Jazz icon, Count Basie, was born William JamesBasie August 21, 1904in Red Bank, New Jersey. Some time in or before 1935, the now single Basie returned to New York City, renting a house at 111 West 138th Street, Manhattan, as evidenced by the 1940 census. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The band keeps on touring around the country under the direction of trumpeter Scotty Barnhart. non-soloing brass and reeds). He started out to be a drummer. Required fields are marked *. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. They had one daughter, Diane, in 1944. His wife, Catherine, had died in 1983. AmoMama creates engaging, meaningful content for women. Sinatra later said of this concert "I have a funny feeling that those two nights could have been my finest hour, really. On July 21, 1930, Basie married Vivian Lee Winn, in Kansas City, Missouri. structure. on a motorized wheelchair which he sometimes drove with joyful abandon. Basie, Count. When William James Count Basie died of cancer in 1984, he left his $1.5 million fortune in a trust to provide for his only child. This group was eventually called the New Testament band. [89] The board selects songs in an annual basis that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. Neal Hefti began to provide arrangements, including "Lil Darlin'". Good Morning Blues: The Autobiography of Count Basie. The key She even toured with the Basie Orchestra in the mid-1970s, and Fitzgerald and Basie also met on the 1979 albums A Classy Pair, Digital III at Montreux, and A Perfect Match, the last two also recorded live at Montreux. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. A stocky, handsome man with heavy-lidded eyes and a sly smile, Basie was They had one daughter. Gonsalves and Clark Terry. The swing era band When the band voted Moten out, Basie took over for several months, calling the group Count Basie and his Cherry Blossoms. The "April in Paris" (arrangement by Wild Bill Davis) was a best-selling instrumental and the title song for the hit album. 50 feet long, which was having trouble doing business in the summer because it had no air-conditioning. One of them, Aaron Woodward, a Long Island Baptist pastor and accountant, was considered an informally adopted son by Basie, according to a report by Jet magazine. The Count Meets the Duke, each providing four numbers from their play books. [73], On April 11, 1983, Catherine Basie died of heart disease at the couple's home in Freeport, Grand Bahama Island. What pianist and his orchestra were really popular in the big band era? Count Basie. He was a fine pianist and leader of one of the greatest jazz give my right arm to learn. He reformed his group as a 16-piece orchestra in 1952. was a member of the Basie band in the 1940's. [69] That summer, Basie and Duke Ellington combined forces for the recording First Time! Red Bank, New Jersey His piano style, which often seemed bare and simple, was an exquisitely realized condensation of the florid "stride" style of Fats Waller and James P. Johnson with whom Mr. Basie started. Basie was a member of Omega Psi Phi fraternity. William (Count) Basie, who produced more music with two fingers than most pianists get out of 10, died Thursday in a hospital in Hollywood, Fla., where he had been admitted . 5 How old was Catherine Basie when she died? He flicked out tightly economical, single-finger When Bennie Moten died in 1935, the band disintegrated and Mr. Basie organized a small band to play at the Reno Club in Kansas City that became the nucleus of the band with which he gained his initial The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". [32] He invited them to record, in performances which were Lester Young's earliest recordings. He constantly parried Chick's thundering haymakers with tantalizing runs and arpeggios which teased more and more force from his adversary. The Barons of Rhythm were regulars at the Reno Club and often performed for a live radio broadcast. The World of Count Basie. Behind the occasional bebop solos, he always kept his strict rhythmic pulse, "so it doesn't matter what they do up front; the audience gets the beat". [72] The Basies bought a home in the new whites-only neighborhood of Addisleigh Park in 1946 on Adelaide Road and 175th Street, St. Albans, Queens. Who Can Benefit From Diaphragmatic Breathing? During the 1940's, many of the great jazz musicians of the decade passed through the band, among them Illinois Jacquet, Don Byas, Wardell Gray, Paul Quinichette, Lucky Thompson, J. J. Johnson, Paul [22] Count Basie is considered one of the greatest bandleaders of all times. Rhythm," "Dinah," or "Lady, Be Good." The couple were true socialites - often gathering with friends including celebrities Frank Sinatra, Jerry Lewis, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Basie protg Quincy Jones. Provide Feedback Form, Rutgers, The State University of ', "The next day he invited me to sit in the pit and start working the pedals. