Count Basie - Ken Burns JAZZ Collection: Count Basie
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Count BasieEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2000-11-07
Music Label: Polygram Records
Soundtracks:
- Toby
- One O'Clock Jump
- John's Idea
- Jumpin' At The Woodside
- Swingin' The Blues
- Blue and Sentimental
- Doggin' Around
- Dark Rapture
- Goin' To Chicago Blues
- Jive At Five
- Cherokee
- 9:20 Special
- Softly, With Feeling
- Corner Pocket
- April In Paris
- Every Day I Have The Blues
- Shiny Stockings
- Li'l Darlin'
- Li'l Darlin'
Free Music Notes for Ken Burns JAZZ Collection: Count Basie
Free Music Review: Hardly "Definitive" - But Not Bad
Hit: 4 Stars
If you open up the insert, which contains four pages of background notes written by pianist/arranger Brian Priestley in May 2000, one page about the Ken Burns film on jazz, and a track-by-track listing of the personnel on each, the complete title says "The Definitive Count Basie."
That's open to conjecture as there are many of the Count's big hits omitted in favour of some relatively obscure stuff - still very good, mind you, but not exactly among his more memorable works. The hit single, after all, was what brought home the bacon back before the days of the LP and EP and, for the most part, was what we heard on the radio.
These were any artist's most popular tunes and what made them stars, and in the case of the Count Basie orchestra, from 1943 to 1968 he chalked up 18 hit singles on the Billboard pop charts, and added another 3 to the R&B charts alone, for three of the biggest labels then in existence.
He started with Columbia in 1943 when Rusty Dusty Blues went to # 6 on what was then known as the Harlem Hit Parade [now the R&B charts], while the flipside, All Of Me, made it to # 17 on the Pop charts with Lynne Sherman doing the vocals. Neither is here, nor are his next seven Columbia hits, beginning with For The Good Of Your Country [# 16 pop in 1944 with Jimmy Rushing on vocal].
This was followed by Red Bank Boogie [# 6 R&B in April 1945]; Jimmy's Blues [# 3 R&B/# 10 pop in October 1946, again with Rushing]; Jivin' Joe Jackson [# 12 pop in January 1946 with Ann Moore doing the vocals]; The Mad Boogie [# 10 pop in May 1946] and its flipside, Patience And Fortitude [# 14 pop], and Blue Skies [# 8 pop in October 1946] - the last two also with Rushing singing.
In 1947, by which time he had moved over to RCA Victor, he had his biggest hit with the hilarious Open The Door, Richard featuring Harry Edison and Bill Johnson, a # 1 pop and # 2 R&B that spring. That was followed in April by Free Eats which reached # 7 pop with an ensemble vocal. At this point Decca, which owned a lot of his 1930s material, re-released One O'Clock Jump, his theme song and a 1937 hit which, this time, reached # 12 pop in June. Around the same time One O'Clock Boogie was rising to # 8 pop for RCA Victor. Two months later his final RCA Victor hit, I Ain't Mad At You (You Ain't Made At Me) peaked at # 7 pop. None of these, except for One O'Clock Jump, are included here.
Eight years later, in August 1955, he returned to the charts for the Clef label when Every Day (I Have The Blues) reached # 2 R&B with Joe Williams on vocal, and that will be found at track 17, while perhaps one of his finest works, April In Paris [track 16] made it to # 8 R&B/# 28 pop in the spring of 1956. This would be handed a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1985.
In 1958, while with Roulette, he had a # 100 pop with Going To Chicago Blues [not the one at track 11], with vocals by Joe Williams, Jon Hendrix, Dave Lambert, and Annie Ross, and in 1962 added another Roulette hit when The Basie Twist reached # 94 pop. A stopover at Sinatra's Reprise label in 1963 produced the # 77 pop I Can't Stop Loving You, and in 1968 he completed his chart history on the Brunswick label with two hits featuring Jackie Wilson. For Your Precious Love peaked at # 26 R&B/# 49 pop in March, while Chain Gang made it to # 37 R&B/# 84 pop. None of the foregoing are included here.
So, as you can see, calling this a "definitive" Count Basie compilation differs from what some others may consider interpretive. Even so, it is a nice inexpensive addition to any jazz musical library.
Ken Burns JAZZ Collection: Count Basie Poster
Like many artists in the series of CDs accompanying Ken Burns's 10-part documentary Jazz, Count Basie did some label hopping through his career. This makes a definitive greatest-hits collection rather difficult. Another complicating factor is Basie's unflappable evenness. His music was almost always on the money, mixing lithe swing with hard-punching riffs and rhythms with awesome balance. This 19-song collection begins with Basie at the piano in Bennie Moten's Kansas City Orchestra for 1932's "Toby." They're kicking much harder than Basie would later advocate in his own bands, but the light's burning no less bright for that. The 10 tracks following "Toby" show Basie the bandleader chugging in the late 1930s with an all-star cast. Lester Young's blowing cool tenor while the band bounces on "John's Idea" and "Jumpin' at the Woodside." The set shifts to the 1940s with "9:20 Special" and then to the 1950s with "Softly, with Feeling." The final five tunes, all dating from the mid-1950s, find Basie laying back, not resting on any laurels, but celebrating the grooves he pioneered two decades before. If there was one missing element here, it might be Decca-era Jimmy Rushing belting out "Sent for You Yesterday," but that's quibbling with an almost bulletproof set that's spectacular. --Andrew BartlettJazz Music CDs
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