Jazz Articles about Bill Hughes

Bill Hughes: Director of the Count Basie Orchestra

by Victor L. Schermer
June 19, 2005

The Count Basie Orchestra is a “big band phenomenon that has become a tradition. Their unique sound, combining blues and swing with an intensity and rhythm all their own, is and always has been immediately recognizable. For over half a century they have been generating thrills in concert halls, universities, nightclubs and festivals around the globe. Like the immortal Louis Armstrong, they have become our goodwill ambassadors, representing the jazz idiom to delighted audiences everywhere.

When Basie passed away in ...