COUNT BASIE & HIS ATOMIC BAND - Live At the Crescendo 1958
Phono 870245
THAD JONES, SNOOKY YOUNG, WENDELL CULLEY, JOE NEWMAN, trumpet; BENNY POWELL, HENRY COKER, AL GREY, trombone; FRANK WESS, alto & tenor sax, flute; MARSHALL ROYAL, alto sax, clarinet; BILLY MITCHELL, FRANK FOSTER, tenor sax; CHARLIE FOWLES, baritone sax; COUNT BASIE, piano; FREDDIE GREEN, guitar; EDDIE JONES, bass; SONNY PAYNE, drums
All vocals by JOE WILLIAMS with the exception of “Hallelujah, I Love Her So”, on which SAMMY DAVIS Jr. is the guest vocalist.
All tracks recorded live at the Crescendo Club, Los Angeles, June 24-July 2, 1958.
CD5 [10-15]: Same personnel.
NBC-TV Cast, “Bobby Troup’s Stars of Jazz”, Los Angeles, June 23, 1958
Jazz, said Whitney Balliett, is the sound of surprise. Not with Count Basie. Basie, became the sound of reassurance. The pulse of this band is as natural as your breathing.
This five disk package is a monument to a great band playing at its best. It was well before the decline of the sixties and seventies when the band’s playing became complacent and routine. Here it was just a band at the height of its powers in a congenial location and, for a few days, just in one place. The arrangements are known, well honed and the musicians can relax.
Sonny Payne the drummer was often criticised for being flashy. Here his fills and brushwork drive the band well. There are few tedious drum solos (Ol’ Man River’ twice) and apart for a few occasions where the tempo is rushed Payne contributes greatly to the exuberance. Sitting just in front of Payne is Freddie Green and because the recording is so detailed there are many occasions when Green’s guitar can be heard clearly such as the version of ‘Cute’ which also shows the brush work of Sonny Payne. Eddie Jones’ bass was an important element of the rhythm. Unobtrusive most of the time he is featured on ‘Yogi’.
‘Bag-A-Bones’ features the trombones of Benny Powell, Al Grey and Henry Coker. Joe Newman and Thad Jones take most of the brass solos. Jones plays his usual role on the only version of ‘April in Paris’. The trumpet section can vary their attack and can move from a whisper to a full on roar in the space of a few bars. Joe Newman on ‘Midgets’ and ‘Duet’ plays with intensity. Marshall Royal is not usually given much credit which is unfair because he was the band’s straw boss responsible for rehearsals and his work leading the saxophone section can be heard on the arrangement of the ‘Lullaby of Birdland’ as the saxophones move through the anthem with great fluidity.
Joe Williams was an important part of the commercial success of this band. Time has not been kind to Joe. His superb articulation and enunciation is not much prized now. The lyrics of the songs are delivered with clarity and zest and you can tell that the band enjoy accompanying this great blues singer.
The band’s book at that time was full of arrangements by Neil Hefti who wrote all the music for the album ‘The Atomic Mr Basie’. You can almost create a live version of that album from the tracks here. Only one track is missing! Frank Foster, Ernie Wilkins and Frank Wess also wrote compositions .
Basie’s piano playing, as always, is a delight,. A modest man, his playing reflects that part of his personality. Hugely understated, his introductions are monuments of minimalism. You can feel the tension building in each piece as the band waits to roar in. The Count’s piano playing is the real connection to the 1930’s band. He is relaxed and plays at length. His playing, probably the best music on the discs is lean, just listen to ‘Basie-Boogie’ and the long intro to ‘Kid From Redbank’.
This is probably the best Basie album from his New Testament band. Utterly relaxed, yet incisive, the music here is a delight. Some of the tracks have been around before, however, this collection is the most complete representation of what the band played between 24th June and the 3rd July 1958.’ The Count on the Coast Volumes 1 and 2’ and ‘Basie’s Golden 58’ are from the same source. It is entirely possible that most of the tracks were engineered by Wally Heider who recorded all ten nights at the Crescendo. Heider loved jazz and he recorded Ellington, Kenton and various rock groups: his archive now is in the Library of Congress. Early into the new techniques of stereo, Heider knew how to capture a band without exaggerating the separation. His special skill was location recording. The informality is captured with the quality of the sound an important part of the total effect. The clarity of the recording is better than the studio releases from Roulette and it is now 24 bit remastered. However, some of the tracks sound as if they were recorded in a venue somewhat larger than the Crescendo which, apparently, could accommodate only about 200 people.
The packaging of the five CDs in a sturdy box, with 20 pages of notes and interviews, completes the presentation. There are bonus tracks on CD5. These are six tracks from the TV series ‘Bobby Troup’s Stars of Jazz with the same Basie band.
This is not the Basie band of Lester Young, Herschal Evans and Buck Clayton. Many of the soloists do not have the innovative edge of the earlier band. However. there are other virtues: the writers provide settings that exploit the rhythmic strengths and techniques of the band. Recorded fifty eight years ago, the music still sound fresh and new. Inevitably, there are repetitions including: four ‘Whirly Bird’, two ‘Little Pony’, two ‘Moten Swing’, but that does not detract from the richness of the album and the pleasure of listening to such an important band at length. For anyone who enjoys the Basie band of the fifties these recordings are essential especially as there are few live recordings of the band from this era. Phono should be congratulated for putting these important recordings into circulation.
