Count Basie Orchestra
The Count Basie Orchestra is an American big band led by Count Basie . The Basie Band was one of the famous jazz formations of the swing era alongside the Duke Ellington Orchestra and the bands of Woody Herman , Lionel Hampton and Benny Goodman .
Emerging from the orchestra of Bennie Moten , the Basie Band was one of the most important representatives of Kansas City jazz, along with the orchestras of Harlan Leonard , Jay McShann and Andy Kirk's Twelve Clouds of Joy . It had its breakthrough in New York City in 1937 . The orchestra survived the big band deaths in the late 1940s and worked with Frank Sinatra , Tony Bennett and Ella Fitzgerald in the 1960s . It was continued as the Ghost Band after Count Basie's death in 1984, and has been directed by Dennis Mackrel since 2010 . The Count Basie Orchestra is one of the most successful big bands in history with 17 Grammy Awards won .
The history of the basie band
Early years
| Original line-up in 1935 | |
|---|---|
| Piano: | Count Basie |
| Trumpets: | Joe Keyes, Hot Lips Page |
| Alto saxophone: | Buster Smith, Jack Washington |
| Tenor saxophone: | Lester Young |
| Bass: | Walter Page |
| Drums | Jo Jones |
The pianist Count Basie arrived in Kansas City in 1927 with a vaudeville troupe , where he soon played with the Blue Devils of his future bassist Walter Page , in 1930 he became a member of Bennie Moten's rival band . After Moten's death in 1935, Count Basie and the other former Moten musicians - under the direction of Moten's brother Buster , with whom they soon fell out - initially continued their engagements and played in regional clubs. When the band soon finally fell apart, Basie founded his own orchestra with musician friends on the occasion of an engagement at the Reno Club . Rex Harris and Brian Rust refer to the formation as the Embryo Basie-Band , from which the Basie orchestra developed later, with which the first recordings were made in 1937. Basie's nine-member band consisted of trumpeters Joe Keyes and Oran 'Hot Lips' Page , alto saxophonists Buster Smith and Jack Washington , tenor saxophonist Lester Young and trombonist Eddie Durham ; the rhythm section consisted of Jo Jones on drums, Walter Page on bass and Basie himself on piano. With this formation, called The Barons of Rhythm , Basie brought the style of the Kansas City jam sessions to the clubs by combining extensive improvisation with band accompaniments based on riffs.
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Left to right: Count Basie, Ray Bauduc, Bob Haggart, Harry Edison, Herschel Evans, Eddie Miller, Lester Young, Matty Matlock, June Richmond and Bob Crosby
Photograph by William P. Gottlieb .
When music critic and record producer John Hammond heard the band on a radio broadcast from the Reno Club in December 1935, he flew to Kansas City in May to experience the Basie Band on site. Hammond later wrote, “I was afraid to venture into Kansas because I feared disappointment. And yet a first evening at Reno in May 1936 remains the most exciting musical experience I can remember. Basie's orchestra seemed to have all the advantages of a small combo with witty soloists and complete relaxation, and on top of that, the rousing and dynamic of a big band ... Basie became a kind of religion for me; I started writing about the orchestra on Down Beat and Melody Maker . ”Hammond then persuaded his friend Benny Goodman and then his manager Willard Alexander of MCA Records to also go to Kansas City. Under the condition of expanding the group to the then standard of 13 members on big band size, Hammond and Alexander signed a recording deal with Basie; it went down by 24 pages of records for a total of $ 730, but this was increased after Hammond's protest on the union minimum wage. Hammond brokered the band to New York City , where they should play in the Roseland Ballroom . Basie agreed and hoped to continue the artistic freedom and spirit of the Kansas City style of his nine-member ensemble.
The Basie Band made their debut at the Grand Terrace in Chicago , but that didn't start off in an encouraging way; The band only had a few arrangements and also had to put up with having to play the music of poet and farmer von Suppè as the train number .
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Photography by William P. Gottlieb .
Jones-Smith Inc.
Hammond took secretly before the contract started with Decca, a quintet from the big band with the assistance of Jimmy Rushing four sides of the plate, which under the name of Smith-Jones Inc. then click Vocalion appeared. "Jones" and "Smith" were the harmless names (Jo Jones) of the drummer and trumpeter (Carl Smith); this was only a substitute for Buck Clayton, who had to sit out at that time because of an injured lip. The quintet recorded five pieces on October 8, 1936; two takes of Shoe Shine Boy, Evenin ', Boogie-Woogie (with singer Jimmy Rushing added) and the standard Oh Lady Be Good. Jo Jones later recalled, "We made these recordings in an hour."
