Details of Count Basie Orchestra and the Ticket Luck value
Count Basie Orchestra
Basie is Back! When? How? How come? No, no, no, people, you have got it all wrong. Basie is Back! Is the new album by Count Basie Orchestra, released 2006 that features new recordings of classic tunes from the Basie Orchestra's back catalogue, including April in Paris and even the band's early hit One O'clock Jump.
The group also continues to produce notable collaborations, such as with singer Ray Charles in Ray Sings Basie Swings of 2006, and with arranger Allyn Ferguson on the 1999 album Swing Shift.
Count Basie arrived in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1927 playing on the Theater Owners Bookers Association (TOBA) circuit. He joined rival band leader Bennie Moten's band after playing for a short while with the Blue Devil. Upon Moten's death, Basie left the group to start his own band, taking along with him many of his colleagues from the Moten band.
The resulting nine-piece group consisted of Joe Keyes and Oran 'Hot Lips' Page on trumpet, Buster Smith and Jack Washington on alto saxophone, Lester Young on tenor saxophone, Dan Minor on trombone, and a rhythm section made up of Jo Jones on drums, Walter Page on bass and Basie himself on piano.
Basie brought the sound of the infamous and highly competitive Kansas City 'jam session' to club audiences with this band, then named 'The Barons of Rhythm', coupling extended improvised solos with riff-based accompaniments from the band. The group's first venue was the Reno Club in Kansas City, later moving to the Grand Terrace in Chicago.
Founded by Count Basie, The Count Basie Orchestra today is a 16 to 18 piece big band, one of the highest-flying jazz performing groups of the swing era. The band survived the late forties decline in big band popularity and went on to produce notable collaborations with singers such as Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald in the fifties and sixties. The group continued to perform and record as a ghost band after Count Basies death, and is currently under the leadership of Bill Hughes.
John Hammond, the then renowned music critic and record producer, heard the band on a 1936 radio broadcast, sought them out, and offered Basie the chance to expand the group to the standard 13-piece big band line up. He also suggested moving the group to New York in order to play at bigger venues such as the Roseland Ballroom. Basie agreed, hoping that with this new band he could retain the freedom and spirit inherent in the Kansas City style of his nine-piece band.
The first recordings commenced in January 1937 with the Decca label including Buck Clayton on trumpet and famous blues 'shouter' Jimmy Rushing. The first pieces recorded included 'Roseland Shuffle' with the soloists in the foreground and the ensemble effects and riffs playing a strictly functional backing role. This was a fresh big band sound for New York, highlighting the difference in styles that had emerged between the east and west coasts and contrasting the complex jazz writing of Duke Ellington and Sy Oliver.
On the request of Hammond, with view of 'strengthening' the band, Count Basie Orchestra lineup underwent serious shuffling. Trumpeters Ed Lewis and Bobby Moore replaced Keyes and Smith, and alto saxophonist Coughey Roberts was replaced by Earl Warren.
Significantly, March 1937 saw the arrival of guitarist Freddie Green, who replaced Claude Williams to complete one of the most respected rhythm sections in big band history. Billie Holiday also sang with the band during this period, although never recorded with them.
The years 1937 and 1938 witnessed the rise of the band to popularity, now known as the 'Count Basie Orchestra', both nationally and internationally with hits such as One O'clock Jump and Jumpin' at the Woodside. These tunes were what was known as 'head-arrangements'; not scored in individual parts but made up of riffs memorized by the band's members.
Although some of the band's players, such as trombonist Eddie Durham, did contribute their own written arrangements at this time, it was these 'head-arrangements' that captured the imagination of the audience in New York and communicated the spirit of the band's members.
The year 1938 witnessed Helen Humes joining the group, replacing Billie Holiday as the female singer. She sang mostly pop ballads, including My Heart Belongs to Daddy and Blame it on my Last Affair, acting as a tender contrast to the blues style of Jimmy Rushing.
With the passage of time, the band began relying on professional arrangers to provide its music. These varied from players within the band, such as Eddie Durham and Buck Clayton, to certified arrangers from outside the group, who could bring their own spirit to the band with each new piece.
External arrangers included names such as Andy Gibson, who brought the band's harmonic style closer to the forward looking music of Duke Ellington, with such arrangements from 1940 as I Never Knew and Louisiana that introducing increased chromatics to the band's music, Tab Smith with such arrangements as Harvard Blues, and others including Buster Harding and veteran arranger Jimmy Mundy.
However, the increased reliance on external arranger s for music with each bringing in their own flavor to the band resulted in a gradual change in the band's sound, distancing the group musically from its West Coast roots. The group moved closer to the traditional East Coast big band with increased focused on ensemble playing rather than structuring the music around the soloists with memorized 'head arrangements' and riffs.
This can be attributed to the increasing reliance on arrangers to assert their own character on to the band with their music; an indicator perhaps that Basie's ideal of a big band sized group with the flexibility and spirit of his original Kansas City 8-piece was becoming non-functional.
Some of the key members of the band left during The World War II years, some due to the War and some for other reasons. Drummer Jo Jones and tenor saxophone player Lester Young were both conscripted in 1944, leading to the hiring of drummers such as Buddy Rich and extra tenor saxophonists including Illinois Jacquet, Paul Gonzalves and Lucky Thompson.
Some, such as musicologist Gunther Schuller, have claimed that when Jo Jones left he took some of the smooth and relaxed style of the band with him, due to his replacements, such as Sonny Payne, drumming a lot louder and therefore raising the whole dynamic of the band to a 'harder, more clamorous brass sound'.
The ban on instrumental recordings of 1942 to 44 had a financial impact on the Count Basie Orchestra, as it did on all big bands in America, and despite taking on new soloists such as Wardell Gray, Basie was forced to temporarily disband the group for a short period in 1948, before dispersing again for two years in 1950.
For these two years Basie led a reduced band of between 6 and 9 people, featuring players such as Buddy Rich, Serge Chaloff and Buddy DeFranco.
Basie died in 1984.After Basie's death, the band continued to play as a 'ghost band' under the direction of some of the players he had hired, including Eric Dixon, Thad Jones, Frank Foster, Grover Mitchell and now trombonist Bill Hughes and it continues to do so releasing new albums today.
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