Count Basie by Alun Morgan - Part 7

© -  Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

Born in Wales in 1928, Alun Morgan became a Jazz fan as a teenage and was an early devotee of the bebop movement. In the 1950s he began contributing articles to Melody Maker, Jazz Journal, Jazz Monthly, and Gramophone and for twenty years, beginning in 1969, he wrote a regular column for a local newspaper in Kent. From 1954 onward he contributed to BBC programs on Jazz, authored and co-authored books on modern Jazz and Jazz in England and wrote over 2,500 liner notes for Jazz recordings.

Chapter Seven

“The period when Basie was making records for Roulette found the band at its best. Just before the The Atomic Mr Basie album was made, Basie completed 13 weeks in the roof ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City, another 'first,’ for his was the first big Negro band to play the Waldorf. And in November, 1957 he was chosen to play a Royal Command performance in London. It seemed that Basie was picking up honours in every direction and it is not surprising that his record company was anxious to use the band in some high-powered studio dates. Basie made LPs with Billy Eckstine, Sarah Vaughan and Tony Bennett; (he made two with Bennett, due to a contractual arrangement between Roulette and Columbia, Bennett's record company). Pleasant though these pairings were, they tended to take the spotlight away from the band although one of the best, the first Frank Sinatra-Count Basie LP, was made immediately after the Roulette contract expired.

From October, 1962 up to May, 1966 Basie moved easily from the Reprise label to Verve and back again to Reprise. Norman Granz had sold his Verve catalogue to MGM in 1960 and therefore played no part in Basie's recordings during this period. The 'concept' album idea still prevailed with LPs being devoted to the work of individual arrangers or to tunes which had some other connexion. Neal Hefti wrote yet another album (On My Way And Shoutin' Again for Verve) and Quincy Jones wrote his second set for Basie Li’l Ol' Groovemaker... Basie also on Verve). There was also a preponderance of ephemeral or below standard LPs such as 'Basie's Beatles Bag’ and 'Basie Meets Bond' plus a number of albums based on the idea of popular hits played by the band. One curiosity on Verve, titled 'More Hits Of The 50's & 60’s’ and arranged by Billy Byers, comprised a dozen songs very closely associated with Frank Sinatra (in fact one of the tunes was co-authored by Sinatra) but with no reference to any relationship between the singer and the songs on the album sleeve. A frequent member of the brass section on record at this time was trombonist Urbie Green, although Green does not appear to have played other dates with the band.

Apart from the two Sinatra-Basie LPs for Reprise there were also Verve albums on which the band provided the accompaniment to singers Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis and Arthur Prysock. Compared with the Neal Hefti and Quincy Jones LPs from the period none of the Basie-plus-vocalists albums was particularly memorable. Away from the recording studio the band was to be found in settings previously denied to it. In his 'Encyclopedia Of Jazz In The Sixties' Leonard Feather noted that 'the band toured the British Isles and the European continent in '61 '62,'63 and '65 and enjoyed a triumphal tour of Japan in May-June, 1963. Basie made motion picture appearances in Sex and the Single Girl, Made in Paris and Cinderfella as well as TV guest shots with Fred Astaire, Andy Williams, Tony Bennett, Edie Adams, Garry Moore, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Ed Sullivan and the Bell Telephone Hour'. A number of Basie's most important sidemen and soloists had left the band to go their own way including Frank Wess (who had been switched to alto by Basie when Bill Graham was sacked), Thad Jones and Sonny Payne. On the plus side, Eric Dixon had come into the reed team playing a rich-toned, Lucky Thompson-like tenor plus excellent flute while Eddie Lockjaw Davis came and went a number of times. When he was in the band Eddie could always be relied upon to churn up the excitement without ever going too far into the realms of bad taste for Eddie was, and is, a master of brinkmanship.

Not surprisingly many critics express their dissatisfaction and concern about the band's music. Whitney Balliett called it Civil Service swing while John Hammond, who probably felt the change in direction more keenly than most, was obviously hurt by the turn of events.

But worse was to come. In 1966 Basie started recording on a nonexclusive or album-by-album basis and the results were often lacklustre, sometimes downright awful. MCA added a rock guitarist to the band, put pop singer Jackie Wilson in front and came up with an instantly forgettable album titled 'Two Much'. Around the same time the same company put out 'Basie's In The Bag’ which mixed current pop tunes (Hang on Sloopy, Green onions etc.) with titles such as Mercy, Mercy, Mercy and Let the good times roll. By comparison the 'concept' albums with self-explanatory names such as 'Broadway - Basie's Way' and 'Hollywood -Basie's Way' seemed to have deep musical significance. Singers of all types still seemed capable of getting Basie to agree to the making of an album, with the result that Kay Starr, the Mills Brothers, Teresa Brewer and the Alan Copeland Singers all appeared on LP with Count.