The critic George T. Simon wrote in the Metronome about the Basie Band in the early years: “Sure, the band swings, but this saxophone group is consistently wrong. But if you think it's unmelodic, you haven't heard the brass section yet! And if you think the brass sounds wrong, then deal with the intonation of the band as a whole! Swing is swing, but music is music! It is to be hoped that the band sounds better in person. ”Simon himself later gave the explanation for this in his book The Big Bands :“ As many members of these bands have told me since then, many black musicians have not been able to stand up To provide top instruments; they were forced to play solidly built but otherwise inferior wind instruments. Many of them - no matter how good the player might be and how diligently he might be practicing - could not be kept permanently in the melody because the individual notes themselves were not in harmony with one another. "
| Occupation 1937 | |
|---|---|
| Piano: | Count Basie |
| Trumpets: | Joe Keyes, Carl Smith, Buck Clayton |
| Trumpets: | George Hunt, Dan Minor |
| Alto saxophones: | Jack Washington, Caughey Roberts |
| Tenor saxophones: | Herschel Evans, Lester Young |
| Guitar: | Claude Williams |
| Bass: | Walter Page |
| Drums | Jo Jones |
| singing | Jimmy Rushing |
The band, which now also included trumpeter Buck Clayton and legendary blues shouter Jimmy Rushing , demonstrated their style on their New York debut at Roseland and their first recordings for Decca in January 1937, with titles like Roseland Shuffle showing them off Soloists in the foreground hear how they are accompanied by the ensemble, which however remains in a functional background role playing riffs. The guest performance at Roseland turned out to be a failure, however, as the formation was not always coordinated and was also obliged to include commercial material in the repertoire in order to satisfy the dancers. After an engagement at the William-Penn Hotel in Pittsburgh , which was unsatisfactory, the young singer Billie Holiday was brought into the band in March 1937 . She made her debut on March 13th in Scranton, Pennsylvania ; with her the Basie Band achieved a success at the Apollo Theater in Harlem , and that's where Billie really rose to star, Basie said later. On April 11th they made guest appearances at the Savoy Ballroom ; Billie sang They Can't Take That Away from Me and Swing, Brother, Swing, which has been recorded on the radio. They then drove through the United States for three months with Lady Day (Holiday) and Jimmy Rushing.
Gunther Schuller wrote: “That was a fresh big band sound for New York, which contrasted with the complex jazz compositions of Duke Ellington or Sy Oliver and highlighted the differences that existed between the styles that were found in the East and the West Coast of the United States . ”According to Richard Cook and Brian Morton , the arrival of the Basie Band in New York prepared a new force in the swing era, previously dominated by Ellington, Jimmy Lunceford and Fletcher Henderson . Basie's Kansas City band had a rude demeanor compared to the pristine Drive of Lunceford and the urban superiority of Ellington.
In New York City
The band did not succeed in taking New York by storm in late 1936; After the first recording session (Swingin 'at the Daisy Chain) and the Roseland appearances, the line-up of the band was restructured; at Hammond's request as part of a "strengthening" of the band. Trumpeters Ed Lewis and Bobby Moore replaced Joe Keyes and Carl Smith; and the alto saxophonist Coughey Roberts has been replaced by Earl Warren . The most significant change, however, was the arrival of guitarist Freddie Green in March 1937, who came for Claude Williams and soon made the rhythm section one of the most respected in big band history. Green, who never played a solo, gave the rhythm section the seal of perfection; Basie called him Mr Hold-Together .
With Billie Holiday, who was very popular with the band, but should only stay with Basie for a short time, no official recordings were made because she was under contract with Brunswick . “The musicians appreciate their impeccable musicianship; and with several of them, especially Freddie Green and (…) Lester Young, she built particularly valuable relationships. “In early 1938, Lady Day was fired; the jazz press blamed John Hammond for it. MCA officially took responsibility for this; the Down Beat saw the reason for their dismissal in their unsatisfactory behavior, such as their unreliability when performing; Jo Jones saw the reason more in their refusal to sing exclusively blues songs; Hammond "wanted to make a colored mom out of her".
The highlights of the Basie Band at that time were the two tenor saxophonists Lester Young and Herschel Evans , who died in February 1939, with their opposing playing and their different characters. George T. Simon said, “Lester's tone was 'quite amazing' - light, airy, fluid, more like an alto - than a tenor saxophone. Opposite him, Evans played a much softer, more soulful saxophone - his recording of 'Blue and Sentimental' remains a classic. ”Lester Young was soon fired but briefly returned to the Basie band in 1944.
1937/38 the basie band had hit hits with One O'Clock Jump (recorded on July 7th with John's Idea ) and Jumpin 'at the Woodside recorded on (August 22nd, 1937 with Texas Shuffle ), which brought the band profit now under the name Count Basie Orchestra and achieved national and international fame. These titles were head arrangements on blues themes that were not written out in individual parts, but consisted of riffs that were memorized by individual band members. One O'Clock Jump, which became the band's theme song, was partly created in this way by Buster Smith and put on paper by Buck Clayton, although the copyrights were with Basie.
