On October 22, 1957 the Count Basie Orchestra was in the Capitol Records studio on West 46th Street in New York City for the second of two days recording the album that would be named “The Atomic Mr. Basie.” The record was released on the Roulette label the following year and featured compositions and arrangements by Neal Hefti including Kid From Red Bank, Whirlybird, Splanky, Flight of the Foo Birds and Li’l Darlin’. Critic Bruce Eder wrote that the record “took Basie's core audience and a lot of other people by surprise, as a bold, forward-looking statement within the context of a big-band recording."

The arranger Neal Hefti was a trumpet player from Nebraska who began writing charts as a teenager playing in Woody Herman’s First Herd. After leaving Herman in 1946 he concentrated on his writing and started working with Basie in 1950. In addition to his work in the jazz field, Hefti also wrote the music for the “Odd Couple” movie and the theme for the Batman television show in the mid-1960s.

The Basie band that was in the studio on that October day 65 years ago included Snooky Young and Thad Jones on trumpet, trombonist Al Grey and saxophonists Marshall Royal, Frank Foster and Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis. The record received widespread critical acclaim, and the Hefti tunes are still played regularly today by jazz big bands worldwide.

Here is a link to one of the better-known songs from “The Atomic Mr. Basie:”:

"FLIGHT OF THE FOO BIRDS"