Search - Count Basie :: Count Basie: Combos - Anthology 1936 & 1956

Brilliant music

J. Bartholomew | 06/21/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The first of two CDs starts at the very beginning with the pair of 'Jones-Smith Incorporated' sides from 1936. By the eighteenth track, you're through early 1944, and on all of these the bouyancy of that Basie rhythm section is simply uncanny. Lester Young is on fourteen of those tracks -- for a July 24, 1942 session it's Don Byas in his place. It's probably no revelation to anyone reading this that this is essential and brilliant music. The final four tracks on CD1 date from May 20, 1947, and have Paul Gonsalves in the tenor chair. This is an interesting reference point for Gonsalves fans. What would soon become a completely individual and instantly recognizable approach to the horn was still in development at this time, but some of the elements were already in place.



The second CD collects another 22 tracks, recorded from early 1950 to early 1956. The first 11 date from that period when the band business was in such decline that Basie had pared down to an octet. The initial two sides are from February of 1950, and have both Gene Ammons and Georgie Auld (!) on tenor saxes. These are followed by a May 1950 date where the horns are modernists Clark Terry, Buddy DeFranco, Charlie Rouse, and Serge Chaloff, and the drummer is none other than Buddy Rich. This date contributes four more sides, two of which are Neal Hefti charts and so peg his contribution to the Basie book as the very start of the decade. On the next five, Rouse and Chaloff are replaced by Wardell Gray and Rudy Rutherford, respectively, Terry and DeFranco remain, and the drummer is now Gus Johnson. Next comes a single septet track from July 1952 where the saxophone soloists are Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and Lester disciple Paul Quinichette, with the Count on organ, Oscar Peterson on piano, Ray Brown on bass, Johnson on drums, and of course guitarist Freddie Green, who is present on every single track dating from 1939 forward. The remaining ten sides feature personnel recognizable as stalwarts from the "New Testament" incarnation of the Basie orchestra. Buddy Rich returns to man the drum chair on eight of the ten.



I am very happy with this purchase. There is real value in having all of those priceless Thirties-era combo tracks collected in a single grouping. The music on the second CD isn't of comparably stratospheric heights, but then how many jazz recordings are? You do get the music from the Basie Octet period -- these sides are not easy to come by, and the front line presence of young modernists makes all of them worthy of inclusion. Finally, the personnel lists for each recording are complete, the dates of each session and the composer of each title are stated, and packaging is attractive and of high quality. Vive la France!



"