Although teammates such as trombonist and guitarist Eddie Durham also brought in their advertised arrangements (such as Topsy and John's Idea ), it was these head arrangements that conquered their New York audience and conveyed the enthusiastic temperament of the band.
| Occupation 1938 | |
|---|---|
| Piano: | Count Basie |
| Trumpets: | Harry Edison, Ed Lewis, Bobby Moore, Buck Clayton |
| Trumpets: | Dickie Wells, Dan Minor |
| Alto saxophone: | Earl Warren |
| Tenor saxophones: | Herschel Evans, Lester Young |
| Baritone saxophone: | Jack Washington |
| Guitar: | Freddie Green |
| Bass: | Walter Page |
| Drums | Jo Jones |
| singing | Jimmy Rushing, Helen Humes |
On January 16, Basie and some of his musicians saw Benny Goodman's Carnegie Hall concert , at which they also appeared as guests, after which they rushed to the Savoy Ballroom , where a band competition with the Chick Webb Orchestra that night took place, which then enjoyed great success with titles such as Stompin 'at the Savoy and the singing numbers of Ella Fitzgerald . The winner was not the "local hero" Webb, who was allowed to use the main stage, but rather the Basie Band.
Following this triumph, the Basie Orchestra was considered one of the finest on the rich swing-era music scene when it began a long stint at Famous Door , where it remained until early 1939. In 1938 Helen Humes joined the band as a singer, where she replaced Billie Holiday. She mostly sang pop ballads such as My Heart Belongs to Daddy and Blame it on my Last Affair, creating a contrast to the blues style of Jimmy Rushing , who was replaced by Joe Williams in the early 1940s .
In the titles recorded for Decca between January 1937 and February 1939 (commonly referred to as The Original American Decca Recordings ) "the style of the orchestra, which is a further development of the playing style of the Blue Devils and the Benny Moten Band, appears to be fully developed", Arrigo Polillo wrote , “and, what matters more, considerably different from the style of any other formation of the time; only Ellington could have said that about his music. The pieces don't have the smoothness and formal perfection of Goodman, Tommy Dorsey , or Artie Shaw , but they don't have anything mechanical like this about them either. Basie's recordings are rough, powerful, gorgeous and relaxed, his timbres muted and veiled. The main soloists each have their own distinctive tone, like Lester Young's stretched and restrained saxophone playing. ”The economic style of the Basie Band contrasted with the fortissimo passages of the brass and woodwinds in the other swing bands, wrote Brian Rust .
| Occupation 1939 | |
|---|---|
| Piano: | Count Basie |
| Trumpets: | Harry Edison, Ed Smith, Shad Collins, Buck Clayton |
| Trumpets: | Dan Minor , Dickie Wells, Benny Morton, Eddie Durham |
| Alto saxophone | Earl Warren |
| Tenor saxophones: | Herschel Evans, Chu Berry, Buddy Tate |
| Baritone saxophone: | Jack Washington |
| Guitar: | Freddie Green |
| Bass: | Walter Page |
| Drums | Jo Jones |
| singing | Jimmy Rushing, Helen Humes |
The format of the musicians continued to improve; Chu Berry , Benny Morton , Dicky Wells and Harry Sweets Edison joined the band over the years; brilliant trumpeters like Emmett Berry , Al Killian , Joe Newman , Snooky Young , Clark Terry and Thad Jones finally completed the team. In February 1939, the Basie Orchestra first recorded for Columbia ; a partial formation were the Kansas City Seven ( Lester Leaps In ), which Basie formed in late 1939. In the same year the orchestra first appeared in Carnegie Hall , in 1940 in the Apollo Theater in a session with Harry James , Coleman Hawkins , Benny Goodman and Gene Krupa .
With the entry of Sweets Edison, Dicky Wells (1938) and the replacement of Lester Young and Herschel Evans by Buddy Tate (1939) and Don Byas , the standard could be maintained; however, the 1939 line-up of the Basie Band is considered by many jazz critics to be their climax - the early 1940s recordings for Columbia, Vocalion and Okeh that followed Decca recordings often revealed "a routine of riffs, conventional harmonies and all-too-familiar patterns."
