Count Basie Recommendations?

[Rabshakeh]

45 minutes ago, Mark Stryker said:

I hear what you're saying about April in Paris. It's a foundational record of the New Testament, and the band is in peak studio form. Yet I also prefer the subsequent live renditions of the key material so I find I don't return to April in Paris that often. 

April in Paris was one of the turn offs for me for some reason. Perhaps I need to revisit it, but it didn't feel like it had the huge energy of Live at Newport. It seems closer to Atomic in style to me - emphasis on arrangements. Probably I am wrong though as I am no expert on Basie (as my question above shows).

[BillF]

34 minutes ago, Milestones said:

I'm actually quite a big fan of the jam sessions and the small groups from his last years, including the meetings with Oscar Peterson.  The first "Jam" album is especially solid, and I also like Kansas  City 6 and even the final record: Mostly Blues...and Some Others.  Oh, and definitely the record with Zoom Sims.  Among other delights, you will hear some sublime Joe Pass.

 

Zoom Sims was particularly successful during the pandemic.

[JSngry]

12 minutes ago, Rabshakeh said:

April in Paris was one of the turn offs for me for some reason. Perhaps I need to revisit it, but it didn't feel like it had the huge energy of Live at Newport....

Just so you can have a reality-based baseline, very few things will. That record was a landmark in several ways, and while there were any number of New Testament records that are excellent, THAT one is kinda sui generis...having Lester & Jo onboard made everybody do the right thing.

 

[Rabshakeh]

10 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Just so you can have a reality-based baseline, very few things will. That record was a landmark in several ways, and while there were any number of New Testament records that are excellent, THAT one is kinda sui generis...having Lester & Jo onboard made everybody do the right thing.

I thought that might be the case. I'm looking forward to finding out either way though.

[HutchFan]

1 hour ago, Mark Stryker said:

Yeah -- I saw your post that came about almost exactly the same time as mine, and there was significant overlap in our choices!

FWIW, I talk about a bit about One More Time in this recent column on Quincy Jones.

https://jazztimes.com/features/columns/chronology-quincy-jones-in-1950s/

 

Great article, Mark.  More great avenues for Q exploration.  

 

[HutchFan]

Lots of listeners speak of April in Paris and Atomic Basie as THE New Testament Basie records.  Since neither of them particularly caught my ear (especially at first), I assumed, "Well, I guess late Basie just isn't my cuppa joe."

Turns out, there were/are many other New Testament Basie albums that I like much better than those two. ... Don't get me wrong: I like April in Paris and Atomic Basie -- especially after absorbing the New Testament Basie idiom via other records.  But still I don't like them as much as the others I've discussed.

Basie's just like any other artist with a large discography, I guess.  You gotta make the investment, listen for yourself, and form your own judgments.  That's the work, and that's the fun.

 

[Peter Friedman]

There have been many many excellent Basie recommendations in this thread. Wonder how many weeks, months, years it would take to listen to all of them?

I have the vast majority of them on CD. I need to carefully pick and choose some to listen to in the coming months.

[JSngry]

It's funny...I love April In Paris, but have never warmed to Atomic, not even slightly. I wonder what that has to do with anything? Probably nothing except, maybe, Hefti's writing never really resonating with me (except early on, First Herd stuff), and Roulette records in general sounding more brittle to me than Verve, at least the older records. Maynard's we're the same way.

[JSngry]

1 hour ago, HutchFan said:

Lots of listeners speak of April in Paris and Atomic Basie as THE New Testament Basie records.  Since neither of them particularly caught my ear (especially at first), I assumed, "Well, I guess late Basie just isn't my cuppa joe."

And see, that's funny, because " late Basie"...what IS that, really? Yes, there's New & Old Testaments (and a fair amount of Intertestamental) but good lord, there's the first Verve period, which is not the same as the Roulette period, which is not the same as the SECOND Verve period, which is not the same as the Chico O'Farrill stuff that was spread out over several labels, and then those one-offs, and then Dot, which gave us Sammy Nestico, and then Pablo to take it all home. 

