Blues by Basie/Dance Parade

Performer: Count Basie
Producer: Jeffrey James (Reissue)...
Distributor: Gotham Distributing Corp.

Notes: Personnel: Helen Humes, Jimmy Rushing (vocals); Don Byas (tenor saxophone); Buck Clayton (trumpet). Recording information: 05/19/1939-08/09/1946. The Collectables label is becoming well known for reissuing two albums on one CD, and they've done it again here with Blues by Basie and Dance Parade, originally on microgroove LP vinyl from the Columbia label. The "Blues" recording has every conceivable number the Count Basie band did in 1941 and 1942 with "blues" in the title, and there are four bonus tracks, two featuring vocals by Jimmy Rushing, and one from Helen Humes. Dance Parade hails circa 1945, 1946, and 1949, with one recording from 1939, including a lot of solid swing and some boogie-woogie, a style Basie himself is not closely associated with. Rushing comes back one more time. Though not viewed in the big picture as essential Basie recordings, together they tell a fine tale about what the band was up to, shortly before the war-induced U.S. recording bans. ~ Michael G. Nastos

Simply put, Count Basie led the most swinging of the classic big bands. His youthful education in playing stride piano in New York was meshed with a deep immersion in the hard-swinging Kansas City jazz scene of the early 1930s. As Basie moved from sideman to bandleader, his tight-knit ensemble eventually came to rival Duke Ellington's group. The Basie orchestra's perfectly interlocking rhythm section provided a springboard for a succession of jazz giants--most notably tenor man Lester Young--to launch their solo excursions. Basie's big-band vision was so strong that his group continued for decades after his passing.

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