Count Basie

William James Basie was born on the twenty-first of August 1904 at Red Bank, New Jersey, the son of Harvey Lee Basie — a New Jersey coachman — and Lillian Ann Childs Basie. He was raised in the principal Red Bank Black community of the principal early-twentieth-century New Jersey-Coast Black community.

He was instructed in the principal piano-and-pipe-organ techniques across the principal late-1910s and early-1920s Red Bank Black community — and was hired in 1924 at the principal Harlem Walker Hotel as a junior piano player.

He was hired in 1929 at the principal Bennie Moten Kansas City Orchestra as principal pianist — and held the principal Bennie Moten Kansas City Orchestra pianist position from 1929 to the principal post-1935 Bennie Moten death period.

He founded the principal Count Basie Orchestra at the principal Reno Club at Kansas City in November 1935 — at the principal post-Bennie-Moten Kansas-City swing-orchestra transition period. The principal Count Basie Orchestra was discovered at the principal Reno Club by the principal jazz critic John Hammond and the principal Benny Goodman during the principal Hammond-radio-broadcast-discovery of February 1936.

He relocated the principal Count Basie Orchestra to the principal Roseland Ballroom at New York in December 1936 — and held the principal Roseland-and-Famous-Door-and-Birdland New York swing-orchestra residency across the principal late 1930s and early 1940s.

He composed the principal Count Basie Orchestra signature compositions across the principal swing-era period — including 'One O'Clock Jump' of 1937, 'Jumpin' at the Woodside' of 1938, 'Lester Leaps In' of 1939, and 'Blue and Sentimental' of 1939.

He led the principal Count Basie Orchestra across approximately four hundred recording sessions and approximately five thousand performances across the principal 1935 to 1984 Count-Basie-Orchestra commercial period — from the principal 1935 Kansas City founding to his death in 1984.

He died at Hollywood, Florida on the twenty-sixth of April 1984 of complications of pancreatic cancer, at seventy-nine.

He is honored here as the founder of the Count Basie Orchestra.