Count Basie
Count Basie
William James "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. His mother taught him to play the piano and he started performing in his teens. Dropping out of school, he learned to operate lights for vaudeville and to improvise accompaniment for silent films at a local movie theater in his home town of Red Bank, New Jersey. By 16 years old, he increasingly played jazz piano at parties, resorts and other venues. In 1924, he went to...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPianist
Date of Birth21 August 1904
CityRed Bank, NJ
CountryUnited States of America
I don't dig that two-beat jive the New Orleans cats play. My boys and I have to have four heavy beats to the bar and no cheating.
Keep on listening & tapping your feet.
If you find a note tonight that sounds good, play the same damn note every night!
The real innovators did their innovating by just being themselves.
If you play a tune and a person don't tap their feet, don't play the tune.
Of course, there are a lot of ways you can treat the blues, but it will still be the blues.
All I wanted was to be big, to be in show business and to travel... and that's what I've been doing all my life.
I'm saying: to be continued, until we meet again. Meanwhile, keep on listening and tapping your feet.
Oscar Peterson plays the best ivory box I've ever heard.
I, of course, wanted to play real jazz. When we played pop tunes, and naturally we had to, I wanted those pops to kick! Not loud and fast, understand, but smoothly and with a definite punch.
I'll always remember when I first heard Lester [Young]. I'd never heard anyone like him before. He was a stylist with a different sound. A sound I'd never heard before or since. To be honest with you, I didn't much like it at first.
I decided that I would be one of the biggest new names; and I actually had some little fancy business cards printed up to announce it, 'Count Basie. Beware, the Count is Here.'
I just think swing is a matter of some good things put together that you can really pat your foot by. I can't define it beyond that.
Freddie Green has been my right arm for thirty years. And if he leaves the band one day, I'll probably leave with him.