The forties
In the late 1930s there were a total of six written arrangements, recalled Sweets Edison, who joined the orchestra in March 1938. In the 1940s it was more and more the arrangers who shaped the sound of the orchestra. There were musicians from the band, such as Eddie Durham and Buck Clayton, who provided the arrangements, as well as professional arrangers who brought their own character into the band with each track, according to Andy Gibson , who musically brought them closer to the music of Duke Ellington approximated, as with the arrangements of I Never Knew and Louisiana from 1941. Tab Smith also made important arrangements such as Harvard Blues; others were Buster Harding and Jimmy Mundy . The influence of the new arrangements gradually changed the soundscape and removed the orchestra from its roots in Kansas City jazz; the sound was now less determined by the head arrangements and riffs; the predominant feature was the ensemble playing
In 1942 Kenny Clarke and Don Byas joined the Basie Band, which has now been booked in the city's leading theaters and clubs. In 1943 the group went on extensive tours through the west and east; Films like Stage Door Canteen , Mr. Big and Crazy Horse boosted their popularity in the United States. Successful titles of the time were 9:20 Special, Feedin 'the Bean, Harvard Blues (1941), Rusty Dusty Blues (1942, # 4 in the Harlem Hit Parade ) and Taps Miller (1944).
By the entry of the United States into the Second World War the Basie band lost important members, drummer Jo Jones and tenor saxophonist Lester Young dropped out; for this came Buddy Rich , Jay Jay Johnson (1945), Dicky Wells (1947–1952) and various saxophonists such as Illinois Jacquet , Lucky Thompson and, for a short time, Paul Gonsalves . According to Gunther Schuller , with the departure of Jo Jones, the soft and relaxed style of the band was lost; his substitute players like Sonny Payne , "drummed considerably louder and created a harder, more glamorous brass sound for it". In addition, there was the record industry strike from 1942 to 1944 , which threatened the Count Basie Orchestra financially as well as all other big bands in the USA; and despite new soloists like Wardell Gray , Basie was forced to briefly break up the band in 1948 until he reactivated them in 1949 (Shoutin 'Blues).
| Occupation 1949 | |
|---|---|
| Piano: | Count Basie |
| Trumpets: | Harry Edison, Emett Berry, Clark Terry, Gerald Wilson , Jimmy Nottingham |
| Trumpets: | Ted Donnelly, Dicky Wells, George Matthews, Melba Liston |
| Alto saxophone | CQ Price, Earl Warren |
| Tenor saxophones: | Paul Gonsalves, Wessel Parker |
| Baritone saxophone: | Jack Washington |
| Guitar: | Freddie Green |
| Bass: | Singleton Palmer |
| Drums | Butch Ballard |
| singing | Jimmy Rushing, Taps Miller, Billy Valentine |
During this time Basie reduced the band to six to nine teammates, which included Buddy Rich, Serge Chaloff and Buddy DeFranco , and was under contract with RCA Victor . With Open the Door, Richard! , a vocal number with Harry "Sweets" Edison as the vocalist, had a number one hit in the United States. With the saxophonists Georgie Auld and Gene Ammons and the bassist Al McKibbon , Basie tried to integrate bebop elements for a short time , but could not keep the large line-up for economic reasons. 1950/51 Basie mainly worked in the septet, a. a. with Clark Terry and Wardell Gray.
The Second Testament
In early 1951, Count Basie introduced a new big band with alto saxophonist Marshall Royal as artistic director. In 1952 he signed a contract with Norman Granz 'label Clef and Eddie Lockjaw Davis first came to the band. Basie cast the orchestra again for a series of tours in 1952, and came to Europe in 1954. The first Clef album Dance Session was released that year . It was mainly the arrangers who took care of the sound of the new Basie band, such as Manny Albam and later Quincy Jones , Johnny Mandel , Sammy Nestico and Chico O'Farrill . Basie strived for perfection in his performances and did not disdain the contributions of white arrangers like Neal Hefti . He, who had contributed to the success of Woody Herman's First Herd in the post-war period , worked with Frank Wess , Frank Foster and Ernie Wilkins in the profiling of the orchestra.
From 1954 to 1961 the singer Joe Williams came back to the Basie Band, who had his first hit with Every Day I Have the Blues in 1955. Joe Williams said of the new orchestra: “This is a group of true professional musicians; they are much more accomplished than the old orchestra folks, they have a broader perspective, and the pieces were performed better. ”It was also called The Second Testament . or The New Testament (in contrast to the Old Testament Band from 1937 onwards), they gained great popularity with albums such as The Atomic Mr. Basie, which was released on Roulette Records in 1958 . At this point in time, the Basie Band overtook the Ellington Orchestra in the audience's favor when it came to questions from specialist magazines such as Metronome or Downbeat. Success numbers of this time were Li'l Darling, Going to Chicago Blues, Alright, okay, You Win, Two Franks, Shiny Stockings, I Want a little Girl and the badly strained (Polillo) April in Paris in an arrangement by Wild Bill Davis , " the finale of which is repeated several times to the delight of the audience, who apparently don't get tired of it ”. From 1954 the Basie Orchestra made several guest appearances in Europe; In June 1956, the band appeared together with Ella Fitzgerald at the Starlight Roof in New York's Waldorf-Astoria . In 1957 there was a royal performance in front of the British Queen Elizabeth II ; "Basie Band is Royal Sensation," wrote the Melody Maker .
