Count Basie and his Orchestra made their first recording of One O’Clock Jump in New York City on July 7, 1937. It went on to be the band’s theme song and one of their most enduring hits.

One O’Clock Jump is a 12-bar blues and it is a “head arrangement,” which means it was originally made up by Basie and the band more or less spontaneously. However, Gunther Schuller claimed that some of the musical material can be traced back to a tune called Six or Seven Times recorded by the Chocolate Dandies in 1929.

Head arrangements are flexible and can be expanded by the band on cue during a live performance. Musicians can “mix and match” any number of short, repetitive melodic figures known as riffs to back up the soloists depending on how they feel like playing them during any particular performance. This technique was common practice in small groups dating back to the earliest days of jazz, but Basie’s band was one of the first to utilize it in a large ensemble setting. Sometimes a live performance of One O’Clock Jump could go on for fifteen or twenty minutes, but the technical restrictions of the standard 78 r.p.m. record limited the length to about three minutes.

Basie’s 1937 recording features improvised solos by tenor saxophonists Herschel Evans and Lester Young, trombone player George Hunt, Buck Clayton on trumpet and Basie himself at the piano. This song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1979 and later was designated as one of the “Songs of the 20th Century.”

Here is a link the 1937 recording of One O’Clock Jump, as performed by the Count Basie orchestra 89 years ago today:

"ONE O'CLOCK JUMP"