"him some piano technique. 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. A few months later, he was invited to join the band, which played mostly in Texas and Oklahoma. It was at this time that he began to be known as ""Count"" Basie (see Jazz royalty). The following year, in 1929, Basie became the pianist with the Bennie Moten band based in Kansas City, inspired by Moten's ambition to raise his band to the level of Duke Ellington's or Fletcher"
"Count Basie William James ""Count"" Basie (August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. In 1935, Basie formed his own jazz orchestra, the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and their first recording. He led the group for almost 50 years, creating innovations like the use of two ""split"" tenor saxophones, emphasizing the rhythm section, riffing with a big band, using arrangers to broaden their sound, and others. Many musicians came to prominence under his direction, including the tenor saxophonists Lester Young and Herschel"
"of Congress National Recording Registry. The board selects songs in an annual basis that are ""culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."" Count Basie William James ""Count"" Basie (August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. In 1935, Basie formed his own jazz orchestra, the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and their first recording. He led the group for almost 50 years, creating innovations like the use of two ""split"" tenor saxophones, emphasizing the rhythm section, riffing with a big band, using arrangers to broaden"
"of jazz. In the process, they helped set the stage for bebop. In 1939, Duke Ellington discovered virtuoso young bassist Jimmie Blanton and hired him into his Orchestra. Blanton revolutionized the bass as a featured instrument in the band, until he tragically left the band in late 1941 due to terminal tuberculosis. Towards the end of the 1930s the roles of the piano, bass, and drums in the rhythm section changed significantly under the influence of the Count Basie Orchestra. Early swing drumming relied heavily on the bass and snare drums, with a secondary role for the high hat cymbal"
"a considerable range of styles among the hundreds of popular bands. Many of the better known bands reflected the individuality of the bandleader, the lead arranger, and the personnel. Count Basie played a relaxed, propulsive swing, Bob Crosby more of a dixieland style, Benny Goodman a hard driving swing, and Duke Ellington's compositions were varied and sophisticated. Many bands featured strong instrumentalists whose sounds dominated, such as the clarinets of Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw, the trombone of Jack Teagarden, the trumpet of Harry James, the drums of Gene Krupa, and the vibes of Lionel Hampton. The popularity of many"
"As the saying went, the guitar was more felt than heard. Listeners felt the combined sound of bass, guitar, and drums as a sonic force that pushed through cavernous dance halls. “If you were on the first floor, and the dance hall was upstairs,” Count Basie remembered, “that was what you would hear, that steady rump, rump, rump, rump in that medium tempo.” As often noted by commentators on jazz history, the Swing era saw the saxophone supersede in many ways the trumpet as the dominant jazz solo instrument. Swing arrangements often emphasized the reed section to carry the melody,"
"often played on the lead-in to the main beat, adding a punch to the rhythm. Count Basie's style was sparse, played as accompaniment to the horn sections and soloists. The bass and snare drums started the swing era as the main timekeepers, with the snare usually used for either lead-ins or emphasis on the second and fourth beats. It was soon found that the high-hat cymbal could add a new dimension to the swing expressed by the drum kit when played in a two-beat ""ti-tshhh-SH"" figure, with the ""ti"" the lead-in to the ""tshhh"" on the first and third beats,"
"case of swing bands, the classic rhythm section comprises a quartet of electric guitar, piano, double bass, and drums; a noted example is that of the Count Basie Orchestra with Freddie Green, the Count, Walter Page, and Jo Jones. Earlier jazz bands had used banjo in place of guitar, and other bass instruments such as the tuba for recording purposes prior to the advent of microphone technology in studios. As bebop evolved, smaller jazz groups dropped the guitar, and many free jazz ensembles dropped the piano as well. Auxiliary percussion such as claves, bongos or maracas can also be used,"
"the basics were simplified somewhat. Instrumentation was largely singer, lead guitar, sax, drums, bass and piano. Very few could afford a B3 organ -the Blue Notes were the first in the west end to be able to have this sound - most used the piano provided amplified with a contact microphone. Sets were influenced by bands such as Robbie Lane and Little Caeser and the Consuls and were heavy on Ray Charles, James Brown, Jimmy Reed, Sam Cooke and other major US R&B performers. Also popular were ""Battle Of The Bands"" events where non-union musicians gathered to compete for top"
