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Template:/box-header Portal:Jazz/Intro Template:/box-footer William James "Count" Basie (August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. His mother taught him to play the piano and he started performing in his teens. Dropping out of school, he learned to operate lights for vaudeville and to improvise accompaniment for silent films at a local movie theater in his home town of Red Bank, New Jersey. By 16, he increasingly played jazz piano at parties, resorts and other venues. In 1924, he went to Harlem, where his performing career expanded; he toured with groups to the major jazz cities of Chicago, St. Louis and Kansas City. In 1929 he joined Bennie Moten's band in Kansas City, and played with them until Moten's death in 1935. That year Basie formed his own jazz orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and their first recording. He led the group for almost 50 years, creating innovations like the use of two "split" tenor saxophones, emphasizing the rhythm section, riffing with a big band, using arrangers to broaden their sound, and others. Many notable musicians came to prominence under his direction, including the tenor saxophonists Lester Young and Herschel Evans, the guitarist Freddie Green, trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry "Sweets" Edison and singers Jimmy Rushing and Joe Williams. Basie's theme songs were "One O'Clock Jump," developed in 1935 in the early days of his band, and "April In Paris". (Full article...) 600px Bud Spangler at KJAZ studio image credit: [[]] Music Blues Guitar Piano More music portals... Template:/box-footer 100px 70px ... that a pioneer of the pre-war Czechoslovak swing music Jiří Traxler (pictured) lives in Canada? ... that Paraguayan and jarocho harpist Celso Duarte (pictured) began touring at age 10 and has performed with his band at Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center and the Getty Center? ... that African-American composer Wendell Logan described jazz as "our classical music", saying it "belongs here just as much as Americans belong on this soil"? ... that the piano riff played by Johnny Parker on the 1956 song "Bad Penny Blues" has been suggested as a possible influence on The Beatles' "Lady Madonna"? June/July 2010 ▼ Jazz ► Jazz by nationality ► Jazz albums ► Jazz clubs ► Jazz culture ► Jazz ensembles ► Jazz events ► Jazz genres ► Jazz instruments ► Jazz organizations ► Jazz poetry ► Jazz record labels ► Jazz techniques ► Jazz writers ► Years in jazz ► Jazz stubs Template:/box-footer Template:/box-header Portal:Jazz/Things you can do Template:/box-footer The Jazz WikiProject works to improve the quality of jazz-related articles on Wikipedia. Please join us!Template:/box-footer Template:/box-header {{Wikipedia:WikiProject Jazz/Recognized content}} Template:/box-footer Template:/box-header Portal:Jazz/Jazz genres Template:/box-footer The following Wikimedia sister projects provide more on this subject:

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