Details
Track Listing
DISC 1: 1937:
1. Honeysuckle Rose
2. Pennies From Heaven
3. Swinging at the Daisy Chain
4. Roseland Shuffle
5. Exactly Like You
6. Boo Hoo
7. Glory of Love, The
8. Boogie Woogie (I May Be Wrong)
9. Smarty (You Know It All)
10. One O'Clock Jump
11. Listen My Children and You Shall Hear
12. John's Idea
13. Good Morning Blues - (take 1)
14. Good Morning Blues - (take 2)
15. Our Love Was Meant to Be
16. Time Out
17. Topsy
18. I Keep Remembering
19. Out the Window
20. Don't You Miss Your Baby
21. Let Me Dream
DISC 2: 1938:
1. Georgianna
2. Blues in the Dark
3. Sent For You Yesterday
4. Every Tub
5. Now Will You Be Good?
6. Swingin' the Blues
7. Mama Don't Want No Peas 'N Rice 'N' Coconut Oil
8. Blue and Sentimental
9. Doggin' Around
10. Stop Beatin' Round the Mulberry Bush - (take 1)
11. Stop Beatin' Round the Mulberry Bush - (take 2)
12. London Bridge Is Falling Down
13. Texas Shuffle
14. Jumpin' at the Woodside
15. How Long Blues
16. Dirty Dozens, The
17. Hey Lawdy Mama
18. Fives, The
19. Boogie Woogie
20. Dark Rapture
21. Shorty George
22. Blues I Like to Hear, The
23. Do You Wanna Jump, Children?
24. Panassie Stomp
DISC 3: 1939:
1. My Heart Belongs to Daddy
2. Sing For Your Supper
3. Oh! Red
4. Fare Thee Honey, Fare Thee Well - (take 1)
5. Fare Thee Honey, Fare Thee Well - (take 2)
6. Dupree Blues
7. When the Sun Goes Down - (take 1)
8. When the Sun Goes Down - (take 2)
9. Red Wagon
10. You Can Depend on Me
11. Cherokee - (part 1)
12. Cherokee - (part 2)
13. Blame It on My Last Affair - (take 1)
14. Blame It on My Last Affair - (take 2)
15. Jive at Five
16. Thursday
17. Evil Blues
18. Oh, Lady Be Good
| Details | | Producer: | Orrin Keepnews (Reissue) | | Distributor: | Universal Distribution | | Recording Type: | Studio | | Recording Mode: | Mono | | SPAR Code: | n/a |
Album Notes
Personnel: Count Basie (piano); Jimmy Rushing, Helen Humes (vocals); Eddie Durham (arranger, electric guitar, trombone); Caughey Roberts, Earl Warren (alto saxophone); Lester Young, Hershel Evans (tenor saxophone, clarinet); Chu Berry (tenor saxophone); Jack Washington (baritone & alto saxophone); Buck Clayton, Harry "Sweets" Edison, Shad Collins, Joe Keyes, Carl Smith, Ed Lewis, Bobby Moore, Karl George (trumpet); Dan Minor, Dicky Wells, Bennie Morton, George Hunt, (trombone); Freddie Greene, Claude Williams (acoustic rhythm guitar); Walter Page (acoustic bass); Jo Jones (drums).
Recorded in New York between 1937-1939. The dates for the individual sessions are: January 21, 1937; March 26, 1937; July 7, 1937; August 9, 1937; October 13, 1937; January 3, 1938; February 16, 1938; June 6, 1938; August 22, 1938; November 9, 1938; November 16, 1938; January 5, 1939; Januray 26, 1939; February 2-4, 1939. COUNT BASIE: THE COMPLETE DECCA RECORDINGS comes with a 32-page booklet, featuring biographical and discographical information, a track-by-track breakdown of solos, and liner notes by Orrin Keepnews and Steven Lasker.
COUNT BASIE: THE COMPLETE DECCA RECORDINGS is among the most compelling reissues to emerge from GRP's "The Legendary Masters Of Jazz" series--a vital component in any jazz collection. When it comes to that most elusive of jazz metaphors, swing, Count Basie wrote the book, and here for the first time, the complete Decca recordings are presented in the exact chronological order in which they were recorded.
Basie's big band was very much an extension of his piano style, deeply rooted in stride and blues. On a piano feature like "Red Wagon" the sense of notes not played is every bit as strong as those Basie articulates, as Basie edits away all the extraneous elements and zeroes in on only the prettiest most swinging notes. Which is what made big band arrangements like "Swinging At The Daisy Chain," "John's Idea," "Jumpin' At The Woodside" and "One O'Clock Jump" so popular among dancers.
Then there was Basie's famous "All-American Rhythm Section," which matched Basie's coy restraint with an uncanny cruise control of its own. They took the strong beat (1 & 3) and weak beat (2 & 4) accents of previous generations, and conjured up a modern 1-2-3-4 groove centered in Freddie Greene's insistent four-to-the-bar strumming, Walter Page's big earthy beat and Jo Jones' magical hi-hat pulse and uncanny accents. When the brass and reed sections dropped away to let the rhythm section stroll, this was something completely new in jazz.
Finally there were the legendary soloists, each man a section unto himself. Lester "Prez" Young brought a new lightness of tone, an advanced harmonic conception, and a floating behind-the-beat groove to the tenor saxophone (dig his lyrical alchemy on "Out The Window" and "Cherokee"), changing our conception of that instrument forever. Then there was his stylistic foil, tenor man Hershel Evans, with his huge, burnished on-the-beat Coleman Hawkins style (hear him swing for dear life on "Topsy" and `battle' Young on "Time Out"). And there were the great trumpeters, cup-mute bluesman Buck Clayton and the slyly lyrical Harry "Sweets" Edison, and the inimitable vocalist "Little" Jimmy Rushing. All in all, COUNT BASIE: THE COMPLETE DECCA RECORDINGS is a definitive statement on the sound of joy that is jazz.
Industry Reviews
Picked by critic Leonard Feather as one of the 10 best jazz albums of 1992.
Jazziz (12/01/1992)
...Here's the root of all that is good in American music...this music defined swing, as the soloists--Harry Sweets Edison, Lester Young, Buck Clayton, Basie, Herschel Evans and Jimmy Rushing--defined their individual instruments...
Musician (07/01/1992)
5 Stars - Excellent - ...It's hard to imagine a more important reissue for this year or any other...Here is the old testament of the first Basie band (1937-1939)...never has completeness been so completely satisfying...[these sides] travel effortlessly across time on the wings of an astounding rhythm section...
Down Beat (11/01/1992)
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