August 21, 1904 in Red Bank, New Jersey, Harvie and Lillian Basie welcomed a newborn son into the world, and they named him William.
From his first piano lessons taught by his mother, to playing in vaudeville and movie houses in New York, to perfecting his style of stride piano playing through stops in Kansas City and Chicago, the man the world would come to know as “Count” would devote 50 years of his life leading a big band characterized by a light, swinging rhythm section, which he led from the piano, lively ensemble work, and generous soloing by some of the finest musicians ever assembled.
Count Basie and his orchestra performed, recorded and toured from the mid-1930’s and the radio age, through World War II, the post-war decline of the big bands and the beginnings of rock and roll, into the golden age of television, and the coming of the Beatles. Basie himself performed until his death in 1984, and the band continues to tour even to this day, under the direction of Grover Mitchell.
Following his time in Harlem, where he was heavily influenced by pianist Fats Waller, Basie traveled to Kansas City. Finding himself stranded there in 1927, he joined Walter Page’s Blue Devils in July 1928, where he met vocalist Jimmy Rushing. After a brief stay with Bennie Moten’s band and Moten’s untimely death in 1935, Basie would soon after form his own group with some of the former members, among them Walter Page (bass), Freddie Green (guitar), Jo Jones (drums), Lester Young (tenor saxophone) and Rushing.
The group settled into the Reno Club in Kansas City where they began broadcasting on radio. That was also where he acquired his nickname and came to the attention of record producer John Hammond, who would bring them to Chicago and help him get his first recording contract with Decca Records in 1937. Basie’s recording of “One O’Clock Jump” would be their first chart topper and also the band’s signature song throughout his career.
A return to New York and a stay at the Famous Door nightclub in 1938, helped to establish the band. “Stop Beatin’ Round the Mulberry Bush,” with Rushing on vocals, became a Top Ten hit in the fall of that year.
Radio and touring would continue, and a contract with Columbia Records came in the late 30’s. The early 1940’s took Basie to the West Coast, but when World War II placed restrictions on travel, he stayed to work clubs and appear in five films, all released within a matter of months in 1943: Hit Parade of 1943, Reveille with Beverly, Stage Door Canteen, Top Man, and Crazy House. He also scored a series of Top Ten hits on the pop and R&B charts, including “I Didn’t Know About You” (pop, winter 1945); “Red Bank Blues” (R&B, winter 1945); “Rusty Dusty Blues” (R&B, spring 1945); “Jimmy’s Blues” (pop and R&B, summer/fall 1945); and “Blue Skies” (pop, summer 1946).
The post-war years were not kind to Basie nor many other big band leaders, and he broke up his orchestra in favor of smaller combos.
But by 1952 he was able to reform his band and take advantage of increased opportunities for touring. In 1954, he went overseas for the first time to play in Scandinavia and thereafter international touring played a large part in his schedule. An important addition to the band in late 1954 was vocalist Joe Williams. The orchestra was re-established commercially by the 1955 album Count Basie Swings - Joe Williams Sings and the hit single “Every Day (I Have the Blues),” which reached the Top Five of the R&B charts and was later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Williams remained with Basie until 1960, and even after his departure, the band continued to prosper.
The 60’s would see some of the greatest pairings in jazz history. In 1961, First Time: The Count Meets the Duke, brought Basie’s orchestra together in the studio with Duke Ellington and his orchestra. In 1962, Basie’s switched recording companies and joined Frank Sinatra’s Reprise Records. They would record three memorable albums together, Sinatra and Basie, It Might As Well Be Swing, and Live at the Sands.
A list of the vocalists who have performed or recorded with Basie reads like a who’s who of jazz greats: in addition to Rushing, Williams and Sinatra, there was Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald, Billy Eckstein, Billie Holiday, Tony Bennett, and Sammy Davis Jr.
Some of the musicians who’ve played in his band are equally legendary: Illinois Jacquet, Buck Clayton, Thad Jones, Marshall Royal, Frank Foster, Frank Wess, Sonny Payne, Joe Newman, Benny Powell, Roy Eldridge, and the aforementioned Freddie Green who was his sideman on guitar throughout the history of the Count Basie Orchestra.
Ernie Wilkins, Neal Hefti, Quincy Jones and Frank Foster are just four whose arrangements helped to define the style of Basie’s bands throughout the years.
I always say I “inherited” my love for Count Basie from my father, who was a fan from the beginning. Growing up in Dallas, he was close enough to hear those early radio broadcasts from Kansas City, and later as a young man, frequented the clubs where the band played. My childhood was spent listening to dad’s extensive collection of Basie albums.
By the time I personally had a chance to see the Count and his orchestra live and in concert–in 1980 in a free concert at Grant’s Tomb in NYC–Basie was suffering physically and required a motorized cart to get around. But his way of filling in the space with minimal plinks and plunks on the piano while the band swung at full throttle behind him was no less in evidence.
Radio marks the Count Basie centennial, on NPR and WBGO.
Count Basie’s autobiography with Albert Murray.
A Basie discography.