Count Basie
Jazz pianist, bandleader, composer
Born: August 21, 1904, in Red Bank, New Jersey
Died: April 26, 1984, in Hollywood, Florida
New Jersey Hall of Fame, Class of 2010: Arts & Entertainment
He played for kings and queens and presidents, but at the piano or leading his groundbreaking orchestra, William “Count” Basie was the embodiment of entertainment royalty.
Growing up in Red Bank, Basie learned the value of hard work. His father was a coachman, groundskeeper, and handyman for wealthy families in the area. His mother was a laundress. Lillian Basie also played piano and gave her son his first lessons on the keyboard.
Although a good student, Basie dropped out of junior high school to pursue a career in entertainment. He did chores at the local Palace Theater and quickly learned how to operate the lights for vaudeville shows. In no time, he was improvising piano accompaniment for silent films. Playing both piano and drums, Basie performed at dances and amateur shows, landing gigs in Asbury Park and other Jersey Shore towns.
Around 1920, Basie, still in his teens, moved to Harlem to seek opportunities and connect with the more-accomplished New York musicians. Basie made connections and soon was touring as an accompanist as far west as Kansas City and New Orleans. Returning to Harlem, he met the legendary keyboardist Fats Waller, who gave Basie informal lessons on the organ.
Later in the 1920s, Basie found himself stranded in Kansas City. He remained–and joined a band led by fellow pianist Bennie Moten. Together, they pioneered an upbeat style of jazz called Kansas City Stomp. Eventually, Basie started his own nine-piece band, the Barons of Rhythm, with future jazz icon Lester Young on tenor saxophone. One night, during a live radio performance with the band, the announcer gave Basie the name “Count,” to put his music in a class with Duke Ellington.
Another of those radio performances resulted in the band’s discovery by the influential talent scout John Hammond, who produced Basie’s earliest recordings. Basie next moved his band to New York, bringing their lively “jump” sound to such popular venues as the Roseland Ballroom and the Savoy. At various times, the band featured such fabulous vocalists as Billie Holiday, Jimmy Rushing, and Helen Humes. Basie himself wowed audiences with his spare, blues-oriented playing.
By the 1940s, Basie’s band—now the Count Basie Orchestra—was firmly established as one of the most successful attractions of the Swing Era. They played major engagements across the country, appeared in numerous movies, and scored nationwide hits with such Basie-penned swing classics as “Jumpin’ at the Woodside” and his signature tune, “One O’Clock Jump.”
The swing-era faded after World War II, but by then Basie was firmly in the entertainment elite. In the ensuing decades, he continued to tour around the world; made frequent television appearances; performed at one of President John F. Kennedy’s inaugural balls in 1961; and cut memorable recordings with the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Oscar Peterson, and fellow future New Jersey Hall of Famers Sarah Vaughan and Frank Sinatra.
Truly a member of entertainment’s pantheon, Basie was the recipient of nine Grammy Awards; a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award; a Kennedy Center Honors award; an NEA Jazz Masters Award; and posthumously, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. New Jersey commemorates Basie with the Count Basie Performing Arts Center in his native Red Bank.