Jazz Articles about Count Basie

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Norman Granz: The Sound Of America

by Richard J Salvucci
October 26, 2026

If there were a more important “back office" figure in the history of American jazz than Norman Granz, who would it be? When Granz first heard Coleman Hawkins, he knew that the music was going to have a major role in his life--but he did not yet know how many others would be in his debt as well. Hundreds, if not thousands of musicians would owe him a living. Some, like Oscar Peterson and Ella Fitzgerald, would nearly become his ...

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Lost and Found, Part 2: Historic Jazz Recordings from the Swing Era

by Larry Slater
October 10, 2025

Lost recordings of the early decades of jazz are particularly rare and greatly valued, as the great soloists of the swing era were constrained by the length of the 78rpm shellac disc. Jazz fans and scholars were thrilled to learn about the Savory Collection, which was released in 2018. Bill Savory was a music lover who single handedly captured hundreds of hours of top-shelf music off the air in the six years preceding America's entry into World War ...

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Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong & John Coltrane

by Joe Dimino
September 7, 2025

Welcome to a special themed hour of jazz as we journey deep into the pages of Larry Tye's acclaimed book Jazz Men. This compelling work brings to life the triumphs, struggles, and sheer brilliance of Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Louis Armstrong--three giants who not only shaped jazz but also helped move America forward during an era when civil rights were still finding their voice. Throughout this hour, we weave in Larry Tye's insights with a handpicked soundtrack that tells ...

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Swing Bands

by Monk Rowe
September 20, 2024

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Fletcher Henderson, Count Basie, Charlie Parker & Ella Fitzgerald

by Joe Dimino
February 25, 2024

We dedicate the entirety of the 843rd Episode of Neon Jazz to the history and culturally vital institution, Harlem's Apollo Theater. After finding an illustrated book on the history of this landmark institution in the history of African American culture, it was essential to cover the jazz side of things from the book's perspective. We begin with the legendary Duke Ellington and end with Tiny Bradshaw. In between, we get into classics from the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Earl Hines, ...

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The Best of Basie

by Bob Bernotas
August 21, 2023

In 1935, pianist William “Count" Basie (born August 21, 1904), a fixture on the Kansas City jazz scene since the late 1920s, organized his own rocking, riffing, blues-based big band. The following year this freewheeling unit came east and took New York by storm. For the next decade and a half, Basie's stellar cast--which included such original jazz stylists as tenor saxophonists Lester Young and Herschel Evans, trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry “Sweets" Edison, trombonist Dicky Wells, drummer Jo Jones, ...

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Subtle Is as Subtle Does

by Patrick Burnette
August 20, 2020

Ya want big bands? We got big bands. Sometimes we got one in each speaker. In this exploration of the more extroverted side of jazz, the boys check out works by a blazing trumpet player (and world-class womanizer), a so-so clarinetist with a heart of gold, two piano-playing band leaders who both worship Duke Ellington, and two (but it sounds like thirty) major-league skin-pounders. Much musing on the glory days of fifteen musicians criss-crossing the nation via bus routes, and ...