder At The Vanities”), and this is probably the only version anyone remembers.
After the Buck Clayton trumpet solo, the Count goes to work with the organ. In this first recorded example of Basie at the organ bench, he plays it a lot like a piano, and even keeps time with steady pulses of the low notes. He was clearly feeling his way around this new experience, and parts of the record sound like the accompaniment of a baseball game, or even radio soap opera. The last third of the record is hard to beat with the great Lester Young’s saxophone backed by Basie’s organ playing. There may be an earlier version of the Hammond organ being put to work in jazz, but if there is I have yet to come across it.
Fast forward to1949-50 – this was a really bad time for big swing bands, with one after another closing up shop because of an inability to make them pay in an era when young couples were staying home with little kids and not going out dancing or nightclubbing. Count Basie was not immune from the trend and pulled the plug on his group in the latter part of 1949. He spent the next year-and-a-half with a small group, but was convinced by several that his brand of music could still make a big band work. This second group, often referred to as his “New Testament” band, was less reliant on soloists and was more about tightly written and played arrangements that still featured plenty of solos. One thing that did make the transition was the Count’s continued (if only occasional) use of the organ.
A pair of small-group tracks show that by 1952 Basie had become more familiar with how to get his kind of music from the organ. After early years of playing a high-energy keyboard, Basie’s style gradually became more sparse and was more about rhythm and punctuation than it was about being all over the keys. The first of these examples, “Port Of Rico”, saw Basie and his guitarist Freddie Green sitting in with the group of saxophonist Illinois Jacquet. Basie loved the tenor saxophone, and Jacquet sounds amazingly like Lester Young (a favorite of mine) in this session. Basie’s organ work is mostly in the background behind the others, but his “less is more” style really shines here, as does the way he boosts the rhythm with his playing.
Jacquet, by the way, was an early jazz player whose influence seeped into R&B and early rock & roll. Here, however, he left his hard “honking” style behind and was a good host for Count Basie with a relaxed swinging session.
“Blues For Count And Oscar” is another small group collaboration, but this time Basie was the host and paired his organ with the piano of the young up-and-coming Oscar Peterson. The contrasts of two tenor saxes (the smooth Paul Quinichette and Eddie Lockjaw Davis’ rough and raw sound) is great. And the pairing of Basie and Peterson is not just about piano and organ, but of their contrasting styles too. Peterson would go on to a long career as one of the best to ever play the keyboard and would occasionally collaborate and appear with Basie multiple times over the ensuing decades. All in all, these guys make for three minutes of peerless jazz.
I was going to stop at three, but will add a bonus track from that same year. Lest you think that all of Basie’s organ playing was with small groups, we have another 1952 track where Basie did organ with the full band. “Paradise Squat”* is some more early work by longtime Basie saxophonist Lockjaw Davis. It is clear that by 1952 the Count had full command of the Hammond organ, being able to parry and thrust with his sax soloist and to even be heard with, through and even over an early version of that fabulous powerful band of the 1950s.
The 1950s would see the jazz organ come into its own, with players like Wild Bill Davis, Jimmy Smith and Shirley Scott (who was married with and recorded quite a bit with Lockjaw Davis). Although Count Basie only played organ as an occasional change of pace from his piano, there is no doubt that Basie is the guy who kickstarted the Hammond organ into the big leagues as a jazz instrument. Something Mr. Hammond probably never saw coming, but for which music fans are much the better for.
* Note – there are two recorded versions of Paradise Squat – this one, and a slightly shorter version used for a 78 rpm release. Mark this in your calendars, because this is one place I prefer the “album cut” to the 78 version.
|
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correct_death_00034
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FactBench
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1
| 36 |
https://www.famu.edu/about-famu/news/famu-alum-scotty-barnhart-wins-grammy.php
|
en
|
FAMU Alum Scotty Barnhart Wins Grammy
|
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https://www.famu.edu/about-famu/news/famu-alum-scotty-barnhart-wins-grammy.php
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By Briona Hopkins
Florida A&M University (FAMU) alumnus Scotty Barnhart won a Grammy for Best Large Jazz Ensemble at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, February 4.
An acclaimed jazz trumpeter, leader, composer, arranger, educator, and author, Barnhart earned his degree from FAMU. He also works as a Florida State University (FSU) music professor.
“I’m elated to have won a Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble for our “Basie Swings The Blues” recording,” Barnhart said. “It’s extra special because this project was my idea from conception, and, luckily, I had the greatest Jazz orchestra in the world to bring my vision to reality in the most amazing way.”
Barnhart is a former trumpeter in the FAMU Marching “100” Band. He has performed with such music legends as Frank Sinatra, Quincy Jones, Ray Brown, Aretha Franklin, and many more. His musical skills have led Barnhart to be named as the most important jazz trumpeter in history, according to Scott Yanow in his book,Trumpet Kings.
Valencia E. Matthews, Ph.D., dean of the FAMU College of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, is delighted about Barnhart’s win.
“It is a beautiful thing to see Scotty receive a Grammy—so well-deserved. He is a wonderfully talented, world-class musician and musical director, and we are so proud of and happy to celebrate him,” Matthews said.
When Barnhart is not touring with The Count Basie Orchestra, he performs with his own quintet-sextet and travels around to lecture and demonstrate at schools, play at conferences around the world, while introducing jazz to listeners and beginners who may want to discover the fine art of music.
Known for its innovative style of blending the blues and jazz, the Count Basie Orchestra was formerly led by the legendary Count Basie, who died in 1984 at age 79. Barnhart credits the long-standing art of Count Basie and is privileged to be part of continuing musical history.
“I also have to say that this is all due to the genius of Count Basie and the incredible legacy he left us. To have his orchestra still at the top of its game in its 89th year of touring the world is astounding,” Barnhart said. “Basie won his first Grammy in 1958 and 66 years later his orchestra is still winning them. I’m honored to be the director of one of the most important orchestras in history.”
|
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correct_death_00034
|
FactBench
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0
| 6 |
https://sv.findagrave.com/memorial/1664/count-basie
|
en
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1984) – Find a Grave Gedenkstätte
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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...
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https://de.findagrave.com/memorial/1664/count-basie
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correct_death_00034
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FactBench
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2
| 63 |
https://issuu.com/countbasietheatre/docs/a-wrinkle-in-time-program
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en
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A Wrinkle in Time - Count Basie Center Academy of the Arts
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Read A Wrinkle in Time - Count Basie Center Academy of the Arts by Count Basie Center for the Arts on Issuu and browse thousands of other publicati...
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Issuu
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https://issuu.com/countbasietheatre/docs/a-wrinkle-in-time-program
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Welcome to Issuu’s blog: home to product news, tips, resources, interviews (and more) related to content marketing and publishing.
Here you'll find an answer to your question.
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correct_death_00034
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FactBench
|
1
| 61 |
https://newmusicusa.org/nmbx/randy-weston-music-is-life-itself/
|
en
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Randy Weston: Music is Life Itself
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"Frank J. Oteri"
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2018-08-01T10:13:02-04:00
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It has been more than three quarters of a century since the bebop revolution transformed how people made music together. So it is not surprising that so few musicians who came to prominence during that era are no longer with us, especially since so many had tragically short lives. But what is more surprising is that one of these musicians, 92-years young Randy Weston, is still actively performing and composing and evolving, although to him there really isn’t a clear distinction between old and new music.
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en
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New Music USA - Supporting the sounds of tomorrow. We envision a thriving, connected, and equitable ecosystem for new music across the United States.
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https://newmusicusa.org/nmbx/randy-weston-music-is-life-itself/
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Video presentations and photography by Molly Sheridan
Transcription by Julia Lu
It has been more than three quarters of a century since the bebop revolution transformed how people made music together. So it is not surprising that so few musicians who came to prominence during that era are no longer with us, especially since so many—like Charlie Parker, Clifford Brown, Herbie Nichols, Elmo Hope, Eric Dolphy, and on and on–had tragically short lives. But what is more surprising is that one of these musicians, 92-years young Randy Weston, is not only still around, he’s still actively performing and composing and evolving, although to him there really isn’t a clear distinction between old and new music.
When we visited Randy Weston in his Brooklyn apartment, which was once the site of a restaurant his father owned when he was growing up and which helped to shape his attitudes about how to connect with audiences, he expounded on his all-inclusive worldview. He pointed out that bebop and all of so-called jazz, which he prefers to call “African American classical music,” as well as numerous other musical genres have their source in the traditional music of Africa:
You can call it rock and roll. You can call it hip hop. You can call it jazz. Many titles. But for me, it’s Mother Africa’s way of survival. … We have to stop to realize: No Africa? No jazz, no blues, no bossa nova, no calypso, no reggae! … My father said to me three things. He said, “Africa is the past, the present, and the future.”
To Weston, different generations listening to different music from one another makes no sense. “When I was growing up, music was for everybody,” he said. “I’ve got to move a three-year old or a 100-year old.” And it’s something he has aspired to do since he first started playing in clubs as part of a trio at the age of 17. Over the course of the last seven decades, several of Weston’s compositions—such as “Hi-Fly” (1958) and a waltz he composed in 1956 about one of his children called “Little Niles”—have become standards, and his 1972 album Blue Moses was a bestseller.
Weston wants to harness the power of music to make people aware of their history. The contemporaneous declarations of independence of many African nations was the inspiration for his landmark 1960 suite Uhuru Africa, which featured a poem expressly created for it by Langston Hughes and was arranged by the undersung Melba Liston for an all-star ensemble that included Clark Terry, Slide Hampton, Gigi Gryce, Yusef Lateef, Cecil Payne, Kenny Burrell, Ron Carter, Max Roach, Candido Camero, and Babatunde Olatunji, as well as operatic soprano Martha Flowers and actor/singer Brock Peters. The album was banned in then Apartheid-governed South Africa but also led to Weston being invited, under the auspices of the American Society of African Culture, to perform in Nigeria in 1961. Weston returned there two years later and then in 1967 embarked on a U.S. State Department tour to Senegal, Cameroon, Gabon, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco. The following year he moved to Morocco and lived in Tangier for seven years.
Living on the African continent and working extensively with musicians from a wide variety of traditions further expanded Weston’s compositional palette, and he continued to explore ways to make the European piano sound African.
“I go back to before it was a piano,” Weston explained. “You’ve got wood. You’ve got metal. When the piano was created in Italy, they didn’t know what to do with the keys of the piano, so the keys of the piano were wood. After that, the ivory on the elephant was what they used before the plastic and whatnot. So when I go to the piano, I approach it as an African instrument. It just traveled north and some other things were done to it. And inside it is a harp, an African harp.”
Although he ultimately returned to the Brooklyn neighborhood he grew up in, Weston took back with him a whole world of experience which has informed the music he is creating up to this day. His magnum opus, the two-hour African Nubian Suite, which premiered in 2012 and was released as a two-CD set on his own African Rhythms label just last year, incorporates musical traditions from across the entire African continent, as well as the diaspora and even China.
“We all have African blood,” Weston asserted. “Every person on the planet Earth.”
After such an ambitious tour-de-force, Weston refuses to rest on his laurels. He just issued Sound, another two-CD set which is all solo piano music, and a few days after we visited him he flew to Europe for performances in Nice and Rome:
Wherever I go, I tell people—students, grandmas, you know—I’m so happy now because when I play, all the races come to me holding their hearts. They say, “You’re taking us back home.” I say, “We all are from there.”
A conversation with Frank J. Oteri in Weston’s Brooklyn home
July 13, 2018—4:00 p.m.
Video presentation by Molly Sheridan
Frank J. Oteri: There’s a statement in your autobiography African Rhythms that I thought would be a great place to begin our talk. It was an observation about African traditional music: the audience and the music are one. I think the same could be said for just about all the music you’ve done in your life, and the same could have been or perhaps should be said for all music—any music that really works.
Randy Weston: Well, I was born in Brooklyn, New York, and I became a young musician, playing local gigs and marriages. We played a lot of dances. You had to play for dance, otherwise you weren’t a musician. And that goes all the way back to ancient Africa, that they’re one and the same, which means that the dancer is also an instrument. Also, in our community, it wasn’t The New York Times that told us whether we played good or not, it was that African-American audience. I don’t care whether it was calypso, the black church, the blues, or European classical music, they knew when the music was right. And if you weren’t playing right, you were in trouble.
“It wasn’t The New York Times that told us whether we played good or not, it was that African-American audience.”
Growing up as a boy, I loved music before I ever even touched a piano. Music was our way of life. I grew up in a community of all the nationalities—people from the Caribbean, people from Africa, people from the South, people from Europe—all bringing their cultures. It was so rich and so wonderful, but music was the key. And I can’t emphasize too much, it was my mother and father who would bring the best music in the house—Duke Ellington, gospel, blues. They weren’t musicians and they never studied music, so I wanted to find out how they could know so much about music. But when you go to the motherland, the people in Africa are music. Music is the first language. It’s how we survived slavery. It’s how we survive many hardships. During the early ‘20s and ‘30s, they were lynching black people in this country—your skin was no good, your hair, all the stereotypes. But it was music, whether it was the black church, where I had to be every Sunday with my Virginia momma, or during the week when I was with my Caribbean father—Panama, Jamaica, proud, Marcus Garvey, Africa, all the time. We would go to calypso dances. We were just surrounded with music and there was no separation between the ages, no such thing as music for the young. When I was growing up, music was for everybody.
So when Randy Weston plays the piano, I’ve got to move a three-year old or a 100-year old. And that’s the foundation of music in spirituality, which was passed down from our ancestors. Every day I’m amazed at how they could create such beauty in this country after coming here in such terrible conditions. I still don’t get it. When I went to Africa, I found out that for African people, spirituality is so important, even despite all the diversities of people. That’s the only way I can describe it, so a long way of answering your question as usual.
FJO: You touched on many different concepts here. But since you touched on when you were growing up, I’d like to talk more with you about other things that were around you that I would dare say might have influenced your approach to how you relate to audiences. Your father ran a restaurant and took meals very seriously. A great chef can be considered a great artist, but you’d never have a situation where the chef is a great artist and he makes food that most people wouldn’t want to eat. Yet we do harbor a notion that there is some great music that very few people can relate to. What happened to create this distance between people who make music and everybody else?
RW: We got away from the truth. My father always taught me to always look for the origin of everything in life. No matter what they tell you. Try to find the origin of whatever that is. Whether it’s language, whether it’s football, whatever. My dad loved Africa with such a passion. He would talk about Africa to people he didn’t even know in the street or in the restaurant. When I was a young, young child, around six, he said, “My son, I want you to understand one thing: that you are an African born in America. Therefore you must study the history of Africa before it was colonized. Before it was invaded. Before it was sterilized.” My dad had books on African civilization in the house and he had maps of Africa and also African kings and queens on the wall. When we grew up, it was British East Africa and the Belgian Congo; Africa didn’t have its independence. But he said, “We come from royalty.” He said, “They only thing they’re going to teach you is after slavery and after colonialism; you’re going to have a mountain full of lies. When you go to the cinema or when you go to school, people are going to say you’re inferior. There’s a billion people on the planet, but I want you to be strong when you go out the door.” So growing up, because of my dad, I’d look at books and I’d go to museums. I’d go back 6,000 years ago. Just imagine what it must have been before Africa was occupied.
The way we were treated in this country, how come we don’t hate people? You don’t do that because we’re all members of the planet earth; we’re all human beings. We grew up like that. We really loved to welcome all the different people of the planet. My father’s friends were Jewish, Swedish, German, Italian. You name it. We’d go to their house and had Italian food. Or we’d have Jewish food on a Sunday. My mother with her Virginia accent and my father with his Caribbean accent. They had different accents, but they were the same people. They got married and they produced me.
My dad’s second restaurant was right here in this house; my dad died, but his spirit is in this house. He would have people come here from Africa, or from the Caribbean, or Europeans who told the truth about African history—scientists, musicians, painters, actors. And with my mother at the black church every Sunday, I was absorbing these gospels and spirituals when I was a little boy. So that’s my foundation. And every day, I talked to my father and mother. They gave me everything. They gave me spirituality, which is difficult to understand. They loved me and I was spoiled. I’m not talking about financially. My dad was a great cook. He would cook all the Caribbean cooking. My mother made Southern food from Virginia. I had all that love, and not to mention the neighborhood, but that’s the foundation—mom and pop.
FJO: Andy they had you take piano lessons.
RW: My father, yeah.
FJO: But that first set of piano lessons didn’t really work out.
RW: No, because you know, I was six-foot at 12 years old. In those days, I thought I was going to the circus. I was tall. Today, that’s nothing, right? I played baseball and football. And I couldn’t identify with the scales because all the music we grew up with was swinging—whether it’s the black church or a blues club on the corner or calypso dance, all the music had, as Duke Ellington says, that African pulse. So I couldn’t identify with European music. But that piano teacher, God bless her, for 50 cents a lesson, she had to deal with me for three years of torture—for her and for me. She’d hit my hand with the ruler. But she gave me the foundation and that’s why she’s in my book. I learned some things I got to appreciate when I got older.
FJO: Well I have a theory that, aside from you saying that you didn’t identify with European music, you wanted to create your own things instead of playing what someone else wrote. Even before you ever created your first composition, you had the attitude of a composer.
RW: I didn’t know. I had no idea.
When I had come out of the Army, I went to my father’s restaurant and I was a frustrated musician. Remember, this was the period of royalty. This was the period of the greatest musicians in the history of the planet—people like Art Tatum and Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Nat King Cole, Erroll Garner, and I could go on. This was our royalty. In the restaurant, you could go to the jukebox and play everybody from Louis Armstrong to Sarah Vaughan, to Louis Jordan. We’d be open 24 hours a day in this restaurant and I was so in love with the music on the jukebox.