Some interesting soloists cropped up on record with the band at this time, and occasionally worked elsewhere with the band. Roy Eldridge, for example, was with the band from July to September, 1966 (long enough to play on some record dates) while Illinois Jacquet was added for the LP

of tunes from Half A Sixpence.

All was not gloom, although the mediocre outweighed the good. Dot, the company which had foisted the Mills Brothers onto Basie for two albums, had the good grace to produce two of Basie's best LPs from the second half of the Sixties and, in so doing, gave prominence to a previously unknown talent who was to play an important part on Basie's arranging staff for some years. This was Sammy Nestico, first cousin of Sal Nistico, the tenor saxist who played with Woody Herman and, later, Count Basie. Sammy Nestico was a trombonist and arranger who served a total of 20 years with the US Air Force and, later, the Marines. He had worked with the Charlie Barnet and Gene Krupa bands before his friend Grover Mitchell, then working in Basie's trombone section, introduced him to the Count. Nestico started writing for Basie in 1968 and the Dot album Basie Straight Ahead was devoted entirely to new works all composed and arranged by Nestico. Sammy obviously grasped the band's strengths immediately and came up with scores which the men seemed to enjoy playing. Moreover, he had the ability to make the band sound the way that audiences identified with Basie. His writing was uncluttered and made equal use of the softer elements (including that million dollar reed section of Marshall Royal, Bobby Plater, Eric Dixon, Lockjaw Davis and Charlie Fowlkes) and the vital, hard-hitting brass.

On his first album Nestico came up with a number of very attractive originals, notably That warm feeling, cast in the same general mould as Hefti's Li'l darlin' and Quincy Jones's For Lena and Lennie. The fact that Basie used Nestico's works such as The magic flea, Straight ahead etc. in public was an obvious sign of the Count's approval. It was Dot which also sent producer Teddy Reig to Las Vegas in March, 1969 to record the band during their stay at the Tropicana Hotel. Again Reig, aided by engineer Wally Heider, captured the sound of the band to perfection, a band which had its solo strength bolstered by the presence of trumpeter Harry Edison heard here in fine form. The resultant LP, Standing Ovation, is one of the great Basie albums of the period and goes a long way towards making up for many previous ephemeral sets. Although there were, deliberately, no new works on the album, the band sounds as fresh as paint, charging through Broadway, Every tub, The Kid from Red Bank and Jumpin' at the Woodside as if to prove that the library never needed injections from stage musicals or films to make it sound new. As Leonard Feather wrote in his sleeve note: 'the lesson to be learned from a study of these sides is that Basie's hits of the '30s, '40s and '50s are as viable as ever as we near the end of the '60s. Playing for a hip and receptive audience (Buddy Rich and many of Splanky's old friends were on hand at the Tropicana), the band gave of itself as it always does when there is an occasion to rise to. Given the vast improvement in recording, the presence of such irresistible soloists as Sweets and Jaws, and the enthusiastic ambiance brought about by the situation in which these sides were taped, it is no wonder that Basie and his new legions have managed to prove here that Thomas Wolfe was wrong. Under the right conditions you can indeed go home again, and still have the time of your life'.

Two more albums from the period deserve mention. Bob Thiele produced an unusual LP, not wholly successful, but certainly worthy of any Basie collection. Titled Afrique it brought together the Count and arranger Oliver Nelson for a programme of new music, new to Basie that is. Apart from Hobo flats and Step right up, both of which Nelson had written originally for an LP by organist Jimmy Smith, there were tunes by avant garde saxophonists Albert Ayler and Pharaoh Sanders. Nelson, an outstanding alto and tenor soloist who made a number of records with Eric Dolphy before he turned to arranging in Hollywood, is the featured alto on Ayler's Love flower, a ballad of rare and compelling beauty. Hobo flats has Buddy Lucas added on harmonica making it a blues which is even earthier than Basie at his most Basie; other tracks have additional percussionists added and although the album, at first sight, may not appear too hopeful it is, nevertheless, an important album as an indication of what the band could achieve in a new direction.

