Sunday, January 30, 2011

AFTER THE COUNT - THE BASIE BAND IN LOUISVILLE

Basie’s Orchestra Carries the Torch Without the Count

When Count Basie and his Orchestra last appeared in the Louisville area Dec. 6, 1983 at the Derby Dinner Playhouse in Clarksville, the great bandleader told me during an interview he was thinking of breaking his band up the following April.

“I think I’m going to wrap things up and spend a little time with my daughter in the Bahamas,” he said.

Basie’s words turned out to be cruelly ironic. He died of cancer in April 1984. But the explosive sound of his mighty orchestra continues to live on. During a concert last night at Whitney Hall in the Kentucky Center for the Arts, the current edition of the Count Basie Orchestra proved beyond a doubt that Basie’s unique style of big band jazz will never die.

The Basie band hasn’t actually changed much since losing its leader. Tenor saxophonist and flutist Eric Dixon, who now directs the band when he’s not soloing, has been with the orchestra for 17 years. Ditto trumpeter and manager Sonny Cohn, and guitarist Freddie Green, the patriarch of the band first joined Basie in 1937.

They opened last night’s concert, which was part of the Hilliard Lyons Big Band Series with “Strike Up the Band,” a tune that has been part of the band’s book for a decade or more. This traditional big band flag waver featured tenor saxophonist Kenny Hing playing several frenetic choruses while the brass section roared behind him.

Next, the mood turned mellow as alto saxophonist Danny Turner, another Basie veteran, came up front to play the ballad “Easy Living.” He started off at a slow tempo, later switched to double time, then ended with a cadenza that showed off his technique with a flourish of well chosen notes.

Basie’s replacement in the band is pianist Tee Carson. Carson is hardly a newcomer. He started his career in 1946 as an accompanist for Ethel Waters. Over the years he’s played piano for everyone from Billie Holiday to Ella Fitzgerald. Carson fills Basie’s role with impeccable style, using dynamics and special chord voicing’s in all the right places.

The Basie Orchestra has always been famous for its ability to move from a whisper to a roar. Last night, pianist Carson and the band’s rhythm section - bassist Cleveland Eaton, guitarist Green and drummer Duffy Jackson - began playing “It’s Only a Paper Moon” in a light, soft, swinging style. At just the right juncture, the entire brass section added an ear-piercing exclamation point that lifted some members of the near capacity audience right out of their seats. They did this several times and each time Carson feigned surprise by covering his ears.

The Basie Orchestra is also well known for all the great jazz arrangers it has employed over the years. Last night’s concert was filled with songs from the pens of Sammy Nestico, Ernie Wilkins and Frank Foster. During Foster’s “Good Time Blues,” an arrangement salvaged from the Basie band of the ‘60s bassist Eaton bowled the audience over with a masterful solo.

Guitarist Green got a lot of attention during the performance. At one point Hilliard Lyons president Gilbert Pamplin presented him with a large box containing a gift and thanked him for his 47 years with the Basie band.

During the second half of the concert, the band featured vocalist Carmen Bradford. Bradford was with Basie when he appeared here a little over a year ago, but she has improved a lot since then. She began her set with an up-tempo version of “A Foggy Day in London Town.” She handled the song smoothly and seemed quite at ease.

Bradford then showed everyone she also knows how to sing the blues. After taunting the crowd with some humorous blues lyrics, she launched into a powerful version of “Gee Baby, Ain’t I Good To You.”

As I mentioned earlier, the Count Basie Orchestra hasn’t changed much at all. Last night after playing their theme song “One O’Clock Jump” and receiving a standing ovation, they closed the show with same all-stops-out encore they’ve been using for years, “Woodchoppers Ball.”

Danny O’Bryan
The Louisville Times
January 23, 1985

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