Jazz Articles about Count Basie

Count Basie: 100th Birthday Bash & The Count Basie Story

by Joel Roberts
December 16, 2004

This past August marked the 100th anniversary of Count Basie's birth and in recognition of that august event, reissued are some of the big band master's finest sides from the late '50s and early '60s. Count Basie Count Basie and Friends: 100th Birthday Bash Blue Note 2004

The indispensable two-disc set Count Basie and Friends: 100th Birthday Bash is a compilation of 28 tunes, about half of them vocal numbers, featuring ...

Ella & Basie '79: The Perfect Match

by Mark Sabbatini
December 14, 2004

Norman Granz' Jazz in Montreux Ella & Basie '79: The Perfect Match Eagle Rock Entertainment 64 minutes 2004

This disc is lucky to emerge from the flames of failed expectations and end up merely average.

Ella & Basie '79: The Perfect Match is an 85-minute concert DVD whose very title is misleading - Count Basie appears for only one song at the end of a good, not ...

Count Basie: The Count Basie Story

by Jack Bowers
September 25, 2004

To mark the Count Basie Orchestra's silver anniversary in 1960, Roulette Records released a double album comprised of updated versions of many of the band's classic recordings from those twenty-five years. This double-disc set, one of two issued by Roulette to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of Basie's birth (the other is Count Basie & Friends ), embodies the twenty-six songs renovated during those sessions in 1957-60.

As most of the old arrangements had been memorized by the band, and others ...

Count Basie & Friends: 100th Birthday Bash

by Jack Bowers
September 25, 2004

To honor the hundredth anniversary of the birth of the incomparable Count Basie (August 21, 1904), Roulette Records has gone to the vaults and unearthed recordings made by the Basie Orchestra and smaller groups spanning the years 1957-62 when the Count was working for Roulette. All of the material on the two-disc set was previously issued, either on albums or as singles, and there are guest artists on a number of tracks (hence the title Basie & Friends ).

Neal ...

A Bounty of Basie

by Dr. Judith Schlesinger
September 1, 2004

Since the immortal William (Count) Basie was born on August 21, 1904, 2004 is his centennial year. Blue Note has released two 2-CD collections of songs, including some of the best and most beloved of his 50-year career, and all warmly remastered in 24 bit. Not a prolific composer like the Duke (though Basie did write his band's theme, “One O'Clock Jump") the Count's genius was in assembling, nurturing, and inspiring a matchless band. His sly, minimalistic piano is immediately ...

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

by Jim Santella
October 16, 2003

Featuring both Count Basie’s big band and his small group recordings, this 4-CD collection of reissued material includes blues-based jazz that was recorded between 1936 and 1951. Some of the dates have never been authorized for release before, some come from radio broadcast air checks, and many of the recordings appeared on the Vocalion, Columbia and OKeh labels.

In this Year of the Blues, it’s appropriate that Columbia reissue these sessions, which accurately reflect our heritage and how ...

Frank Sinatra with The Count Basie Orchestra: Sinatra at the Hands

by Trevor MacLaren
April 1, 2003

Finally a definitive remastered version of Sinarta's classic live record with The Count Basie Orchestra arranged and conducted by genius Quincy Jones. It's all here in SACD quality sound approved by Frank Sinatra shortly before his untimely death. The surprise here for collectors is a second disc of previously thought lost sound checks and outtakes with Frank cutting it up with various crewmembers and pals. Such highlights include a drunken rambling monologue by Peter Lawford on the reasons ...