"Walter Page Walter Sylvester Page (February 9, 1900 – December 20, 1957) was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist and bandleader, best known for his groundbreaking work as a double bass player with Walter Page's Blue Devils and the Count Basie Orchestra. Page was born in Gallatin, Missouri on February 9, 1900 to parents Edward and Blanche Page. Page showed a love for music even as a child, perhaps due in part to the influence of his aunt Lillie, a music teacher. Page's mother, with whom he moved to Kansas City in 1910, exposed him to folksongs and spirituals, a critical foundation"
"Count Basie, longtime Duke Ellington trumpeter Cootie Williams, former Artie Shaw tenor saxophonist Georgie Auld and later drummer Dave Tough. This all-star band dominated the jazz polls in 1941, including another election to the Metronome All Stars for Christian. Johnny Guarnieri, who replaced Henderson in the first sextet, filled the piano chair in Basie's absence. In 1966, 24 years after his death, Christian was inducted into the ""Down Beat"" Jazz Hall of Fame. In 1989, he was one of the first inductees into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame. Christian's solos are frequently described as ""horn-like"", and in that sense"
"to the time of his death, continuing with the group after Basie died and leadership of the group passed on to Thad Jones, Frank Foster, and then Grover Mitchell. Johnny Williams (saxophonist) John C. ""Johnny"" Williams (October 31, 1936, Orangeburg, South Carolina - October 3, 1998) was an American saxophonist, active in jazz, blues and soul idioms. He is best known for his longtime association with the Count Basie Orchestra. Williams began playing piano as a young child and started playing saxophone at age twelve. He acquired a bachelor's degree in music education at South Carolina State College and then"
"voice chords of greater harmonic complexity, and it had a somewhat more muted tone that blended well with the upright bass, which, by this time, had almost completely replaced the tuba as the dominant bass instrument in jazz music. During the late 1930s and through the 1940s—the heyday of big band jazz and swing music—the guitar was an important rhythm section instrument. Some guitarists, such as Freddie Green of Count Basie’s band, developed a guitar-specific style of accompaniment. Few of the big bands, however, featured amplified guitar solos, which were done instead in the small combo context. The most important"
"have ""played on more number-one hits than the Beatles, Elvis Presley, the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys combined."" Early members included bandleader Joe Hunter and Earl Van Dyke (piano and organ); Clarence Isabell (double bass); James Jamerson (bass guitar and double bass); Benny ""Papa Zita"" Benjamin and Richard ""Pistol"" Allen (drums); Paul Riser (trombone); Robert White, Eddie Willis, and Joe Messina (guitar); Jack Ashford (tambourine, percussion, vibraphone, marimba); Jack Brokensha (vibraphone, marimba); and Eddie ""Bongo"" Brown (percussion). Hunter left in 1964, replaced on keyboards by Johnny Griffith and as bandleader by Van Dyke. Uriel Jones joined the band as"
"40 was briefly loaned to Paul McCartney and then it was sold. The band's original bassist Stuart Sutcliffe played a Höfner 500/5 Bass. The company is most famous through its association with Beatles singer and instrumentalist Paul McCartney, who is a longtime user of the Höfner 500/1 model hollow-body electric bass, first manufactured in 1956. McCartney played two left-handed 500/1 basses during most of the group's career – a 1961 model with pickups mounted close together towards the neck, and a 1963 model, with the second pickup mounted closer to the bridge. McCartney used the 1961 bass until the recording"
"their usual instruments, Townshend played piano and organ and bassist John Entwistle doubled on french horn. Keith Moon used a new double bass drum kit owned by roadie Tony Haslam, after Premier had refused to loan him any more equipment due to continual abuse. Though Townshend wrote the majority of the material, the arrangements came from the entire band. Singer Roger Daltrey later said that Townshend often came in with a half-finished demo recording, adding ""we probably did as much talking as we did recording, sorting out arrangements and things."" Townshend asked Entwistle to write two songs (""Cousin Kevin"" and"
"by Count Basie without his big band, see Count Basie discography. Count Basie Orchestra The Count Basie Orchestra is a 16 to 18 piece big band, one of the most prominent jazz performing groups of the swing era, founded by Count Basie in 1935 and recording regularly from 1936. Despite a brief disbandment at the beginning of the 1950s, the band survived long past the Big Band era itself and the death of Basie in 1984. It continues as a 'ghost band'. Originally including such musicians as Buck Clayton and Lester Young in the line-up, the band in the 1950s"
