Welcome to the Count Basie Corner

This blog will serve the purpose of sharing live recordings by the great Count Basie, from various stages of his career. I don't know when I'll get started and don't know how fast new posts will follow here, so best you just keep watching.

I was involved in an earlier project on Bill Basie, namely a website planned for release in 2004, the year which marked both his hundreth anniversary as well as the twentieth year of his death. The few of us dedicated to that project in the end got overwhelmed by the amount of work it meant (it was to included the best available discography of the Count's recorded music, articles, short biographies on the musicians, a timeline drafted by yours truly, etc etc). I am *not* planning to release any of that here, except maybe some of my notes from the timeline, now and then.

Also I might try and post the recordings in chronological way, eventually.

Alas, this is the first and only post for the moment, but I have some music around that I'll put up soon here.

I hope you'll enjoy this blog and the opportunity to check out some of Bill Basie's music from various points in time!

Discussion & Comments

This place is of course open for comments and discussion!
By now a few comments were posted to other entries, but in order to organise this blog a bit better, I'd like to have general comments posted here, while comments to any other entries should rather be about the respective entry.

So, write away!

The Timeline

I'll put up a timeline giving some insight into the life and music of Basie. This entry will allow you to access the respective posts directly and will stay right here on top of the blog.

Chapter 1 - Childhood and Youth (1904-1924)
Chapter 2 - First Steps as a professional musician (1924-1927)
Chapter 3 - The Blue Devils, Bennie Moten (1928-1935)
Chapter 4 - Old Testament (1936-1949)
Chapter 5 - The Hard Years - Small Groups (1950-1951)
Chapter 6 - New Testament I - King of Dance (1952-1957)
Chapter 7 - New Testament II - Atomic Basie (1957-1962)
Chapter 8 - The Blazing Saddle Years - Reprise, Verve, Dot... (1962-?)
Chapter 9 - Old Bill Basie - The Final Years (?-1984)

The Music

To get direct access to the sounds posted here, use this entry!

The Thirties
1936 - 1937 - 1938 - 1939

The Forties
1940 - 1941 - 1942 - 1943 - 1944 - 1945 - 1946 - 1947 - 1948 - 1949

The Fifties
1950 - 1951 - 1952 - 1953 - 1954 - 1955 - 1956 - 1957 - 1958 - 1959

The Sixties
1960 - 1961 - 1962 - 1963 - 1964 - 1965 - 1966 - 1967 - 1968 - 1969

The Seventies
1970 - 1971 - 1972 - 1973 - 1974 - 1975 - 1976 - 1977 - 1978 - 1979

The Eighties
1980 - 1981 - 1982 - 1983 - 1984

Count Basie Orchestra (the ghost band)
1994

Basie Compilations
Basie Meets the Master Horns, 1936-53
1944-45 V-Disc LP

Other Compilations
Freddie Webster
Tadd Dameron's Big Ten (also here)