Basie himself was pleased with the result although, with his natural modesty, he tried to place the credit elsewhere. He told John McDonough in Down Beat magazine: 'The idea was really Bob Thiele's. He thought we ought to do some of this stuff ‘cause we hadn't before. He worked the project out with Oliver Nelson. It was really Oliver's record, you know. But I liked it. He did some wonderful things which we still play. Wanted to do another LP along that line, but something happened. Sure it's different, but I'm perfectly comfortable with it. I like it. A lot of people like it. That's what's most important. Why do people hire me? For what I'm tagged for. But a little flavour of something else won't hurt. It's not ever going to dominate our programme, but it'll always be there to some extent'.

The other album to mention represents the opposite end of the spectrum and is generally disregarded by the critics. Have A Nice Day, made for the Daybreak label in the summer of 1971 comprises eleven compositions and arrangements by Sammy Nestico. 'Sammy' says Basie on the sleeve 'has a sensitivity, a feel, for our concept that few others have. The thing about him is his feel for the contemporary, the modern. Yet he gets that good, simple, understandable feel of our band as it was when we were first getting started and featuring things like Every tub, Doggin' around and Sent for you yesterday. An amazing guy!'

No barriers are broken here but it is a richly satisfying set which consolidates a lot of the previous work, especially the influences of Neal Hefti and Quincy Jones on the arranging staff. A further plus is the quite superlative recording quality which gives the instruments their correct separation; every strummed chord from Freddie Green comes across with clarity as do the vocalised plunger-muted solos from trombonist Al Grey, one of the most individual and important soloists over the years. And if you want to hear what set Basie's band apart from every other, listen to the superb timekeeping on Jamie., a performance which moves sedately along at a shade under eighteen bars per minute.

Away from the recording studios Basie literally embarked on a new venture at the beginning of 1970 when he started a number of annual cruises on the QE2 and also took part in a Caribbean cruise aboard the Rotterdam at the end of 1974. This took place shortly after his 70th birthday which was celebrated in style with a banquet at New York's Waldorf-Astoria.

At the end of 1973 he commenced recording again for Norman Granz, who was now running the Pablo label, and this arrangement was to continue until Count's death more than a decade later. Granz had little time for adding unsuitable vocalists or placing the band in a role which made them subservient to a 'concept' programme. He did, however, have an aversion to Freddie Green's rhythm guitar away from the big band setting and the very first dates for Pablo were jam sessions (at which Irving Ashby took Freddie's place) and a trio set with just Basie, Ray Brown and Louie Bellson. Called 'For The First Time' it was just that, for Basie had never previously recorded in a guitarless trio setting. "That was Norm's idea,’ Basie told John McDonough in 1975. 'You know it wasn't mine. But it was real fun. In fact we've just finished another trio session with my bass player, Norm Keenan, and Louie Bellson, but this time we added Zoot Sims. It's mostly blues and some other things. Norman Granz is a blues man you know. I guess he didn't want a guitar.  For myself, Freddie Green definitely fills out a rhythm section. But there are times we want to play around a little and get loose. Fred keeps you in there, you know- pretty strict'. (Incidentally either Basie's memory was at fault or Granz's information is incorrect; the sleeve of the Pablo Count Basie/Zoot Sims LP lists John Heard as the bass player.)

Norman Granz certainly gave us more of Basie's own playing on record than any previous producer; somehow he found the key which unlocked the Count's aversion to featuring himself. On a number of occasions he teamed Basie with Oscar Peterson and, on the face of it, it would be difficult to imagine two more disparate keyboard players for Basie's style utilised only the notes that actually mattered while Peterson has the greatest command of the piano, in technical terms, since Art Tatum. Yet the duets are brilliant with neither getting in the other's way. Two-piano records are often disappointing but the Peterson-Basie duets are gems of a different kind.

Granz also assembled a number of small bands around Basie both in the studio and on the concert platform at various jazz festivals. Typical of the latter is the recording of the spontaneous Trio blues (with Ray Brown and drummer Jimmie Smith) at the 1977 Montreux Jazz Festival. This innocuous performance starts quietly then builds in intensity until the crowd is applauding in time with the music. As if to ensure that the musicians maintain the upper hand Count breaks into some excellent stride piano, full of syncopation, and the ragged attempts by the audience to join in drop away, much to everyone's amusement.

But after the end of 1976 every performance by Basie was a bonus for the jazz world. He suffered a heart attack in September and while Nat Pierce took over the keyboard and Clark Terry was brought in to front the band in Basie's absence, there were many who wondered if the Count would be seen again as part of the world's most swinging orchestra.”