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Swing-Era Dossier

Count Basie

1904 – 1984

Born

August 21, 1904, Red Bank, NJ. Given name William James Basie. Father Harvey was a mellophonist; mother Lillian gave him his first piano lessons. Quit piano as a kid because Sonny Greer (later Ellington's drummer) lived in town and made him feel outclassed — switched back at 15.

Died

April 26, 1984, Hollywood, FL, age 79. Pancreatic cancer. In his last years he was rolled onstage in a motorized wheelchair, his playing reduced largely to his trademark three-note tag.

Instruments

Piano (primary); organ. Got informal organ lessons from Fats Waller, who was accompanying silent movies at Harlem's Lincoln Theater.

Nicknames

  • "Count" — competing origin stories: a Reno Club radio announcer in Kansas City c. 1936 said "Bill Basie" was too plain alongside Duke Ellington and Earl Hines and dubbed him Count; OR Bennie Moten coined it earlier, snarling "where's that no-'count rascal?" when Basie ducked rehearsals. The Moten version is likely older — Basie was already leading "Count Basie and his Cherry Blossom Orchestra" in 1933, three years before the Reno Club broadcast.
  • "Holy Main" — minor early nickname from his Harlem stride-piano days.

Bands / years

  • Vaudeville / TOBA circuit pianist, mid-1920s; stranded in Kansas City c. 1927 when a troupe broke up
  • Walter Page's Blue Devils (1928–29)
  • Bennie Moten's Kansas City Orchestra (1929–35); briefly led "Count Basie and his Cherry Blossom Orchestra," 1933, after a Moten split
  • Barons of Rhythm / Count Basie Orchestra (1935–84). House band at the Reno Club, KC, when John Hammond heard them on his car radio in 1936
  • After Basie's death, the orchestra continued as the Count Basie Orchestra under Thad Jones, Frank Foster, Grover Mitchell, Bill Hughes, Dennis Mackrel, Scotty Barnhart

Active

c. 1924–1984.

Signature tunes

"One O'Clock Jump" (1937, theme song), "Jumpin' at the Woodside" (1938), "Lester Leaps In" (1939), "Swingin' the Blues" (1938), "Taxi War Dance" (1939), "Goin' to Chicago Blues" (1941), "April in Paris" (1955, arr. Wild Bill Davis), "Shiny Stockings" (Frank Foster, 1955), "Li'l Darlin'" (Neal Hefti, 1957), "Cute" (Hefti, 1958), "Corner Pocket" (Freddie Green, 1955).

Famous compositions

Composer credits on Basie tunes are notoriously slippery — the Old Testament band ran on "head arrangements" cooked up collectively at rehearsal, and Basie's name went on the label.

  • "One O'Clock Jump" — credited to Basie, but the main theme was lifted by alto Buster Smith from Fats Waller's 1929 "Six or Seven Times," with Smith and Eddie Durham arranging the riffs. Basie himself rarely wrote anything down.
  • "Jumpin' at the Woodside" — usually credited Basie alone; historians give significant credit to trombonist/guitarist Eddie Durham.
  • "Swingin' the Blues" — co-credited Basie / Eddie Durham.
  • "Lester Leaps In" — actually written by Lester Young; head-arranged with Basie.
  • "Goin' to Chicago Blues" — Basie / Jimmy Rushing.
  • The big New Testament hits were written by his arrangers, not him: Hefti ("Li'l Darlin'", "Cute", "Splanky"), Frank Foster ("Shiny Stockings", "Blues in Hoss' Flat"), Freddie Green ("Corner Pocket"), Wild Bill Davis (the "April in Paris" arrangement).

Interesting facts

  • John Hammond discovered the band by accident — heard a Reno Club broadcast on his car-radio shortwave in early 1936 while parked outside Chicago's Congress Hotel, then drove to Kansas City and signed them.
  • The All-American Rhythm Section: Basie (piano), Freddie Green (guitar), Walter Page (bass), Jo Jones (drums). Set the template for every jazz rhythm section since. Green held the guitar chair for 50 years — he stayed on after Basie died.
  • Two-tenor gimmick: Basie split his tenor saxophones between Lester Young (cool, floating) and Herschel Evans (Hawkins-style, hot), seated on opposite sides of the alto section, and let them duel. Evans died in 1939 at age 29 of a heart condition; Young left in 1940 over money and a (probably apocryphal) row about recording on Friday the 13th.
  • Pres named Pres: Lester Young's nickname "Pres" (President of the tenor sax) was coined inside the Basie band — by Billie Holiday.
  • Minimalist piano: Basie's signature was less — sometimes a single three-note tag ("plink-plink-plink") to end an arrangement. Rooted in Harlem stride (James P. Johnson, Waller) but stripped down once the rhythm section freed him from pumping the bass.
  • The Old vs. New Testament split: the riff-driven 1935–50 Kansas City band is the "Old Testament"; the tighter, arranger-driven 1952-onward band (Hefti, Foster, Wess, Wilkins, Quincy Jones) is the "New Testament."
  • Broke up the band in 1950 for money reasons, ran a septet for two years, then re-formed the big band — one of the few swing-era leaders to do so successfully.
  • Sinatra: three studio collaborations — Sinatra–Basie (1962, arr. Neal Hefti), It Might as Well Be Swing (1964, arr. Quincy Jones — includes "Fly Me to the Moon"), and the live Sinatra at the Sands (1966, Quincy Jones conducting).
  • Wife Catherine Morgan (m. 1942) was a Whitman Sisters dancer and an Olympic-hopeful backstroke swimmer. Their daughter Diane was born with cerebral palsy in 1944; they refused doctors' advice to institutionalize her and raised her at home. Catherine died April 1983, a year before Basie.
  • Compulsive gambler — horses, dice, cards. Reportedly lost serious money throughout his career; tax troubles dogged him in the 1950s.
  • First African American to win a Grammy (1958, "Basie" / The Atomic Mr. Basie).
  • "If you play a tune and a person don't tap their feet, don't play the tune." His stated theory of music.

Sources