Many older Latvian Radio listeners definitely remember the melody with which Ivars Mazur’s legendary program for jazz music lovers began over many decades. It’s the theme to “Jumpin’ at the Woodside” played by the Count Basie Orchestra.
William Allen Basie was born in the town of Red Bank (in English – Red Bank) in the state of New Jersey at the beginning of the century – on August 21, 1904.
When Jazz Was King. Serious and non-serious stories about the history of jazz
Latvian Radio episodes about the most notable musicians in the history of jazz.
–
– Both parents were musicians: father – Harvey Basie – played the trumpet, and mother – Lillian Childs – played the piano. She was also the one who taught little William his first lessons. In general, Willie already dreamed of a drum set and himself behind it, but after a short musical competition with the neighbor boy Sonny Greer, he realized that it was not his instrument after all. No wonder Sonny Greer later played drums at none other than Duke Ellington himself.
Already at the beginning of the 20s, Bazey, like many other young musicians, left his native Redbank, moved to New York and settled in Harlem – an area that at that time was the best place to start a musical career; there was always a demand for good musicians, both in elegant clubs and in shady bars.
Baysey’s first job was as an accompanist in popular vaudeville shows of the time. In 1927, musician Gonzales White went on his first tour as part of the troupe, but only as far as Kansas City. Mr. White’s venture went bankrupt, and Basie, penniless, was willing to work even as a tapier in a movie theater.
In Kansas City, Basie became fast friends with singer Jimmy Rushing. And already in 1928, Rushing’s recommendation was enough for Basie to join Walter Page’s jazz band “Blue Devils”. As talented as Page was as a musician, as an administrator he was under every criticism. As early as 1930, Benny Moten had managed to lure most of the musicians from the “Blue Devils” to his orchestra, including Jimmy Rushing, Basie and eventually Walter Page himself.
In 1935, Benny Moten moved to better hunting grounds. Here again his majesty’s “incident” played its role in the history of music. If not for Moten’s death, it is unlikely that Baysey would ever have attempted to become an orchestra leader. He was already 30 years old and very satisfied with the modest role of a pianist.
Count Basie
Photo: Harry Pot / Anefo, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
–
–
In 1936, Basie got an engagement to work at the “Reno” club in Kansas City. The owner of the club was a certain Sol Stiebel, who also owned a small radio station, and the orchestra’s performance was broadcast on the radio every day an hour before midnight. One of these evenings, the host remarked that the name Willie Basie paled in comparison to big band leaders like Earl or Duke. Then he asked if Mr. Baysey wouldn’t mind if he was called Kaunt, or count in Latvian. The musician thought it was a joke and said – it’s a good one. Since then, no one called him anything else.
One of the radio broadcasts was heard by the well-known jazz critic John Hammond. Intrigued by Baysey’s orchestral playing style, Hammond immediately arrived in Kansas City, taking agent Willard Alexander with him. It did not take much effort to persuade the musician to move to New York.
Upon arrival in New York, Count Basie’s orchestra was further supplemented, and at the end of 1937 the line-up of musicians who were destined to become one of the greatest in jazz history had finally formed.
At the end of 1938, Baysey’s orchestra regularly performed in New York’s best dance halls – “Roseland Ballroom”, “Savoy Ballroom” and “Apollo”.
The success of the orchestra was forged not only by the wonderful composition of musicians. Bayes’ virtuoso administrative skills ensured them as well, and the discipline was also quite strict. In 1940, the greatest tenor saxophonist of the time, Lester Young, was immediately fired for just an unexcused absence from the recording studio.
If Duke Ellington scrupulously wrote down all the improvisations for his soloists in notes, then Count Basie tried to interfere as little as possible with the natural course of things. His piano playing style alone was worth something. He almost didn’t try to play solo, the rare chords and sometimes even only single notes seemed like punctuation marks between the sentences of the perfectly staged arrangements.
There were about 300 pieces in the orchestra’s repertoire.
The script of the concert did not exist as such. Baysey watched the audience in the hall, and only then did the idea for the next piece to be performed appear in his head.
It should probably be needless to add that he didn’t let anyone know about it – the piano introduction just started and – you can understand from the first time what came to the mind of the genius.
With the end of World War II came the big band crisis. Count Basie tried to save what he could for several more years, although most of the brilliant soloists had already left their leader. Then Basie also focused all his attention on small ensembles, but soon he managed to gather a new big band composition. In this composition, Count Basie’s orchestra continued to play for several decades, maintaining the same sound and accompanying such singers as Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan, Bing Crosby and Tony Bennett.
It was only in 1954 that the Count Basie Orchestra went on a European tour for the first time. Until then, orchestral music was available to Old World music lovers only in canned form.
Unfortunately, in the 70s, Count Basie’s health deteriorated, he was forced to perform while sitting in a wheelchair, but this did not stop him from a busy concert schedule. The last studio recording was made in May 1983, but already a year later, in April 1984, the evil disease cancer proved to be stronger.
The most popular orchestral theme “One o’Clock Jump” was recorded in the first version as far back as 1939.
–
Highlight the text and press Ctrl+Enterto send the text fragment to be corrected to the editor!
Highlight the text and press on Report a bug buttons to send the text fragment to be corrected to the editor!
–
–
