Count Basie on Jazz Casual

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ke3W5DQ6U1U

Another episode of Jazz Casual, this time with the great master of swing, Count Basie!

Highlights include:

1. 8:14 Basie killing it on "Handful of Keys" by his great inspiration, Fats Waller. If you are used to the Count's very sparse, tinkling solos, be sure to check out him tearing through a chorus of this song.

2. 13:30 Basie talk about the origins of his theme song, the One O'Clock Jump.

3. 20:07 Tempo talk - it's great to hear Basie talk about liking to play a "danceable" tempo.

4. 24:32 Hear Basie talk with great reverence about Duke Ellington (as he always did). Basie saw him as the greatest and always said so - he was always so humble in giving it up to Duke's greatness.

Another thing I love about these old shows is just how much silence they let happen. You can tell that the interviewer wanted to say as little as possible and sometimes the Count seems to have felt the same. Still though it is such a treat to spend such an intimate half hour with such a master!

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Count Basie Quartet (August 21, 1968)

Count Basie (piano); Norman Keenan (bass); Freddie Green (guitar); Sonny Payne (drums).

1. I Don't Know

2. Handful of Keys

3. Untitled Blues

4. Squeeze Me

5. Twenty Minutes After Three

6. As Long As I Live

7. If I Could Be With You (One Hour Tonight)

8. National Educational Television Blues

Dizzy Gillespie Documentary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdQf1EHlrKc

Check out this great documentary on Dizzy Gillespie. It's got some really interesting interviews and archival footage.

Here are some highlights:

• Dizzy & some of his bandmates talk about playing with Billy Eckstein's band and Earl Hines's band. (check our blog post o n Earl Hines, whose band was famously an incubator for the innovators or Be Bop)

• Dizzy busting out the shim sham as he was wont to do and listen to how the drummer is exactly with him in the moment. You can tell he knows the shim sham too.

• Some of the band members mention Be Bop as focused more on the music than the dancers (as swing had been before) and Dizzy agrees while at the same time saying he always could dance to it.

Enjoy!

Earl Hines on Jazz Casual

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ekup3aRXOFE

Earl Hines has sometimes been called the father of modern piano, a player who bridged eras and influenced all those who came after him.

I find it super interesting to hear about Earl Hines's beginnings in classical music and when he first heard jazz. I love these stories that counter the essentialist view that all black musicians just automatically oozed jazz back in the day. Like everyone else, these musicians were influenced by the people and the culture around them, and their stories are so much more varied than one might think.

At 8:45 he begins his demonstrations of his influences and it is fascinating to see what he picked up & what he did with it. This little bit of video is a real treat.

For more on Earl Hines, check out this obituary from the Washinton Post in 1983. Here's a quote for context on the man:

"...the playing of Art Tatum, Teddy Wilson, Oscar Peterson, Mary Lou Williams, Erroll Garner and so many other greats was deeply rooted in his unique style. His early '40s band, which included Billy Eckstine, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, was considered the incubator of bop."

This is all to say that Earl "Fatha" Hines was a heavy cat - I hope you enjoy this video of him!