At this time, Miles Davis was living in Brooklyn and so was Max Roach, who I called the emperor of Brooklyn. Max was my teacher. Max Roach’s house was two blocks away from where we lived and my father’s restaurant. When I had a break in the restaurant, I’d just go to Max’s house and sit in the corner. That’s where I met Dizzy Gillespie. That’s where I met Charlie Parker. That’s where I met Miles Davis. That’s where I met George Russell. I’d sit in the corner and just listen to what they talked about. And thanks to Max Roach and George Russell, I discovered the modern European classical music— Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Darius Milhaud. And Max would always tell me to listen to Baby Dodds, to go back and listen to all the African-American music you can find because that’s the purest music, because those people couldn’t speak the language. They hadn’t gone to music school, so during the time of slavery and even after slavery, they approached it as African people. The way they dance and the way they cook their food. The way they attempted to speak the European languages. Max taught me that. He taught me about Chano Pozo. When I heard that African Cuban drum with Dizzy’s orchestra in 1949 in what George Russell was writing for Dizzy, Cubana Be Cubana Bop, I fell in love with that drum. I said I got to work with this drum. Again, Africa.
And we had people like the great Cecil Payne. Eubie Blake lived on Stuyvesant Avenue in Brooklyn, right around the corner from my mother’s church. I would go to Eubie’s house when he was about—whoo!— 95, something like that. You didn’t have to call up and say Mr. Blake, can I come by and see you. Oh no, you just rang the bell. I’d go to Eubie Blake’s house and sit in the corner and he’d tell about the piano battles they had in 1890. How they had this guy named One Leg Willie, and this guy could take one song and in each chorus he’d completely change the harmonies. He never made a record. So from Eubie, I got the history of our music going way back to the early-20th century. So Brooklyn was very special because it was so much culture.
FJO: Your encounters with Charlie Parker were really interesting. You actually even performed with him.
RW: Again, Max Roach. Max made me play for Charlie Parker. I was shaking, because Charlie Parker was a high spiritual man—what he would do with that saxophone. But Max said, “Hey man, play one of your songs.” I played something, but I was very nervous. And then I went back to the restaurant and said, “Why did Max make me play for this guy?”—it was me and a drummer who studied with Max Roach named Maurice Brown.
“You don’t interrupt a musician when he’s playing. That’s a way to die.”
In those days we would hang out two or three days looking for music. Some clubs would close at three o’clock in the morning and others would open up at four o’clock in the morning. There was no television and no disco. Everything was live, so we had that kind of experience. So that night we went to go hear Tadd Dameron at a club called the Royal Roost. Tadd Dameron was in a band with Fats Navarro and Charlie Rouse; I’m not sure who the drummer was. When you go out in the Royal Roost, you go down the stairs, and the bar is right there. And there’s Charlie Parker at the bar. Now Charlie Parker always kept his saxophone. If he went to the supermarket—saxophone. You’d never see him without that saxophone. So he sat at the bar and I’m looking. I wondered who he was talking to. I didn’t think he remembered me. So the young drummer said, “Man, he’s talking to you.” He said, “Randy, how you doing, man?” I said fine. “So, whatcha doing?” I said, “We’re gonna hear Tadd Dameron in the band.” He said, “Come with me.” He takes us upstairs and calls a taxi. We go to 52nd Street, to a club, I’m not sure whether it’s the Three Deuces. I’ve forgotten the exact name of the club. We go into the club and there’s a group playing. They’re playing their music. Now you don’t interrupt a musician when he’s playing. That’s a way to die. Don’t dare do that. But Charlie Parker was so powerful; in the middle of the song, he went up on the stage and told the piano player to get up. Just like that. And the piano player says, “Yes Bird.” And then he told me to sit at the piano. He did the same thing with the drummer, told the drummer to get up in the middle of the song and told the drummer [Maurice Brown] to sit. Then he took out his saxophone. He played one half hour with us, then packed up his horn and left and never said a word. You don’t forget things like that, because I was with a master.
FJO: That was your one and only gig with Charlie Parker. The other really interesting, formative influence story in your life was your encounter with Thelonious Monk, which I think had a profound effect on how you make music and how you think about music.
RW: Sure. Absolutely. Why do you love certain artists? What happens? There’s some kind of communication there. When I was 13-years old, I heard “Body and Soul” [played] by Coleman Hawkins. He was really the father of the tenor saxophone, and it was a big hit. Coleman Hawkins was such a genius. What’s so incredible about that “Body and Soul” is he’s not playing the melody, but you can hear the melody. So when I heard this music, I went to my father and I said, “Dad, I want an advance in my allowance.” I got 75 cents a week. “I want to go buy some recordings.” So he gave me the advance, and I went to the record shop. I think it was about 35 cents for a disc in those days, and I bought three copies. I hid two in cellophane. The other copy I put on my pop’s record player, opened up the windows in the apartment, and put on “Body and Soul” loud so everybody could hear it. I played Coleman Hawkins almost every other day.
The first time I heard Monk was with Coleman Hawkins on 52nd Street. He’s got Monk playing the piano. I’m this amateur musician, and I didn’t know him. Monk wasn’t playing too many notes that night, so my immediate reaction was what’s Coleman Hawkins doing with this guy? I had his recordings with Art Tatum and with Benny Carter. But I went back again and heard “Ruby, My Dear” for the first time with Monk on the piano and Coleman Hawkins on the saxophone. It was just love, the kind of love that you can only get with music. My connection to Monk goes back to Ahmed Abdul-Malik, the bass player. He also played the oud and he would take me to downtown Brooklyn to listen to the oud and experience the music of North Africa and the Middle East. He could play notes in between the notes. I tried to do the same thing on the piano, but I couldn’t do it. But Monk did it.
FJO: He creates a very idiosyncratic sound, but of course it is still with the notes on the piano. There aren’t any extra notes there, but he’s messing with your head.
RW: Music is magic. So when I heard Monk, and I heard that sound on the piano, I said, “Wow. I want to find out how he’s doing that.” So I went to his house, and asked if I could come see him. There was a picture of Billie Holiday in the middle of the ceiling. Monk was sitting in a chair playing music very softly. I started asking him all kind of questions. No response. That’s it. But I couldn’t leave the room. I stayed in that room for hours. Finally, I had felt I had to try to get out of this room. I must have asked about one hour of questions. No response. I’m getting ready to leave. He said, “Listen to all kinds of music. Come and see me again.” I went back one month later. He played the piano almost two hours for me.
He pushed the magic of Africa in the piano for me. Piano was not created to get that kind of sound. I discovered later on that he comes from Duke Ellington. Duke was doing things with the piano, which I didn’t realize. He was also creating all kind of magic sounds on the piano—basically the bass of the piano. A lot of pianists don’t touch the bass. But Duke, he’d do things with the bass of the piano to create things, you know. Oh, that music. And all the music is so beautiful. Dizzy, Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins, all these people. They create such original beauty. They’re all original people. So for me in 1959 to do a recording with Coleman Hawkins playing my music—man, that was one of the happiest moments of my life. Roy Haynes was on drums on that date and Kenny Dorham on trumpet.
FJO: Before we get to 1959, at some point several years before that something changed in your attitude about being a musician. You were on the fence for a very long time before you finally decided that that was what you wanted your focus in life to be.
RW: Oooh, I was 29.
FJO: That’s late.
RW: But I was playing at 17.
FJO: So what caused you to devote your life to being a musician?
RW: It happened up in the Berkshires. I was working in this hotel up there—breakfast chef for a while, washing dishes for a while, chambermaid for a while, cutting down trees. But I discovered the Berkshires and all that music—the Boston Symphony Orchestra, chamber music, music students coming from all over the world. I met Aaron Copland. I met Lukas Foss. I met Leonard Bernstein. It was just an incredible place of music. Plus the Music Inn and Marshall Stearns.
“I don’t play Bach and Beethoven and Mozart. That’s not what I do.”
I’ll never forget this. I helped these artists from Germany. They were all victims of Nazism. They were all elderly people, and they had a concert. They were violinists, violists, singers, and whatnot. And I helped them with their baggage. But in the meanwhile, when I’m in these places, I was playing the piano at night. But just for me, you know. So these three old ladies come to me and said, “Randy, we’re going to have a recital. And we decided we’d like you to play.” I said, “I’m sorry, I don’t play Bach and Beethoven and Mozart. That’s not what I do.” They said, “No, no, no. We want you to do what we hear you do at night.” And that’s what I did. They were saying to me, “We’re from the European classical world, but you’re doing something special on the piano.” Max Roach was pushing me. And other musicians. But that really did it.
FJO: And it wasn’t very long after that that you made your first studio recording.
RW: Yes. That’s correct, because I had discovered the music. Marshall Stearns, oh man, he was something incredible. I did about ten summers in the Berkshires. Who do I meet up there? Langston Hughes. Olatunji. Candido. Mahalia Jackson, who was doing an afternoon class on African spirituality in the black church. Willis James, who specialized in field cry hollers, and he talked about how our ancestors during the time of slavery created music with sound because they couldn’t speak the European languages. I met so many incredible people. Everybody I listened to and took something from. Asadata Defora, the great dancer-choreographer from Guinea. And because of Marshall, I also met John Lee Hooker, Brownie McGhee, Sonny Terry, Josh White. He had this pan-African concept in music, and he would have these classes. He’d have a blackboard, and underneath the blackboard would be Africa. Then he had the different branches, like calypso. I met Geoffrey Holder up there, too.
FJO: But to go from being immersed with all those people to saying I’m now going to do my own thing was still a huge step as a musician. The first album you recorded was a collection of your interpretations of music by Cole Porter, because the record label wasn’t going to take a chance on an unknown person doing his own compositions. But after that, most of what you’ve recorded is all your own music. Every now and then, you would include a tune of somebody else’s that you made your own. But it was very clear from very early on that you were creating your own music, whether you were performing by yourself or with other musicians. And when you worked with other musicians, you weren’t telling them what to play, because you wanted them to bring their own thing to it. You’ve actually said that you feel like a piece of music you create isn’t complete until you work on it with other people in a performance or in the studio—then it becomes complete.
RW: Absolutely, because music is life itself. In ancient tradition, music was just as important as science, astronomy, any kind of education. Music was required because music was our first language, our spiritual language. Even up to now, even up to last week, when I go to the piano and I look at that audience—and I’ve been doing that for a while—all the religions are there, all the colors are there, all the ages are there. But we become one people when the music is right. And it’s always magic for me.
“We become one people when the music is right.”
I have to be very humble with music. Why do I say that? Well, what you talked about came from Duke and Monk. They did their own music. They’re my two biggest influences. But at the same time, I had a talent and I didn’t realize I had a talent. And I loved my children so much, so my first recording with Melba Liston was setting waltzes for children. Children are so free. So I put them to music. I wrote those waltzes up in the Berkshires, because after the season was over, I stayed two or three weeks afterwards and it was very quiet, with a nice fireplace. The Berkshires are so physically beautiful, as you know. It’s gorgeous there. And all of a sudden, these melodies came out.
Where this talent comes from, I will never know. But it happened. How it happened is amazing. I went to Boys High School in Brooklyn. That was a very good school. Max Roach went there. Cecil Payne. Ray Copland, the trumpet player. I was in this school, but I wanted to go to music school. My father wanted me to get those academics; he wanted me to be a businessman. Another reason why I had my own groups is because my dad would always do his own thing. He said, “If you work for yourself, you work harder, but you can get your message across.”
FJO: That album of waltzes for children was very important in your career. And the title track from that, “Little Niles,” became one of your most famous compositions.
RW: Exactly. Duke and Monk, and the other composers too, wrote music for their families. Duke would write music about his mother, about his father, about his grandfather. Monk would do the same thing. That was our tradition.
FJO: And Duke and Monk—and you, as well—were also part of the tradition of pianist-composers. When people now think about the 1950s, they say Thelonious Monk, but there was also Elmo Hope.
RW: Herbie Nichols.
FJO: Exactly. I was thinking about Herbie Nichols when I was thinking about your early recording career. He only ever got to record in a piano trio setting—piano with bass and drums. But he always wanted to record with a mixed quintet, and it never happened. The record labels never let him do that.
RW: Wow.
FJO: And then he died so young. It’s interesting to compare that with the chronology of your recordings. That first album of Cole Porter tunes is just you and a bass player, Sam Gill, so it’s a duo. Your next two albums were trio sessions, but the album after that was a quartet with Cecil Payne. Then you recorded a mixed quintet session, and after that you began recording with larger ensembles, which is when Melba Liston entered the scene as your arranger. Talk about somebody else who never really got proper recognition; there was only one album released under her name in her lifetime. And even when she appeared on other people’s albums, she rarely took a solo.
RW: I had to fight her to take a solo on our first recording. She was just a humble person. She was just like that. First of all, I had never heard a woman play trombone before.
I must confess when I heard Charlie Parker and Dizzy and Monk, I didn’t understand what they were doing. What kind of music is this? I didn’t understand it. It happened right after the Second World War when everything changed. I started working these clubs in New York. I would play Birdland every now and then with a trio. And Dizzy brought the big band. He brought that band that had Lee Morgan, Benny Golson, Charlie Persip, and Melba Liston—all the heavy young players playing this incredible music that they called bebop. So he featured her. He said, “I want you all to listen to an arrangement of ‘My Reverie’ featuring Melba Liston on trombone.” She had this big sound on trombone, and she did the arrangement. And the arrangement was so beautiful. When she came off the stage, I just had to introduce myself to her. I said, “You don’t know me, but it was like magic. Like we were supposed to meet.” Then she moved from California to New York, and she got to know Mary Lou Williams—I knew Mary Lou, the giant; another queen, right?—because the two of them lived in Harlem. So somehow when I had a chance to do this recording for United Artists, my first recording for them, I wanted to do several waltzes for children, and I asked Melba if she would do the arrangements.
All Melba Liston wanted to do was to play and write music. She was an extraordinarily beautiful woman. But when she was working on music, she’d have the girls go and buy her a dress, or buy her a pair of shoes. She didn’t want to be bothered. She didn’t want to be glamorous. I used to bring her a coffee to keep her awake when she was writing arrangements for Quincy Jones. [And we worked together] from that point on, until she died. What a great, great, great arranger.
FJO: Now, it’s extraordinary how successfully your music and her arrangements melded, but that doesn’t always happen. Many people did their own arrangements for that reason. Duke Ellington did his own arrangements until Billy Strayhorn came into his life and then they created things together, which were also extraordinary. To turn that work over to somebody else, there has to be a level of trust. I’m jumping decades ahead now to your Blue Moses record. You thought it was going to turn out one way, and then you heard the record they released and it wasn’t at all what you thought you had recorded.
RW: Well, that was in the electric piano days. In the early ‘70s, if you wanted to make a gig, you’d better have a Fender Rhodes. Don’t look for no piano. Melba did the original arrangements of Blue Moses. We were still living in Tangier, so my son and I came from Tangier to do the recording, but when I got there, Creed Taylor said his formula is electric piano. I was not happy with that, but it was my only hit record. People loved it. [The arranger] Don Sebesky did an incredible job. Because what had happened was we went back to Morocco, so I didn’t hear the music until it came from New York to Tangier. Me and my son listened to it, and he said, “Is that us?” But Don Sebesky did a fantastic job to capture all those colors of Blue Moses.
FJO: So you were ultimately okay with all those extra layers that he added to it?
RW: Everybody’s okay with that. And I can’t resist. I just don’t like electric piano. But everybody says, “Man, you were fantastic on electric piano.” So many people. And I loved the musicians—Freddie Hubbard and Grover Washington and Hubert Laws, Airto, and my son. Everybody played beautifully. I just was not happy with my sound, but that was required. That was Creed’s concept, and it was a good concept. It was a good concept because it became a hit record for me.
FJO: And because it was a hit record, it actually got you out of debt for the music festival you organized in Morocco.
RW: Exactly.
FJO: It’s fascinating to hear that you’re okay with it even though it wasn’t what you thought it would be. As you had said, you never have a finished idea. It’s always going to get reshaped in some sort of fashion when you work with other people. But you still have some kind of control over it when you’re actually there. Or maybe you don’t.
RW: Absolutely, because it was the story of my life in Morocco. That’s a very, very personal experience—also for my son, because we lived there. We lived with the people. We traveled. We hung out with the traditional people. You know, we’d get together, we would read the Koran together, my son and I. We would play chess together. He listened to the Gnawan musicians and started playing rhythms that I didn’t know he knew. That’s what Blue Moses is all about. I was in this small French car with my son, Ed Blackwell, and the bass player Bill Wood, and we drove from Tangier all the way to the Sahara. I’m driving. The car’s so small that the wheel is between my legs, but I just loved adventure, I guess, at that time. So we go to this village up in the Rif Mountains, and we see snow. So I said, “Wow, I didn’t know there was snow in Morocco.” I saw the people skiing, so I said, “I got to put music to that.” Then through the Rif Mountains and you go down to the Sahara.
FJO: I think Morocco has the most extremely different kinds of terrain for that small a geographical area.
RW: It’s true. The music, the art, the clothing, the instruments—oh man, Morocco, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. I used to go to the festival in Marrakesh. Once a year, they’d have people coming from everywhere. Cats playing music on camels, on horseback, all kind of drums, dance music, it’s wonderful. And I just say wow. See, I love traditional music with a passion, because that’s where you get the soul and the spirit of the people.
FJO: But how to reconcile that with the piano? The piano is this creation of the industrial revolution. It’s a machine, to some extent. And there are all these stories about your tours in Africa and how difficult it was to get a piano for you in a lot of places.
RW: Or they had an electric piano, and I would break it up.
FJO: Well, some of them weren’t in very good shape to begin with. But it’s still interesting given what you say about traditional music that you can create something that’s so personal with something that’s a machine—not an electric machine the way we think of machines today, but the product of industrialization to some extent.
RW: Well, I go back to before it was a piano. You’ve got wood. You’ve got metal. When the piano was created in Italy, they didn’t know what to do with the keys of the piano, so the keys of the piano were wood. After that, the ivory on the elephant was what they used before the plastic and whatnot. So when I go to the piano, I approach it as an African instrument. It just traveled north and some other things were done to it. And inside it is a harp, an African harp. So you took that harp and you laid it down, and you put the hammers and whatnot in it. That’s why I was saying the origin of things is so important for me. So when I go to the piano, spiritually, it becomes an African instrument. Because I’m going all the way back to the beginning when I touch that piano. The Moors brought their music up through Spain, so it was coming from Africa, you know.