| Occupation 1955 | |
|---|---|
| Piano: | Count Basie |
| Trumpets: | Joe Newman, Thad Jones, Wendell Culley , Reunald Jones |
| Trumpets: | Henry Coker, Benny Powell, Bill Hughes |
| Alto saxophones: | Marshall Royal, Billy Graham |
| Tenor saxophones, flutes: | Frank Foster, Frank Wess |
| Baritone saxophone: | Charlie Fowlkes |
| Guitar: | Freddie Green |
| Bass: | Eddie Jones |
| Drums | Sonny Payne |
In October 1957, the Basie Band recorded the album The Atomic Mr Basie for Roulette ; in the opinion of Richard Cook and Brian Morton probably the last great work of the orchestra; It was above all the achievements of arranger Neal Hefti and guest soloist Eddie Lockjaw Davis that stood out here. The band took on other records on which guest singers such as Frank Sinatra , Ella Fitzgerald and later Tony Bennett , Sarah Vaughan and Sammy Davis Jr. performed in the 1960s ; in the 1970s a long series of albums for Norman Granz 'Pablo Records, u. a. with live recordings from the Montreux Jazz Festival .
With the Atomic album and others that were created for Roulette and Norman Granz ' Verve Records in the late 1950s and early 1960s , such as April in Paris and Basie Plays Hefti , the epitome of the new Count Basie Orchestra sound was experienced above all through the work of the aforementioned arrangers; it was the sound of a tight ensemble, heavier and stronger in contrast to the riff-based band of the late 1930s and early 1940s. Where previously space had been given for outstanding soloists such as Lester Young and Buck Clayton , the focus had now shifted to the arrangements, despite a number of notable soloists such as Thad Jones and Frank Foster . From then on, this orchestral sound remained the typical sound of the Basie band, which Gunther Schuller described in his book The Swing Era as "perfected neoclassicism ... a glorious cul-de-sac". George T. Simon comes to a more forgiving verdict: "Few leaders in history have walked the fine line between commercial interest and musical integrity as sensitively and at the same time as confidently as Count Basie".
Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and the Basie Band
Frank Sinatra's collaboration with the Count Basie Orchestra spanned two decades (1962–1983) and included joint studio and live albums, television appearances and concert tours; In addition, recordings by the Basie band also influenced other record projects of Sinatra. First came about in October 1962 with Sinatra-Basie. On Historic Musical First for Sinatra's record company Reprise, a first joint studio album, for which Neal Hefti contributed the arrangements. The album was released in January 1963 and peaked at # 5 on the Billboard charts. Sinatra-Basie followed in June 1964 : It Might As Well Be Swing. A Meeting of Giants (reprise) with arrangements by Quincy Jones and Billy Byers ; For this studio project, which reached 13th place in the album hit parade, the orchestra was expanded to include a string section. The track Fly Me to the Moon from this album was part of a music cassette in May 1969 , which the astronauts of the Apollo 10 spacecraft played on board during their flight into lunar orbit; In July 1969 it was transmitted from the ground station to the astronauts of Apollo 11 by radio on board during their lunar landing flight and could thus be heard worldwide as part of the television broadcast of this event.
At the end of November 1964, Sinatra and Basie then gave their first joint concerts during a two-week guest performance at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas under the direction of Quincy Jones. In June 1965, the Count Basie Orchestra accompanied a charity performance of the " Rat Pack " in St. Louis . As part of a tour through several US states in July 1965, Sinatra and Basie performed in front of 14,000 spectators at the Newport Jazz Festival ; alluding to previous critical voices who viewed this combination as unsuitable for the festival, Time then spoke of the “successful storming of the fortress of jazz purists”. Sinatra and Basie gave a concert for prisoners in the maximum security prison in Lorton near Washington ; the resulting concert film remained largely unpublished. In October 1965 they first appeared on television together in The Hollywood Palace ( ABC ). During a four-week engagement in Las Vegas, the live double album Sinatra at The Sands (Reprise) was finally created in January 1966 , with which Sinatra and Basie again made it into the top ten of the Billboard charts. In May 1970 Sinatra and Basie made two evenings at London's Royal Festival Hall ; Sinatra later described these concerts as "the best I've ever succeeded".
In June 1974 and September 1975 Sinatra and the Basie band went on concert tour with Ella Fitzgerald in the United States, and in November 1975 they performed with Sarah Vaughan for a week at the London Palladium , where they answered 350,000 requests for the 15,000 available Tickets set a record attendance. In addition to another tour in the USA in May 1976, Basie and Sinatra worked together again in the studio for the two television specials John Denver and Friend (ABC 1976) and Sinatra: The Man and His Music ( NBC 1981). They last appeared together on stage at a benefit concert in Los Angeles in December 1983.