"they were inspired by the Beatles and the British Invasion. Bands such as the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds, and the Hollies were key influences on their sound. The group's initial lineup included Tim Moore on guitar and Kirk Mitchell, bass. Mitchell left the group shortly thereafter, and brothers Bobby and Johnny Pace joined. Johnny Pace would now sing most of the band's vocals assumed the role of drummer, while his younger brother Bobby took over the role of playing bass. Tim Moore switched to organ. Danny Huntley joined the group on guitar. Jim Charles, from Texas who had relocated with"
"a lineup led by Charlie Rice, and featuring Bob Bushnell (musician), Red Garland and Johnny Hughes, as well as leading his own bands there. In 1958 he joined Steve Gibson and the Red Caps. A friend of Count Basie's, he didn’t join his orchestra because he was tired of touring, one of the reasons he retired from the music business in the 1960s. Vance Wilson (musician) Vance E. Wilson (Lancaster, 1925-10 August 2010) was a jazz alto and tenor sax player based in Philadelphia most known for playing lead tenor and alto sax on Clifford Brown's first recording in 1952,"
"and 1945, and made his first recordings in 1942 under Carter's leadership, recording his first solo (on ""Love for Sale"") in October 1943. In 1944, he took part in the first ""Jazz at the Philharmonic"" concert, presented in Los Angeles and organized by Norman Granz. In 1945 he joined the big band of Count Basie, touring and recording with him until 1946. While the trombone was featured prominently in dixieland and swing music, it fell out of favor among bebop musicians, largely because instruments with valves and keys (trumpet, saxophone) were believed to be more suited to bebop's often rapid"
"In addition, an array of session musicians embellish the songs with various instruments. Alongside the de rigueur piano performances (Ian Stewart, Nicky Hopkins), the record included fiddle (Byron Berline), mandolin (Ry Cooder), organ and French horn (Al Kooper), as well as vibes (Bill Wyman) and autoharp (Wyman, Jones). Of more importance, however, was the debut of both renowned saxophonist Bobby Keys on ""Live With Me"", a musician who was integral at giving the group's arrangements a soul/jazz background, and guitarist Mick Taylor, who took on lead guitar duties with technically proficient playing, giving the band a harder rock sound during"
"in timekeeping. Jo Jones inverted that relationship, making the high hat the primary timekeeper and using the bass and snare drums for accents and lead-ins. Basie introduced a rhythmically sparse style of piano playing emphasizing accents, lead-ins, and fills. Both of those changes increased the importance of the bass and guitar in timekeeping, ably held by Walter Page and Freddie Green. The lighter and sparser, yet more dynamic, sense of rhythm expressed by the Basie rhythm section lent greater freedom for the band's soloists and set a trend that would culminate in the rhythmic ideas of bebop. To help bands"
"settled in Boston. Here became part of O'Leary's Irish Minstrels as a banjo player! It was the leading Irish band in Boston at the time. With Count Basie With Lee Konitz With Pee Wee Russell With George Wein Marshall Brown (musician) Marshall Brown (1920–1983) was a jazz musician and educator. He played trombones and, less often, bass trumpet or euphonium, and even less often electric bass & banjo. He played the valve trombone. Brown was little recorded, and devoted most of his career to education. He earned a music degree from New York University, as a member of the Zeta"
"onwards and subsequently as session bassist. The pre-Ernie Ball MusicMan StingRay is the main instrument of Paul S. Denman of the Sade band and it has been featured on all of their albums and live recordings. Benjamin Orr, bassist, co-vocalist and founding member of The Cars, is well known amongst fans to have played a circa 1977 Inca Silver Music Man StingRay with maple neck/fretboard and black pickguard. This bass was lost in a fire that swept through Orr's Boston apartment in the early 1980s, along with a cherry red 1967 Vox Constellation bass with an unusual black headstock. Mark"
"“slap” (plucked rather than bowed). Change came gradually in the late 1920s, once word had gotten around about how well the string bass worked; many tuba players realized that they’d better switch instruments or lose their jobs. With Walter Page's bass replacing the tuba in Bennie Moten's Kansas City Orchestra, the way was laid clear for the band to develop the kinetic style of swing it would show under the leadership of Count Basie. The banjo, with its loud and raucous tone, was replaced with the guitar, which provided a more subtle and secure pulsation (chunk-chunk) in the foundation rhythm."