“When I go to the piano, I approach it as an African instrument.”
It’s like I was telling you about Monk and Duke, and how they take that piano. I used to love the sound of Count Basie and that piano. Oh my God. He’d just hit a few notes, but his sound, only Basie could get that kind of sound. Nat Cole. Another one. He’s playing a piano, singing, I mean, looking at the piano, but the sound Nat King Cole got on the piano. That’s why my latest recording, a double CD, is called Sound. Why did I love Coleman Hawkins so much? It was his sound. Why did I love Louis Armstrong so much? His sound. Louis only had to hit one note and I say, “Wow!” That goes back to ancient times, because in the ancient days, when they started making instruments out of Mother Nature, out of the wood, out of the fish, out of the camel, a horse, whatever instruments, you know, they had to say certain prayers before they did the ceremony to make that drum, or that banjo, or whatever, because that is Mother Nature.
Sure, I grew up in New York, and I heard the best of us here, but where did Louis Armstrong come from? Who was his great-great-grandmother? What part of Africa did he come from to produce that kind of sound on the trumpet? That never happened before. And going all the way back, how would they tune the instruments? They would tune the instruments by the sound of Mother Nature. By the sound of the animals, by the sound of the birds, by the sound of thunder. That’s how they would tune their instruments. And that’s why the music of Africa is so diverse because it’s the most diverse place in the world.
And wherever you find African people, I don’t care whether it’s in Fiji—I discovered them in Fiji—whether it’s Brazil, Guadeloupe, Mississippi, Congo. Duke said there’s that pulse in the music. It’s that pulse. You can call it rock and roll. You can call it hip hop. You can call it jazz. Many titles. But for me, it’s Mother Africa’s way of survival because without those early spirituals and blues, we would never have survived slavery. Even after slavery was abolished, even when we supposedly got our freedom, we had to go over the world, which we had never been in touch with before because we were on plantations. And from that, they create this music. Man, I don’t know how they did it.
FJO: Hearing you say all this reminds me of another comment you’ve made many times over the years, that there’s no old music. But, by the same token, that might mean there’s also no new music. Is that true?
RW: You know, it’s not fixed, because music is free. Musicians are free. I could never speak for another musician, because music is invisible. It’s the king of the arts. But when I play with Gnawan musicians, they play the same songs all the time. Now for Western ears that might seem boring, because you want to have something they call new. So I wondered about that. But when they play the traditional music, they’re telling a story of their people. They had given you the spirit of their people. The way they cook their food. The way they dance. The way they dress.
Ellington, Armstrong, Eubie Blake, all those people created music for their African-American community. You couldn’t just play music like today. You had to report to the African-American community. So all those great artists were not just able to play well. They played in hospitals, prisons, old folks homes, raised money for a school and whatnot. That was required. In African traditional society, that’s what a musician is. Not just, “You’re so great.” That’s only a part of it. You have to serve the community. You have to tell the stories of your father, your grandfather, and whatnot. And teach people that they may not have had the education or the technology, but they had wisdom.
“You have to serve the community.”
We don’t listen to the old people today, but when we grew up, we hung out with the old people. We’d never leave the old people. I’d go to Eubie Blake’s house, man he told me stories. I met Luckey Roberts, who wrote a song called “Lullaby of the Nile,” up at his place. He was writing music about Africa. A lot of the churches in the South were called the African Methodist Church, the African Baptist Church and whatnot. Those people stayed in touch with the ancestors. That’s why they got so heavy with the black church. So despite the fact there was slavery, despite the fact there’s racism, they always tried to communicate with the creator. Because wherever you find African people, I don’t care where it is, they’re going to have a very powerful, spiritual music. Because all of our people, we know that there’s a higher power.
FJO: I’d like to talk to you a bit about the first large-scale piece of music that you created that is African inspired, and that’s Uhuru Afrika. How that recording finally came about is pretty interesting. You wanted to record it for United Artists, but they said they’d consider it after you made a jazz version of tunes from a Broadway show.
RW: I got to pick the show, but I had to do a Broadway show.
FJO: And you picked Destry Rides Again.
RW: Yes, I did.
FJO: Did you go see it on Broadway?
RW: Yes, and I met Harold Rome. It was great. He was an important composer. Like I said, I had the experience in the Berkshires. The Berkshires made me check out all kinds of music.
FJO: And of course that was also where you met Leonard Bernstein, who had one foot in classical music but the other foot was on Broadway.
RW: Exactly.
FJO: Harold Rome, though, had a career that was almost completely on Broadway. So what was it about his show that spoke to you?
RW: Somehow I chose that one. I don’t remember what the other shows were, but I picked Destry Rides Again. It’s a cowboy show. It was my cowboy roots. (laughs)
FJO: It only ran for a year and is sadly kind of a forgotten show at this point. But it’s pretty interesting. I have the cast album.
RW: Really.
FJO: It’s actually fascinating to compare it with your version of it. I love how the four trombones interact with the piano on it, but it’s a far cry from the record that you wanted to make, which was Uhuru Afrika.
RW: Of course.
FJO: And even after you went ahead and recorded a jazz version of Destry Rides Again, United Artists still wouldn’t let you do Uhuru Afrika.
“We knew until Africa gets its independence, we were not going to get our independence because that’s our ancestral home.”
RW: No, I did it with Roulette Records. I was very fortunate. There was a man named C.B. Atkins. C.B. Atkins was the husband of Sarah Vaughan. I don’t remember how we met, but he talked to Morris Levy, the head of Roulette Records, to let me do Uhuru Afrika. [Atkins] was the key and that’s why I was able to put together that incredible orchestra. We started right after the album of seven waltzes for children, me and Melba. Melba was just like myself, in a sense. She was a very proud African-American woman. She had great pride in her people. So we had that spiritual connection. African cultures were just getting their independence. And we knew until Africa gets its independence, we were not going to get our independence because that’s our ancestral home. So I wanted to do a work of music to show—again the influence of the Berkshires—that we are global people. And so, after spending time at the United Nations, talking to diplomats, going to see Langston Hughes, I got together with Melba a range of African people. We had an opera singer, Martha Flowers, a great soprano; we wanted her to represent African culture and European classical music. We had Brock Peters; he was a folk singer and a Broadway guy. Then we had Olatunji from Nigeria, Candido and Armando Peraza from Cuba. We had Charlie Persip on drums. We had Ron Carter and George Duvivier on bass. And we had Max Roach on marimba.
FJO: And you also had Gigi Gryce on what was probably his very last recording.
RW: Exactly. Yusef Lateef, Gigi Gryce, Bud Johnson, Kenny Burrell, Les Spann, Freddie Hubbard, Clark Terry, Reggie Reeves, Slide Hampton, Jimmy Cleveland, Quentin Jackson—it was something. And Melba did all the arrangements. It was delayed because I went to Langston Hughes, again who I met in the Berkshires. He was such a wonderful man. He was an African-American writer who knew the importance of the music. A lot of our writers have gotten away from the music. Not Langston. He wrote the first book of jazz for children.
That was a time when African countries wanted their independence, and the European powers at that time said, “No, you’re not ready for independence yet.” And Africa was saying, “Let us make our own mistakes; we want our freedom.” So I went to Langston and I talked with him and said, “Can you give me a poem of Freedom for Africa?” And I also wanted to celebrate the African woman—my mother, my sister, those women up until today, including my wife, who are always in the background and who struggle for us and take care of us but never get the credit, which included Melba Liston. So he did. I wanted to use an African language, because when I was a child, I was very embarrassed, what you would see in the cinema for African people—always slaves, Tarzan, all that stuff. We’re brainwashing these kids. The whole idea was Africa had no language.
But the whole concept of language came from Africa! So I went to the United Nations, and I talked to a lot of diplomats. I wanted to use an African language. They said use Kiswahili. So I got a guy from Tanzania to translate Langston Hughes’s Freedom Poem from English to Kiswahili. Melba was writing out the music. We had to record two days in a row, starting at nine o’clock in the morning. Musicians! Nobody was late! It was so spiritual. And Melba was still writing parts. We had musicians in my apartment writing parts on the ceiling, on the walls. But we did it. It was a very powerful message.
FJO: It was so powerful that it wound up getting banned in certain places. It has the same impact as Max Roach’s We Insist: Freedom Now Suite, which was recorded that same year.
RW: Oh, absolutely.
FJO: But curiously, you did all of this before you ever set foot in Africa, and it was probably what led to your being invited and traveling to Africa for the first time.
RW: I wasn’t supposed to go originally. I think Phineas Newborn was supposed to go. I think Benny Taylor was supposed to go. But something happened, and a friend of mine worked for the American Society of African Culture in Manhattan. This woman knew I had recorded music about Africa, so she came and took my LPs, talked to the head guy, and said, “You’ve got to take Randy Weston. He must go.” So that’s how it happened.
FJO: And it changed your life.
RW: Yes it did.
FJO: You had all of these ideas about Africa, but as you’ve also said, there’s a difference between music that’s about Africa and music that is Africa. When you visited Africa, you finally saw the multiplicity of what those cultures represent. It’s not monolithic, even within each nation state.
RW: You could spend years in Morocco.
FJO: Or in Senegal or Ghana.
RW: Or in Nigeria.
FJO: All of these places.
RW: There are something like 2,000 languages.
FJO: And all of these different cultures co-exist together.
RW: And that explains us. We had a mix, and those rhythms all come together. It’s tragic what happened to us, but look at the beauty we’ve given to Brazil, Colombia, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Florida, and Mississippi with this music. So it was almost like it was meant to be. Terrible, but it seemed like it was just meant to be.
FJO: That’s quite a perspective to have on all of this history. And it calls to mind a work of yours from just a few years ago that is perhaps your magnum opus, the African Nubian Suite. Your Uhuru Afrika, which you created more than fifty years earlier, foreshadows it in some ways, but I think that it was only possible for you to create something as expansive and all-encompassing as the African Nubian Suite after having traveled all over Africa and having completely absorbed what you experienced there and realizing that Africa spirals beyond Africa. It even includes China, so you include Chinese musical elements in it. You included the whole world.
“We all have African blood—every person on the planet Earth.”
RW: You know, we all have African blood—every person on the planet Earth. And when you tell that story, that’s what Duke was doing. My god, Ellington’s Black, Brown, and Beige! And he also wrote music for the Queen of England, but you could hear the blues underneath. And people like Luckey Roberts, Eubie Blake, and all those early people, that’s what they were doing. They were telling the story of the beauty of Africa. But then what happened was integration. It did several things, which are very good. We could go places we couldn’t go before. But at the same time, our culture disappeared. It’s not like it was before.
FJO: In the last half-century, music has changed to the point that there no longer are any clear demarcations. It’s great that there are no longer these demarcations, but there is also no longer a universally acknowledged popular music in this country or perhaps anywhere in the world. In the 1950s, Broadway shows were the incubator of mainstream popular music, which is why United Artists wanted you to record the score of a Broadway show. I doubt a record label would ask you to do an album of a Broadway show now. These days there are pockets of fans that like a certain thing, or like something else. For better or worse, there is no mainstream. In a way, we’ve all come closer together, which is good, but we’ve also kind of broken further apart, which is not good. So what can we do?
RW: Do what we do. Realize there’s a higher power. Study the history of this planet. Wherever I go, I tell people—students, grandmas, you know—I’m so happy now because when I play, all the races come to me holding their hearts. They say, “You’re taking us back home.” I say, “We all are from there.” We have to stop to realize: No Africa? No jazz, no blues, no bossa nova, no calypso, no reggae! These are creations of African people. Where did Art Tatum come from? I’m more amazed with Monk and Coleman Hawkins today than I was yesterday. How could they take these European instruments, and do what they did and get their own sound?
So I think that Africa will survive. African spirituality will survive, despite the fact we don’t exist on television anymore. I’ve never seen it so bad in my life. During segregation, you could go to the movies and see a Bessie Smith short. You could see a short on Cab Calloway. You could see something on Billie Holiday. Now today, it’s tragic because this music is the classical music of the United States of America. I don’t use the term jazz; I use the term African-American classical music. There is classical music in all societies. I don’t care how many Beatles you’ve got or how many how many Rolling Stones you’ve got, you’re going to have opera and you’re going to have Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven. That has to exist, because that is the song and the spirit of people of Europe. It’s very important, and there they always make that balance. But us here, we’ve become so sophisticated. We’ve got to do the latest thing. We’ve got to do the fastest thing. So what happened before us is no, no, no. My father said to me, “Africa is the past, the present, and the future.” Despite all the corruption and all the stuff that’s going on and whatnot, to me that spirituality and consciousness may help save this world. I feel that. And there’s no better example than the music. So you call it calypso, jazz, or whatever you call this music. When you hear this music, it makes you feel, and when it’s right, it makes you feel good. It makes you feel happy. It makes you feel good to be a human being.
So when I’m on the stage and I play, I look at that audience and I see all the colors of the rainbow. And when they’re all clapping the same rhythm, when they‘re happy, I say, “Wow, music is powerful.” Because when we play this music, when it goes out, we don’t know what happens. Each person in that audience takes their own trip. So when you go up on that stage and get everybody to come together like that, sitting next to each other—if they knew who you were, they wouldn’t sit next to you, but music has that power. And I think it’s the music that has to save us in the world today.
“I think it’s the music that has to save us in the world today.”
It’s so sad that America cannot recognize its own classical music. Every child should have Louis Armstrong in the elementary school books. Every child should know about Duke Ellington, America’s greatest composer. Everybody should know about Charlie Parker, and Dizzy, and Nat Cole—all these people! The African people of this country influenced the entire world. On my first trip to Japan, when I get to Japan, here’s Max Roach on a throne. The way they love Max Roach, man, I was so proud. But that’s why they say we are the ambassadors; it’s true. But the recognition is very difficult, to recognize Africa’s contribution to the Western hemisphere.
FJO: You’re actually flying out on Sunday to play in Europe. Do you feel that you have more recognition there than you do here?
RW: Not necessarily. But the difference is Europeans made the instruments. They made the saxophone, the trumpet, and trombone, so they know what we do with them is completely original.
FJO: Or maybe, it’s because as you were saying before, you can’t learn about this music here if you just watch television and that’s where you get your information. The internet has all this stuff, but you have to know it exists first before you can find out more about it.
RW: Go back to books. Every day I read. The truth is in the books—the right books. When I go to students, I give them books. I say, “You will know the history of Africa. You will know the history of music.” The books are here. We have the technology. Everything is here. You’ll see that Western society came out of nowhere. Western society came out of Africa and came out of Asia. It became corrupt in the process, because they don’t give the recognition to the people who created this art.
I’m so happy because they used my music for a DVD about this great Senegalese master Chiekh Anta Diop. He proved scientifically that ancient Egyptians had to be a jet black people, because Mother Nature is a true artist. If there was serious hot weather, you needed black skin. For cold weather, you need white skin. She was the artist, just like she paints her fish and the insects. But we got away from that. So the message of this thing is so beautiful because he’s explaining it for us to stop and think about the origin of this planet and the origin of Western civilization. Western civilization corrupted the civilization of the older people. Everything in Africa is based upon spirituality. They’re in touch with the universe. They know the original music comes from the planets and the stars. They know the original music comes from Mother Nature. That’s why African music is so powerful, because the continent itself was swinging before man ever arrived. Everything: elephants, the snakes, all of Mother Nature in Africa, they all swing. Whether it’s a camel, whether it’s an ostrich, whether it’s a bird, they all swing because Mother Nature requires that. And the same is true with the musicians. So whether I’m in Morocco, whether I’m in South Africa, whether I’m in Senegal, all the music, all the dance, it’s gotta have that pulse. I don’t care what the rhythms are, you’ve got to have that.
FJO: So what happens when you create music that gets away from it?
RW: People get lost. They don’t know value. They don’t understand. If everybody knew the power of jazz, what they call jazz music, or spiritual music, the ways it impacts this planet, coming from people who were taken here in slavery, African people would be honored. I respect it and am thankful for the contributions. I never met my grandfather or my grandmother, but I read about their generation and what they had to go through. They couldn’t stay in hotels. They couldn’t ride on buses. Their color was no good. How did they survive that? With humor. With music. With love. It’s incredible.
I’m so fortunate now because wherever we go now, the musicians with whom I work, I feel that we give the spirit of Africa in our music. I describe it as spirit—living with the people, loving the people, reading about the people, eating the foods and drink. What I’m doing now is because of years of love. Love of my parents. Love of my people. Love of life. Love of humanity. And love of this beautiful planet.
|
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correct_death_00034
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FactBench
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3
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https://www.cram.com/essay/Count-Basie-Research-Paper/FJJJAPFNWT
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en
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Count Basie Research Paper - 1501 Words
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https://www.cram.com/essay/Count-Basie-Research-Paper/FJJJAPFNWT
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On August 21st, 1904, one of the world’s greatest jazz musicians was born. This great musician was known as William Count Basie. He was born in Red Bank, New Jersey, where he became a pianist and a player of vaudeville based entertainment. Basie ultimately formed his own big band that had many hits, for example: “Blue Skies” and “One O’Clock Jump.” Basie’s band and music helped to define the ‘swing’ era. He became the first African American male to receive a Grammy Award. Throughout his years he’d worked with a variety of different artists and had won countless other Grammys. Unfortunately, his life came to an end in Florida on April 26th, 1984. To begin with, Count Basie was born to Harvey Lee, a mellophonist and Lillian Basie, a pianist …show more content…
It was titled "Blue Balls." The radio broadcaster inquired as to whether the band would play the tune yet said he couldn't utilize that title reporting in real time. He recommended, since it was nearing one a.m., "One O'clock Jump." “The title stuck, and not only did the now-forgotten announcer dream up the tune’s title, he was the first to call Basie “Count.””(Jazz Standards Songs and Instrumentals (One O'clock Jump), n.d.) This record was his statement piece, his announcement that Basie Band has arrived. “One O’clock Jump” was the band’s theme song. They utilized this song in every one of their concerts ending with it.
