Classic Recordings, The Atomic Mr. Basie

William ‘Count’ Basie was born in Red Bank, New Jersey, in 1904, to musical parents. Getting piano lessons from his mother, he went on to learn stride-piano from artist like Fats Waller. His first proper job was accompanying a travelling vaudeville troupe that disbanded on the road in 1927, leaving Basie stranded in Kansas City. Finding occasional employment in local bands and as a silent movie pianist, in 1929 he joined Bennie Moten’s well-respected group, who had a deep grounding in the blues and boogie-woogie, with a sound that was punchy yet elegant, very much characteristics of Kansas City jazz. Tragically Moten died during a tonsillectomy operation in 1935, giving Basie the keys to an already well-oiled machine, and one that featured a star tenor in the making, Lester Young. Renaming the band ‘The Barons of Rhythm’, Basie’s men were trained in ‘head’ arrangements, meaning the individual parts were learned and memorised in the head rather than written down (as, for example, Ellington would) which allowed for a more relaxed, less ornate sound, and because Basie wasn’t a composer it meant he had broad repertoire to choose from. Basie’s piano playing became famous for being minimal (I do wonder if he was an influence on Monk at all?), allowing plenty of space between the notes, that clarity in part a pragmatic way to keep steady time for the band. The group developed a more conversational approach, digging into their riffs in a more genial, less hurried manner, epitomised in the mid-thirties by Lester Young’s urbane playing on Oh, Lady Be Good.

Clark Terry gives an amusing overview of the special qualities and innovations that Basie brought to jazz in this clip…

At one point rivalling Ellington and Benny Goodman in popularity, by the late forties the swing band craze that had driven America’s youth for almost 20 years started tail-off. Both Count Basie and Duke Ellington’s bands were on something of a low ebb, with Basie even dis-banding the full group for a while and concentrating on smaller set-ups. Basie’s route out of the slump was firstly to work with some of the best singers of the era: Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jnr, to name a few. Secondly, he called upon the younger generation of composers and arrangers to reinvent the band’s sound, including Neal Hefti. Having been in Woody Herman’s ‘First Herd’ band as trumpeter, Hefti already had plenty of experience, Herman’s Band also being the first to embrace the innovations of bebop. Quickly contributing original compositions for the ‘Herd’, Hefti’s arrangements were notable for the excitement they generated, exactly what Basie needed. Basie described his first meeting with Hefti in his autobiography: ‘Neal came by, and we had a talk, and he said he'd just like to put something in the book. Then he came back with "Little Pony" and then "Sure Thing," "Why Not?" and "Fancy Meeting You," and we ran them down, and that's how we got married.’ The Atomic Mr. Basie, or to give its full title Basie - E=MC²=Count Basie Orchestra+Neal Hefti Arrangements is the high point of that marriage. The group stride around with a cocky swagger on tracks like The Kid from Red Bank, Flight of the Foo Birds, Whirly-Bird and Splanky, but even when in full flight there is always that Basie transparency. The album also features languid numbers like Lil’ Darlin’ - with the tempo dialled down to the point where it risks grinding to a halt, it’s Basie’s smoochy equivalent to Ellington’s Mood Indigo. The soloists all get their turn to shine, not least the tenor sax of Eddie ‘Lockjaw’ Davis, whose solos on Flight of the Foo Birds and the ornithologically related Whirly-Bird are absolute showstoppers. The bebop influence, especially that of Dizzy Gillespie’s big band, comes through in Hefti’s arrangements, and also Sonny Payne’s drumming (frequently pummelling too, with moments where the band drops out and he blasts out a quick solo for a couple of bars.) All of this making The Atomic Basie as essential today as it was upon release in 1957.