Recordings of the band's concerts in 1979 and 1981 with Ella Fitzgerald appeared on Pablo . Basie brought earlier styles of the CBB back to some extent. The joint collaboration ended with a performance at Carnegie Hall in 1983. With the band's regular singer, baritone Dennis Rowland , the album On the Road was produced in 1980 by Norman Granz and received the 1981 Big Band Grammy .
The ghost band
Between 1970 and the early 1980s, when the Basie band made numerous albums for Pablo Records , a number of illnesses withdrew their leader from the band, although it was continued on piano by arranger Nat Pierce . From 1981 Basie conducted the orchestra from a wheelchair, as in a performance at Carnegie Hall. After Count Basie's death on April 26, 1984, the orchestra was formed as the Ghost Band under the direction of Thad Jones (1984–1986), Frank Foster (1986–1995), Grover Mitchell (1995–2003) and Bill Hughes (2003–2010) continued; Drummer Dennis Mackrel has been leading the orchestra since 2010 . The ensemble continued to play new albums, such as the 1997/98 album At Long Last with Rosemary Clooney . In 2006 Basie is Back was released with the classic titles from the Basie Orchestra catalog, such as April in Paris and the early hit One O'clock Jump. The formation worked with arranger Allyn Ferguson ( Swing Shift , 1999) and played to newly discovered recordings from 1973 by Ray Charles ( Ray Sings, Basie Swings , 2006).
Awards
The Basie Band received seventeen Grammy Awards such as in 1988 for their album with Diane Schuur , most recently in 1997 for the album Live at Manchester Craftsmen's Guild (with the New York Voices ) and in 1999 for the album Count Plays Duke . She has received the Best Big Band award eleven times from the Down Beat Reader's Poll since 1983. She also received the Down Beat Critic's Poll in 1984, 1986, 1991, 1993 and 1994. In 1994 and 1995 she received the Jazz Times Critic's and Reader's Poll.
Discographic notes
- The Original American Decca Recordings (Decca, 1936-1939)
- The Savory Collection 1935–1940 ( Mosaic Records , live recordings of the Basie Orchestra from 1938–40)
- The Jubilee Alternatives ( Hep Records , 1943/44)
- Shoutin 'Blues (RCA, 1949/50)
- Dance Session (Clef / Verve, 1952–1954)
- April in Paris (Verve, 1955-6)
- The Greatest !! Count Basie Plays, Joe Williams Sings Standards (1956)
- Count Basie Swings, Joe Williams Sings (Verve, 1955/56)
- The Atomic Mr. Basie (Roulette, 1957)
- Basie Swings, Bennett Sings (Roulette, 1958)
- Breakfast Dance and Barbecue (Roulette, 1959)
- I Gotta Right to Swing [with Sammy Davis Jr.] (Decca, 1960)
- Sinatra Basie. An Historic Musical First (Reprise, 1963)
- Ella and Basie! (Verve, 1963)
- Sinatra – Basie: It Might As Well Be Swing. A Meeting of Giants (recapitulation, 1964)
- Our Shining Hour [with Sammy Davis Jr.] (Verve, 1965)
Filmography
The Basie Band first appeared in a Hollywood film in 1938 ; he was the short film Policy Man . This was followed by Reveille with Beverly , Hit Parade of 1943 Top Man , Stage Door Canteen , Mr. Big and Crazy Horse (all in the mid-1940s) and Cinderfella (1960). In August 1950, the basie band accompanied Billie Holiday on a short film in Hollywood's Universal Studios . The Basie band had one last film appearance in 1974 in the Mel Brooks film Blazing Saddles .
Clark Terry, 1976
Frank Wess (left) with Jimmy Owens ; 1977
Ernie Wilkins 1976
Count Basie Band with Ethel Waters in the film Stage Door Canteen
Sammy Nestico in San Antonio 2006
Buck Clayton
literature
- Ronald Atkins (Ed.): Jazz: From New Orleans to the New Jazz Age . Carlton Books, London 2000.
- Ken Bloom: The American Songbook - The Singers, the Songwriters, and the Songs - 100 Years of American Popular Music - The Stories of the Creators and Performers . Black Dog & Leventhal, New York City 2005, ISBN 1-57912-448-8 ).
- Ian Carr , Digby Fairweather , Brian Priestley : Rough Guide Jazz. The ultimate guide to jazz. 1800 bands and artists from the beginning until today. 2nd, expanded and updated edition. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2004, ISBN 3-476-01892-X .
- Donald Clarke: Billie Holiday - Wishing on the Moon . A biography. Piper Verlag, 1995, ISBN 3-492-03756-9 .
- Richard Cook , Brian Morton : The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings . 8th edition. Penguin, London 2006, ISBN 0-14-102327-9 .
- Michael Cuscuna : Sleeve notes The Complete Atomic Basie . 1994.
