Jazz Articles about Count Basie Orchestra

Deborah Silver: Deborah Silver with the Count Basie Orchestra: Basie Rocks!

by Jack Bowers
June 19, 2025

Basie Rocks! A great idea? One best left on the cutting-room floor? Or perhaps a little of both? There are reasonable arguments to be made on all sides of the equation. On the one hand, this is the one and only Count Basie Orchestra, swinging in its own exceptional way. On the other, the orchestra has joined forces on every number with Mississippi-bred pop-rock singer Deborah Silver, the latest in a series of acclaimed guest vocalists that includes Ella Fitzgerald, ...

Deborah Silver: Deborah Silver with the Count Basie Orchestra: Basie Rocks!

by Kyle Simpler
June 6, 2025

Jazz musicians frequently cover popular songs, but few do it quite like vocalist Deborah Silver. With Basie Rocks!, Silver teams up with the iconic Count Basie Orchestra for a genre-crossing collection that you truly have to hear to believe. This is a groove-charged big band album that reimagines classic rock and pop classics through the swinging lens of traditional jazz. While that premise might sound gimmicky on paper, the result is total sonic satisfaction. Produced by ...

Kenny Barron, Mitch Towne, Zhengtao Pan and The Count Basie Orchestra

by Joe Dimino
April 13, 2025

Kicking off the 901st episode of Neon Jazz, we ride in with the legendary sounds of the world-famous Count Basie Orchestra. As Kansas City gears up for the grand 90th Celebration of Count Basie at The Music Hall on April 30, 2025, we shine a spotlight on band director Scotty Barnhart and the powerhouse ensemble keeping Basie's spirit alive. We journey to the stars--literally--as we revisit the iconic tune Fly Me to the Moon, famously delivered by Count Basie and ...

Various Artists: Ella 100 Live at the Apollo

by Jim Worsley
April 26, 2020

To be taken back in time within the scope of a period piece movie has long been a staple. Some journeys feel much more real than others, but the concept is commonplace. Venturing into the past with only the audio of a CD or record is, as they might have said back in 1934, “a whole different kettle of fish." A live audience first laid eyes and ears on this 100th birthday celebration honoring the sensational Ella Fitzgerald (born on ...

Count Basie Orchestra at the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts

by Patricia Myers
February 1, 2016

Count Basie Orchestra Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts Scottsdale, Arizona December 19, 2015 The Count Basie Orchestra solidified its 80-year reputation for strong swingability, inventive solo segments and supreme section cohesion during two back-to-back concerts on a tour in support of the band's first-ever Christmas-theme album. But those seasonal charts didn't dominate the program, instead were scattered like raisins in a melodic holiday pudding. Several soloists cleverly injected Christmas-song snippets into the band's expected ...

Count Basie Orchestra: America's #1 Band: The Columbia Years

by C. Michael Bailey
October 9, 2003

The Duke Ellington Orchestra, the Count Basie Orchestra – the Count Basie Orchestra, the Duke Ellington Orchestra – which one is superior? A more contemporary example would be the fractious communities who favor the Beatles as opposed to the Rolling Stones. Personally, I have always favored the organic feel of the Stones. I give the edge to Basie for the same reason. Ellington's music was that of a composer, one carefully thought out and executed. Basie's music was from the ...

Count Basie Orchestra: Atomic Swing

by Mike Neely
February 1, 2001

Count Basie usually brings to mind a legendary rhythm section, Lester Young, Buck Clayton, and such singers as Jimmy Rushing and Billie Holiday. But after World War II, long after his most famous orchestra dissolved, Basie put together another that is among the finest big bands in the history of jazz. Count Basie: Atomic Swing provides all the evidence the most doubtful listener could demand. This is classic jazz.

Capitol Records and Roulette Jazz provide an excellent selection of Basie ...