Recordings: Retrospectives
The listings below are all compact discs and are currently
available.
Count Basie in the early Kansas
City days.
Basie Beginnings (1929-1932)
Bluebird 9768
This CD includes Bill Basie’s debut recordings with
Bennie Moten and the Kansas City Orchestra, one of the
leading territory bands of its day when Basie joined it
as second pianist in 1929. By 1932, it had reached its
peak, with Basie as one of its stars.
Count Basie: The Complete
Decca Recordings (1937-1939)
GRPGRD-3-611 (1992)
This three-disc set has the first 63 recordings by Count
Basie's Orchestra. Soloists such as Lester Young and Herschel
Evans on tenors; Buck Clayton and Harry “Sweets Edison” on trumpet; singers Jimmy Rushing and Helen Humes, and
the rhythm section of Basie, Freddie Green, Walter Page,
and Jo Jones make this set the epitome of swinging big
band jazz.
America's #1 Band: The Columbia Years
Sony 87110 (2003)
Recordings from this set range from live radio airchecks
from the Famous Door, the immortal Smith-Jones 1936 Lester
Young debut session, big band recordings from the late
1930s and early 1940s to octet recordings of 1950 when
Basie temporarily disbanded for a couple of years.
The Indispensable Count Basie
BMG France RCA 66497
This two CD set released in 1992 includes the band’s recordings
for RCA in between 1947 through 1950 around the time Basie disbanded
and before he regrouped to begin recording for Clef Records.
Count Basie: The Golden Years
Pablo CD 4419
This four-disc set of music recorded between 1972 and 1983 highlights
the Basie band’s output for Pablo Records and encounters
with Milt Jackson, Benny Carter, Johnny Griffin, Zoot Sims, Eddie
“Lockjaw” Davis, Roy Eldridge, Harry “Sweets” Edison, Clark Terry, Dizzy Gillespie, Joe Pass, Niels Henning Ørsted-Pedersen,
Ray Brown, Louie Bellson, Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah
Vaughan, Big Joe Turner, and Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson.
Recordings: Individual Albums
Benny Goodman Carnegie
Hall Concert
Columbia CD G2K-40244
Basie, Lester Young, Buck, Clayton, Freddie Green and Walter
Page participated in Benny Goodman’s historic concert
on January 16, 1938.
From Spirituals to
Swing: Carnegie Hall Concerts, 1938 and 1939
Vanguard 70169 (3 CD Set)
John Hammond’s groundbreaking From Spirituals to Swing
concerts presented the span of African-American music from
gospel to blues to jazz. Both concerts show the band in
top form, with guests sitting in and small groups featuring
Lester Young and Buck Clayton.
Count Basie Swings -- Joe Williams
Sings
Polygram CD 519852
This Norman Granz-produced album from July 1955 captures
the chemistry between Williams and Basie that catapulted
the band back into the spotlight with such numbers as “Every
Day (I Have the Blues),” “Alright, Okay, You
Win” and “Roll ‘Em Pete.”
April in Paris
Verve CD 825575
Considered some to be an instant classic, this Verve album
recorded in 1956 showed the smooth, modern face of the Count
Basie Orchestra.
