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Count Basie Net Worth
How rich is William Allen Basie? For this question we spent 13 hours on research (Wikipedia, Youtube, we read books in libraries, etc) to review the post.
The main source of income: Musicians
Total Net Worth at the moment 2024 year – is about $61,6 Million.
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Biography
William Allen Basie information Birth date: August 21, 1904, Red Bank, New Jersey, United States Death date: April 26, 1984, Hollywood, Florida, United States Birth place: Red Bank, New Jersey, USA Profession:Soundtrack, Music Department, ActorAwards:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award Music groups:Count Basie Orchestra (1935 – 1984), Oklahoma City Blue Devils
Height, Weight
:How tall is Count Basie – 1,65m.
How much weight is Count Basie – 59kg
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William James Count Basie (August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. His mother taught him to play the piano and he started performing in his teens. Dropping out of school, he learned to operate lights for vaudeville and to improvise accompaniment for silent films at a local movie theater in his home town of Red Bank, New Jersey. By 16 he increasingly played jazz piano at parties, resorts and other venues. In 1924 he went to Harlem, where his performing career expanded, he toured with groups to the major jazz cities of Chicago, St. Louis and Kansas City. In 1929 he joined Bennie Motens band in Kansas City, and played with them until Motens death in 1935.That year Basie formed his own jazz orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and their first recording. He led the group for almost 50 years, creating innovations like the use of two split tenor saxophones, emphasizing the rhythm section, riffing with a big band, using arrangers to broaden their sound, and others. Many musicians came to prominence under his direction, including the tenor saxophonists Lester Young and Herschel Evans, the guitarist Freddie Green, trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry Sweets Edison and singers Jimmy Rushing and Joe Williams. Basies theme songs were One OClock Jump, developed in 1935 in the early days of his band, and later April in Paris.
Biography,Early life and educationWilliam Basie was born to Harvey Lee and Lillian Basie in Red Bank, New Jersey. His father worked as a coachman and caretaker for a wealthy judge. After automobiles replaced horses, his father became a groundskeeper and handyman for several wealthy families in the area. Both of his parents had some type of musical background. His father played the mellophone, and his mother played the piano, in fact, she gave Basie his first piano lessons. She took in laundry and baked cakes for sale for a living. She paid 25 cents a lesson for piano instruction for him.Not much of a student in school, Basie dreamed of a traveling life, inspired by touring carnivals which came to town. He finished junior high school but spent much of his time at the Palace Theater in Red Bank, where doing occasional chores gained him free admission to performances. He quickly learned to improvise music appropriate to the acts and the silent movies.Though a natural at the piano, Basie preferred drums. Discouraged by the obvious talents of Sonny Greer, who also lived in Red Bank and became Duke Ellingtons drummer in 1919, Basie at age 15 switched to piano exclusively. Greer and Basie played together in venues until Greer set out on his professional career. By then, Basie was playing with pick-up groups for dances, resorts, and amateur shows, including Harry Richardsons Kings of Syncopation. When not playing a gig, he hung out at the local pool hall with other musicians, where he picked up on upcoming play dates and gossip. He got some jobs in Asbury Park at the Jersey Shore, and played at the Hong Kong Inn until a better player took his place.Early careerAround 1920, Basie went to Harlem, a hotbed of jazz, where he lived down the block from the Alhambra Theater. Early after his arrival, he bumped into Sonny Greer, who was by then the drummer for the Washingtonians, Duke Ellingtons early band.[11] Soon, Basie met many of the Harlem musicians who were making the scene, including Willie the Lion Smith and James P. Johnson.Basie toured in several acts between 1925 and 1927, including Katie Krippen and Her Kiddies as part of the Hippity Hop show, on the Keith, the Columbia Burlesque, and the Theater Owners Bookers Association (T.O.B.A.) vaudeville circuits, and as a soloist and accompanist to blues singers Katie Krippen and Gonzelle White.[12][13] His touring took him to Kansas City, St. Louis, New Orleans, and Chicago. Throughout his tours, Basie met many jazz musicians, including Louis Armstrong.[14] Before he was 20 years old, he toured extensively on the Keith and TOBA vaudeville circuits as a solo pianist, accompanist, and music director for blues singers, dancers, and comedians. This provided an early training that was to prove significant in his later career.