One of the highlights of the Catalina Island Jazz Trax Festival will be the World-Famous Count Basie Orchestra.
Pianist and bandleader William James “Count” Basie was and still is an American institution who personifies the grandeur and excellence of jazz. The Count Basie Orchestra, today directed by Scotty Barnhart, 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 major concert hall in the world.
The latest honors are the 2018 Downbeat Readers Poll Award as the No. 1 jazz orchestra in the world, and a Grammy nomination for their 2018 acclaimed recording “All About That Basie,” which features special guests Stevie Wonder, Jon Faddis, Take 6 and Kurt Elling, among others.
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 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 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 band mates 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 instrumentals that were to become the standard bearers and precursors for the swing era and the underlying rhythm of modern jazz. Walter Page’s Blue Devils and Benny Moten’s Kansas City Orchestra caught Basie’s 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, Basie’s 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 Basie’s 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 band’s 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 Basie’s 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.
As Basie allowed for a certain measure of change and for a variety of voices to emerge on the platform he created, his orchestra’s 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 everyone’s list for not only full concerts, but also Presidential Inaugural Balls, and for private parties of the world’s elite from New York to Bangkok, Thailand, to St. Tropez in the South of France.
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. It’s unmistakable with its deceptive suspension of time and rhythm, but it’s 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 Basie’s 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. Its next recording will celebrate the first 80 years of the orchestra and will be released on Concord Music in 2018. Executive Produced by Scotty Barnhart and Sam Beler, it features legendary artists such as Stevie Wonder, Take 6, Joey DeFrancesco, Kurt Elling, and others.
Current members include musicians hired by Basie himself: Frequent guest vocalist Carmen Bradford (joined in 1983) and trombonist Clarence Banks (joined in 1984). Long-time members include Doug Miller (1989, formerly w/Lionel Hampton), and members who have joined in the last 15-25 years; trombonists David Keim (formerly w/Stan Kenton), Alvin Walker and Mark Williams, guitarist Will Matthews, trumpeter Endre Rice, saxophonists Doug Lawrence (formerly w/Benny Goodman, Buck Clayton) and returning on lead alto, David Glasser. Newer members include bassist Trevor Ware, trumpeters Kris Johnson and Marques Carroll, our new lead trumpeter Frank Greene III, pianist Glen Pearson and the youngest members; 27-year-old Robert Boone on drums and 24-year-old Joshua Lee on baritone saxophone.