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. She died in 1983. The broadcast was picked up one night by John Hammond, the jazz enthusiast who had discovered Billie Holiday and helped Benny Goodman start his band. [53] Other minor movie spots followed, including Choo Choo Swing, Crazy House, Top Man, Stage Door Canteen, and Hit Parade of 1943. [21] In addition to playing piano, Basie was co-arranger with Eddie Durham, who notated the music. "He commented that Bill Basie was a rather ordinary name and that 'No,' I said, 'but I'd Count Basie was a pianist, bandleader, and composer considered as one of the most popular figures in the jazz world. While on one tour he became stranded in Kansas City, Missouri. [17], In 1928, Basie was in Tulsa and heard Walter Page and his Famous Blue Devils, one of the first big bands, which featured Jimmy Rushing on vocals. He played piano with them, with one interruption, for the The band flopped at a Pittsburgh hotel that had never booked a jazz band before. New Jersey. He and his band recorded with Received an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music in 1974. It is with a heavy heart that we share the news of the passing of Diane Lillian Basie (1944-2022), the beloved only child of the legendary jazz musician, William James Count Basie and his wife, Catherine Morgan Basie. As Metronome magazine proclaimed, "Basie's Brilliant Band Conquers Chick's"; the article described the evening: Throughout the fight, which never let down in its intensity during the whole fray, Chick took the aggressive, with the Count playing along easily and, on the whole, more musically scientifically. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop singing.Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo. The "Of course, I wanted to play real jazz. bands in history. onenighters, and the bebop revolution of the mid-1940s all played a role Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. the Basie band. African American bandleader and musician. It is with a heavy heart that we share the news of the passing of Diane Lillian Basie (1944-2022), the beloved only child of the legendary jazz musician, William James "Count" Basie and his wife, Catherine Morgan Basie. Scale for the musicians at the Reno Club, where beer was a nickel and whisky was 15 cents, was $15 a week for playing from 8 P.M. to 4 A.M., except Saturdays when it was 8 P.M. until 8 A.M. But Moten was an expert piano player himself, and Basie fashioned a job for himself as the bands staff arranger. Shortly after he got there, he got a gig replacing Fats Waller with a touring vaudeville act. During a broadcast the announcer wanted to give Basies name some style, so he called him Count. Little did Basie know this touch of royalty would give him proper status and position him with the likes of Duke Ellington and Earl Hines. When the Page band broke up in 1929, Mr. Around 1924 Basie moved toHarlem, a hotbed for jazz, where his career started to quickly take off. night performances in a number of small cities and towns that were The Barons of Rhythm were regulars at the Reno Club and often performed for a live radio broadcast. [79] In his autobiography, he wrote, "I think the band can really swing when it swings easy, when it can just play along like you are cutting butter."[80]. Basie's new band played at the Reno Club and sometimes were broadcast on local radio. He married Catherine Morgan on July 13, 1940, in the King County courthouse in Seattle, Washington. big city hotel ballrooms. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. The agent, Willard Alexander, said Mrs. Basie died while her husband was appearing at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto. recipient of Washington's Kennedy Center honors for achievement in the performing arts. played drums in his school band and took some piano lessons from his, Basie made his professional debut playing piano with vaudeville acts Your email address will not be published. Some of their notable chart toppers includedJumpin at the Woodside,April in Paris, and Basies own composition,One OClock Jump, which became the orchestras signature piece. What disability did Count Basies daughter have? Basie made a few more movie appearances, such as in the Jerry Lewis film Cinderfella (1960) and the Mel Brooks movie Blazing Saddles (1974), playing a revised arrangement of "April in Paris". Rutgers is an equal access/equal opportunity institution. "Can you imagine a man who kind of romps around the piano," Mr. Shearing said, Later that year, Basie appeared on a television special with Fred Astaire, featuring a dance solo to "Sweet Georgia Brown", followed in January 1961 by Basie performing at one of the five John F. Kennedy Inaugural Balls. See, Basie couldnt read music, so it was Eddie Durham who orchestrated his ideas for the Moten band and then later for the Basie band in New York for those Decca recordings. In 1959, Basie's band recorded a "greatest hits" double album The Count Basie Story (Frank Foster, arranger), and Basie/Eckstine Incorporated, an album featuring Billy Eckstine, Quincy Jones (as arranger) and the Count Basie Orchestra. Count Basie is considered one of the greatest bandleaders of all times. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); 2023 FAQS Clear - All Rights Reserved He died of cancer in He couldnt write music at the time, but his ear was perfect. When the band left for Chicago it had only 12 written arrangements in its book. [74], Count Basie died of pancreatic cancer in Hollywood, Florida, on April 26, 1984, at the age of 79.