[15]Back in Harlem in 1925, Basie gained his first steady job at Leroys, a place known for its piano players and its cutting contests. The place catered to uptown celebrities, and typically the band winged every number without sheet music using head arrangements.[16] He met Fats Waller, who was playing organ at the Lincoln Theater accompanying silent movies, and Waller taught him how to play that instrument. (Basie later played organ at the Eblon Theater in Kansas City). As he did with Duke Ellington, Willie the Lion Smith helped Basie out during the lean times by arranging gigs at house-rent parties, introducing him to other leading musicians, and teaching him some piano technique.[17]In 1928, Basie was in Tulsa and heard Walter Page and his Famous Blue Devils, one of the first big bands, which featured Jimmy Rushing on vocals.[18] A few months later, he was invited to join the band, which played mostly in Texas and Oklahoma. It was at this time that he began to be known as Count Basie (see Jazz royalty).[19]Kansas City yearsThe following year, in 1929, Basie became the pianist with the Bennie Moten band based in Kansas City, inspired by Motens ambition to raise his band to the level of Duke Ellingtons or Fletcher Hendersons.[20] Where the Blue Devils were snappier and more bluesy, the Moten band was more refined and respected, playing in the Kansas City stomp style.[21] In addition to playing piano, Basie was co-arranger with Eddie Durham, who notated the music.[22] Their Moten Swing, which Basie claimed credit for,[23] was widely acclaimed and was an invaluable contribution to the development of swing music, and at one performance at the Pearl Theatre in Philadelphia in December 1932, the theatre opened its door to allow anybody in who wanted to hear the band perform.[24] During a stay in Chicago, Basie recorded with the band. He occasionally played four-hand piano and dual pianos with Moten, who also conducted.[25] The band improved with several personnel changes, including the addition of tenor saxophonist Ben Webster.When the band voted Moten out, Basie took over for several months, calling the group Count Basie and his Cherry Blossoms. When his own band folded, he rejoined Moten with a newly re-organized band.[26] When Moten died in 1935 after a failed tonsillectomy, the band tried to stay together but couldnt make a go of it.Basie formed a new band that year, which included many Moten alumni, with the important addition of tenor player Lester Young. They played at the Reno Club and sometimes were broadcast on local radio. Late one night with time to fill, the band started improvising. Basie liked the results and named the piece One OClock Jump.[27] According to Basie, we hit it with the rhythm section and went into the riffs, and the riffs just stuck. We set the thing up front in D-flat, and then we just went on playing in F. It became his signature tune.[28]John Hammond and first recordingsBasie and band, with vocalist Ethel Waters, from the film Stage Door Canteen (1943)At the end of 1936, Basie and his band, now billed as Count Basie and His Barons of Rhythm, moved from Kansas City to Chicago, where they honed their repertoire at a long engagement at the Grand Terrace Ballroom.[29] Right from the start, Basies band was noted for its rhythm section. Another Basie innovation was the use of two tenor saxophone players, at the time, most bands had just one. When Young complained of Herschel Evans vibrato, Basie placed them on either side of the alto players, and soon had the tenor players engaged in duels. Many other bands later adapted the split tenor arrangement.[30]In that city in October 1936, the band had a recording session which the producer John Hammond later described as the only perfect, completely perfect recording session Ive ever had anything to do with.[31] Hammond had heard Basies band by radio and went to Kansas City to check them out.[32] He invited them to record, in performances which were Lester Youngs earliest recordings. Those four sides were released on Vocalion Records under the band name of Jones-Smith Incorporated, the sides were Shoe Shine Boy, Evening, Boogie Woogie, and Lady Be Good. After Vocalion became a subsidiary of Columbia Records in 1938, Boogie Woogie was released in 1941 as part of a four-record compilation album entitled Boogie Woogie (Columbia album C44).[33] When he made the Vocalion recordings, Basie had already signed with Decca Records, but did not have his first recording session with them until January 1937.[34]By then, Basies sound was characterized by a jumping beat and the contrapuntal accents of his own piano. His personnel around 1937 included: Lester Young and Herschel Evans (tenor sax), Freddie Green (guitar), Jo Jones (drums), Walter Page (bass), Earle Warren (alto sax), Buck Clayton and Harry Edison (trumpet), Benny Morton and Dickie Wells (trombone).