0:04: Basie begins on the piano, with the same beat being played with his left hand. These patterns are reminiscent of boogie-woogie piano. The other member slowly come in trying to get a feel of where the fall into the song.
0:11: With his right hand, Basie comes in with the blues chorus, as the leader of the melody. His rhythm section has now found their place and following Basie on the piano. Freddie Green on the acoustic guitar is following Basie’s left hand at this
|
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correct_death_00034
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FactBench
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2
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https://www.coursehero.com/file/28351661/Jazz-Essay-2docx/
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correct_death_00034
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FactBench
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3
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https://indianriverguardian.com/2024/03/18/the-man-who-brought-music-to-vero-beach/
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en
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The man who brought music to Vero Beach
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2024-03-18T00:00:00
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news release Rusty Young Well over a decade ago, a man with music on his mind made a visit to Vero Beach to find a venue to house a concert with the legendary songstress Judy Collins. Not only did he happen upon the perfect intimate spot in The Emerson Center, but he quickly fell in love…
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en
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https://s1.wp.com/i/favicon.ico
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Indian River Guardian
|
https://indianriverguardian.com/2024/03/18/the-man-who-brought-music-to-vero-beach/
|
news release
Well over a decade ago, a man with music on his mind made a visit to Vero Beach to find a venue to house a concert with the legendary songstress Judy Collins. Not only did he happen upon the perfect intimate spot in The Emerson Center, but he quickly fell in love with Vero Beach, and in short time he made it his home.
That man was Rusty Young, and his story didn’t stop there. Since that time in 2013, Rusty became a household name in this city, and he has presented over 100 concerts under the corporate name of MusicWorks; yet here in his newly found hometown, the series was named LIVE! From Vero Beach. With his largest series ever underway in 2024, presenting a total of 14 diversified concerts in this season alone, Rusty died unexpectedly on February 20.
To look back at where Rusty Young began, his bio would read that he hailed from Rumson, New Jersey where he graduated from Rutgers University, and worked in a variety of jobs including being a venture capitalist and an executive recruiter. And then in his early 50’s, Rusty made the bold move to stop doing everything and to begin doing what would truly make him happy. For Rusty, it was his passion for music.
And so it began when Rusty became the founder and CEO of the Count Basie Theatre Foundation in Red Bank, New Jersey. While at the Foundation, he produced and promoted numerous benefit concerts for the Theatre and for other local and national nonprofits. He used music and benefit concerts to raise the $15 million dollars to complete the renovation for the historic theatre that originally opened in 1926. The Basie later established 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 educational programs that would reflect and celebrate the diversity of the region.
When Rusty founded MusicWorks in 2010, he took a bit of that same thinking that was established during his tenure at the Basie Theatre and applied it to his mission for this newly found music venture that he established in Florida. In short time, Rusty became one of the leading concert promoters in the state, including venues as far north as Daytona Beach, as far south as Delray Beach and Fort Lauderdale and across the state to Fort Myers and St. Petersburg. Rusty ultimately promoted hundreds of events in major markets throughout Florida specializing in classic rock and folk acts of the 60’s and 70’s…..all while making sure they were quality entertainment, whether it was a tribute band or a celebrated performer from that era. Many performances included known names such as Felix Cavaliere’s Rascals, Leon Russell, Al Stewart, The Weight, the Yardbirds, Vanilla Fudge, the Kingston Trio, Peter Yarrow, Blood, Sweat&Tears, John Sebastian, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, Karla Bonoff, America, Bruce Hornsby, Christopher Cross, Dave Mason, Janis Ian and the late great David Crosby.
Rusty, a kind and giving soul, believed that music should do more than entertain; that it should make a difference in the community. To that end, Rusty made certain that a local or national non-profit would benefit from the performance, both in awareness and in making a portion from the ticket sales. Over his years here in Indian River County some of those partnering non-profits included The Cultural Council, The Source, Quail Valley Charities, Grand Harbor Community Outreach, VNA, Indian River Land Trust and The Veteran’s Council, just to mention a few.
Much can be learned about MusicWorks and Rusty Young with one visit to the website: www.MusicWorksConcerts.com.
Rusty’s wife, and MusicWorks partner Stacey Jill Young, who shares his passion of music and his pursuit in bringing the best of music to this Treasure Coast community, is making certain that his dreams and his legacy continues.
So, in respect and gratitude to Rusty for his foresight in bringing music to Vero Beach, and the first person to do so as a continuous and genuine pursuit of entertaining friends, neighbors and what became his family, LIVE! From Vero Beach, is here to stay. The music makes memories, and it most of all brings back memories for each and every member of the audience. It’s an escape, a brief respite from our busy days, and knowing that the best of music is on the agenda, it’s a reason to get up and out to do something special.
And for the audiences and the people who worked with Rusty Young locally and nationally, it’s about “The Man Who Brought Music to Vero Beach.” And for that, Rusty we will be forever saying….“Thank You For The Music.”
|
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correct_death_00034
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FactBench
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https://www.swingdjs.com/viewtopic.php%3Ft%3D992%26start%3D15
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Most users ever online was 1204 on Tue May 14, 2024 12:35 pm
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https://greaterdiversity.com/count-basie-orchestra-director-talks-jazz-and-welcomes-back-live-performances/
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en
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Count Basie Orchestra Director Talks Jazz and Welcomes Back Live Performances
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2021-05-26T11:58:09-04:00
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The legendary William James “Count” Basie enjoyed a keen eye for talent and greatness. Over the years, the New Jersey-born icon enlisted legends like Billie Holiday, Joe Jones, and Sweets Edison to perform in The Count Basie Orchestra. Formed in 1935, The Count Basie Orchestra has proven the benchmark for jazz bands and musicians, performing
|
en
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Greater Diversity News -
|
https://greaterdiversity.com/count-basie-orchestra-director-talks-jazz-and-welcomes-back-live-performances/
|
The legendary William James “Count” Basie enjoyed a keen eye for talent and greatness.
Over the years, the New Jersey-born icon enlisted legends like Billie Holiday, Joe Jones, and Sweets Edison to perform in The Count Basie Orchestra.
Formed in 1935, The Count Basie Orchestra has proven the benchmark for jazz bands and musicians, performing in movies, television shows, and before kings and queens.
The group’s 19 Grammy Awards is the most earned by any orchestra.
Since 2013, Scotty Barnhart, a graduate of the historically black Florida A&M University, has directed The Count Basie Orchestra and has continued the legacy of his hero, who died in 1984 at the age of 79.
“Mr. Basie was a great human being and the greatest bandleader in history,” Barnhart told the Black Press during a live interview.
“I was in the trumpet section as a soloist for 20 years, so by the time I got to be director, things lined itself so that it was an easy transition.”
Barnhart, a professor of Jazz Trumpet at Florida State University, qualifies as a legend himself.
With two Grammy Awards as a solo artist, Barnhart has performed with Cab Calloway, Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, and many other icons.
He has lectured at universities in South Africa, Japan, Europe, and the United States.
With the pandemic halting much activity, The Count Basie Orchestra finally heads back on the road.
The group’s first concert since the shutdown takes place on Thursday, May 13 at the Jay and Susie Gogue Performing Arts Center at Auburn University in Georgia.
“It’s finally settled,” Barnhart sighed. “We’ll do a clinic for K-12 and take questions and demonstrate some things, and then we’ll have a concert at night.”
The orchestra also hopes to fulfill its commitments for a summer European tour and a fall U.S. schedule.
“We are raring to get back to work,” Barnhart declared. “I get messages on Facebook and other places all of the time asking when we are touring again.”
Barnhart also reminisced about Basie.
He said Basie didn’t hesitate to advocate for civil rights and justice.
“Mr. Basie was not above doing what was necessary to help make things better. He was a very supportive person,” Barnhart noted.
“He knew by lending his name, his orchestra, and his talents he could help things. He was not at all blind to what was going on. Mr. Basie was such a professional, such a nice guy, that he handled things in a way that he knew it would allow him to continue.”
The greatest lesson Barnhart learned from Basie was how to pay attention to detail, he remarked.
“When I first saw Mr. Basie, it was at a high school in Atlanta when I was 12. I saw him again at the Fox Theater when I was 17,” Barnhart recalled. “I went out a bought everything Count Basie, and at an early age, I was paying attention to detail and memorizing everything.
He continued:
“By the time I got to the orchestra in 1993, I knew what was going on. By the time I became the orchestra leader, anything that was going on, I would hear it.
“If they played the wrong note, I could hear that. Attention to detail is my first job, and I learned that from Mr. Basie.”
Click here to view the full interview with Scotty Barnhart.
Excerpt:
Formed in 1935, The Count Basie Orchestra has proven the benchmark for jazz bands and musicians, performing in movies, television shows, and before kings and queens. The group’s 19 Grammy Awards by far is the most earned by any orchestra. Since 2013, Scotty Barnhart, a graduate of the historically black Florida A&M University, has directed The Count Basie Orchestra and has continued the legacy of his hero, who died in 1984 at the age of 79.
Photo Caption:
The greatest lesson Barnhart learned from Basie was how to pay attention to detail.
Website Tags and Keywords:
Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire, Legendary, William James “Count” Basie, talent, greatness, New Jersey-born, icon, legends, Billie Holiday, Joe Jones, Sweets Edison, The Count Basie Orchestra, jazz bands, musicians, movies, television shows, kings and queens, 19 Grammy Awards, Scotty Barnhart, historically black Florida A&M University, Mr. Basie, greatest bandleader in history, Black Press, live interview, trumpet section, soloist, professor of Jazz Trumpet, Florida State University, two Grammy Awards, solo artist, Cab Calloway, Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, South Africa, Japan, Europe, United States, pandemic halting, Jay and Susie Gogue Performing Arts Center, Auburn University, Georgia, clinic for K-12, summer European tour, fall U.S. schedule, Facebook, civil rights and justice, Atlanta, Fox Theater, orchestra leader
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FactBench
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https://towertheatre.ticketsauce.com/e/count-basie-orchestra/tickets
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en
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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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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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Linknovate profile for Count Basie Theatre :
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Count Basie on the left, from "Stage Door Canteen" (1943) 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 Count Basie Theatre, Red Bank, New Jersey 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. (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. Alfred Publishing Company, 2001. Dance, Stanley. The World of Count Basie. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1980. 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 April 6, 2022.
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https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/national-international/natl-maria-cole-wife-of-nat-king-cole-dies-at-89-2/1922486/
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Maria Cole, Widow of Nat King Cole, Dies at 89
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2012-07-12T04:15:38
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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...
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en
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NBC4 Washington
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https://ots.nbcwpshield.com/qa/national-international/natl-maria-cole-wife-of-nat-king-cole-dies-at-89-2/2142825/
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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.
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https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/pop-songs-sample-based-on-classical-music/
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19 iconic pop songs you didn’t know were directly inspired by classical music
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[
"Maddy Shaw Roberts"
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2024-08-06T17:21:40.447000+01:00
|
From Billy Joel’s love of Beethoven to Lady Gaga’s sampling of rhapsodic violin solos, here are the greatest examples of classical samples in pop.
|
en
|
/assets_v4r/classic/img/favicon-16x16.png
|
Classic FM
|
https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/pop-songs-sample-based-on-classical-music/
|
Billy Joel – This Night / Beethoven – Pathétique Sonata
“I have not forgiven myself for not being Beethoven,” Billy Joel said in an interview for CBS. So, in a classic case of ‘if you can’t beat them’, Joel wove in a swung version of the opening melody from the second movement of Beethoven’s ‘Pathétique’ Sonata in his chorus for ‘This Night’.
Billy Joel - This Night (Audio)
Beethoven – Pathetique Sonata 2nd Movement
Lady Gaga – Alejandro / Vittorio Monti – Csárdás
For the intro of her single ‘Alejandro’, Gaga neatly nabbed Csárdás, the rhapsodic concert piece for violin by Vittorio Monti – which itself was based on a traditional Hungarian folk dance.
Lady Gaga - Alejandro
V. Monti, Czardas - Jennifer Jeon
Eric Carmen – All by Myself / Rachmaninov – Piano Concerto No.2 in C minor
A great ’70s power ballad, reincarnated by Céline Dion in 1996, that finds the melody for its verses in Russian giant Rachmaninov’s most famous piano concerto – pop-classical sampling doesn’t get much more iconic than this.
Céline Dion - All By Myself (Official Remastered HD Video)
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto no.2 op.18 - Anna Fedorova - Complete Live Concert - HD
Maroon 5 – Memories / Pachelbel – Canon in D
Pachelbel’s ubiquitous cello chord progression has inspired plenty of pop songs – from Kylie Minogue’s ‘I Should Be So Lucky’ to Oasis’ ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’. Now we can add to the list: ‘Memories’, from Californian pop group Maroon 5.
Maroon 5 - Memories (Official Video)
Pachelbel Canon in D Major - the original and best version.
Clean Bandit – Mozart’s House / Mozart – String Quartet No. 21
The chorus of ‘Mozart’s House’ is the first phrase of the Classical composer’s String Quartet No. 21. Band member Grace Chatto says, “Another part of the quartet returns as a breakdown later in the song”, while some of the lyrics touch on “a journey to Mozart’s House, and use various Italian musical terms”.
Clean Bandit - Mozart's House ft. Love Ssega [Official Video]
Mozart String Quartet in D K575 -Doric String Quartet
The White Stripes – Seven Nation Army / Bruckner – Symphony No. 5
Music history’s most iconic bass guitar riff is inspired by seven notes from the first movement of Bruckner’s Fifth Symphony. Lead singer Jack White had classical training as a student, and while the rhythms here are slightly different, his inspiration is unmistakeable.
The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army (Official Music Video)
Anton Bruckner Symphony No 5 in B-flat Major - Sergiu Celibidache, MPO, 1985
Elvis Presley – It’s Now or Never / Eduardo di Capua – O Sole Mio
Elvis takes on the greats of opera with this romantic little ditty, the melody of which is inspired by ‘O Sole Mio’ by Eduardo di Capua (also known as the Cornetto song).
Elvis Presley - It's Now or Never (Official Audio)
Il Volo - 'O Sole Mio (Videoclip)
Little Mix – Little Me / Gabriel Fauré – Pavane
One of the world’s biggest girl bands, Little Mix, knows the power of a good melody – as does French composer, Gabriel Fauré. Their 2013 single ‘Little Me’ nabs the tune of his Pavane in a lo-fi rendition in the intro, while the chorus weaves in Fauré’s chord progression.
Little Mix - Little Me
Fauré: Pavane / Rattle · Berliner Philharmoniker
Take That – Never Forget / Giuseppe Verdi – ‘Tuba mirum’ (Requiem)
Unlikely as it seems, Gary Barlow nabbed a choral and trumpet fanfare from Verdi’s Requiem to kick off one of Take That’s most popular songs.
Take That - Never Forget (Video)
Verdi: Requiem - 'Tuba Mirum'
Muse – Plug in Baby / Bach – Toccata and Fugue in D minor
Once you dive into the world of prog rock and metal, you’ll find classical music at pretty much every turn. Take a listen to the nifty guitar riff for Muse’s ‘Plug in Baby’ – heard that somewhere before? Bach exercised a profound influence over his Classical and Romantic successors, but listen close and you’ll hear his Toccata and Fugue in D minor all over in today’s pop – including Mike Oldfield’s ‘Tubular Bells’.
Muse - Plug In Baby (Official Video)
XAVER VARNUS PLAYS BACH'S TOCCATA & FUGUE IN THE BERLINER DOM
Barry Manilow - Could It Be Magic / Chopin - Prelude in C Minor No. 20
In this rather brilliant clip, Manilow explains how he wound up writing ‘Could it Be Magic’ after a glass of wine. “I thought I had come up with the coolest batch of chords in my composing experience. And then I realised that before that glass of wine, I had been practising my Chopin preludes.” Hear the similarity for yourself...
Could It Be Magic
Frédéric Chopin - Prelude in C Minor (op. 28, no. 20)
Mika – Grace Kelly / Rossini – Largo al factotum
Pop star Mika has admitted on several occasions that he half-inched the melody for Rossini’s ‘Largo al factotum’ from The Barber Of Seville on his hit ‘Grace Kelly’.
MIKA - Grace Kelly (Official Video)
Il Barbiere di Siviglia: "Largo al factotum" (Peter Mattei)
Robbie Williams – Party like a Russian / Prokofiev – Dance of the Knights
In the chorus for Robbie Williams’ musical cocktail of questionable stereotypes, the ex-Take That star samples Prokofiev’s ‘Dance of the Knights’ (also known as The Apprentice song).
Robbie Williams | Party Like A Russian (Official Video)
Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet, No 13 Dance of the Knights (Valery Gergiev, LSO)
John Denver – Annie’s Song / Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5
A country song with Romantic influences – John Denver was inspired to write ‘Annie’s Song’ during a particularly adrenalin-drenched ski run. But he didn’t realise, until a friend told him later, that his ‘original’ melody is actually the horn solo from the second movement of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5.
John Denver - Annie's Song (Official Audio)
Tschaikowsky: 5. Sinfonie ∙ hr-Sinfonieorchester ∙ Manfred Honeck
The Beatles – Because / Beethoven – Moonlight Sonata
One day, as John Lennon’s wife Yoko Ono was playing Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight’ Sonata at the piano, Lennon asked her to play him the chords once more – but backwards. When she did, it formed the basis of one of The Beatles’ later tracks, ‘Because’.
Because (Remastered 2009)
Beethoven - Moonlight Sonata (1st Movement)
Phil Collins – A Groovy Kind of Love / Clementi – Sonatina in G minor
Originally written by Toni Wine and Carole Bayer Singer, Phil Collins’ hit ‘A Groovy Kind of Love’ is based on a charming Classical piece, but one without too much groove – the opening of the final movement of Italian composer Muzio Clementi’s Sonatina in G minor, Op. 36, No. 5.
