COUNT

BASIE ORCHESTRA

In the history of Jazz music, there is only one bandleader that has the distinction of
having his orchestra still performing sold out concerts all over the world, with members
personally chosen by him, for nearly 30 years after his passing. Pianist and bandleader
William James Count Basie was and still is an American institution that personifies the
grandeur and excellence of Jazz. The Count Basie Orchestra has won every respected
jazz poll in the world at least once, won 18 Grammy Awards, performed for Kings,
Queens, and other world Royalty, appeared in several movies, television shows, at every
major jazz festival and concert hall in the world. Some of the greatest soloists,
composers, arrangers, and vocalists in jazz history such as Lester Young, Billie Holiday,
Frank Foster, Thad Jones, Sonny Payne, Freddie Green, Snooky Young, Frank Wess, and
Joe Williams, became international stars once they began working with the legendary
Count Basie Orchestra. This great 18 member orchestra, today directed by Scotty
Barnhart, is still continuing the excellent history started by Basie of stomping and
shouting the blues, as well as refining those musical particulars that allow for the
deepest and most moving of swing.

William Count Basie was born in Red Bank, New Jersey in 1904. He began his early
playing days by working as a silent movie pianist and organist and by eventually working
with the Theater Owners Booking Agency (TOBA) circuit. It is also sometimes referred to
as the chitlin circuit that catered primarily to the African-American communities in
the South, East, and Mid-West. In 1927, Basie, then touring with Gonzelle White and the
Big Jazz Jamboree, found himself stranded in Kansas City, Missouri. It was here that he
would begin to explore his deep love of the Blues, and meet his future bandmates
including bassist Walter Page.

In the 1920s and 30s, Kansas City was headquarters for the territory bands that played
the mid and southwest. It was also ground zero for the heady mixture of blues, 4/4
swing rhythms and hot instrumentalists that were to become the standard bearers and
precursors for the Swing Era and the underlying rhythm of Modern Jazz. Walter Pages
Blue Devils and Benny Motens Kansas City Orchestra caught Basies ear and soon he
was playing with both and serving as second pianist and arranger for Mr. Moten. In
1935, Bennie Moten died and it was left to Basie to take some of the musicians from
that orchestra and form his own, The Count Basie Orchestra, which is still alive and well
today some 78 years later. His orchestra epitomized Kansas City Swing and along with
the bands of Fletcher Henderson, Jimmy Lunceford, Duke Ellington and Benny
Goodman, Basies orchestra would define the big band era.

While the media of the period crowned Benny Goodman the King of Swing, the real
King of Swing was undoubtedly Count Basie. As the great Basie trumpeter Sweets Edison
once said, we used to tear all of the other bands up when it came to swing. The basic
fundamentals of Basies orchestra were and still are foot stomping 4/4 swing, an
unparalleled use of dynamic contrasts, shouting the blues at any tempo, and just making
one want to dance. The Basie orchestra evolved into one of the most venerable and
viable enterprises in American music with the highest levels of continued productivity
rivaling any musical organization in history.

The Count Basie Orchestra can be viewed between 1935 and 1955 as the Old Testament
and New Testament bands. The Old Testament bands style was a combination of
spontaneously developed riff-driven, or head arrangements, full of the blues and
relaxed, but intense swing that showcased a some of the greatest names in Jazz history
in Lester Young, Hershel Evans, Harry Edison, Buck Clayton, Dicky Wells, Jo Jones,
Freddie Green and Jimmy Rushing among others.

The New Testament Count Basie Orchestra was formed circa 1952 after Basies brief
hiatus from the full orchestra as he was working with a small group of six to seven
pieces during the industry imposed recording ban that began in 1948. With the April In
Paris recording in 1955, the orchestra began to set standards of musical achievement
that have been emulated by every jazz orchestra since that time. The sound of the
orchestra was constantly deepening and getting more precise as each series of non-stop
tours were completed. One of the things that set Mr. Basies orchestra apart from all
others and is one of the secrets to its longevity, is the fact the Basie allowed and
actually encouraged his musicians to compose and arrange especially for the orchestra
and its distinctive soloists such as Snooky Young, Thad Jones, Frank Foster, and Frank
Wess on flute, who recorded the very first jazz flute solo in history. Eddie Durham, Thad
Jones, Ernie Wilkins, Quincy Jones, Neal Hefti, Sammy Nestico, and Frank Foster, to
name a few of the more prominent Basie arrangers, have added volumes to the Basie
Library. Through them, the Basie repertoire continued to broaden harmonically and
rhythmically, making it more than hospitable to the talents of the successive
generations of musicians. The orchestra also began to become the first choice for the
top jazz vocalists of the day including Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett, and of
course, Basies Number One Son, the great Joe Williams.

As Basie allowed for a certain measure of change and for a variety of voices to emerge
on the platform he created, his orchestras repertoire always remained accessible,
endlessly interesting, and ultimately perfect for dancing. This can be even witnessed in
the major motion picture of 1960, Cinderfella, starring Jerry Lewis. For the biggest scene
in the movie, which required the perfect orchestra to dance to at the ball, Lewis chose
none other than The Count Basie Orchestra. This movie was seen by millions and placed
the orchestra at the top of everyones list for not only full concerts, but Presidential
Inaugural Balls, and for private parties of the worlds elite from New York to Bangkok,
Thailand, to St. Tropez in the South of France.

During the 1960s and throughout the 1970s and into the 80s, the orchestras sound,
swing feel, general articulation and style began to become more laid back and even
more relaxed. As 30-year veteran trumpeter Sonny Cohn once stated, this is a
laidbackorchestraalaidbackorchestra. With very few personnel changes, the
orchestra members were able to blend into one sound and one way of phrasing that is
now known as the Basie way. Jazz orchestras all over the world began to emulate this
way of playing. Its unmistakable with its deceptive suspension of time and rhythm, but
its one that is infectious and never loses that all-important dance element. In simple
terms, the Count Basie Orchestra continued to set a precedent in 4/4 swing at any
tempo that is still unsurpassed today. Swing is that intangible that makes you pat your
foot.

Since Basies passing in 1984, Thad Jones, Frank Foster, Grover Mitchell, Bill Hughes,
Dennis Mackrel, and now Scotty Barnhart, have led the Count Basie Orchestra and
maintained it as one of the elite performing organizations in Jazz.

Current members include musicians hired by Basie himself: Carmen Bradford (joined in
1983), Clarence Banks (joined in 1984), as well as Mike Williams (1987, formerly
w/Glenn Miller, NTSU 1 OClock), Doug Miller (1989, formerly w/Lionel Hampton), and
members who have joined in the last 15 years: David Keim (formerly w/Stan Kenton),
Alvin Walker, Will Matthews, Marshall McDonald (formerly w/Lionel Hampton, Paquito
DRiveras United Nations Jazz Orchestra), Doug Lawrence (formerly w/Benny Goodman,
Buck Clayton), Cleave Guyton (formerly w/Lionel Hampton, Duke Ellington
Orchestra), and our newest members: Mark Williams (Howard University), Bruce Harris,
Jay Branford, Bobby Floyd and Marcus McLaurine (formerly w/Clark Terry)