This is FRESH AIR. Count Basie's band from Kansas City reached New York in December of 1936. Musicians took note immediately. But the general public took a little longer. Basie's big break came in ...

Fifty years later, Harold Jones can still recall that blast of brass and reeds, the surging flow of the rhythm, the joyous spirit of the Count Basie Orchestra. One of the best drummers in the business ...

The Count Basie Orchestra, with Basie on piano, came roaring out of Kansas City during the Great Depression. It's tempting to say that they're back for the current one, but that ignores decades in ...

Shoe Shine Boy; Evenin' ; Boogie Woogie; Oh, Lady Be Good; Jubilee; When We're Alone; I Can Dream, Can't I?; Life Goes To A Party; Texas Chatter; Song Of The Wanderer; It*s The Dreamer In Me; One ...

RED BANK - Before the town on the southern bank of the Navesink River was the place to be on Friday nights, it was known for songs like "Red Bank Boogie" and "The Kid from Red Bank." The "kid" behind ...

Nobody questions the nobility of those two grandmasters of big-band jazz, Duke Ellington and Count Basie. They were the best. Ellington issued his manifesto: “It Don’t Mean a Thing, If It Ain’t Got ...

You won't find one of my favorite Thad Jones albums listed under his name. It's Dance Along With Basie, recorded for Roulette at the tail end of the 1950s. Cut over four sessions during the December ...

For the first time, unheard arrangements from 1965 written for the legendary Frank Sinatra and the Count Basie Orchestra, have been recorded by renowned vocalist Brandon Tomasello with the City Rhythm ...

From 1935 to his death in 1984, pianist and bandleader Count Basie led one of the most important jazz institutions of the 20th century, in the process forging a distinctive sound that changed the jazz ...

Forecasting the paths that big-band jazz might travel is difficult now that another of its pacesetters has reached the end of his journey. In symbolic terms, the loss of Count Basie, who died last ...