Reviewed by Jack Kenny
Phono 870245
THAD JONES, SNOOKY YOUNG, WENDELL CULLEY, JOE NEWMAN, trumpet; BENNY POWELL, HENRY COKER, AL GREY, trombone; FRANK WESS, alto & tenor sax, flute; MARSHALL ROYAL, alto sax, clarinet; BILLY MITCHELL, FRANK FOSTER, tenor sax; CHARLIE FOWLES, baritone sax; COUNT BASIE, piano; FREDDIE GREEN, guitar; EDDIE JONES, bass; SONNY PAYNE, drums
All vocals by JOE WILLIAMS with the exception of “Hallelujah, I Love Her So”, on which SAMMY DAVIS Jr. is the guest vocalist.
All tracks recorded live at the Crescendo Club, Los Angeles, June 24-July 2, 1958.
CD5 [10-15]: Same personnel.
NBC-TV Cast, “Bobby Troup’s Stars of Jazz”, Los Angeles, June 23, 1958
Jazz, said Whitney Balliett, is the sound of surprise. Not with Count Basie. Basie, became the sound of reassurance. The pulse of this band is as natural as your breathing.
This five disk package is a monument to a great band playing at its best. It was well before the decline of the sixties and seventies when the band’s playing became complacent and routine. Here it was just a band at the height of its powers in a congenial location and, for a few days, just in one place. The arrangements are known, well honed and the musicians can relax.
Sonny Payne the drummer was often criticised for being flashy. Here his fills and brushwork drive the band well. There are few tedious drum solos (Ol’ Man River’ twice) and apart for a few occasions where the tempo is rushed Payne contributes greatly to the exuberance. Sitting just in front of Payne is Freddie Green and because the recording is so detailed there are many occasions when Green’s guitar can be heard clearly such as the version of ‘Cute’ which also shows the brush work of Sonny Payne. Eddie Jones’ bass was an important element of the rhythm. Unobtrusive most of the time he is featured on ‘Yogi’.
‘Bag-A-Bones’ features the trombones of Benny Powell, Al Grey and Henry Coker. Joe Newman and Thad Jones take most of the brass solos. Jones plays his usual role on the only version of ‘April in Paris’. The trumpet section can vary their attack and can move from a whisper to a full on roar in the space of a few bars. Joe Newman on ‘Midgets’ and ‘Duet’ plays with intensity. Marshall Royal is not usually given much credit which is unfair because he was the band’s straw boss responsible for rehearsals and his work leading the saxophone section can be heard on the arrangement of the ‘Lullaby of Birdland’ as the saxophones move through the anthem with great fluidity.
Joe Williams was an important part of the commercial success of this band. Time has not been kind to Joe. His superb articulation and enunciation is not much prized now. The lyrics of the songs are delivered with clarity and zest and you can tell that the band enjoy accompanying this great blues singer.
The band’s book at that time was full of arrangements by Neil Hefti who wrote all the music for the album ‘The Atomic Mr Basie’. You can almost create a live version of that album from the tracks here. Only one track is missing! Frank Foster, Ernie Wilkins and Frank Wess also wrote compositions .
Basie’s piano playing, as always, is a delight,. A modest man, his playing reflects that part of his personality. Hugely understated, his introductions are monuments of minimalism. You can feel the tension building in each piece as the band waits to roar in. The Count’s piano playing is the real connection to the 1930’s band. He is relaxed and plays at length. His playing, probably the best music on the discs is lean, just listen to ‘Basie-Boogie’ and the long intro to ‘Kid From Redbank’.
This is probably the best Basie album from his New Testament band. Utterly relaxed, yet incisive, the music here is a delight. Some of the tracks have been around before, however, this collection is the most complete representation of what the band played between 24th June and the 3rd July 1958.’ The Count on the Coast Volumes 1 and 2’ and ‘Basie’s Golden 58’ are from the same source. It is entirely possible that most of the tracks were engineered by Wally Heider who recorded all ten nights at the Crescendo. Heider loved jazz and he recorded Ellington, Kenton and various rock groups: his archive now is in the Library of Congress. Early into the new techniques of stereo, Heider knew how to capture a band without exaggerating the separation. His special skill was location recording. The informality is captured with the quality of the sound an important part of the total effect. The clarity of the recording is better than the studio releases from Roulette and it is now 24 bit remastered. However, some of the tracks sound as if they were recorded in a venue somewhat larger than the Crescendo which, apparently, could accommodate only about 200 people.
The packaging of the five CDs in a sturdy box, with 20 pages of notes and interviews, completes the presentation. There are bonus tracks on CD5. These are six tracks from the TV series ‘Bobby Troup’s Stars of Jazz with the same Basie band.
This is not the Basie band of Lester Young, Herschal Evans and Buck Clayton. Many of the soloists do not have the innovative edge of the earlier band. However. there are other virtues: the writers provide settings that exploit the rhythmic strengths and techniques of the band. Recorded fifty eight years ago, the music still sound fresh and new. Inevitably, there are repetitions including: four ‘Whirly Bird’, two ‘Little Pony’, two ‘Moten Swing’, but that does not detract from the richness of the album and the pleasure of listening to such an important band at length. For anyone who enjoys the Basie band of the fifties these recordings are essential especially as there are few live recordings of the band from this era. Phono should be congratulated for putting these important recordings into circulation.
Reviewed by Jack Kenny
