William James “Count” Basie​ was born in Red Bank, New Jersey on August 21, 1904. He received his first piano lessons from his mother and by his teens was able to improvise music to accompany silent movies at a local theater. He would go on to lead one of the most successful jazz bands in the history of the genre.

In the early 1920s Basie moved to New York City and took up residence in Harlem where he fell in with some of the finest stride piano players of the era. He also toured with various musical acts before being asked to join Walter Page’s Blue Devils, a territory band popular in the mid-west, in 1928. The next year he joined up with Bennie Moten’s band in Kansas City. After Moten’s death in 1935 Basie started his own 9-piece ensemble and took up residency at the Reno Club in Kansas City where they regularly played on live radio programs. Famed producer John Hammond heard the Basie organization on one of those broadcasts and signed them to a recording contract. They made their first records shortly thereafter.

The Basie band of the late 1930s featured such luminaries as Lester Young, Dickie Wells, Buck Clayton, Harry “Sweets” Edison, and the All-American Rhythm section of Freddie Green on guitar, bassist Walter Page, Jo Jones on drums and, of course, Basie at the piano. The group also featured great vocalists like Billie Holiday, Jimmy Rushing and Helen Humes.

After World War II musical tastes were changing and big bands were going out of business left and right. Basie’s group was no exception. But, by the early 1950s, Basie re-formed his band and continued to lead it through the end of his life. While his early Kansas City groups relied heavily on the blues and “head arrangements,” later incarnations of the ensemble relied more on written arrangements and precision while still featuring fine solo work.

Count Basie passed away from pancreatic cancer in 1984 at the age of 79. His legacy lives on today and the sound of his bands continues to be both informative and inspirational to later generations of jazz musicians.

Here is a link to a 1965 performance by the Count Basie Orchestra:

"APRIL IN PARIS"