Play Along Count Basie

The MPS label scored a coup when they were able to set up a recording date with the Basie orchestra. It took place on October 20th, 1969 at Universal Studios in Chicago. As agreed upon, the band brought along standards from the Basie book, and the Count fulfilled MPS head Hans Georg Brunner-Schwers wish that Basie play longer piano passages than usual; normally Basie limited himself to a short riff here and there. The way Basie and his orchestra played reminded me of a top long distance runner, producer Sonny Lester commented in the liner notes to the album. He went on to say that the bands playing was, disciplined, clean, with such a feel for timing and teamwork that you had the feeling that every band member was guided by the same brain. The best-known names in that particular group were tenor saxophonist Eddie Lockjaw Davis and guitarist Freddie Green, a Basie mainstay over the decades.

The Count Basie Bunch - Too Marvelous for Words (1999) {Vanguard Records 79601-2 rec 1956-1958}
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© 1956-58, 1999 Vanguard Records | 79601-2
Jazz / Swing / Mainstream Jazz

Too Marvelous for Words compiles 12 highlights from John Hammond's late-'50s recordings of Count Basie and his band for Vanguard. Hammond didn't specifically record Basie, who only appears on four tracks on this compilation. Instead, he assembled various members of Basie's band, had them run through familiar items of their repertoire, adding a couple of stray songs and originals along the way. Since these recordings were made in the late '50s, when all of the members (apart from the odd newcomer, such as Kenny Burrell) were well established, these sessions aren't as revelatory as many of Hammond's blues and folk recordings, which had the wondrous element of discovery.

Oscar Peterson - Plays Count Basie (1955) {Verve Originals 0602517621367 rel 2008}
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© 1955, 2008 Clef Records / Verve / UMG | 0602517621367
Jazz / Bop / Piano

On the face of it, pianist Oscar Peterson (whose virtuosity always allowed him to play an infinite amount of notes) and Count Basie (who made inventive use of silence and space by emphasizing single rhythmic sounds) would seem to have had little in common. However they both swing, and there was a definite overlapping in their repertoire. Peterson's Basie tribute is a near-masterpiece. With guitarist Herb Ellis, bassist Ray Brown, and guest drummer Buddy Rich all playing quite sympathetically, Peterson's arrangements make the nine Basie-associated songs (along with Peterson's original "Blues for Basie") all sound quite fresh and lightly swinging. Quite a few of these renditions (particularly "Easy Does It," "9:20 Special," "Broadway," and "One O'Clock Jump") are instantly memorable.

Official 2016 remastered collection of Verve albums in replica card sleeves! Includes "Plays Count Basie", "A Jazz Portrait Of Frank Sinatra", "Jazz Soul Of Oscar Peterson", "Plays Porgy & Bess" & "West Side Story".

For Loren Schoenberg of the Jazz Museum of Harlem, it's the discovery that capped nearly forty years of searching. For us at Mosaic, it's the "find" that has us re-examining an era we thought we knew inside out. And now, for listeners, it's an historic and fleeting opportunity to own a treasure trove of previously unknown music. Mosaic Records presents "The Savory Collection" - six CDs with 108 tracks locked away for more than 70 years and finally available on CD for the very first time anywhere. The recordings are from the personal collection of Bill Savory, a quirky and secretive studio engineer in New York whose day job in the late 1930s and early 1940s was transcribing radio broadcasts for foreign distribution, and whose nighttime passion was turning on the disc recorders to pull in and preserve what was happening in the clubs of New York City and other cities.