COUNT BASIE: SWINGIN’ THE BLUES
Count Basie is pictured here romping with bassist Eddie Jones at a 40th anniversary bash* held at the New York Jazz Museum in November 1974. Produced by pianist Rowland Evans III and Museum founder Jack Bradley, the event featured a reunion jam by Basie’s oldtime sidemen: Drummer Jo Jones, trumpeter Doc Cheatham, trombonist Vic Dickenson, saxophonists Paul Quinichette, Buddy Tate, and Earle Warren were all there to re-create the classic swing arrangements which made Basie famous. Charles Mingus sat in on bass for one set; and Jo Jones delivered a hypnotic hand-drum solo: what charisma! What a contrast to the Count’s understated elegance!Your intrepid lensman (then a senior at Vassar and a classmate of Rowland Evans) switched off his puny flash when a TV crew showed up to tape the program, preferring to shoot the proceedings with the bright TV lights, and in some cases getting interesting shadows such as this. It was a glorious, magnificent session, a cherished memory.
*Of the founding of his big band, Kansas City, 1934.