Phil Collins - A Groovy Kind Of Love (Official Music Video)
Clementi: Sonatina in G major, op. 36 no. 5 (complete) | Cory Hall, pianist-composer
Nas – I Can / Beethoven – Für Elise
The world of hip-hop and classical music might not seem like natural bedfellows, but seasoned rapper Nas turned a sample of Beethoven’s ‘Für Elise’ into a smash it.
Nas - I Can (Official HD Video)
Beethoven - Für Elise (Piano Version)
Frank Sinatra – Full Moon and Empty Arms / Rachmaninov / Piano Concerto No.2
This charming 40s ballad, written by Buddy Kaye and most famously recorded by Frank Sinatra and Bob Dylan, borrows from the third movement of Rachmaninov’s epic piano concerto. Kaye extracted the famous theme nearly note-for-note to use as the vocal line of ‘Full Moon and Empty Arms’ – see if you can hear the connection...
FRANK SINATRA - Full Moon and Empty Arms 1945
Storming Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 2 finale at the Royal Albert Hall | Classic FM
|
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1641
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dbpedia
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| 14 |
https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/10045-the-50-best-britpop-albums/
|
en
|
The 50 Best Britpop Albums
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[] |
[
""
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[
"Pitchfork",
"Matthew Strauss",
"Jazz Monroe",
"Nina Corcoran",
"Condé Nast"
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2017-03-29T01:00:00-04:00
|
Blur, Suede, Elastica, Pulp, Oasis—here are the mis-shapes who made the scene great
|
en
|
https://pitchfork.com/verso/static/pitchfork/assets/favicon.ico
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Pitchfork
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https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/10045-the-50-best-britpop-albums/
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“‘Britpop?’ It’s just a shitty-sounding word,” Jarvis Cocker told Pitchfork this month. “I don’t like the nationalistic idea of it; it wasn't a flag-waving music. It was really distasteful when it got called ‘Britpop’ because that was like somebody trying to appropriate some kind of alternative culture, stick a Union Jack on it, and take the credit for it.”
But Britpop, by any other name, still would’ve been a phenomenon. Born in London in the early 1990s, in grimy pubs and bare flats, the scene offered a thrilling new soundtrack for young British life. Bands like Suede, Blur, Oasis, Elastica, and Cocker’s Pulp captured the charms and eccentricities of their country while also excising their frustrations with class and community, topping it all with a defiant, tongue-in-cheek glamour. Their guitar-heavy anthems drew from the rock of 1960s England along with the pulse of waning Madchester and alt-rock trends, exporting this exuberant sound to every corner of the globe. By the late ’90s, this once-scrappy scene was so culturally powerful, it inspired tabloid blood rivalries (Blur vs. Oasis) and was hijacked by politicians (Britpop’s star emissaries, including Cocker and Oasis’ Noel Gallagher, were invited to meet Prime Minister Tony Blair). The cultural flash faded around the turn of the millennium, but not before Britpop reinvigorated rock‘n’roll, moving its epicenter from American grunge back across the pond.
But more than geography and quick wit twines the Britpop scene together. With this list, we are defining Britpop as the musical scene active in the United Kingdom in the mid-’90s. Particularly, we are looking at the guitar-based musicians who shared focus on anthemic melodies, social observations of British culture and daily life, and their country’s musical heritage. Voters in this list come from the U.S., the UK, and Canada, and in the process of assembling it, we discovered that each location had a slightly different idea of what Britpop entailed; the final result represents the aggregate sensibility of its contributors. We’re not looking so much to progenitors (i.e. the Smiths, the Stone Roses), or alternative rock acts that followed (Coldplay, Kasabian), and location is also a factor—sorry, Anglophile rockers in the colonies.
But before we dive into all that, let’s choose life with the director of the film that, as much as anything, made the world fall in love with Britpop.
Mile End and Needle Drops: Danny Boyle on Britpop and the Music of Trainspotting
Pitchfork: Britpop was an important part of the Trainspotting soundtrack: Blur, Pulp, Sleeper, Elastica. What role did music play in creating that film in 1996—what were you listening to? What were you energized by?
Danny Boyle: Everything. It’s one of the things the film’s about, in a way. Music was an autonomic function for me. I just knew everything about music; I didn’t even think about it. And then you get older, there’s obviously a tipping point where you don’t know everything about music, and somebody mentions a band and you go, “What? Who?” That’s the tragedy of getting older, I suppose, for someone who was as obsessed with music as I was.
Initially, certainly with the first couple of my films, people regarded my use of music as non-classical filmmaking—even though people like Scorsese were doing it. There was outrage that I was cutting everything like MTV, like a kind of pop video. But actually, I loved pop videos. Adored them. Thought they were a breath of fresh air and a great cultural moment. And these characters, especially when you read the book, they are pop culture. It’s part of the architecture of their lives, like it is for so many of us.
The whole archaic notion of highbrow/lowbrow.
Right, all that. The heartbeat of the film was this Underworld album, dubnobasswithmyheadman... We used one track from that album and a new track that they put out as an unsuccessful single, “Born Slippy,” which I found in an HMV store.
At the time, although we weren’t as aware of it as you’re aware now, Britpop was happening. It’s been emulsified as an occasion, in retrospect. But at the time, it didn’t feel like it. I remember Jarvis Cocker and Damon Albarn coming in to watch a rough cut of the film. Damon wasn’t sure about it; he was worried about the drugs side of it. But Jarvis said to him, “Oh, no, it’s like, really cool, man,” and sent us a few songs.
Pulp’s “Mile End” was new for the soundtrack, right?
It was, and I lived in Mile End. It was unbelievable; it was like synchronicity. I mean, I still live there. The area's been gentrified a bit now, like so many places, but at the time it was pretty rough. I was so proud of that.
So Damon Albarn, who at times had a bit more of a party reputation than Jarvis Cocker, was the one who had reservations about the content?
I mean, it was very disturbing at the time to watch it, because obviously it was a celebration of youth, really, of that time of life, in all its recklessness and carelessness, and obviously when you bring heroin into that equation, it’s quite hardcore. But [Albarn] was great, and he gave us this song, and I remember him saying, “I haven’t got a title for it.” And I said, “Oh, there’s an amazing phrase in Irvine [Welsh]’s book where he calls heroin users ‘closet romantics.’” They’re romantic people the drug affects most terribly, and they’re often, in Irvine’s experience—certainly as it’s expressed through the book—those that can’t even acknowledge they are romantic. And it kind of seals their fate, really, for their life. And so he called it “Closet Romantic.”
When you fit music to film, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t work. But it was weird—everything we did seemed to work then. Obviously the film was made in that spirit of a time in your life but in reality, the characters span an almost unnatural length of time as young men—because their references are actually punk, which is my era, and kind of Britpop, which is more like the actors’ era. And there’s like 15 years between us. They couldn’t really have gone to see Iggy [Pop] in concert. That’s an amazing scene in the book and it leads to the obsession with “Lust for Life.” So they couldn’t really span all of that time, but of course it’s a movie, so you can compress time, extract time, avoid it.
We didn’t use any score music at all; it’s all what they call “needle drops.” Even though it’s a very emotional rollercoaster, there's no manipulative music, no almost-invisible score music which you use to manipulate emotions. It’s all purposeful and highly presented in terms of volume. Nothing is floated in subliminally. Everything's like, “Ping!” Here’s the song. It’s just as important as the dialogue. It’s just as important as the characters.
Were you going to a lot of shows when you were working on Trainspotting?
Yeah. Not so much now. It’s that same story. In the preparation for the new Trainspotting film, we did talk about repeating a scene that’s in the original book: They all go to an Iggy concert in Glasgow and Tommy, the character who dies, has a spiritual moment where Iggy looks at him from the stage and sings the line, “Scotland takes drugs in psychic defense” to him. And when we were talking to Iggy about using “Lust for Life” early on, I was telling him we might do a scene at one of his concerts and the guys would be older, going back, remembering one of their heroes who was still working. It didn’t work out, unfortunately, because he was in South America by the time we were shooting, but Iggy remembered the story from the book and he remembered that line. He had read the book. I mean, I was amazed.
Were you one of the ones who went to Glastonbury and saw Pulp’s iconic performance in ’95?
No, I never did that. I remember watching it live on the telly, saw “Common People.” That’s one of the great moments. Irvine sent me a link the other day saying what’s-his-name, Captain Kirk, had recorded “Common People.” William Shatner. Star Trek! He recorded “Common People”! He records all these songs apparently and they’re slightly jokey but quite good versions. So anyways, yeah, I’d seen Pulp at the Brixton Academy, probably before Glastonbury. I’ve never been to Glastonbury, but my daughters go.
Your song choice as director of the 2012 Summer Olympics’ opening ceremony was fascinating. “Song 2” was one of them.
That’s an amazing song. My argument in presenting the Olympics was: Listen, you want to talk about what we are good at? We were good at the Industrial Revolution. That was a long time ago. What are we good at now? Music. Culture. We’re really good at it. We should be prouder of it, spend more money on it, promote it more, educate kids more into it—that it’s theirs and that we’re good at it. Fuck’s sake.
I remember trying to fit “Wonderwall” in and I just couldn’t fit it in anywhere.
Speaking of Oasis, I read that you wanted Oasis in the original Trainspotting soundtrack but they took the title too literally and refused. Is that true?
I’ve heard that story as well, but I have no idea whether that’s true. It’s funny because obviously I remember promoting the first film, having to explain the title, especially in America because the word had no meaning at all. It was like a made-up word. Now there are so many more connections with geek culture—you know, internet obsessives. It just has so much more resonance.
Lastly: Oasis or Blur?
I knew you’d do that! Well I come from Manchester, you see. So that’s my answer.
Danny Boyle is the Academy Award-winning director of Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire, 28 Days Later..., and T2 Trainspotting, in theaters now.
Interview by Stacey Anderson
50.
Denim: Back in Denim (1992)
After the indie enigma Lawrence (born Lawrence Hayward) ended his project Felt in 1989, he made plans for a new band, a new decade and—this time, surely—imminent fame. His schemes were typically idiosyncratic. In 1990, as Lawrence’s indie peers turned onto dance music, betting his reputation on the guitar crunch of glam rock would have seemed perverse. But for once, Lawrence’s studio perfectionism brought him in sync with the times: Back in Denim came out at the end of 1992, at the start of Suede’s glam-driven rise. The 1970s, and its pop templates, had suddenly come in from the cold.
Back in Denim is more than just a nod to the 1970s: It’s a memoir of the decade as seen by a British kid (“The Osmonds”), an acting-out of boyhood superstar dreams (“Back in Denim”), and a pledge of devotion to better times (“I’m Against the Eighties”). Like most of Lawrence’s projects, it relies on his slightly nasal, flat-affect voice, which can be a hard taste to acquire. But this time, Lawrence is backed by the famed producer John Leckie (Public Image Limited, the Fall), which makes the stomping, platform-booted hooks sound authentically massive. In the end, Denim came no closer to the big time than Felt, but Lawrence’s tunnel-vision dreams of the 1970s and his unashamed pop aspirations helped light Britpop’s fuse. –Tom Ewing
Listen: Denim: “Back in Denim”
49.
James: Laid (1993)
In the early 1990s, even when whip-smart Britpop singles seemed to vie for national anthem status in the UK, they rarely got many spins on American radio. But when James released “Laid”—with its cross-dressing, therapist-referencing protagonist—one of Britain’s most intelligent bands finally broke through to the States. By then, they had been around for nearly a dozen years; they’d already toured with the Smiths, partied at the Hacienda, and had hits with the Madchester anthem “Come Home” and the poppy “Sit Down.”
Laid is emotionally ragged, earnest, and rife with dashed dreams of romantic and religious security. Tim Booth repeats lyrical phrases like meditative mantras, particularly with his cries of “Here they come again!” on “Out to Get You.” Producer Brian Eno gently but significantly expands the band’s textural palette, adding synthesizers and emphasizing reverbed slide guitar (the latter inspired by James' 1992 acoustic tour with Neil Young). James would never have a hit like “Laid” again, but crucially, they showed the value of reinvention to their tour openers that year: a young band called Radiohead. –Elia Einhorn
Listen: James: “Laid”
48.
Echobelly: Everyone’s Got One (1994)
Led by Sonya Madan, Echobelly stood out in a scene largely comprised of white guys with guitars. She wasn’t the only female in Britpop, of course, nor was she the only singer of Indian descent (Cornershop was led by Tjinder Singh), but Madan was singular in her confidence: She seized guitar rock from the lads, molding it in the shape of her bold personality.
Madan was an acolyte of Morrissey, and a follower of his octave-leaping melodies and fey swoon, but on Everyone’s Got One, she’s not plagued with his self-doubt or irony. Look at the title: It reduces to an acronym of EGO, no coincidence for a band whose first hit single was “I Can’t Imagine the World Without Me.” Echobelly hit harder than the Smiths: Their guitars slice and roar, clearly indebted to the neo-glam explosions of Suede’s Bernard Butler. Furthermore, the tempo on Everyone’s Got One doesn’t slow until "Taste of You," the halfway point, which gives it a certain relentlessness; still, they flash a sentimental streak on "Insomniac," which pairs that thunder with vulnerability not heard much elsewhere. It’s a sly, affecting grace note on a record that captures the unbridled self-confidence of Britpop. –Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Listen: Echobelly: “I Can’t Imagine the World Without Me”
47.
Placebo: Without You I’m Nothing (1998)
Brian Molko is bad at a number of things. Chief among them: picking cover art, quoting Bob Dylan, and judging his own work. Upon the celebration of Placebo’s 20th anniversary, the frontman ranked his albums, a futile exercise for a band with only one standout—and he placed it sixth.
Without You I’m Nothing establishes, once and for all, everything Molko is good at: First and foremost, rhyming words with “weed” and making straight men ask themselves a lot of questions while watching the “Pure Morning” video. Placebo’s taste is impeccable here, cribbing Sonic Youth’s dissonant guitar squalor, block rockin’ beats, and a reverent take on David Bowie’s gender-bending queen bitch shtick that impressed the man enough to feature on a remix of the title track. But Molko’s genius lies in repackaging all that into pithy, pissy anthems for the sullen, sexually curious teens who were reflexively turned off by Britpop’s rigid heteronormativity, and whose access to pop culture only went as far as the mall or basic cable. Yeah, the Bowie cosign must’ve been nice, but the crucial placement of “Every You Every Me” in the Cruel Intentions soundtrack confirms Without You I’m Nothing’s true legacy as Britpop’s finest piece of late-’90s alterna-trash. –Ian Cohen
Listen: Placebo: “Every You Every Me”
46.
The Divine Comedy: Casanova (1996)
If the central tension of Britpop was middle-class (Blur) vs working-class (Oasis), that left an obvious space for the upper class. Enter Neil Hannon, son of an Irish bishop, who takes wicked delight in playing the louche aristocrat throughout Casanova. His plummy tones, sprightly hooks, and appetite for pastiche means there’s something joyful in every track, even if there’s usually something preposterous, too.
This irrepressible bonhomie made Hannon a star, championed by the same tastemakers who’d embraced “lad culture” and Oasis. But maybe that wasn’t such an unlikely alliance: Casanova is an album about sex—or, rather, the pursuit and consequences of it—and underneath the jollity and artifice, darker notes sound. The wannabe pick-up artist of “Becoming More Like Alfie” and the jaded and jilted narrator of “The Frog Princess” are insecure and sour; the jokester of “Through a Long & Sleepless Night” brims with melodramatic venom, and Hannon never glosses over the grubby and dishonest aspects of male desire. The Scott Walker-influenced final track finds the once-great lover on his deathbed, alone save for his faithful horses and hounds: It’s grandiose and pompous but beautiful nonetheless, a fitting farewell for a deceptively high-spirited album. –Tom Ewing
Listen: The Divine Comedy: “Theme from Casanova”
45.
Mansun: Attack of the Grey Lantern (1997)
If Paul Draper had kept his nerve, Mansun’s debut album would’ve been a superhero origin story and the unlikely upstart that bested Be Here Now, Urban Hymns, OK Computer, and Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space for the most grandiose British rock album of 1997. Instead, Draper admittedly "ran out of steam" and delivered “half a concept album—a con album," a sly acknowledgment of the pretentious trickery at the core of these projects. Though the inexplicably resequenced American version of Grey Lantern made any storyline a moot point, we’re lucky that “Dark Mavis,” “Stripper Vicar,” and “Egg Shaped Fred” aren’t plot points but rather pop songs on one of the most beguiling records to ever hit No. 1 in the UK. Glam, prog-rock, James Bond themes, record-scratch effects, Rule Britannia kitsch, a seven-minute interpolation of the Revolver song about taxes, a panoramic glam-folk single remixed by Paul Oakenfold when that sort of thing mattered—it's all here, and nothing else sounds like The Grey Lantern. –Ian Cohen
Listen: Mansun: “Wide Open Space”
44.
Edwyn Collins: Gorgeous George (1994)
The most famous track on Edwyn Collins’ third album is his ingenious 1960s throwback “A Girl Like You,” one of the best singles of the Britpop era. Highlighted by the ex-Orange Juice frontman’s aloof, Bowie-esque croon and a recurring marimba lick played by Sex Pistols drummer Paul Cook, “A Girl Like You” became an unexpected hit after it appeared in the 1995 Gen-X comedy Empire Records. In the U.S., where “A Girl Like You” hit the Top 40, the song epitomized Britpop for many Americans; no song by Blur or Pulp ever charted so high stateside.
However, anyone who sought out more tunes like “A Girl Like You” on Gorgeous George was bound to be disappointed: The rest of the LP is quieter, predominantly acoustic, and slyly sardonic. An important figure in European post-punk, Collins never set out to be a pop star. On songs like “The Campaign for Real Rock” and “North of Heaven”—the latter of which includes a then-timely dig at Guns N’ Roses—Collins is content to be the clever outsider. But “A Girl Like You” put Collins in the mainstream by exporting a familiar British commodity: timeless, James Bond-style cool. –Steven Hyden
Listen: Edwyn Collins: “A Girl Like You”
43.