[35] Lester Young, known as Prez by the band, came up with nicknames for all the other band members. He called Basie Holy Man, Holy Main, and just plain Holy.[36]Basie favored blues, and he would showcase some of the most notable blues singers of the era after he went to New York: Billie Holiday, Jimmy Rushing, Big Joe Turner, Helen Humes, and Joe Williams. He also hired arrangers who knew how to maximize the bands abilities, such as Eddie Durham and Jimmy Mundy.New York City and the swing yearsWhen Basie took his orchestra to New York in 1937, they made the Woodside Hotel in Harlem their base (they often rehearsed in its basement).[37] Soon, they were booked at the Roseland Ballroom for the Christmas show. Basie recalled a review, which said something like, We caught the great Count Basie band which is supposed to be so hot he was going to come in here and set the Roseland on fire. Well, the Roseland is still standing.[38] Compared to the reigning band of Fletcher Henderson, Basies band lacked polish and presentation.[39]The producer John Hammond continued to advise and encourage the band, and they soon came up with some adjustments, including softer playing, more solos, and more standards. They paced themselves to save their hottest numbers for later in the show, to give the audience a chance to warm up.[40] His first official recordings for Decca followed, under contract to agent MCA, including Pennies from Heaven and Honeysuckle Rose.[41]Hammond introduced Basie to Billie Holiday, whom he invited to sing with the band. (Holiday did not record with Basie, as she had her own record contract and preferred working with small combos).[42] The bands first appearance at the Apollo Theater followed, with the vocalists Holiday and Jimmy Rushing getting the most attention.[43] Durham returned to help with arranging and composing, but for the most part, the orchestra worked out its numbers in rehearsal, with Basie guiding the proceedings. There were often no musical notations made. Once the musicians found what they liked, they usually were able to repeat it using their head arrangements and collective memory.[44]Next, Basie played at the Savoy, which was noted more for lindy-hopping, while the Roseland was a place for fox-trots and congas.[45] In early 1938, the Savoy was the meeting ground for a battle of the bands with Chick Webbs group. Basie had Holiday, and Webb countered with the singer Ella Fitzgerald. As Metronome magazine proclaimed, Basies Brilliant Band Conquers Chicks, the article described the evening:Throughout the fight, which never let down in its intensity during the whole fray, Chick took the aggressive, with the Count playing along easily and, on the whole, more musically scientifically. Undismayed by Chicks forceful drum beating, which sent the audience into shouts of encouragement and appreciation and casual beads of perspiration to drop from Chicks brow onto the brass cymbals, the Count maintained an attitude of poise and self-assurance. He constantly parried Chicks thundering haymakers with tantalizing runs and arpeggios which teased more and more force from his adversary.[46]The publicity over the big band battle, before and after, gave the Basie band a boost and wider recognition. Soon after, Benny Goodman recorded their signature One OClock Jump with his band.[47]A few months later, Holiday left for Artie Shaws band. Hammond introduced Helen Humes, whom Basie hired, she stayed with Basie for four years.[48] When Eddie Durham left for Glenn Millers orchestra, he was replaced by Dicky Wells. Basies 14-man band began playing at the Famous Door, a mid-town nightspot with a CBS network feed and air conditioning, which Hammond was said to have bought the club in return for their booking Basie steadily throughout the summer of 1938. Their fame took a huge leap.[49] Adding to their play book, Basie received arrangements from Jimmy Mundy (who had also worked with Benny Goodman and Earl Hines), particularly for Cherokee, Easy Does It, and Super Chief.[50] In 1939, Basie and his band made a major cross-country tour, including their first West Coast dates. A few months later, Basie quit MCA and signed with the William Morris Agency, who got them better fees.[51]On 19 February 1940, Count Basie and his Orchestra opened a four-week engagement at Southland in Boston, and they broadcast over the radio on 20 February.[52] On the West Coast, in 1942 the band did a spot in Reveille With Beverly, a musical film starring Ann Miller, and a Command Performance for Armed Forces Radio, with Hollywood stars Clark Gable, Bette Davis, Carmen Miranda, Jerry Colonna, and the singer Dinah Shore.[53] Other minor movie spots followed, including Choo Choo Swing, Crazy House, Top Man, Stage Door Canteen, and Hit Parade of 1943.[54] They also continued to record for OKeh Records and Columbia Records.