Count Basie, Piano/Leader, 1904, Red Bank, NJ
If ever you find yourself listening to a Count Basie record and one or both of your feet are not moving, you might want to discuss the condition with your doctor. All jazz lovers have their own reasons for loving the music. Some prefer the smooth, precision of the MJQ. Others think the the beat of a Dixieland combo is the most exciting. One thing we all agree upon is, nobody, but NOBODY,outswings Basie. Count Basie was one of the most important bandleaders of the swing era. Except for a short time in the early '50s, he led a big band from 1935 until his death almost 50 years later. And the band, under several different leaders, continued to perform after he died! The secret to Basie’s sound was a light, swinging rhythm section that he led from the piano, lively, precise ensemble work, and solos for everybody. Basie was not a composer like Duke Ellington, or an important soloist like Benny Goodman, he did it all with his band. His instrument was his band; they were the essence of swing and greatly influenced the world of jazz. Basie was an only child and both his parents were musicians; his father, Harvie Basie, played the mellophone, and his mother, Lillian (Childs) Basie, was a pianist who gave her son his earliest lessons. Basie also spent a great deal of time in New York and learned from Harlem stride pianists, particularly Fats Waller. On his first job he accompanied and toured with vaudeville performers, who left him stranded in Kansas City in 1927. He stayed, playing piano in a silent movie house and then joined Walter Page's Blue Devils in 1928. The band's vocalist was a young but great Jimmy Rushing. Basie left in early 1929 to play with other bands, eventually settling into one led by Bennie Moten. Upon Moten's untimely death in April 2, 1935, Basie worked as a soloist before leading a band initially called the Barons of Rhythm. Many former members of the Moten band joined this nine-piece outfit, among them Walter Page (bass), Freddie Green (guitar), Jo Jones (drums), Lester Young (tenor saxophone) and Rushing. Basie and the band began playing at the Reno Club. One of their shows was broadcast and the announcer dubbed Basie, “Count Basie,” to compete with other bandleaders such as Duke Ellington. Recording executive John Hammond also heard one of the broadcasts, liked what he heard and convinced a booking agency to take on the band. In October of 1935, four more men were added rounding out Count Basie's band. The band began recording immediately. The band’s recording of "One O'Clock Jump" became its first chart entry in September 1937. The tune became the band's theme song and it was later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Count Basie's record contract called for 24 sides to be produced with no royalties given to Basie. It also tied Basie to the record company for three more years. In return, Basie received $750.00. This sort of deal was typical of the record industry's exploitation of jazz musicians. The contract was eventually brought up to union standards, but Basie never got any royalties for “One O'clock Jump,” “Swingin' the Blues” or “Jumpin' at the Woodside.” He spent the early '40s touring extensively, but his travel was restricted after the U.S. entered World War II in December 1941. While on the West Coast, he and the band appeared 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," "Red Bank Blues," "Rusty Dusty Blues," "Jimmy's Blues," and "Blue Skies." Switching to RCA, he topped the charts in February 1947 with "Open the Door, Richard!," followed by three more Top Ten pop hits in 1947; "Free Eats," "One O'Clock Boogie," and "I Ain't Mad at You (You Ain't Mad at Me)." The big bands' decline in popularity in the late '40s forced Basie to break up his orchestra, and he led smaller groups for the next couple of years. He reformed the big band in 1952, adding an important addition, JoeWilliams, in 1954. The orchestra was re-established commercially by the 1955 album “Count Basie Swings - Joe Williams Sings,” especially the 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. In 1962, Basie switched to Frank Sinatra's Reprise Records in a bid to sell more records. During the ‘60s, Basie teamed with several vocalists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis Jr., and the Mills Brothers for a series of albums. He also reached the charts with an album of show tunes, “Broadway Basie's Way” (1966). In the early ‘70s, the band performed largely on the jazz festival circuit and on cruise ships. Basie also signed to Pablo Records, where he recorded for the rest of his life. Pablo recorded Basie in a variety of settings, resulting in a series of well-received albums. Basie has won so many Grammy Awards that there’s not enough room to list them all. His ninth and last Grammy was for “88 Basie Street” and was awarded in 1984. Basie's health deteriorated during the last eight years of his life. He suffered a heart attack in 1976 that put him out of commission for several months. He was back in the hospital in 1981, and when he returned, was driving an electric wheel chair onto the stage. Count Basie died in 1984.
Art Farmer, Trumpet, 1928, Council Bluffs, IA
Before taking up the trumpet and flugelhorn, Art studied the piano and violin, and first began playing professionally in Los Angeles around 1945. In California he worked in the big-bands of Horace Henderson, Floyd Ray, Benny Carter, and Lionel Hampton.In the early '50s Art played a good deal of rhythm-and-blues with the bands of drummer Johnny Otis and also with Joe Turner, Wardell Gray, Hampton Hawes, Sonny Criss, and Frank Morgan. In 1953 Art moved to New York and performed with Teddy Charles's group, New Directions (with Charles Mingus and Teo Macero), and in small groups led by Horace Silver and Gerry Mulligan. During the latter part of the 1950s he made his home in Paris and played with numerous French musicians. Over the next few years Art turned gradually to the flugelhorn, in the same style as his trumpet playing. In the late '60s he moved to Vienna, where he performed and recorded with the popular Clarke-Boland Big Band, Peter Herbolzheimer, and the big band of the Osterreichischer Rundfunk (to 1977). Around 1978-79 Art led a quartet which toured the U.S., Europe, and Japan, and a swinging quintet that toured Germany and Switzerland. During the 1980s Farmer began to spend more time in the U.S. working with Benny Golson, and leading several groups of his own ,often using Clifford Jordan and Jerome Richardson as sidemen. On Flugelhorn Art has expanded his emotional range with growing power and even a lightness he never seemed to have before. He has never compromised his unique style. Art still plays and records with large orchestras as well as jazz ensembles. He recorded the Brandenburg Concertos with the New York Jazz Orchestra, and in september 1994 he performed Haydn's First Trumpet Concerto with the Austrian-Hungarian Haydn Philharmonic Orchestra. In June 1994, Art was awarded "das Verdienstzeichen des Landes Wien"..".The Austrian Gold Medal of Merit".