Catatonia: International Velvet (1998)
Catatonia frontwoman Cerys Matthews made headlines for boasting that International Velvet’s lead single, “Mulder and Scully,” was better than Oasis’ single “All Around the World.” Their “X-Files” reference was a gamble—nostalgic at the time, with Matthews wrapping her thick Welsh accent around those sci-fi detectives—and it pushed the band to the top five of the UK album charts. It was an able representation of their second album, who reference cultural trivia throughout: “I Am the Mob” winks at The Godfather, and “Road Rage” was inspired by an infamous 1996 murder case in which the victim was stabbed by his fiancée, who claimed the attack came from a stranger.
The singles stalked the charts and cushioned Catatonia in the bosom of mainstream radio, their insatiable pop choruses still standing up as some of Britpop’s most immediate. The album has much more diversity to offer, too, from the downbeat intimacy of “Why I Can’t Stand One Night Stands” to the trippy beats of “Goldfish and Paracetamol.” Also notable: The confidence of the UK music industry was such in 1998 that the title track was sung in Welsh, rendering “International Velvet” Wales’ unofficial anthem. –Eve Barlow
Listen: Catatonia: “Mulder and Scully”
42.
Ocean Colour Scene: Moseley Shoals (1996)
In 1996, the opening bars of Moseley Shoals were used to introduce guests on the British TV show “TFI Friday,” the place where Britpop’s finest characters were blasted into the homes of the public. There was no greater rubber stamp to secure this Birmingham quartet’s place among Britpop’s finest, and it was a significant feat for a band who rose up via Madchester, only to be too late to catch that wave with their 1992 debut. Soon enough, though, scene kingpins Noel Gallagher and Paul Weller were singing OCS’s praises, teeing up an audience for the group’s newly looser, R&B-inspired jams.
Front-loaded with singalong staples such as “The Riverboat Song” and “The Day We Caught the Train,” Moseley Shoals moseyed its way onto indie dance floors and remains there to this day. During the summer of its release, workmanlike bands inspired by Northern soul and ’60s throwback were inescapable. Despite the fact Ocean Colour Scene remained brutally uncool, not least from their unwavering lack of pretense, they represented the art of big-hearted, blue-eyed rock’n’soul at a time when Britpop was becoming flashy and bombastic. –Eve Barlow
Listen: Ocean Colour Scene: “The Day We Caught the Train”
41.
Space: Spiders (1996)
Often enough, bands throw everything but the kitchen sink into their debut albums to see what sticks. That's certainly true of Spiders, which contains rock (“Me & You Vs the World”), funk (“Voodoo Roller”), trip-hop (“Money”), and a trumpet solo (“Dark Clouds”). The album was almost too smart for its own good, and served proof that Britpop bands could—and arguably should—defy the retrogazing that was suddenly so trendy.
Even within songs, Space’s genre-bending makes it impossible to define the foursome's sound, which comes across as psychedelic as Happy Mondays yet equally inspired by Cypress Hill and Ibiza nightlife. Recorded in Liverpool, Spiders was released via Gut Records, renowned for bold, unpredictable chart hits like Right Said Fred’s “I'm Too Sexy.” Employing the production clout of Nick Coler, who was integral to the KLF's style, these tracks are madcap narratives born from lyricist Tommy Scott's obsession with films, and the hilarious images have more in common with horror B-movies than anything that happened in Britain in 1996. For a band who looked to have their tongues firmly in cheek, they paved their own seriously inventive road. –Eve Barlow
Listen: Space: “Me & You Vs the World”
40.
The Boo Radleys: Giant Steps (1993)
In 1993, the Boo Radleys were brimming with so much brazen creativity that not only could they steal their third album’s title from John Coltrane, they could live up to its next-level promise. Just as Britpop was coalescing as a movement, the Merseyside band was already waging a sonic assault on the scene’s retrograde sensibilities. Like many of their contemporaries, the Boos were devout students of the Beatles but, as adept as they were at ’60s psych-pop simulacrums, they were more interested in applying the anything-goes experimentalism of the post-Sgt. Pepper era to dub, free jazz, orchestral soundtracks, and other crate-digging concerns. The band’s formative shoegaze remains, but here it serves as the fabric that holds these disparate sounds together.
On Giant Steps, it feels like the ground will drop out from underneath at any moment. Pensive harpsichord ballads erupt into symphonic cacophony (“Thinking of Ways”); breezy, flute-trilled, jangle-folk serenades are ravaged by swirling, tape-loop tornadoes (“Barney (...and Me)”). Aquatic reggae ripples into a tsunami of brassy pop grandeur (“Lazarus”). But the combination of guitarist/chief songwriter Martin Carr’s masterful melodicism and singer Simon “Sice” Rowbottom’s choir-boy croon keeps you floating safely throughout. Alas, Giant Steps would amount to just a tiptoe into the U.S. market for the Boos. That year, the band would get more stateside exposure for covering “There She Goes” by the La’s on the So I Married an Axe Murderer soundtrack—a faithful facsimile that, sadly, misrepresented a band who sought to change the shape of Britpop to come. –Stuart Berman
Listen: The Boo Radleys: “Thinking of Ways”
39.
Super Furry Animals: Radiator (1997)
It’s a testament to the amount of blow being hoovered at Creation Records in the mid-’90s that, at one point, a band who released an EP titled Llanfairpwllgwngyllgogerychwyndrobwllantysiliogogogochynygofod (In Space) was bandied around as the next Oasis. And for a moment, Super Furry Animals seemed amenable to being Britpop by association, loading up their 1996 debut Fuzzy Logic with mad-for-it anthems that drew on genre-mandated proportions of ’60s psych and ’70s glam. But on their second album, Radiator, the band took the first exit ramp they could out of the Britpop rat race and began burrowing their singular path forward.
While Radiator continued the melodic immediacy of its predecessor, it also established the fusion of guitar rock and electronic sonics that would become the band’s standby. The album also provided the first real evidence that Gruff Rhys’ charismatic croon was well suited to both wacky and weighty material: For every comical fuzz-punk rave-up about mythical bloodsucking monster-bats (“Chupacabras”), there was a rueful folky-Dory rumination on more existential evils (“Demons”). The band’s great progress can be most accurately gauged by the closer, “Mountain People”: What begins as a formal, Ray Davies-esque exercise in social observation gradually builds into a volcanic expulsion of squelching, thumping techno. And after conquering that fiery peak, Super Furriy Animals never looked back. –Stuart Berman
Listen: Super Furry Animals: “Mountain People”
38.
McAlmont & Butler: The Sound of… McAlmont & Butler (1995)
Bernard Butler’s last year with Suede was not a happy one, so it wasn’t a surprise when he left the band as they were completing their second album, Dog Man Star. Freed to pursue his lavish visions, Butler teamed with former Thieves singer David McAlmont on an album that functions as a riposte to the towering darkness of Suede’s sophomore record. Bright and bold, with an unapologetic debt to lush 1960s pop, The Sound of… McAlmont & Butler is both an album of its time and somewhat out of step with it.
Much of this is due to the pair’s idiosyncrasies. McAlmont isn’t a soul singer, per se—he’s a cross between Terence Trent D’Arby and Glenn Tilbrook, a powerhouse with pop mannerisms. This suits a record that swings like the ’60s but is undergirded by a sense of New Wave songcraft: "What’s the Excuse This Time?" feels like a splice of Squeeze and Prince. McAlmont may be the frontman, but there is no doubt that this is Butler’s album: The Sound airs out his prog inclinations, with "You Do" running seven-and-a-half minutes as it becomes thoroughly intoxicated on its own swirls of strings and guitars. It’s a celebration of sound that exudes exuberance, a swagger that’s right in line with the heady indulgence of Cool Britannia. –Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Listen: McAlmont & Butler: “You Do”
37.
Sleeper: The It Girl (1996)
The It Girl launches with a clanging, slightly acidic chord that lands brusquely and takes its sweet time to dissipate—an assertive burst à la George Harrison’s kick into “A Hard Day’s Night.” But Sleeper’s second album is more than the retro ’60s photocopy favored by so many of their Britpop peers; it’s guileless in its bounce-along blend of skiffle guitar, riot-grrrl crackle, and jazzy basslines. There’s even a bit of the Clash’s punk-reggae furor on “Sale of the Century,” a glimpse at Sleeper frontwoman Louise Wener’s well-earned frustration: the glamorous singer was a lightning rod for sexist criticism, her light croon regularly maligned in fetid live reviews. The lads of Trainspotting didn’t shrink from Sleeper’s charms, though, when the band’s cover of Blondie’s “Atomic” nearly stole the show on that film’s iconic soundtrack. –Stacey Anderson
Listen: Sleeper: “Statuesque”
36.
Teenage Fanclub: Grand Prix (1995)
“I don’t need an attitude,” sings Raymond McGinley on “Verisimilitude.” “Rebellion is a platitude/I only hope the verse is good.” By shedding the flannel and feedback of 1991’s Bandwagonesque and aspiring instead to power-pop perfection, Teenage Fanclub practically guaranteed that they would be underrated. In a notorious essay pitting them against Suicide, Nick Hornby framed the Scottish band as the acme of amiable middlebrow songcraft—a sincere compliment that sounded like faint praise.
Still, what songs they are. Despite their unwaveringly American influences (the Byrds, Big Star), good timing brought Teenage Fanclub into alignment with Britpop at the precise moment that their musical chemistry peaked. (Liam Gallagher called them “the second best band in the world.”) McGinley, Gerard Love, and the endlessly melancholy Norman Blake are so evenly matched here that Grand Prix plays like a singles collection, every jingle-jangle riff and bittersweet harmony a delight. Ain’t that enough? –Dorian Lynskey
Listen: Teenage Fanclub: “Sparky’s Dream”
35.
Black Grape: It’s Great When You’re Straight...Yeah (1995)
Britpop successes are stories of improbable survival: Maybe you weathered a ruthless tide of hype cycles, or transcended an imploding scene, or perhaps you just stayed together long enough to finally hit it big. Shit, maybe you just didn’t die. Shaun Ryder, of the Happy Mondays and later of Black Grape, can say all of this and more, and It’s Great When You're Straight...Yeah is a jubilant survival song.
With the Happy Mondays, Ryder basically invented the deliriously debauched Madchester scene, and nearly killed himself a million times over in the process, but he didn’t make his masterpiece until he cleaned up (for the first time, anyway). It’s Great When You're Straight...Yeah is the moment, post-rehab and recovery, when parties start being fun again. The music—a fat, blocky, honking mix of horns, drum loops, and Ryder’s exuberant shouts—feels livelier and looser and more joyously warped than the Mondays ever did. And they are funnier: On "Kelly’s Heroes," Ryder lampoons the hero worship of the scene he spawned, and "Tramazi Parti" is a piss-take at the idea that taking lots of drugs could be fun in the first place. –Jayson Greene
Listen: Black Grape: “Tramazi Parti”
34.
Ash: 1977 (1996)
Ash seemed to want nothing to do with the Beatles/Kinks axis that dominated Britpop, instead mining the puppyish aggression and buzzsaw melody of the Undertones, their Northern Irish antecedents. Ash barely sounded like Britpop but sat neatly in a post-Pixies UK indie scene, as in love with Veruca Salt’s “Seether” as they were the Bluetones. (Football had their hearts, too: The cover of 1977’s calling card single, “Kung Fu,” depicts Manchester United star Eric Cantona executing a mid-match flying kick on a rival team supporter.)
Ash’s reputation ultimately hinged on a brace of singles, “Girl From Mars” and “Angel Interceptor,” which provided a neater encapsulation of teen infatuation than any other Britpop act could. It didn’t hurt that Ash were young—Tim Wheeler and Mark Hamilton were still just 18 when those songs charted. If the mid-tempo hits “Goldfinger” and “Oh Yeah” sound like a dressing-up box raid on Suede and Oasis (with whom they share a producer in Owen Morris), and deeper cuts betray a Gallagher plod, the band channel their youthful vim to spend the last five minutes of the album (“Sick Party”) violently throwing up. –Laura Snapes
Listen: Ash: “Girl From Mars”
33.
Black Box Recorder: England Made Me (1998)
After he unwittingly helped invent Britpop with the Auteurs and retold terrorist history on Baader Meinhof, a solo concept album about Germany’s radical leftist Red Army Faction, the sui generis indie gadfly Luke Haines formed what was intended to be a duo with ex-Jesus & Mary Chain drummer John Moore. But when Black Box Recorder wrote their chilling first song, “Girl Singing in the Wreckage,” about a teen mom and her baby stumbling through the debris of a plane crash, they realized it required a female vocalist. Enter Sarah Nixey, an ingénue whose icy whisper could telegraph posh boredom just as convincingly as twisted sensuality. In his memoir Bad Vibes, Haines calls her “our Trojan horse.”
Not that Black Box Recorder’s entry into the pop mainstream, with their debut album England Made Me, went so smoothly. Banned from radio for its deadpan chorus, “Life is unfair/Kill yourself or get over it,” the listless single “Child Psychology” embodies all that is unsettling about this quintessentially English release. An anthology of childhood vignettes and suburban tableaux laced with casual cruelty, the album cuts deepest when it goes quiet and introspective. Moore’s twinkling percussion situates Nixey’s damaged narrators inside a bleak dollhouse caked in the dust of memory; each track is a miniature chamber of horrors. –Judy Berman
Listen: Black Box Recorder: “Child Psychology”
32.
Manic Street Preachers: Everything Must Go (1996)
Speaking in a new UK TV documentary about the Manics’ career-defining fourth album, bassist and lyricist Nicky Wire doesn’t mince words: “I fucking hated Britpop.” Specifically, it was the patronizing depiction of the working classes by the likes of Blur that most galled Wire. It prompted the dignified rejoinder of “A Design for Life,” an anthem that breathed hope into a band otherwise poleaxed by grief after the 1995 disappearance/presumed death of Wire’s best friend, guitarist Richey Edwards.
With Everything Must Go, the Manics turned that grief into mourning glory, a sneaky blend of commercial power-pop hiding lethal lyrical cluster-bombs about the suicidal photojournalist “Kevin Carter,” the Alzheimer’s-debilitated artist Willem de Kooning (“Interiors”), and the unbearable suffering of animals in captivity (“Small Black Flowers That Grow in the Sky,” one of several posthumous Edwards lyrics on the album). Released into Britpop’s mainstream critical mass, the album went triple platinum, elevating the Welsh “culture sluts” to the UK arena circuit to peddle their sweet pain to tens of thousands. A vindication for the remaining trio, yet in Richey’s phantom presence, Everything Must Go remains a four-man masterpiece. –Simon Goddard
Listen: Manic Street Preachers: “A Design for Life”
31.
Saint Etienne: Foxbase Alpha (1991)
An album whose biggest hit transposes a Neil Young song into dub reggae (“Only Love Can Break Your Heart”) couldn’t be accused of parochialism. Still, despite its breadth of reference, Saint Etienne’s collage-like debut reads overwhelmingly as a love letter to the capital, rebooting the myth of Swinging London for the sample-happy 1990s. Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs, two pop obsessives from suburban Croydon, were new to both the city and music-making, so Foxbase Alpha (named after an imaginary idyll they joked about as teenagers) has the quality of a dream taking shape, with singer Sarah Cracknell their new best friend and airy muse. “Girl VII” renders stops on the city’s tube network as glamorous as São Paolo and Valencia, while “London Belongs to Me” depicts Camden, soon to become Britpop’s grimy hub, as a hazy utopia where summer and youth are eternal. –Dorian Lynskey
Listen: Saint Etienne:“Only Love Can Break Your Heart”
30.
Suede: Sci-Fi Lullabies (1997)
Put two Britpop fans of a certain age together and the conversation will turn quickly to CD singles. Often released in multiple versions to juice the lead track’s UK chart position, the CD single was a taxing format for artists, now on the hook for producing essentially twice as many B-sides. For some, that meant commissioning extra remixes or live tracks. But a few 1990s artists, including Suede, took cues from 1980s favorites like the Smiths and the Jam, treating B-sides with the same quality control as any other release.
Suede managed to keep up both the pace and high bar of their B-sides over the first half-decade of their career, as evidenced by Sci-Fi Lullabies. At 27 tracks, it’s nearly the output of their three studio albums released over the same time period, and an exquisite set of aching, melancholy ballads (“The Big Time,” “High Rising") and sure-footed midtempo tracks (“To the Birds,” "My Insatiable One”). Overflowing with focused ideas, these tracks are neither the discard pile nor experiments or detours. The bassist doesn’t get to sing lead. There’s no drum-’n’-bass track. It’s just Suede doing Suede things— widescreen drama, kitchen-sink glamour—while carrying the torch of the great British single. –Scott Plagenhoef
Listen: Suede: “My Insatiable One”
29.
The Charlatans: Tellin’ Stories (1997)
One of Britpop’s greatest triumphs, born from one of its greatest tragedies. In 1995, when their eponymous fourth album entered the UK charts at No. 1, the Charlatans proved themselves the tortoise to the Stone Roses’ hare as the last men standing of early-1990s Madchester. In the summer of ‘96, they began its follow-up in giddy spirits, nailing the Top 10 bangers “One to Another,” “North Country Boy,” and “How High” in a single session. Then, three weeks before they were due to play their biggest show yet, supporting Oasis at Knebworth, keyboard player Rob Collins was killed while racing his car from a pub to the studio.
The intended victory lap, Tellin’ Stories, instead became Collins’ wake, lacquering the album and its emotive title track in particular with a poignancy otherwise at odds with the prevailing euphoria. Completed with Primal Scream’s Martin Duffy filling in the gaps, Collins was respectfully given the last word with the closing instrumental, “Rob’s Theme.” That this remains the Charlatans’ biggest-selling and best-loved album is tribute enough to him. –Simon Goddard
Listen: The Charlatans: “Tellin' Stories”
28.
