Backgrounder: Shorty Rogers Courts the Count

Whenever the jazz conversation turns to West Coast jazz, the talk usually centers on the laid-back style's major influences, including tenor saxophonist Lester Young, Woody Herman's Four Brothers band and Gerry Mulligan's quartet and arrangements. The biggest influence of all is rarely mentioned—Count Basie.

Many of the leading West Coast arrangers of the day have cited Basie as a major inspiration, among them Bill Holman, Gerry Mulligan and Shorty Rogers. What they found particularly radical at the time was Basie's minimalism on the piano and the band's call-and-response style. The composer or arranger might develop a riff or figure for the saxophones, for example, and have the trumpets and trombones echo them in harmony, a conversational approach born in the black church. 

Rogers was particularly taken with Basie. So much so that in February and March of 1954, he recorded Shorty Rogers Courts the Count for RCA. The album was a tribute to the Basie approach but the sound was pure Shorty. In many regards, it's equal parts Shorty and Basie in one recording.

Keep in mind that this album was recorded in 1954, so Basie's New Testament band was less than two years old. Which means that Rogers was taken not only with Basie's swinging approach but also Neal Hefti's arrangements, which dominated the Basie book then.

The collective band personnel: Shorty Rogers (tp,arr); Pete Candoli, Harry “Sweets" Edison, Maynard Ferguson, Conrad Gozzo and Clyde Reasinger (tp); Milt Bernhart and Harry Betts (tb); Bob Enevoldsen (v-tb); John Graas (Fr horn); Paul Sarmento (tuba); Jimmy Giuffre (cl,ts); Herb Geller and Bud Shank (as); Bob Cooper, Bill Holman, Zoot Sims (ts); Bob Gordon (bs); Marty Paich (p); Curtis Counce (b) and Shelly Manne (d).

Here's the complete Shorty Rogers Courts the Count without ad interruptions...