Jazz Articles about Count Basie

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 ...

Count Basie: Swingsation

by AAJ Staff
January 20, 2003

Known for his wide and wild orchestral arrangements, William “Count" Basie also demonstrates a calmer, more concentrated attitude on this first volume of GRP’s new “Swingsation" series (which also features classic collections of Ella Fitzgerald, Jimmie Lunceford and Lionel Hampton, among others). From a liliting take on Fats Waller’s “Honeysuckle Rose" (featuring sax man Lester Young, trumpeter Buck Clayton and a taste of “Tea For Two") and a restrained romp through Basie’s own “One O’Clock Jump," to an appropriately-titled “Blue ...

Count Basie: Basie Meets Bond

by C. Andrew Hovan
June 25, 2002

Leave it to one of the most swinging big bands of its time to make a silk purse out of a cow’s ear. Visiting themes from James Bond movies, arrangers Chico O’Farrill and George Williams craft hip and bristling versions of what might appear to be less than complimentary pieces for jazz exploration. But then O’Farrill was a master writer and he proved that this Bond thing wasn’t just a fluke when a year later in 1966 he helped to ...