It's kinda all the same, but not really, it's all different, although it's not a blatant difference, still ...

My guideposts for anything after the second Verve period is simple - the more Lockjaw the better, regardless, the more Marshall Royal leads the better, never sleep on Norman Jones, and Sammy Nestico can wait, still, probably forever.

And, as of recently-ish, now I get why Basie specified to use Ed Shaughnessy where he did, which was usually on the Chico O'Farrill records - it's a thing, a very real THING  All the different periods of all the different arrangers, yeah, they sorta do sound alike (and they sorta are), but...not really.

Just avoid that Happy Tiger record of Bob Florence doing Beatles tunes ( not to be confused with the Verve record of Chico O'Farrill doing Beatles tunes) that thing...unfortunate. 

Otherwise, "late Basie" lasted longer than did "early Basie", a lot longer!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[GA Russell]

On 2/12/2006 at 6:08 PM, GA Russell said:

I can recommend The Best of the Roulette Years:

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000002UZ...5Fencoding=UTF8

 

But for the same money, I would go along with the suggestion of picking up a few Roulette items from Your Music.

Now that it's 2021, I would recommend the OAS, which is currently $27.99 at Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/Original-Album-Count-Basie/dp/B00JH53O98/

Edited October 5, 2021 by GA Russell

[medjuck]

When it comes to Basie I'm a moldy fig: the older, the better. I especially like the air shots from the late '30s.  However I do recommend the 5 cd box set "From the Crescendo, 1958." 

[Teasing the Korean]

Afrique on Flying Dutchman, with charts by Oliver Nelson.

[gmonahan]

I've been lucky enough to get all the Basie Mosaics covering the first Verve period and all the Roulettes (as well as much of, but not all of, the Old Testament stuff). I love all of those. As for later, I've always had a soft spot in my heart for the Quincy Jones arranged "Lil Ol' Groovemaker." Once upon a time--many many moons ago--that was my favorite record. I also like the Dots. The stuff with the latter-day Mills Brothers is fun.

 

 

gregmo

[Teasing the Korean]

When I was in high school, our stage band played Sammy Nestico's "Basie Straight Ahead" and "Hay Burner," both of which are on the Dot LP Basie Straight Ahead.  This may have been Nestico's first major gig after leaving the military.

Well, after several decades of never finding that LP for a dollar, I was delighted to see that @felser was selling his CD copy, so I happily bought it from him.

I'm picking up on a real Mancini/Private Eye Jazz vibe on several tracks.  The title tune in particular quotes riffs from Mancini's "Fluter's Ball" (Experiment in Terror) and "Chime Time" (Mr. Lucky), though, in fairness, those riffs likely predated Mancini.

This and Afrique are the only late-period Basie that I own.  But I am totally digging Basie Straight Ahead. 

I also bought from felser On My Way and Shoutin' Again, to complete my Basie/Hefti trilogy (unless you count the Frank Sinatra album, which would make 4).  I will talk about that one at some point.

 

 

Edited September 19, 2023 by Teasing the Korean

[Big Beat Steve]

13 minutes ago, Teasing the Korean said:

When I was in high school, our stage band played Sammy Nestico's "Basie Straight Ahead" and "Hay Burner," both of which are on the Dot LP Basie Straight Ahead.  This may have been Nestico's first major gig after leaving the military.

...

I also bought from felser On My Way and Shoutin' Again, to complete my Basie/Hefti trilogy (unless you count the Frank Sinatra album, which would make 4).  I will talk about that one at some point.

