Basie All Stars: Live at Fabrik, Vol 1

Unwell in 1981 after a European tour the year before, Count Basie decided to sit out a series of booked engagements abroad. Instead, he dispatched nine members of his band to fulfill the obligations. They called themselves the Basie All Stars.

Mind you, I'm not a big fan of leaderless pocket bands, which never stack up to the real deal. But in this case, the nonet works, largely due to the inclusion of Nat Pierce on piano and tough tenor Buddy Tate. The full group features Harry ”Sweets” Edison and Joe Newman (tp), Benny Powell (tb), Marshall Royal (as), Buddy Tate and Billy Mitchell (ts), Nat Pierce (p), John Heard (b) and Gus Johnson (d).

Now, Germany's NDR Kultur has released Basie All Stars: Live at Fabrik, Vol. 1, which was recorded May 5, 1981. Fabrik was (and is) a narrow performance space in a former factory in Hamburg, Germany. The ground floor hosts standing space and seats while there's more standing room around the perimeter one story up. The songs performed on the album are Bluesbird Blues, Please Send Me Someone to Love, Shiny Stockings, Everything Happens to Me;,This Is All I Ask, I’m Confessin’ That I Love You and Little Pony.

This album isn't essential Basie band fare but it still sounds wonderful, with arrangements adjusted to make nine players sound larger and more dimensional, even though they are half the band's customary 17 musicians. Solos by band members swing with punch and intensity, and you almost forget Pierce isn't Basie.

Count Basie died in 1984, but three years earlier, while he was ailing, he was well represented in the Basie tradition aboard.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Basie All Stars: Live at Fabrik, Vol. 1 (NDR Kultur) here.

JazzWax clip: Here's Shiny Stockings...