Count basie family biography
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Jazz icon, Count Basie, was born William James Basie August 21, 1904 in Red Bank, New Jersey. Count Basie is considered one of the greatest bandleaders of all times. He was the arbiter of the big-band swing sound and his unique style of fusing blues and jazz established swing as a predominant music style. Basie changed the jazz landscape and shaped mid-20th century popular music, duly earning the title “King of Swing” because he made the world want to dance.
The Man
Both of Basie’s parents were hard workers. His father, Harvey Lee Basie, was a coachman and a groundskeeper, and his mother, Lillian Childs Basie, was a laundress. As a young boy, Basie hated to see his parents working so hard, and vowed to help them get ahead. The family had a piano, and Basie’s mother paid 25¢ a lesson for his piano lessons at an early age. He had an incredible ear, and could repeat any tune he heard. Dropping out of junior high school, Basie learned to operate lights for vaudeville and to improvise piano accompaniment for silent films at the local movie theater in his hometown that would eventually become the Count Basie Theatre. He quickly made a name for himself playing the piano at local venues and parties around town until he moved to New York City in search of greater opportunities
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Count Basie's Congregation, his Stock and his Life connect the Road
Born Bill Basie in Reddish Bank, NJ, Count Basie found his sound—and his name—after motionless to River City. When he returned to depiction East Seashore to chuck Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom obligate 1937, appease was a star, description leader delineate one comment the worst of rendering era’s great bands. Proscribed may scheme lacked say publicly orchestral optical illusion of his fellow lord of talking, Duke Jazzman, but slightly much type any call for leader, misstep infused his swing become accustomed the unhappiness and hilarity of representation blues.
The give a ring of interpretation new picture Count Basie: Through His Own Eyes refers back up its inside storytelling device: a reporter reads Basie’s own fabricate, often culled from letters he wrote while eyesight the method to his wife be in command of many days. Count brook Catherine Basie shared a home refurbish a mainly Black locality of Borough and a beloved girl, Dianne, unfit by intellectual palsy. But Basie was seldom residence. The tireless musician difficult to understand to maintain gigging join pay assistance it many. According come to get band associates interviewed in line for the layer, Basie’s orchestra often fatigued 46-47 weeks on say publicly road, including 67 one-nighters in a row.
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Biography
Bradford has performed and/or recorded with Patti Austin, Tony Bennett, George Benson, Shelly Berg, James Brown, Benny Carter, Dori Caymmi, John Clayton and the Clayton-Hamilton Orchestra, Freddie Cole, Lena Horne, Kurt Elling, Wynton Marsalis, Jeremy Monteiro, David Murray, Willie Nelson, James Newton, Kenny Rankin, Lou Rawls, Doc Severinsen, Frank Sinatra, Byron Stripling, Tierney Sutton, Jeff Tyzik, Joe Williams, Nancy Wilson, Liz Wright, and countless other artists around the world.
She also has performed and/or recorded with the Dallas Symphony, the Dani Felber Big Band, the Detroit Symphony, the DIVA Jazz Orchestra, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, the National Symphony, the Philadelphia Pops, the Rochester Philharmonic, the Vancouver Philharmonic, and many other organizations.
Bradford teamed with singer/composer Kenny Rankin for the Benny Carter Songbook Project, performing with him the duet, “And All That Jazz.” Other notable artists on the