Am not familiar with Basie Straight Ahead (my Basie collection fizzles out with some of the Command label recordings of the mid-60s and then starts with the Pablos again) but thanks for bringing up On My Way and Shoutin' Again. It might well be time to relisten again (particularly since I personally do like the Hefti charts for Basie, including the Atomic LP).
But this will take some time. I still got about 10 LPs worth of Basie to listen to (which were part of a huge secondhand vinyl buying spree some 6 weeks ago, including some 20 Basie LPs, about 2/3 Old Testament adn 1/3 New Testament).

As for recommendations of that 60s period discussed here in the most "recent" posts, strange that most should limit themselves so much to studio sessions.  One live coupling (released under the The Great Concert title on the (French) Festival label) I find quite exciting are the concert recordings from the Hammersmith Odeon (London, 18 Sept. 1965) and the Juan-les-Pins festival (23 July 1968). These two concerts have also been released individually on separate records.

[Teasing the Korean]

3 hours ago, Big Beat Steve said:

Am not familiar with Basie Straight Ahead (my Basie collection fizzles out with some of the Command label recordings of the mid-60s and then starts with the Pablos again)

You need both Basie Straight Ahead and Afrique.

[optatio]

... from my shelf!

[Teasing the Korean]

7 hours ago, Big Beat Steve said:

Am not familiar with Basie Straight Ahead ...

At least take 4 minutes out of your life and listen to the title track.  I love it.

 

Edited September 19, 2023 by Teasing the Korean

[JSngry]

Here's the 2nd Basie/Nestico album, done for Sonny Burke's Daybreak Records.

No Lockjaw solos at all. No tenor solos, period. On a Basie record. What a waste. 

I've only recently been able to "appreciate" Straight Ahead. 

I may never get even that far with this one. I don't expect to really try. Such a great band...squandered.

The Pablo records do come up a notch. Nestico was a formula writer. It was a good formula, and he was expert at it, but...Have A Nice Day results in me having anything but! 

[Teasing the Korean]

8 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Here's the 2nd Basie/Nestico album, done for Sonny Burke's Daybreak Records.

I've only recently been able to "appreciate" Straight Ahead. 

Never heard of that one!

The title track IMO is the best thing on Straight Ahead, but there are a few other gems as well.  

[JSngry]

For that general time frame, we owe it to ourselves to check out the two MPS records - Basic Basie and High Voltage. Both are arranged by Chico O'Farrill, who in both cases is not asked to arrange current pop fare. He actually did better on many of those projects than necessary, but here there's no gimmicks to work around.

And plenty of Lockjaw to boot! 

[Teasing the Korean]

7 minutes ago, JSngry said:

For that general time frame, we owe it to ourselves to check out the two MPS records - Basic Basie and High Voltage. Both are arranged by Chico O'Farrill, who in both cases is not asked to arrange current pop fare. He actually did better on many of those projects than necessary, but here there's no gimmicks to work around.

And plenty of Lockjaw to boot! 

Didn't know about those either!

[JSngry]

You can get your Basie jones AND your MPS jones tickled at the same time, twice!

Somehow Basic Basie also came out on Groove Merchant (sic) as Evergreens. So there's that. God only knows what that was about. 

[Stompin at the Savoy]

 

[Big Beat Steve]

15 hours ago, Teasing the Korean said:

At least take 4 minutes out of your life and listen to the title track.  I love it.

I cannot recall having ever said I'd not pick up that particular record. I would, though certainly not at top/full price (which is MY decision as there are other priorities to cover too). It's just a case of being able to sit and wait until the right occasion presents itself. And in fact I did check Discogs later yesterday to see which pressing would be the most likely to surface here, and I did listen in briefly to a few YT samples.
So, sorry to say but the tone of this "4 minutes out of your life" "suggestion" is not something I'd have expected from you. No need to try to "convert" the basically inclined in THIS way. 🤨

4 hours ago, Stompin at the Savoy said:

 

Going further back in time, I see. 1944.

Available most conveniently for vinyl nerds on Circle CLP-60 and CLP-130.

Edited September 20, 2023 by Big Beat Steve