Morrissey: Vauxhall and I (1994)
Once upon a stage in 1992, Morrissey draped himself in the Union Jack, a flag long sequestered by far-right nutjobs, prompting many an irate liberal to speculate on whether the former Smith harbored imminent plans to invade Poland. Dodging these slings and arrows, he instead retreated to a haunted manor studio in Oxfordshire, cocooned in Brighton Rock, Oliver Twist, and a 1950s documentary on Lambeth scamps, subsisting on an alleged diet of “pea parcels.” When he re-emerged in 1994, it was with his fourth—and, to date, best—solo album.
Vauxhall and I is Morrissey’s “My Way”: wistful (“Now My Heart Is Full,” “Hold On to Your Friends”), touchingly thin-skinned (“I Am Hated for Loving”), and aggressively unapologetic (the chainsaw-revving “Speedway”). But above all else, it’s a musically elegant, lyrically eloquent defense plea that tells his detractors to kindly sod off. The public concurred, returning Morrissey to the UK No. 1 spot just as Britpop boomed and, before anyone had the chance to offer him an overdue “Sorry, Steven,” the Union Jack was suddenly everywhere, from Noel’s guitar to Ginger’s cleavage. Alas, with typically ill Morrissey fortune, all too soon he was writing rotten songs about window cleaners and being ritually crucified by the press once more. As you were, Britannia. –Simon Goddard
Listen: Morrissey: “Speedway”
27.
Super Furry Animals: Fuzzy Logic (1996)
Like their Welsh peers the Manic Street Preachers, Super Furry Animals hated Britpop’s parochialism. Nevertheless, as Creation labelmates of Oasis, they were welcomed to the mid-’90s party, mischievously spiking the drinks with their psychedelic punk-pop. In Gruff Rhys, they boasted a singer equal parts Syd Barrett and Noggin the Nog, the perfect mouthpiece for a debut comprised of songs about UFO abductees (“Hometown Unicorn”), guitarist Huw Bunford’s hamster (“Fuzzy Birds”), George Foreman (“Something for the Weekend”) and “Hangin’ With Howard Marks,” an ode to the Welsh cannabis smuggler as featured on the album sleeve. A bit like a “Sgt Pepper’s Homely Welsh Punk Band,” Fuzzy Logic is bong-smoke bonkers but also beautiful—not least during “If You Don’t Want Me to Destroy You,” its eco-friendly fourth single, for which Creation granted them a £2000 promotional budget. Being Celtic space cadets, they naturally opted to blow the lot on a tank, paint it blue, and turn it into a mobile techno sound system. With fittingly fuzzy logic, they’d later sell the tank to Don Henley of the Eagles. –Simon Goddard
Listen: Super Furry Animals: “If You Don’t Want Me to Destroy You”
26.
The Verve: A Northern Soul (1995)
The Verve’s second album is a transitional work between the zonked-out psychedelia of 1993’s A Storm in Heaven and the epic balladry of the band’s most commercially successful LP, 1997’s Urban Hymns. That’s not a dig—if anything, A Northern Soul is a happy medium for the Verve, showcasing the band’s rocking and emotive sides with equal fervor.
On one hand, A Northern Soul refines the guitar freakouts from the group’s debut, with songs like “A New Decade” and the title track embracing a spacey grandeur more akin to Pink Floyd than the punchiness of Britpop. This aspect of the Verve always put them out of step with their contemporaries, which might explain why they came to rely upon sweeping anthems by the time of Urban Hymns. On A Northern Soul, the Verve honed their formula on the luminous love song “On Your Own” and the breathtaking chamber ballad “History”—just in time to deploy “Bitter Sweet Symphony” a few years later. –Steven Hyden
Listen: The Verve: “History”
25.
Hefner: Breaking God’s Heart (1998)
As the 1990s petered out and Britpop increasingly became the sound of post-Oasis knuckle-draggers, Hefner hit reset and helped carve out a corner of UK guitar music more indebted to its indie, shaggy-dog roots. Embraced by UK radio god John Peel while their contemporaries were appearing on Jools Holland’s mainstream TV show, Hefner were proud outsiders, spinning bedsit tales of librarians and the boys with nail-bitten fingers who wooed them.
Hefner’s style was ramshackle throughout—veering from jangly, nervy uptempo guitar pop à la Violent Femmes to patient, loose balladry—and it’s Darren Hayman’s lovelorn lyrics that unite. On the band’s debut album, Breaking God’s Heart, Hayman examines the social and emotional equity of love and lust from every angle, cataloging seemingly quotidian sexual encounters for those who don’t actually experience them with regularity. Crucially, Hayman doesn’t slide into fantasy or role-playing the way geek-chic hero Jarvis Cocker did so effectively in Pulp. Instead, Hayman remains squarely in the common people camp, weighing the relative values of sex and romance, human connection, and heartache for people who have nothing else to do but dance and drink and screw. –Scott Plagenhoef
Listen: Hefner: “The Sweetness Lies Within”
24.
Supergrass: In It for the Money (1997)
The video for Supergrass’ “Late in the Day” begins in stark black-and-white with frontman Gaz Coombes strumming away on an acoustic guitar, smoke trailing up from an ashtray on the arm of a lonely couch. It’s all very art-house, very serious-singer-songwriter—very reminiscent of the “Wonderwall” video. But then a pogo stick is thrown into Coombes’ hands and the trio head out into the streets, bopping through rain and over a car, showing off some neat one-legged stunts along the way. The clip is a winking fake-out from the Oxford group’s second album that highlights the most crucial part of their character: fun. Even when Coombes is singing about missing his girlfriend on tour or the treacherousness of burgeoning stardom, there’s always a Memphis horn blast, a McCartney-cute organ solo, a Townshend-whirling power chord, or a slinked-out Stones groove to keep things light, quick, and urgent. It’s only rock‘n’roll, and Supergrass never let you forget it. –Ryan Dombal
Listen: Supergrass: “Late in the Day”
23.
Kenickie: At the Club (1997)
Within Britpop’s tacky class-war narrative, few bands took the high ground. “Blur vs. Oasis” was the lightning rod, but the era was aflood with performative stereotype fulfillment, enabling the media to paint an uncouth proletariat at war with the arty middle class. Kenickie were one group to fashion an antidote. Like Pulp, the Sunderland four-piece spoke to a working class for whom glamorizing bleak Britannia was not a matter of sport but survival. Their synth-dappled guitar-pop was deceptively vulnerable, a strange cocktail of elation and deflation; amid tributes to boozy weekend bacchanals were reflections on women’s desires and anxieties. Their songwriting sketched an alternative to girl power’s individualist rush: Instead of assuming an audience with the tools to empower itself, Kenickie showed hedonism to be a release valve, something fought for and snatched from the daily grind on scrappy nights out. A proper breakout hit never materialized, and their refusal to capitulate to the Britpop era’s narrowing definition of counterculture might be why. In the eyes of their sizeable cult, it’s also the key to their immortality. –Jazz Monroe
Listen: Kenickie: “Acetone”
22.
Saint Etienne: So Tough (1993)
On So Tough, Saint Etienne conjure an ideal London, a place strung together with snippets of British movies and journalistic chatter, full of collective possibility. The opener “Mario’s Cafe” might be pop’s most blissful song about the buzz of simply hanging out with people you like, and the jaunty single “You’re in a Bad Way” is a comforting arm around a mournful shoulder. That track’s bubblegum sound reaches backwards, but So Tough is mostly a modernist, outward-looking record—where pop, dub, and house jams mingle with ballads you might find in the world-weary songbooks of European crooners. The latter work particularly well: The regal sweep of So Tough's most ambitious song, “Avenue,” and the poised sorrow of its finest one, “Hobart Paving,” showcase Sarah Cracknell’s pristine voice against their plush arrangements. Saint Etienne were part of a friendly assortment of imaginative groups, a proto-Britpop scene that also included Denim and the Auteurs; by the time it had hardened into the real thing, they felt alienated. So Tough stands as a snapshot of the Britpop that almost was: more cosmopolitan, more comfortable with the rest of the 1990s, and considerably more chic. –Tom Ewing
Listen: Saint Etienne: “Hobart Paving”
21.
Gene: Olympian (1995)
Many Britpop bands looked back to the 1960s, but Gene were different: The Smiths were their ground zero. If seen from a certain angle, they could be perceived as a parody act. Sonic allusions run rampant on their debut, Olympian—Martin Rossiter sighs like Morrissey, “Haunted by You” opens with a ringing inversion of “This Charming Man”—but Gene also followed the Smiths’ blueprint more subtly, taking stills of films for their cover art and releasing their own Hatful of Hollow grab-bag of B-sides and live cuts the year after Olympian. All these Mancunian affectations from a group of Londoners are endearing because they're not calculating; this is a band that felt the love so deeply, it infused every portion of their music.
Olympian functioned as a slightly melancholic tonic to the arrogance sweeping Britpop during the spring of 1995. Certainly, Rossiter and his mates also had self-confidence—and they were tougher than the Smiths, showing some measure of debt to Suede’s gnarly glam noise revival—but the tenor of Olympian is strikingly different than, say, Definitely Maybe. If Oasis wanted to get out of that dirty bedroom, Gene was happy to dwell within it, wish the world would slow down, and wallow within their dashed dreams. –Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Listen: Gene: “Haunted By You”
20.
The Auteurs: New Wave (1993)
Although Luke Haines would probably hate you for saying it, the Auteurs were very much the thinking person’s Britpop act, a band whose songs spoke of failure, faded glamour, and the intellectual seediness of bedsit life rather than living forever and very big houses in the country. A strangely wistful yet venomous tone pervades the Auteurs’ debut album, New Wave, as if Haines doesn’t know whether to seduce his listeners or punch them in the mouths. The 12 songs are defiant and melancholy, Haines’ hungover croon draping over lovelorn guitar lines, simple percussion, and sporadic piano, offset at times by the addition of a cello. It’s sparse yet effective, with the Beatles and the Go-Betweens as clear touchpoints. Later, Haines revealed Nirvana’s influence, too—and if you squint a little, songs like “Bailed Out” and “Junk Shop Clothes” are not so many miles from the quiet emotional intensity of their “MTV Unplugged,” although Kurt Cobain would never write lyrics as deflating and witty as Haines’ scorching put-downs. –Ben Cardew
Listen: The Auteurs: “Junk Shop Clothes”
19.
Lush: Lovelife (1996)
With their third full-length album, the 4AD dreamers Lush dropped out of the shoegaze cocoon and hit the ground running. The reinvention succeeded, partly because the pivot to Anglocentric guitar pop was performed with the conviction of born extroverts. Their chatty early single “Ladykillers” gleefully savages hapless suitors’ pick-up games: A preening ladies’ man, a peacocking male feminist, and “school of charm” connoisseurs everywhere wither under Miki Berenyi’s been-there-done-that snarl. The subtext of songs like “Ciao!”—in which Jarvis Cocker spars suavely with Berenyi in a game of post-breakup oneupmanship—was that Lush were dealing Britpop the feminist counterpoint it sorely needed. The message prevailed in part because they didn’t reject the escapist thrills of sex and booze (this was, after all, the 1990s) but instead delivered righteous barbs with the joyful arrogance of snarky pub chat between mates. –Jazz Monroe
Listen: Lush: “Ladykillers”
18.
Blur: Modern Life Is Rubbish (1993)
Blur were most definitely “holding on for tomorrow” while putting together their second album. Their debut, 1991’s Leisure, left them on the wrong side of the dwindling Madchester trend, while mismanagement meant they ended up in the financial hole. They hit the States for a long, drunken tour in 1992, looking to settle their debts, but came back disenfranchised with the growing American influence on British culture (shameless capitalism chief among it). Damon Albarn and co. took it upon themselves to remind the UK of its roots, looking to classically British songwriters like Ray Davies, David Bowie, and Paul Weller while crafting the rock‘n’roll jangle that set the tone for Britpop.
In his songs, mostly set around London, Albarn walks a fine line between completely jaded and vaguely hopeful, with no tune capturing this feeling better than lead single “For Tomorrow.” Albarn wrote the song on Christmas Day after Blur’s label demanded a hit, not seeing yet that they had tapped into the next big thing by topping retro English rock with the cynicism that would come to define Gen-X. Atop elegant strings, Graham Coxon’s rough-edged guitar riffs, and a patchwork of vocal harmonies, the then-25-year-old Albarn shares what he knows about the world: It kind of sucks, but what’s the alternative besides moving forward? Needless to say, things got a bit better for Blur from there. –Jillian Mapes
Listen: Blur: “For Tomorrow”
17.
Shampoo: We Are Shampoo (1994)
On their exhilaratingly bratty first album, Shampoo fused Britpop, teen pop, and riot grrrl—and the association horrified feminist punks, who dismissed them as a patriarchal product. It wasn’t an entirely fair criticism. Teenage best friends Jacqui Blake and Carrie Askew might’ve projected calculated vapidity in interviews (Melody Maker introduced them as “two alien teen snitches/queen bitches from Planet Peroxide”), but the duo didn’t meet in a boardroom. As the designated weirdos of their suburban high school, they’d co-authored a Manic Street Preachers fanzine before forming a band of their own.
We Are Shampoo contains precisely the kind of music you’d expect from teen girls who bonded over dissident rock. Layering sugary hooks atop cartoonish AC/DC riffs, they ethered “saddo” dudes, gamers, and the “dirty old love songs” of Whitney and Mariah. Their anti-manifesto “Viva La Megababes” taunted rivals, “Hippie chicks are sad, and supermodels suck/Riot grrrls, diet girls, who really gives a fuck?” Not even their shouty juvenile delinquency jam “Trouble,” a hit in the UK, could bring them stateside stardom, despite placement on such youth-friendly movie soundtracks as Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Foxfire. But it didn’t take long for their influence to go global in the form of another British act whose suspiciously familiar brand of impish pop feminism really was a corporate invention. –Judy Berman
Listen: Shampoo: “Viva La Megababes”
16.
Morrissey: Your Arsenal (1992)
By 1992, the blouse-wearing, flower-wielding Morrissey had beefed up both his look and sound. Newfound collaborators Alain Whyte and Boz Boorer came from the rockabilly scene; with cigarettes rolled firmly in sleeve, they brought a swagger that had eluded the ex-Smiths frontman’s previous solo releases, the mercurial Viva Hate and the dismal Kill Uncle. Bowie’s most valuable Spider From Mars, Mick Ronson, helmed production duties, bringing a powerful glam stomp. For the first time in half a decade, Moz had an unstoppable team and unstoppable songs.
Your Arsenal found Morrissey throwing two fingers to his haters, lamenting assorted personal and societal failings, and dissecting the newly post-Thatcher working class identity with gusto. He vacillated between condemnation and an uncharacteristic cautious optimism as his band matched him mood-for-mood, tough as a Millwall brick one moment and then heartbreakingly tender the next. And as he examined English identity via the common people and embraced his fellow drowners in a sea of swimmers, some might say that Morrissey handed the blueprints of Britpop to the next generation. –Elia Einhorn
Listen: Morrissey: “Tomorrow”
15.
Cornershop: When I Was Born for the 7th Time (1997)
Part of the fun of the Britpop years was seeing bands rocket from the most obscure crannies of indie to the top of the charts. That one of them was Cornershop, riot grrrl allies who found initial fame by burning a picture of Morrissey outside his label HQ, still seems like a pinch-yourself moment.
Cornershop’s third album, When I Was Born for the 7th Time, shows they deserved their fabulously unlikely slice of stardom. It’s the most affable of records, a loose collection of indie-funk jams with vocalist and songwriter Tjinder Singh threading deadpan wisdom between the beats. Scratch the easygoing surface and there’s invention at every turn, from “Funky Days Are Back Again”’s frazzled electro backing to Singh playing the heel on “Good to Be on the Road Back Home Again,” an oddball country duet with Tarnation’s Paula Frazer. But the record’s heart is its hard-won positivity, especially on “Brimful of Asha,” their cult hit turned real one. That song takes the DNA of Britpop—fuzzy memories alchemized into pop gold—and rewrites it for a British-Indian boyhood, with references to playback singers Asha Bhosle and Lata Mangheskar, All-India Radio, and the UK reggae label Trojan Records. The Britpop party never felt more inclusive, or more joyous. –Tom Ewing
Listen: Cornershop: “Brimful of Asha”
14.
The La’s: The La’s (1990)
The La’s’ eponymous debut and only album was several years ahead of the Britpop curve, arriving in the time of Madchester and raves. As such, The La’s serves as a bridge between the two eras. The songs are pure Beatles melodicism—you can almost see the Fab Four tapping out the opening number, “Son of a Gun,” during a relaxed moment in A Hard Day’s Night—mixed with the Kinks’ guitar riffs, notably on “I Can’t Sleep” and “Feelin’.” Oasis would later employ this combination to considerable commercial return.
However, as with the Stone Roses’ debut, there was something in the simple, hazy euphoria of songs like “There She Goes” and “Timeless Melody” that connected with the blissful possibility of the rave era, making the La’s both perfectly of the time and prescient of what was to come in British guitar music. Sadly, they wouldn’t be around to pick up the Britpop spoils, dissolving in a fit of frustrated perfectionism soon after, but the succinct pop mastery of their debut meant they were never far from Noel Gallagher’s thoughts as his band took Britpop to the world. –Ben Cardew
Listen: The La’s: “There She Goes”
13.
Suede: Suede (1993)
Suede’s arrival was a glass of cold water to the face of British guitar music. It wasn’t just that they were so radically different from everything else at the time—a riot of ripped cardigans, Bowie guitars, and fluid sexuality in a world of shoegazers—but they also came perfectly formed, spat defiant and blinking into the world. Suede found them full of swagger, filth, and an innate sense of drama, from the knowing squalor of “Animal Lover” to the airy desperation of “Sleeping Pills,” from the peacock pop strut of “Animal Nitrate” to the divine disgust of “Pantomime Horse.” Suede would later get weirder (Dog Man Star) and more overtly accessible (Coming Up), but their debut was the record that had it all, a dazzling mixture of pop smarts, experimental nous, and wickedly original thinking. Without Suede, Britpop would have been a far safer, easier, and more vapid proposition. –Ben Cardew
Listen: Suede: “Animal Lover”
12.
