"Wow, they've reissued Basie's classic live album from the Roulette years,"Basie at Birdland". Plus, they've added 8 additional tracks from the same series of concerts. Basie's band was tight and smooth during these years and it shows as the band effortlessly swings through a set of tunes they had recorded during the last 10 years or so. No Joe Williams on this one, but you do get a great guest appearance by John Hendricks, who scats his way through "whirly bird". And you get 2 versions of the Basie killer blues tune "segue in c"! what a groove he gets going on that one. "Good times blues" and "blues backstage" also show the greatest of the band at slow tempos. You will be tapping your foot wether you want to or not. Hey, it's Basie!"
Stunning Basie at their best
M. Cronenworth | Texas | 12/27/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Count Basie is *the* name for Big Band jazz. This album gives a great look at his work and influence over all the Basie bands. The quality of the recorded songs is far higher than other Basie albums. I run Linux (Fedora), and since Amazon is dragging their feet on a Linux Album Downloader I ran it through Wine and downloaded the album. It was worth it! If you want some amazing jazz tracks recorded at high quality, this is the album to get."
BRILLIANT LIVE SWING
Nikica Gilic | Zagreb, Croatia | 01/24/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Yes, the New Testament Basie orchestra could really swing (particularly in live recordings, I think) and this is an explosive and swinging album with (as if things weren't swinging and hip enough) Jon Hendricks taking a virtuoso vocal flight on "Whirly-Bird", interacting beautifully with the very much live orchestra...
Another particularly brilliant track of this 1961 album, in my opinion, is "Blues Backstage" with subtle graduate growth in drive, with Budd Johnson, Henry Coker and Snooky Young displaying their skills magnificently...
But, the entire album is great and swinging...
The classic LP is expanded by tracks otherwise available at "The Complete Roulette Live Recordings of Count Basie and His Orchestra"...
It's beautifully recorded...
The band:
Thad Jones, Sonny Cohn, Lennie Johnson,Snooky Young (tp), Quentin Jackson, Henry Coker, Benny Powell (tb), Marshal Royal (as, cl), Frank Wess (ts,as,fl), Frank Foster, Budd Johnson (ts), Charlie Fowlkes (bs), Basie (p), F. Green (who else? - g), Eddie Jones (b), Sonny Payne (dm)"
Unbelievable
Ex Lib | Fort Ross, CA | 06/02/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is a jaw-dropping recording of Basie's band in 1961. The band is so tight and swings so hard it sounds at times as if one is listening to a Wurlitzer organ. There simply was no band that swung as hard as Basie's - at least not as recorded on this live date. Amazing."