[1]. Catherine Basie, wife of Count Basie, the jazz musician and band leader, died of a heart attack yesterday at the couples home in Freeport, Grand Bahama Island, according to Mr. Basies agent. Released: 1955 . The new band included: Paul Campbell, Tommy Turrentine, Johnny Letman, Idrees Sulieman, and Joe Newman (trumpet); Jimmy Wilkins, Benny Powell, Matthew Gee (trombone); Paul Quinichette and Floyd "Candy" Johnson (tenor sax); Marshal Royal and Ernie Wilkins (alto sax); and Charlie Fowlkes (baritone sax). recordings, the 1943 musicians' strike, the strain of [41], Hammond introduced Basie to Billie Holiday, whom he invited to sing with the band. Early after his arrival, he bumped into Sonny Greer, who was by then the drummer for the Washingtonians, Duke Ellington's early band. Those four sides were released on Vocalion Records under the band name of Jones-Smith Incorporated; the sides were "Shoe Shine Boy", "Evening", "Boogie Woogie", and "Oh Lady Be Good". For a year he played piano accompaniment to silent moves and then joined Walter Page's Blue Devils in Tulsa, 6 Who was Count Basies adopted son on Long Island? The funeral service will be at noon on Monday at the Abyssinian Baptist Church, traveled to by bus). This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Count Basie (1904-1984) The title of one of his bands most famous tunes The Kid from Red Bank is an obvious tip-off, but many jazz historians assume that William J. It does not store any personal data. The new band billed itself as Count Basie and his Cherry Blossom Orchestra, marking the first time that Count was officially added to his name. the personnel, and formed the first Count Basie Orchestra. He joined Walter Page's Blue Devils in 1928, and a year later, he started to play with Bennie Moten's band in Kansas City. The pianist in the combo gave up his seat to Mr. Basie who sat down, tinkled a few A pianist, Count Basie played vaudeville before eventually forming his own big band and helping to define the era of swing with hits like One OClock Jump and Blue Skies. In 1958, Basie became the first African American male recipient of a Grammy Award. One of them, Aaron Woodward, a Long Island Baptist pastor and accountant, was considered an informally adopted son by Basie, according to a report by Jet magazine. Swing-era bandleader noted for his theme songs One O'Clock Jump from 1937 and April in Paris from 1932. Count Basie Birthday and Date of Death. with trumpeter Thad Jones directing until his own death in 1986. Despite the presence of Lester Young and Herschel Evans in the saxophone section, Buck Clayton in the trumpet section, Jo Jones on drums, with Jimmy Rushing and, briefly, Billie Holiday as vocalists, Basie earned nine Grammy Awardsand made history in 1958 by becoming the first African-American to receive the award. Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 - July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. After Vocalion became a subsidiary of Columbia Records in 1938, "Boogie Woogie" was released in 1941 as part of a four-record compilation album entitled Boogie Woogie (Columbia album C44). Count Basie was born on August 21, 1904 and died on April 26, 1984. Well, that was the last time I was ever introduced as Bill Basie. [39], The producer John Hammond continued to advise and encourage the band, and they soon came up with some adjustments, including softer playing, more solos, and more standards. Frank Sinatra (19151998), Ella Fitzgerald (19171996), When he came back to Harlem, Fats Waller showed him how to play the organ, and Willie the Lion Smith took him under his wing. Basie heard Bennie Motens band, and longed to play with them. The Gonzel White show was stranded in Kansas City, Mo., a fateful location for Mr. Basie. Your email address will not be published. Basie added touches of bebop "so long as it made sense", and he required that "it all had to have feeling". This stemmed primarily from the presence in the rhythm section, from 1937 to the present, of both Mr. Basie on piano and Freddie Green on guitar. Even in Harlem, it puzzled the aware audiences at the Savoy Ballroom. Basie died April 26, 1984 in Hollywood, FL but his legacy is still swinging strong. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. Count Basie, the jazz pianist whose spare, economic keyboard style and supple rhythmic drive made his orchestra one of the most influential groups of the Big Band era, died of cancer yesterday. From that time on, I was a daily customer, hanging Basie Count Basie, the jazz pianist whose spare, economic keyboard style and supple rhythmic drive made his orchestra one of the most influential groups of the Big Band era, died of cancer yesterday morning She was married to Count Basie since August 21, 1942 until her death in 1983. Who was Count Basies adopted son on Long Island? [77][78], Count Basie introduced several generations of listeners to the Big Band sound and left an influential catalog. [33] When he made the Vocalion recordings, Basie had already signed with Decca Records, but did not have his first recording session with them until January 1937. A year later, Basie joinedBennie_Motens band, and played with them until Motens death in 1935. While he recuperated his band continued to fulfill engagements, frequently with Nat Pierce taking Mr. Basie's place at the piano and sometimes with guest conductors such as the trumpeter Clark Terry, who At a White House reception, President Reagan said that Mr. Basie was "among the handful of musicians that helped change the path of American music in the 30's and the 40's" and that he had "revolutionized jazz.". "April in Paris," which became the trademark of the band Basie occasionally lost some key soloists. on the stand. experienced so many changes in musical fashion, especially after the