- Will Friedwald : Sinatra! The Song Is You: A Singer's Art . Scribner, New York City 1995, ISBN 0-684-19368-X .
- Rex Harris and Brian Rust : Recorded Jazz: A Critical Guide . Penguin Books, London 1958.
- Jim Haskins: Ella Fitzgerald - First Lady of Jazz . Heyne, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-453-07545-5 .
- Arthur Jackson: The World of Big Bands: The Sweet and Swinging Years . David & Charles, Vancouver 1977.
- Martin Kunzler : Jazz Lexicon. Volume 1: A – L (= rororo-Sachbuch. Vol. 16512). 2nd Edition. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-499-16512-0 .
- Giuseppe Marcucci: The Sinatra Legacy. Florence / Amsterdam 2007 (pp. 1–1487, on CD-Rom). (= Where Or When. The Sinatra Database, Chronological Section , 5th ed.).
- Luiz Carlos do Nascimento Silva: Put Your Dreams Away. A Frank Sinatra Discography. Greenwood Press, Westport 2000, ISBN 0-313-31055-6 .
- Arrigo Polillo: Jazz. History and Personality of Afro-American Music . Beltz, Weinheim 2005, ISBN 3-407-77756-6 .
- Gunther Schuller: The Swing Era . Oxford University Press, Oxford 1989.
- George T. Simon: The Golden Era of Big Bands (“The Big bands”). Hannibal-Verlag, Höfen 2004, ISBN 3-85445-243-8 .
- David W Stowe: Jazz in the West: Cultural Frontier and Region During the Swing Era . In: The Western Historical Quarterly , February 1992, Vol. 23, No. 1. Utah State University , Utah.
- Martin Williams: Jazz: What Happened in Kansas City? In: American Music , Summer 1985, Vol. 3 No. 2. University of Illinois Press, Illinois 1985.
Web links
- Web presence of the Count Basie Orchestra
- Portrait of the ghost band
- Michael Telega: Count Basie in Europe 1954–1982
References and comments
- ↑ University of Missouri-Kansas City ( Memento of the original from February 13, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Hammond, quoted in Polillo, p. 418.
- ↑ Polillo, p. 419.
- ↑ See Polillo; he regards it as a little prank by Hammond and Basie against the Decca, who had not forgiven the cutthroat deal with Basie's orchestra. At the session, which took place in a narrow room with only one microphone, Basie, Walter Page, Lester Young and trumpeters Carl "Tattite" Smith and Jo Jones played as namesake. Gunther Schuller later wrote about the recordings: Economical, less is more, is the ideal that is striven for here. Quoted from Donald Clarke. P. 156.
- ↑ Michael Brooks: Liner Notes for The Lester Young Story - Vol. 1: Jones-Smith & Wilson-Holiday Inc. (Columbia)
- ↑ George Simon, p. 96 f.
- ↑ George T. Simon, p. 97.
- ↑ The manager Joe Glaser had got Hot Lips Page as the only musician in the Basie Band to sign an exclusive contract while still in Kansas City and poached them; see. Polillo, p. 418.
- ↑ Martin Williams: Jazz: What Happened in Kansas City? In: American Music , Summer 1985, Vol. 3 No. 2. University of Illinois Press, Illinois 1985, p. 176
- ↑ Quoted from Clarke, p. 159.
- ^ Clarke, p. 163.
- ^ Gunther Schuller: The Swing Era . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989, p. 225
- ↑ Cook / Morton, 6th edition, p. 101.
- ↑ Schuller, p. 237
- ↑ Donald Clarke states that Williams wanted to play the violin too, but Hammond couldn't stand his playing on this instrument; see. Clarke, p. 158.
- ↑ Schuller, p. 226
- ↑ Both quotations quoted. according to Kunzler, p. 82.
- ↑ However, it can be heard on two tracks that were recorded on a radio broadcast in the Savoy ; see. Simon. P. 98.
- ↑ cit. after Simon, p. 98.
- ↑ Jo Jones said: “You can only imagine one thing, that as a black man you simply have to sing the blues. Stay in your place, little boy. ”Quoted from Clarke, p. 165. For further background information on the Hammond / Holiday dispute, see Donald Clarke, p. 164 f.
- ↑ Quoted from Simon, p. 99
- ↑ After Brian priestley, Jazz Rough Guide, p. 39
- ↑ Arthur Jackson: The World of Big Bands: The Sweet and Swinging Years. David & Charles, Vancouver 1977, p. 42
- ↑ Basie, Buck Clayton, Freddie Green, Walter Page and Lester Young as well as Harry Carney , Cootie Williams , Bobby Hackett and Johnny Hodges were guests .
- ↑ See Poilillo. P. 420.
- ↑ Quoted from Polillo, p. 421.
- ^ Harris and Rust, p. 31.
