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Count Basie: The Complete
Atomic Mr Basie
Blue Note/Virgin Records,
CD, Rs. 400
NEARLY FOUR years ago, this 1957 record was included in BBC World Service Radio's jazz programme as one of the 12 greatest jazz albums of all time. It's certainly one of the finest examples of the work of the Count Basie orchestra, which ranks alongside the Duke Ellington band as a prime exponent of big band swing and possibly as the swingingest of them all.
Big band swing was based on a fine balance between the ensemble passages and the solos, and, within the ensemble passages, between different sections (trombones, trumpets and saxes) alternating with one another. The Basie band had the best of all this, together with a rhythm section (the Count on piano, plus bass, guitar and drums) that laid down a relentless beat and background for the ensemble and soloists to work on.
By the mid-'50s, Basie had taken to giving his considerable solo improvisation skills greater play. The results are evident here, with Basie frequently soloing on an intro to the main theme while Eddie Jones on bass gets a work-out playing a counterpoint to him. Basie cuts himself in for a share on the other solos too, with Eddie Lockjaw Davis (tenor sax), Thad Jones (trumpet), and Al Grey (trombone) starring among the other soloists. Its blistering pace and its piano solos on the intro and in the middle make "The Kid from Red Bank" a typical example of the irresistible music on this truly great album.
Count Basie: Breakfast
Dance and Barbecue
EMI/Virgin Records
CD, Rs. 295
THIS ALBUM is taken from an engagement at the 1959 Annual Convention of the American Society of DJs. Count Basie and his men performed from 2 a.m. to 7 a.m. because they had to fly out from New York to Miami after their regular evening gig, fly back after the date, and catch some sleep before the next evening's gig!
Though Basie himself was only 55 and the rest of his band were younger, this must have been a feat of superhuman endurance. That the music was so fresh and lively was an even greater achievement.
Then consider that for a trifling sum of Rs. 295 you get 75 minutes of music. Talk about value for money! The 18 swinging tracks on the album and many more during those five hours must have kept the hard-bitten DJs not just vertical right through bedtime but literally bouncing.
Everything is perfectly balanced: Basie's light-fingered piano intros and solos, the drum solo breaks by Sonny Payne, the alternation between ensemble play and solos, and between different sections of the ensemble. Trumpets, trombones, saxophones and Frank Wess's occasional flute figure among the solos, with Eddie Jones playing a strong bass counterpoint to Basie's solos. The great jazz-blues singer Joe Williams adds his exuberant vocals to a few numbers.
"Back to the Apple", "Moten Swing" (the band's original anthem) and "One O'Clock Jump" (the anthem Basie composed extempore when a bar-owner asked him to wind up just before closing time one night years before) stand out from the rest of a superlative programme. The last, as usual featuring a long piano solo improvisation before the theme, was on this occasion enhanced by a trumpet solo, after Basie's on piano, by Harry "Sweets" Edison, a distinguished alumnus of the Basie band and a guest on this valedictory track.
JAZZEBEL
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