The Big Band Era

Song Number ONE: Red Bank, NJ is famous for a Revolutionary War battle and as the birth place of William "Count" Basie, 1904-1984, jazz pianist, organist, band leader, and composer. However, his big band roots lay in the wide-open Kansas City of "Boss" Tom Pendergast and as pianist with the band of Bennie Moten. After Moten's death, Basie built his band around former Moten Band members. Pianistically, he was influenced by early "stride" pianists such as "Fats" Waller. As band leader, however, he realized that a brilliant rhythm section, including Walter Page (sb), Freddie Green (g), and Jo Jones (d) made the strong left hand beat of the stride style unnecessary; so he adopted a very spare instrumental style where his piano did not get in the way of the rhythm, which was always basic to his style. Arranger Neal Hefti composed this piece in 1957, showcasing the Count's playing while saluting "The Kid From Red Bank."

Song Number TWO: New Yorker magazine's veteran jazz critic Whitney Balliett [see his previous article on Claude Thornhill] described Jimmie Rushing in a 1981 obituary: "Jimmy Rushing, the great blues singer, died yesterday, at the age of sixty-eight. He was a short, joyous, nimble, invincible fat man who shouted the blues as if he were wearing kid gloves and carrying a swagger stick. His diction was faultless; in fact, it had an elocutionary quality, for his vowels were broad and sumptuous, his "b"s each weighed a pound, and he loved to roll his "r"s. His lyrics had a pearl-gray, to-the-manor-born cast to them. His voice - light, tenor like, sometimes straining - was not much, but it was hand-polished and could be, despite his dandyish style, extraordinarily affecting, as in the mourning, deep-blue "How Long Blues" he recorded in memory of his friend Hot Lips Page. But most of the time Rushing's blues were elegant, lifting celebrations of life, and he sang them that way - his voice finally almost threadbare - until the day he died." Here Jimmie, the original "Mister Five-By-Five," is heard in a classic blues shout by Count Basie, Eddie Durham and Jimmie Rushing "Sent For You Yesterday."

Song Number THREE: This Instrumental, composed by the Count is classic Basie. After a definitive statement of the tempo by the rhythm section, the brass establishes the riff, a fairly simple musical figure which will be repeated throughout the number, and each of the soloists take turns improvising on the theme with effects including sliding, slurring, and noises mimicking yells and cries; call and response. The tune was named after the Kansas City Hotel where many of the band members stayed and where the tune was rehearsed. It was a huge hit for Count Basie and the Basie band who did much "Jumpin' At The Woodside."

Song Number FOUR: Helen Humes as a child played piano and organ in church.In 1938 she moved over from the Harry James band to succeeded Billie Holiday as the Basie female vocalist. She was a proficient blues singer, with a feeling for swing, however, the presence of Jimmie Rushing with the band left her singing mostly pop ballads. On this number, she sounds a lot like a young Ella Fitzgerald. She had a cheerful singing style of her own which always delighted the listener. She and Jimmie Rushing shared a pleasant demeanor which helped make the band a happy one. Listen to her rendition of Irvin Graham, Louis Haber, and Dorothy Sachs' hymn to the maid's night out: "Thursday."

Song Number FIVE: Two outstanding Basie band members did not fit the usually friendly easy-going mold of the Count and his band members: Billie Holiday and Lester Young. Each left early, but Young's stint with the band from 1936 to 1940 made jazz history. Young is remembered as one of the finest, and most influential tenor sax players of this and succeeding eras and for presaging much of the hipster ethos which came to be associated with jazz. While with Basie band, his relaxed style of playing was the polar opposite of Coleman Hawkins, then the dominant tenor player. His free floating improvisational style was in stark contrast with the band as well. Young was viewed as an eccentric by many. For instance, he created his own language that only his friends could understand, famously referring to a narcotics detective or policeman as a "Bob Crosby", a rehearsal as a "molly trolley", and an instrumentalist's keys or fingers as his "people". He dressed distinctively, especially in his trademark pork pie hat, predating hipsters such as Slim Gaillard and Dizzy Gillespie. This jazz landmark starts out as typical Basie when, in Basie's own words, " Lester Leaps In."

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