Count Basie American pianist and bandleader. Date of Birth: 21.08.1904 Country: USA

1. Biography of Count Basie
2. Early Career
3. Style and Influence
4. Legacy and Collaborations
5. Later Years and Continued Influence

Biography of Count Basie

Count Basie was an American pianist and jazz orchestra leader. He was an African-American jazz musician and pianist. He became known as "Count" even before he was famous and began learning to play the piano from childhood. Until the age of 30, Basie was satisfied with his role as a pianist in the local Benny Moten Orchestra, and if it weren't for Moten's sudden death, he may have never become a leader himself.

Early Career

In 1935, Basie was still assembling his first orchestra (he left a few members from Benny Moten, mainly the rhythm section) when Duke Ellington had already triumphed in Europe and befriended royalty. With the support of producer John Hammond, Basie was able to create an exemplary swing era ensemble within just two years. His orchestra's arrangements were played and continue to be played by dozens and hundreds of jazz orchestras all over the world.

Style and Influence

While Ellington aimed for compositional expression "through" his soloists, Basie, on the contrary, tried to interfere as little as possible with the natural flow of events. This even extended to his piano playing style - he rarely soloed, and his rare chords or individual notes seemed to only punctuate the already played arrangements. Ellington and his musicians admired Basie from a distance, while arrangers and soloists were not hesitant to learn from him, just like younger comrades.

Basie's light and airy accompaniment from his rhythm section, which always included the guitarist Freddie Green (who never played a solo in almost fifty years), maximally highlighted the improvisations of the soloists. This caught the attention of bebop musicians, the modern jazz style, as saxophonist Lester Young and the occasional appearances of singer Billie Holiday opened up new horizons for the "cool" style, which jazz only came to at the turn of the 1940s and 1950s.

Legacy and Collaborations

Basie did not consider himself a composer or even an arranger, although without the pieces written for his orchestra and with his involvement (such as "One O'Clock Jump," "Shiny Stockings," "Alright, OK You Win," and the "brought in from the outside" ballad "April in Paris"), there would be no modern big band repertoire. Arrangers like Neal Hefti, Sammy Nestico, and Quincy Jones began their careers with Basie and became the best masters of their craft. Jones became one of the most famous producers, leading the most successful project in the history of pop music - Michael Jackson's album "Thriller."

It's no wonder that Basie's ensemble accompanied vocalists perfectly - from bluesmen Jimmy Rushing and Joe Williams to the vocal trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross and Frank Sinatra himself.

Later Years and Continued Influence

Trumpeter Thad Jones and drummer Mel Lewis formed their own orchestra, modeled after Basie's big band. They toured in the USSR in 1972. Tenor saxophonist Frank Foster became Basie's right-hand man and took over the leadership of the ensemble after his death. However, when the orchestra visited the USSR in the mid-1990s, it was already led by another saxophonist, Grover Mitchell.