Count Basie | Artist
William James "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer born 1904 in Red Band New Jersey. In 1935 he formed the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and their first recording. Over a career of 50 years Basie introduced several generations of listeners to the Big Band sound and left an influential catalogue. Born into a musical family, his father played the mellophone, and his mother Lillian played the piano. Lillian, who took in laundry and baked cakes for a living, gave Basie his first piano lessons, and once he showed talent, she paid 25 cents a lesson for Count Basie's formal piano instruction. Young Basie spent much of his time at the Palace Theater in Red Bank, doing occasional chores and gaining free admission to performances. He quickly learned to improvise music appropriate to the acts and the silent movies. After a period gigging in clubs in Asbury Park, on the Jersey shore, in 1920 Basie went to Harlem, a hotbed of jazz, where he bumped into friend Sonny Greer who was the drummer for the Washingtonians, Duke Ellington's early band. Soon Basie met many of the Harlem musicians who were "making the scene". Basie toured in acts such as Katie Crippen's Hippity Hop show and the Columbia Burlesque. His touring took him to Kansas City, St. Louis, New Orleans and Chicago, where he met many jazz musicians, including Louis Armstrong. Before he was 20 years old, he toured extensively on the 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. In 1935 Basie formed his own nine-piece band, Barons of Rhythm, with former members of the Bennie Moten band, 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 Kansas City's Reno Club (which like most clubs of the day was segregated) and often performed for live radio broadcasts. During one 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. At the end of 1936, Basie and his band moved from Kansas City to Chicago, where they honed their repertoire at a long engagement at the Grand Terrace Ballroom. Basie's band was to become known for its rhythm section. Another Basie innovation was the use of two tenor saxophone players; at the time, most bands had just one. In that city in October 1936, the band had a recording session which the renowned producer John Hammond, which Hammond later described as "the only perfect, completely perfect recording session I've ever had anything to do with". Basie would go on to record over 130 studio albums in his lifetime, including solo piano works, big band orchestra works, duets and collaborations. Some of his more famous collaborators were Frank Sinatra, Joe Williams, Tony Bennett, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis, Oscar Peterson, Dizzy Gillespie, Zoot Sims and Sarah Vaughan. A selection of standout recordings includes Decca Presents One O'Clock Jump (1941), Lester Leaps In (1955), April in Paris (1957), Count Basie Swings, Joe Williams Sings (1957), Basie (1958), First Time! The Count Meets the Duke (1962), Ella & Basie! (1963), Sinatra-Basie (1963), Basie Straight Ahead (1968), Satch & Josh (1975), and Basie & Zoot (1976).
Artist Website: wikipedia/Count_Basie
Featured Albums: Count Basie
Related Artists: Count Basie Orchetra, Joe Williams, Frank Sinatra, Joe Williams, Lester Young, Duke Ellington
Video Clips: Basie Boogie, Swingin the Blues, Show of the Week