- ^ Review of the recordings from 1940 to 1942; Quoted from Cook / Morton 6th edition, p. 102. An exception to the studio recordings are the recordings of the AFRS Jubilee Show 1943 with the "transition band" with Illinois Jacquet and Buddy Rich; appeared on The Jubilee Alternatives ( Hep ).
- ↑ Quoted from Polillo, p. 420.
- ^ Gunther Schuller: The Swing Era . Oxford University Press, Oxford 1989, p. 258
- ↑ Kunzler, p. 82.
- ↑ Ibid p.261
- ↑ Kunzler, p. 83.
- ↑ Polillo, p. 423.
- ↑ Williams, cit. after Polillo, p. 422.
- ↑ Michael Cuscuna: Sleeve notes from the CD The Complete Atomic Basie (1994)
- ↑ Quoted from Polillo, p. 424.
- ↑ Jim Haskins: Ella Fitzgerald - First Lady of Jazz . Heyne, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-453-07545-5 , p. 143 f.
- ↑ Polillo, ibid.
- ^ Gunther Schuller: The Swing Era . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989, p. 262
- ↑ Quoted from G. Simon, p. 101.
- ^ Friedwald: Sinatra. Pp. 232, 257 and 265-267.
- ^ Friedwald: Sinatra. Pp. 404-407. Havers, Sinatra , pp. 273–275 and 279. For the recording sessions and cast lists, see Nascimento Silva: Put Your Dreams Away. Pp. 358-360.
- ^ Friedwald: Sinatra. Pp. 408-414. Havers: Sinatra. Pp. 286-287. For the recording sessions and cast lists, see Nascimento Silva: Put Your Dreams Away. Pp. 384-386.
- ↑ Apollo Collections: April 2006
- ^ Friedwald: Sinatra , p. 412.
- ↑ Las Vegas, The Sands Hotel & Casino, Copa Room, November 26 to December 10, 1964. For the program and cast lists, cf. Marcucci, Sinatra Legacy , p. 1096.
- ↑ Released on DVD with documentation: Live and Swingin ': The Ultimate Rat Pack Collection (Reprise 2003); for the cast list cf. also Marcucci: Sinatra Legacy. P. 1098.
- ↑ Quoting from: The Chairman of the Board at Newport. In: Time. July 16, 1965; on the concerts of the tour and cast lists cf. Marcucci: Sinatra Legacy. P. 1098 f.
- ↑ Excerpts from the film were broadcast as part of the television documentary Sinatra: An American Original produced by CBS and moderated by Walter Cronkite on November 16, 1965; the special also includes Sinatra's comments on his concerts with the Count Basie Orchestra.
- ↑ The album was also the first live album that Sinatra ever released. See Friedwald: Sinatra. Pp. 410 and 414-415; Havers: Sinatra. P. 298; on the different recording dates of the individual pieces and the cast lists cf. Nascimento Silva, Put Your Dreams Away. Pp. 400-404; Marcucci, Sinatra Legacy. S. 1101. In 2006, an album with further material from this engagement was released as part of the Sinatra: Vegas CD box .
- ^ So in an interview with Paul Compton on US radio station KGIL on June 5, 1970; see. Havers: Sinatra. Pp. 314-316. The concerts took place on May 7th and 8th, 1970; for the program and cast lists cf. Marcucci: Sinatra Legacy. P. 1111.
- ↑ The collaboration between Ella Fitzgerald and the Basie Band began in 1956 with a joint live performance at the Waldorf Astoria; In 1963 they made their first joint studio album Ella and Basie for Verve. The cooperation continued in the 1970s with the appearance of the Basie band with Ella in Santa Monica in 1972 and in Montreux. See Jim Haskins: Ella Fitzgerald - First Lady of Jazz. Heyne, Munich 1994.
- ↑ Marcucci: Sinatra Legacy. Pp. 1128-1129 and 1132-1135.
- ↑ Havers: Sinatra. Pp. 328-329; Programs and cast lists at Marcucci: Sinatra Legacy. Pp. 1137-1138.
- ^ About the tour in May 1976 Marcucci: Sinatra Legacy. Pp. 1145-1146; on the television specials ibid. pp. 1142 and 1221–1222 and Havers: Sinatra. Pp. 339-340.
- ↑ Jim Haskins: Ella Fitzgerald - First Lady of Jazz. Heyne, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-453-07545-5 .
- ↑ About Us ( Memento of the original from December 21, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. : Count Basie Orchestra website.
- ↑ The selection is based on the Rough Guide Jazz and the Penguin Guide to Jazz .
- ↑ Donald Clarke added that the video and audio tracks were recorded separately; therefore, Marshall Royal (cl) appears in the film , while Buddy DeFranco played for the soundtrack . Clarke, p. 569.
- ↑ All information according to Arrigo Polillo and Ken Bloom.
