SwingDJs

Couple of questions on Basie:

1) What is his last CD release while alive?

2) After his death, what are the CDs out there recorded by his band ?

Serg

"Fancy Pants" is the last one, recorded about four months before his death on April 26, 2004: the 20th Yartzeit coming up soon.

There have been about a dozen post-homous recordings, including Freddie Green's last recording on the Diane Schuur CD. The first post-humos was something like "Long Live the Count" or "The Count Lives On" in 1986. "Swing Shift" and "Count Plays Duke" are two others: the second being a 1998/99 tribute to Ellington near his 100th birthday.

The Diane Schuur album is the only solidly-swing, post-humous Basie recording I have heard. The two recent ones I mentioned are good and have some great moments, but they fall a bit short of the Diane Schuur album and have their progressive-jazz annoyances. Frank Foster took the band mostly in a modern, progressive-jazz direction after Basie's death. However, rumor has it that they are getting back to basics recently and sound great. I have not confirmed it, though.

Lawrence wrote:"Fancy Pants" is the last one, recorded about four months before his death on April 26, 2004: the 20th Yartzeit coming up soon.

I always knew Basie was ahead of his time, but I have a hard time believe he actually died in the future.

Soupbone wrote:

Lawrence wrote:"Fancy Pants" is the last one, recorded about four months before his death on April 26, 2004: the 20th Yartzeit coming up soon.

I always knew Basie was ahead of his time, but I have a hard time believe he actually died in the future.

Doh! April 26, 1984. Thinking too much about the 20th avnniversary (the Yartzeit).

Soupbone wrote:

Lawrence wrote:"Fancy Pants" is the last one, recorded about four months before his death on April 26, 2004: the 20th Yartzeit coming up soon.

I always knew Basie was ahead of his time, but I have a hard time believe he actually died in the future.

Am I ahead of my time? I'm going to die in the future.

Soupbone wrote:

Lawrence wrote:"Fancy Pants" is the last one, recorded about four months before his death on April 26, 2004: the 20th Yartzeit coming up soon.

I always knew Basie was ahead of his time, but I have a hard time believe he actually died in the future.

Actually, come to think of it, Yogi, all of us have died in the future, which might make us behind our time because Basie and Ellington (et al.), who were ahead of their time, all died in the past.

nah, never mind

Lawrence - can I just say we've all missed you? I was worried I was going to catch up to you on the top 10 posters - you must have been on vacation or something......

I was at this event last October, The Count Basie Orchestra is alive and well (at least the surviving members) and played at Miller Park in Milwaukee. The quote below is from the Milwaukee Journal.
At Miller Park on Oct. 10, the joint was jumpin'. The Count Basie Orchestra was playing, casino tables were full, martini, cognac and cigar bars were doing a brisk business and buffet tables were emitting alluring aromas. There was quite a party going on. This Joint Is Jumpin' was new, a benefit for the foundations of the four Covenant Healthcare hospitals, and more than 700 revelers, including Carmella and Ulice Payne, who served as honorary chair, jumped on the bandwagon.

Lars wrote:I was at this event last October, The Count Basie Orchestra is alive and well (at least the surviving members)

While the Count Basie Orchestra may be alive and well, it doesn't have any surviving members from when Basie was around except for its leader, Bill Hughes, and maybe one other person (drummer Dave Gibson, maybe?)

To see multiple alumni from Basie's band on stage together these days is a rare occurence

We were told that while many of the "Swing Era" bands have no surviving members, the current Count Basie Orchestra has five who backed the Count at one time or another while he was alive. We spent some time talking with Mr. Hughes and he reminisced about playing in Milwaukee in the old days at the Eagles Ballroom and The Roof. The Eagles Ballroom still exists and has undergone some restoration but the bulding the The Roof was on was torn down some years ago to make room for the Midwest Express Center.

Lars wrote:We were told that while many of the "Swing Era" bands have no surviving members, the current Count Basie Orchestra has five who backed the Count at one time or another while he was alive.

Wow, that's pretty cool! I don't know much about the band, and I had always thought it was primarily a bunch of youngers cats, with a token Basie alum as the leader, such as Frank Foster for awhile, Grover Mitchell for awhile, and now that Grover passed, Bill Hughes has taken the reign.

So who are the five???

The lead trombonist for the Roger Humphries band in Pittsburgh played w/ Basie in his last years... he's got some real good stories about being in that band...