biography
| name: |
Basie, Count
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popular name of William Allen Basie
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pronunciation:
[baysee]
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1904–84)
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| biography:
| Jazz musician, born in Red Bank, New Jersey, USA. He received his first piano lessons at age six from his mother, and worked as an accompanist to silent films while still in high school. He studied organ informally with Fats Waller, whom he replaced in a New York vaudeville act called Katie Crippin and Her Kids. During 1924–7 he toured on the Keith Circuit with the Gonzelle White vaudeville show until it became stranded in Kansas City, then a bustling centre of jazz and blues activity. He played piano at a silent film theatre there, then spent a year with Walter Page's Blue Devils (1928–9). When this band broke up, he began a five-year association with Benny Moten's orchestra, whose sidemen included blues singer Jimmy Rushing, trumpeter Hot Lips Page, and Lester Young, the highly innovative tenor saxophonist. After Moten's death (1935), these musicians formed the nucleus of Basie's first band. Under his leadership they broadcast from the Reno Club in Kansas City, where a radio announcer dubbed him ‘Count’, and through these broadcasts he attracted the attention of the well-connected talent scout John Hammond, who set up his first tour. The band played a residency at the Grand Terrace in Chicago, then opened at the Roseland in New York (Dec 1936). Basie began a prolific series of recordings the following year, and in 1938 played a long residency at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem, where his reputation as leader of one of the premier swing bands was firmly established. He led his band on a continual series of US tours throughout the 1940s, but in 1950 economic conditions compelled him to disband and front a sextet for two years. He formed a new 16-piece band in 1952 and began a long association with producer Norman Granz of Verve Records. This outfit established a new and enduring prototype for big bands and radio and television studio orchestras, and in 1954 they undertook the first of many European tours. During the 1960s the Basie orchestra accompanied various singers, including Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan, Tony Bennett, and Sammy Davis Jr, on recordings and concert tours. He made numerous appearances with all-star groups in the 1970s, but maintained a regular touring schedule with his band until his death. His autobiography, Good Morning Blues (written with Albert Murray), was published posthumously in 1985. |
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