COUNT BASIE

The American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader and composer led his orchestra for almost 50 years from 1935, creating innovations like the use of two split tenor saxophones, emphasizing the rhythm section, riffing with a big band and using arrangers to broaden their sound. This week’s Phantom Dancer presented by Greg Poppleton features a set of Count Basie from 1956, the year he was voted America’s No. 1 rock’n’roll band.

ONLINE

This week’s Phantom Dancer will be online right after the  107.3 2SER Sydney live mix at 2ser.com.
Hear the show live every Tuesday 12:04-2pm on 107.3 2SER Sydney

ROCK’N’ROLL

When did rock begin and what is rock is a debate that still continues. On the one hand, writers will point to nineteenth century songs using the words rock and roll and day, “there!”.

Today, if a singer uses a different chord in the usual pentatonic scale of rock, or dresses differently, it becomes a whole new genre.

However, as a defined commercial musical type, the mid-1950s is generally agreed to be the time it hatched from the egg in which it was laid.

And ‘what was rock then’, can generally be defined through surviving records and radio broadcasts as whatever influential DJ, Al Freed, spotlighted.

SWING CAN BE ROCK?

Well, not really. Swing gets its momentum by accenting beats 2 and 4. Rock plods along on beats 1 and 3.

So hearing Count Basie’s big swing orchestra backing 4-piece rock acts and taking up much of Al Freed’s weekly radio ‘Rock’n’Roll Dance Party’ on CBS will sound alien to the average tatooed ‘alternative’ type, happily cocooned in their privileged mainstream bubble created by big music.

KING OF ROCK’N’ROLL

But Count Basie was touted as, and awarded as, the ‘number one rock’n’roll band’ in 1956.

Basie himself said that the CBS Rock’n’Roll dance experience was the worst of his career.

While his swing band were kicking goals across the US in 1956 creating new sounds by continuing to innovate, with regular radio exposure from nightclubs, lugging behind the likes of Little Richard or Bill Haley was both boring and humiliating.

Further, Basie reported, when the rock bands stopped and it was just the Basie band playing, the kids headed out to the foyer.

An experience I have personally had when my 1920s-30s band was used as intermission in a big Sydney venue between rock acts.

So, you’ll hear Count Basie today broadcasting live from jazz clubs in 1956 and from the CBS ‘Rock’n’Roll Dance Party’ show.

VIDEO

This week’s Phantom Dancer video of the week is Count Basie on TV from Birdland from 22 July 1956 on a ‘Steve Allen Show’. You’ll see Birdland as it was in 1956, Birdland’s famous MC ‘Pee Wee’ and the Count playing ‘April in Paris’. Enjoy!

8 OCTOBER PLAY LIST