"bass guitar, and a ""steel"" (a triangle). Banjo or ukulele, keyboard and additional saxophones or other melodic instruments are more rarely found in modern bands. The music of scratch bands are a type of folk music that dates back to the days of slavery. The slaves on the islands used everyday objects in order to fashion instruments. However, this was not unique to slaves as individuals like James ""Jamesie"" Brewster, considered by many as the King of Scratch in the Virgin Islands, recalls making his first banjo from an old sardine can, old white pine wood, and an old sack"
"1920s. He recorded with trumpeter Lloyd Hunter's Serenaders in 1931, and later joined pianist Count Basie's band in 1934. Jones, Basie, guitarist Freddie Green and bassist Walter Page were sometimes billed as an ""All-American Rhythm section,"" an ideal team. Jones took a brief break for two years when he was in the military, but he remained with Basie until 1948. He participated in the Jazz at the Philharmonic concert series. He was one of the first drummers to promote the use of brushes on drums and shifting the role of timekeeping from the bass drum to the hi-hat cymbal. Jones"
"and featured the sound of a locally made musical instrument that the band used instead of the sitar, which was becoming popular on records at that time. The eight-stringed instrument, dubbed the ""octachord"" by the band, had been made by a friend's grandfather and looked like a large mandolin. The octachord was played on the record and at live concert appearances by the band's lead guitarist, Wayne Proctor, who still has the instrument in his possession today. Despite ""In the Past"" being released as the band's fourth single, local radio stations preferred to play the softer B-side over the more"
"such as Sonny Payne, drummed much louder and raised the dynamic of the band to a ""harder, more clamorous brass sound."" The ban on instrumental recordings of 1942-1944 adversely affected the finances of the Count Basie Orchestra, as it did for all big bands in the United States. Despite taking on soloists from the next generation such as Wardell Gray, Basie was forced to temporarily disband the group for a short period in 1948, before dispersing again for two years in 1950. For these two years, Basie led a reduced band of between 6 and 9 people, featuring more new"
"Mitchell won the Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album for ""Live at Manchester Craftsmen's Guild"" (1996) and ""Count Plays Duke"" (1998) With Count Basie With Gene Ammons With Al Grey With Eddie Harris With Oliver Nelson Grover Mitchell Grover Curry Mitchell (March 17, 1930 in Whatley, Alabama – August 6, 2003 in New York City) was a jazz trombonist who led the Count Basie Orchestra. Mitchell was born in Alabama, but he moved with his parents to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, when he was eight. He played the bugle in school and wanted to play trumpet, but the band needed"
"as well as with some small groups in Washington. A few years after returning to the band in July 1963, Hughes switched from the tenor to the bass trombone. Hughes took over leadership of the band in 2003 following the death of Grover Mitchell. He retired from the band in September 2010, stating he wanted to spend more time with his wife Dolores, whom he married on July 6, 1952. He spent the last years of his life in Staten Island, New York with his wife and three children. With the Count Basie Orchestra With Al Grey Bill Hughes (musician)"
"bass, washboard, jug, and occasionally would lend a hand on guitar. Barry Kornfeld played banjo and guitar. Artie Rose was on mandolin, and also played some fine Dobro. Finally, Danny Kalb, who had been a student of mine, played lead guitar and some very nice harmonica. (We also made him sing bass on ""K.C. Moan,"" because he was the youngest and none of us wanted to do it.) It was a very flexible band because the musicians were all good enough to double or triple on various instruments, plus it had all the possibilities offered by kazoos and that sort"
"the band's members except for drummer Walter Brown and bassist Arthur Edward were among the 201 victims of the fire. Barnes's death was repeatedly immortalized in song thereafter. Jo Jones, drummer with the Count Basie Orchestra at the time, related in an interview how arrangements were made to hire one of Barnes' tenor saxophone players, to whom Jones only referred to by the nickname of ""Pimpy,"" as a replacement for Herschel Evans, effective after completing one last tour with Barnes. Walter Barnes (musician) Walter Barnes (July 8, 1905 – April 23, 1940) was an American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist and bandleader."