Supergrass: I Should Coco (1995)
In Britain, the phrase “I should Coco” is a sarcastic way of saying you agree with someone, but there was nothing to be petulant about when Supergrass emerged with this debut. Even today, you're hit by the shambolic, fat-free introduction to a trio who brought a punk edge to Britpop, taking their forebears (the Kinks, the Jam, Buzzcocks) and imposing three-chord hard noise while also glorifying how it felt to be young, liberated, and reckless. A few months later, when Oasis released their time-shifting (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, they already looked positively past it.
The tracks’ guileless energy reflects their speed of recording, too. Most impressive of all is the fact that the six-minute, sprawling organ epic “Sofa (Of My Lethargy)” was done in just one take. The adolescent call-to-arms “Alright” was featured in Clueless and has become an insufficient tentpole for the Oxford band, who were drowning in far more eclectic ideas. From the acoustic dreaminess of “Time to Go” and the lightning-speed thrill of “Sitting Up Straight” to the Madness-like “Mansize Rooster” and the fantastical glam rock of “Strange Ones,” these three scamps painted pictures of life’s everyday mishaps and oddities while keeping listeners darting about on their toes. –Eve Barlow
Listen: Supergrass: “Sofa (Of My Lethargy)”
11.
Pulp: His ‘N’ Hers (1994)
Jarvis Cocker was not meant to hold a guitar. To prowl the stage like an electrified stork, to rumble about tawdry sex artifacts like lipgloss and tight pink gloves and gleefully chronicle our animalistic impulses—he needed both hands free for that. Today, to watch Pulp’s set at Glastonbury 1994—an inauspicious midday slot, just one year before their conquering headlining gig—it feels quaint to see the Sheffield singer grip some wood and pick strings through the glorious “Babies,” stock-still save an emphatic kick or two. (Defying nature, he did reprise this during the reunion tour.)
By His ‘N’ Hers, Pulp had already been toiling for almost 20 years and three albums, with little to show for it, but they carried themselves in the studio like arena stars. Their thrillingly contradictory formula was honed: sexy and heady yet considered, shiny and singalong yet too clever to be cheap, with Cocker’s pleasantly barbed pathos anchoring tonic synth-pop. The dancefloor anthems (“Lipgloss,” “Razzamatazz,” “Do You Remember the First Time?”) were as bittersweet as the seeping mood studies (“Acrylic Afternoons,” “David’s Last Summer”) and then they capped it by lifting the chord progression of “I Will Survive” wholesale on “She’s a Lady.” Why not? They’d come this far. –Stacey Anderson
Listen: Pulp: “Babies”
10.
The Verve: Urban Hymns (1997)
There are many albums on this list that speak to Britpop’s capacity for mordant wit, incisive social critique, and nuanced emotions. And then there’s Urban Hymns: pomp and circumstance personified, Be Here Now with a messianic complex instead of a coke habit. It begins with an orchestral sample that has cost the Verve millions, and the first lyric is Richard Ashcroft telling us the meaning of life. It doesn’t get any less modest going forward, but it would be the last time Ashcroft could back up his unwavering, deadly serious belief in his own profundity.
And Urban Hymns is something to behold: The power ballads (“The Drugs Don’t Work,” “Lucky Man”) would get laughed out of a folk-rock open mic if Ashcroft didn’t perform them like the most important love songs ever written, while generational anthems “Catching the Butterfly” and “The Rolling People” are utter nonsense elevated to the sublime thanks to his mojo-risin’ shamanism and Nick McCabe’s wah-wah pedals. Four years later, Bono would supply U2’s pull quote for a decade by claiming that they were “reapplying for the job of best band in the world,” but framing such a thing as an application process should’ve automatically disqualified them. As far as Urban Hymns was concerned, the Verve were the only band in the world. –Ian Cohen
Listen: The Verve: “The Drugs Don't Work”
9.
Oasis: Definitely Maybe (1994)
“Tonight I’m a rock‘n’roll star,” Liam Gallagher proclaims at the start of Oasis’ debut. Taken out of context, it’s easy to mistake this chorus as another example of braggadocio from Britpop’s brashest band—particularly given the anti-stadium-hero ethos of the era. But the verses of “Rock N’ Roll Star” tell a different story, reflecting Oasis’ modest circumstances when they made Definitely Maybe. Before Oasis were arrogant, they were aspirational: Throughout the album, Noel Gallagher writes about a dead-end, working class life from which there is no escape, save for fantasies of fame and fortune. In that same song, in a cutting whine pitched at the midpoint of John Lennon and Johnny Rotten, Liam Gallagher sings Definitely Maybe’s truest line: “In my mind/My dreams are real.” It was up to Oasis to make those dreams real.
Definitely Maybe became a generation-defining classic in the UK (and a beloved cult favorite among Anglophiles overseas) based on Noel Gallagher’s effortless ability to write rock anthems with simple, universal themes: the invincibility of youth (“Live Forever”), the undying allure of decadence (“Cigarettes & Alcohol”), and the desire for self-actualization (“Supersonic,” which is also about snorting Alka-Seltzer). Damon Albarn and Jarvis Cocker were wittier, perhaps, but Noel Gallagher spoke in a more primal language. His dreams were also the dreams of millions. –Steven Hyden
Listen: Oasis: “Supersonic”
8.
Blur: Blur (1997)
Before their self-titled album, Blur were brilliant in a way that was also a little hard to look at—for American audiences, anyway, who preferred a slouch or an untucked shirt corner somewhere. But that all changed when Blur hit American shores in 1997, pulling its hair over its eyes and frowning theatrically. It was an audacious bid to reinvent the band as across-the-pond visitors to the then-exploding American indie rock scene, and it is also a gloriously confusing, fractured jumble, more a major-label mixtape than an album.
After the relatively conventional “Beetlebum,” Blur proceeds through a series of cartoon trapdoors, reeling from faux-grunge (“Song 2”) to faux-glam (“M.O.R.”) to ersatz Sebadoh tributes (“You’re So Great”) to high Noel Coward camp (“Death of a Party”). For Americans and Brits alike, the album was both perplexing and fascinating, like watching a movie through a Vaseline-smeared lens and being unable to tell if the actors are laughing or screaming. Blur’s relationship to American alt-rock—mocking it with “Song 2” while simultaneously scoring a bona fide hit—was also their relationship to success, as they scoffed at it and held it at arm’s length while zealously pursuing it. If you are truly going to be the smartest kids in the classroom, it’s not enough to scorn the test—you still have to ace it. –Jayson Greene
Listen: Blur: “Song 2”
7.
Pulp: This Is Hardcore (1998)
Britpop often benefited square-peg acts, whose years of woodshedding gave them a golden opportunity when the mainstream’s round hole was busted open. By late 1995, a Ben Sherman shirt and mod bangs were pretty much all it took. But Pulp were something else. They’d formed in 1978, when the wide lapels and nylon that Jarvis Cocker took into every student union in Britain weren’t ironic, they were standard issue. If it took about 17 years for those planets to align, it only took three to repudiate everything that Pulp and Britpop had apparently stood for.
This Is Hardcore’s first single, “Help the Aged,” said it all—a dour celebration of decay that explodes into its chorus like overripe fruit. The band that had typified blind hope in the face of abject failure had seemingly, in success, found only defeat. That the sumptuous art rock of “This Is Hardcore” and “Dishes” were among Pulp’s best songs—as typically dyspeptic as anything on OK Computer, informed by Cocker’s disillusionment—was besides the point. This Is Hardcore told the faithful that the jig was up. In the bleak Bowie stomp of “Party Hard,” Cocker perfectly undermines Pulp’s cynical raison d’être: “If you didn't come to party, then why did you come here?” –Laura Snapes
Listen: Pulp: “Help the Aged”
6.
Elastica: Elastica (1995)
If Britpop’s essence was gleeful, irreverent insouciance in the face of dour American grunge, then Elastica were the Britpoppiest band of them all. Led by the impossibly fierce Justine Frischmann, this black-clad gang of three birds and one bloke banged out smart, deliciously catchy pop-punk songs about stuff like erectile dysfunction, car sex, and, um, lubrication. They shamelessly shoplifted riffs from Wire and the Stranglers, but turned them into tunes that were a thousand times more fun. Their debut album was 15 songs (plus one bonus track) in 40 minutes without an ounce of fat. They were the kind of band that makes people want to be in bands.
Frischmann was a Zelig-like figure in Britpop: A founding member of Suede and romantic partner to the frontman Brett Anderson, she left him for Damon Albarn, forming Cool Britannia’s First Couple. (At the peak of their powers, Elastica were far more successful in America than Blur.) Unfortunately, Frischmann’s relationship with Albarn, as well as with the other members of her band, imploded in “Behind the Music”-style fashion in the late 1990s, and Elastica’s 2000 sophomore album, The Menace, was met with indifference. But for a brief, shining moment, Elastica were the coolest band in Britain. –Amy Phillips
Listen: Elastica: “Connection”
5.
Suede: Dog Man Star (1994)
Suede’s Brett Anderson was Britpop’s first pin-up, baring his midriff and pouting coyly on the cover of Select’s April 1993 “Yanks Go Home!” issue—an anti-grunge salvo that championed the “crimplene, glamour, wit, and irony” of five young British bands. Just a year later, sinking into druggy oblivion and feuding with guitarist and co-songwriter Bernard Butler, Anderson grew alienated from the movement. Dog Man Star was the product of that isolation, a murky, maximalist symphony that overlaid the sex-drenched, council-estate sadscapes of Suede’s debut with visions of Old Hollywood glamour, as glimpsed from a distance of four decades and 5,500 miles. Still unfinished when Butler left the band, it was also a breakup album of sorts, its soaring arrangements battling melodramatic lyrics in an echo of the discord between its creators.
The standard criticism of Dog Man Star is that it’s too melodramatic to take seriously. Certainly, it has preposterous moments: the self-serious fairy tale “Black or Blue,” the swaggering condescension of “This Hollywood Life.” But excess was kind of the point with Suede, and this album captured their aesthetic at its most immersive. Black-and-white films haunt 1990s England on “Daddy’s Speeding,” about James Dean, and the hyper-romantic “The Wild Ones.” By the time the credits roll on “Still Life,” a Douglas Sirk weepy punctuated by hysterical strings, Suede have so persuasively sanctified everyday longing that even their overreaches sound purposeful. –Judy Berman
Listen: Suede: “The Wild Ones”
4.
Oasis: (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? (1995)
This was the people’s champ, the album that broadcast Britpop’s loving nostalgia, brash guitar worship, and rampant tunefulness further than any other. Admittedly, it is not the era’s smartest record, nor is it the coolest. But who needs smart or cool when you have Liam Gallagher sneering through a rock‘n’roll fantasyland bursting with wonderwalls, champagne supernovas, and enough maxed-out distortion to deserve a tinnitus warning? Who needs subtlety when you can listen to a man rhyme “say” and “day” over and over (and over) and make it sound like a bloody revolution?
But while (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? happily blares from the mountaintops, it also can’t help but glance at the abyss below. For all his arrogance, Noel Gallagher can be a surprisingly reflective songwriter, aware of the pitfalls of fame and drugs while simultaneously aiming for the top of the pops and hoovering cocaine. “Wonderwall” is an all-time ballad about being hesitant and inarticulate; the title track, with its helicopter chops and five-alarm riff, both actualizes and takes the piss out of coke-fueled mania. And “Champagne Supernova” serves as an excessive Britpop pinnacle as well as a eulogy for good times that can’t last. “Where were you while we were getting high?” Liam repeats endlessly at the end of the song, stretching out the memory as far as it could ever go. –Ryan Dombal
Listen: Oasis: “Champagne Supernova”
3.
Radiohead: The Bends (1995)
Radiohead were never a Britpop band, but on The Bends, they became the vent through which its subconscious fumed. As optimism swirled around Tony Blair’s ascent and the resurgent economy, 1995 saw Britpop fever erupt into a Dionysian free-for-all, with boozy shenanigans dominating tabloid headlines. To that, these Oxford oddballs issued their second album, a doomed cry from the party’s cellar. As they echoed Britpop’s disdain toward unchecked wealth, the pop-oriented album also undermined the movement, suspicious of both hedonism and Blair’s New Labour (which minted the left’s new pact with neoliberalism).
The Bends’ title track—with its histrionic cries of “I wanna be part of the human race!”—mopes in the mid-’90s zeitgeist’s shadow, mooring Britpop’s social theatricality in grunge’s grandiose alienation. That song, with its jibes at Radiohead’s ’60s-worshipping peers, rubs shoulders with radio-friendly ballads (see “High and Dry” and its tetchier sibling, “Fake Plastic Trees”) that anticipated the airbrushed post-Britpop rock of Coldplay and Travis. But the record’s integrity to the Britpop years lies in the way it challenged a jaded generation’s imagination. The unlikely breakout single was “Street Spirit (Fade Out),” which channels a sense of capitalist dread that even class-conscious Britpop artists repressed. And while the album found Radiohead in the jaws of a decade they hadn’t yet learned to outmaneuver, its epic portrayal of drift and disenchantment secures its reluctant spot in Britpop’s pantheon. –Jazz Monroe
Listen: Radiohead: “Street Spirit (Fade Out)”
2.
Blur: Parklife (1994)
Britpop moved indie guitar music from the UK’s margins to the mainstream with remarkable speed. Parklife was the catalyst—a colorful, pop-centric palette of great scope and eclecticism, effectively launched with a disco song (“Girls & Boys”). Subsequent singles were an elegant French-kissed breakup song (“To the End”), the anthemic title track, and a hand-wringing over encroaching age and domesticity (“End of a Century”). Blur had hinted at such depth and variety, but Parklife found them with new ambition and confidence. Even the record’s understated gems (“This Is a Low,” “Badhead,” “Clover Over Dover”) carry a lived-in sense of belief miles away from the group’s baggy roots.
Blur had explored notions of Britishness on their previous album, Modern Life Is Rubbish, but they made it a thesis statement on Parklife, giving both a clear narrative and an all-important rooting factor to what would become Britpop. Synthesizing an emergent sense of national pride with youthful anger and a satirical eye, Blur built bridges from art schools and indie dances to the mainstream, in much the same way Nirvana’s Nevermind did for punk-rooted music a few years earlier. Indeed, the death of Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, just weeks before the release of Parklife, underlined the feeling that the epicenter of credible guitar music was shifting from the U.S. to the UK.
In the short term, Britpop was a Parklife-built world, and it provided paths to the charts for such outsiders as Super Furry Animals, Pulp, and Elastica. By 1996, Oasis would become so commercially dominant that Britpop’s original sense of glamour, wit, and artifice were replaced by more conservative, lumpen impulses. The line at the time was that Blur won the Battle of Britpop but Oasis won the war. Twenty years later, it feels clear who, creatively, got the better of whom. –Scott Plagenhoef
Listen: Blur: “Girls and Boys”
1.
Pulp: Different Class (1995)
Britpop had a remarkable power to turn complex personalities into cartoons. Jarvis Cocker, more than most, conspired in his own caricature, perhaps reasoning that after several years of frustration and anonymity, he wasn’t going to take any chances. Take “Common People,” a song in which cute social comedy escalates into seething insecurity and omnidirectional rage. The radio edit snipped the most vicious lines, in which Cocker is a dog who will “tear your insides out,” while its brash, playful video reduced it to Carry On Class War. That’s Different Class’ Trojan horse strategy in a nutshell: Come for the fun, stay for the psychodrama.
Coming hard on the heels of His ‘N’ Hers, Different Class seized the moment with slavering jaws; “Common People” and a momentous Glastonbury performance duly fast-tracked Cocker to national treasure status. Camp and gangly in thrift-store chic, this uncommon pop star seemed to embody Britpop’s core narrative of the underdogs taking over without shedding his lifelong sense of unbelonging. Even when he’s a participant, he’s a voyeur at heart, stranded on the threshold of wherever he is. In his ambivalent rave memoir “Sorted for E’s & Wizz,” he’s the guy wondering why he’s not having as much fun as everyone else.
The central themes of Different Class are sex and class, both characterized by mess, discomfort, longing, and revenge. Panting and yelping, Cocker describes the emptiness of too many partners (“Underwear”), not enough (“Live Bed Show”), and unrequited lust for one in particular (“Disco 2000”). The songs about class identity tell a similar story. The hungry autodidact’s fantasies of transcending the brutal conformity of working-class Sheffield hit the wall with “Common People,” where the gilded Greek art student is the catalyst, not the subject; her crime is to remind him that he can’t leave it behind and, thus, to make him feel ashamed for wanting to. In “I Spy”—a torrid mind-meld of Serge Gainsbourg, “First We Take Manhattan,” and Mike Leigh’s Naked—the thwarted interloper becomes the vengeful seducer, despoiling the privileged milieu that enthralls and disgusts him. His different class is a class of one, and it gets lonely there.
With the sole exception of “Something Changed,” Different Class is never purely joyous, yet it sounds like a celebration throughout. Seasoned producer Chris Thomas (Sex Pistols, Roxy Music) conspired with the six band members to assimilate a lifetime of British pop, from glam-rock and torch songs to synth-pop and Two Tone, and render Pulp’s distinctive tawdry glamour huge and unstoppable. What’s more, Cocker has the knack, like a classic British sitcom, of making anguish hilarious.
Different Class thus epitomizes Britpop’s signature blend of surface jollity with undercurrents of anxiety, representing both the club and the bedsit, art school and “Top of the Pops,” community and isolation, the party and the comedown, victory and defeat, pleasure and the price of pleasure. It’s good because it throbs with the desire to transform and escape; it’s great because it knows what happens when you get what you think you wanted. –Dorian Lynskey
Listen: Pulp: “Common People”
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