[55] The war years caused a lot of members turn over, and the band worked many play dates with lower pay. Dance hall bookings were down sharply as swing began to fade, the effects of the musicians strikes of 1942–44 and 1948 began to be felt, and the publics taste grew for singers.Basie occasionally lost some key soloists. However, throughout the 1940s, he maintained a big band that possessed an infectious rhythmic beat, an enthusiastic team spirit, and a long list of inspired and talented jazz soloists.[56]Post-war and later yearsThe big band era appeared to have ended after the war, and Basie disbanded the group. For a while, he performed in combos, sometimes stretched to an orchestra. In 1950, he headlined the Universal-International short film Sugar Chile Robinson, Billie Holiday, Count Basie and His Sextet. He reformed his group as a 16-piece orchestra in 1952. Basie credits Billy Eckstine, a top male vocalist of the time, for prompting his return to Big Band. He said that Norman Granz got them into the Birdland club and promoted the new band through recordings on the Mercury, Clef, and Verve labels.[57] The jukebox era had begun, and Basie shared the exposure along with early rocknroll and rhythm and blues artists. Basies new band was more of an ensemble group, with fewer solo turns, and relying less on head and more on written arrangements.Basie added touches of bebop so long as it made sense, and he required that it all had to have feeling. Basies band was sharing Birdland with such bebop greats as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Miles Davis. Behind the occasional bebop solos, he always kept his strict rhythmic pulse, so it doesnt matter what they do up front, the audience gets the beat.[58] Basie also added flute to some numbers, a novelty at the time that became widely copied.[59] Soon, his band was touring and recording again. The new band included: Paul Campbell, Tommy Turrentine, Johnny Letman, Idrees Sulieman, and Joe Newman (trumpet), Jimmy Wilkins, Benny Powell, Matthew Gee (trombone), Paul Quinichette and Floyd Candy Johnson (tenor sax), Marshal Royal and Ernie Wilkins (alto sax), and Charlie Fowlkes (baritone sax).[60] Down Beat magazine reported, (Basie) has managed to assemble an ensemble that can thrill both the listener who remembers 1938 and the youngster who has never before heard a big band like this.[61] In 1957, Basie sued the jazz venue Ball and Chain in Miami over outstanding fees, causing the closure of the venue.[62]In 1958, the band made its first European tour. Jazz was especially appreciated in France, The Netherlands, and Germany in the 1950s, these countries were the stomping grounds for many expatriate American jazz stars who were either resurrecting their careers or sitting out the years of racial divide in the United States. Neal Hefti began to provide arrangements, notably Lil Darlin. By the mid-1950s, Basies band had become one of the preeminent backing big bands for some of the most prominent jazz vocalists of the time. They also toured with the Birdland Stars of 1955, whose lineup included Sarah Vaughan, Erroll Garner, Lester Young, George Shearing, and Stan Getz.[63]In 1957, Basie released the live album Count Basie at Newport. April in Paris (arrangement by Wild Bill Davis) was a best-selling instrumental and the title song for the hit album.[64] The Basie band made two tours in the British Isles and on the second, they put on a command performance for Queen Elizabeth II, along with Judy Garland, Vera Lynn, and Mario Lanza.[65] He was a guest on ABCs The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, a venue also opened to several other black entertainers. In 1959, Basies band recorded a greatest hits double album The Count Basie Story (Frank Foster, arranger) and Basie and Eckstine, Inc.: album featuring Billy Eckstine, Quincy Jones (as arranger) and the Count Basie Orchestra. It was released by Roulette Records, then later reissued by Capitol Records.Later that year, Basie appeared on a television special with Fred Astaire, featuring a dance solo to Sweet Georgia Brown, followed in January 1961 by Basie performing at one of the five John F. Kennedy Inaugural Balls.[66] That summer, Basie and Duke Ellington combined forces for the recording First Time! The Count Meets the Duke, each providing four numbers from their play books.[67]Count Basie (left) in concert (Cologne 1975)During the balance of the 1960s, the band kept busy with tours, recordings, television appearances, festivals, Las Vegas shows, and travel abroad, including cruises. Some time around 1964, Basie adopted his trademark yachting cap.[68]Through steady changes in personnel, Basie led the band into the 1980s. Basie made a few more movie appearances, such as the Jerry Lewis film Cinderfella (1960) and the Mel Brooks movie Blazing Saddles (1974), playing a revised arrangement of April in Paris.During its heyday, The Gong Show (1976–80) used Basies Jumpin at the Woodside during some episodes, while an NBC stagehand named Eugene Patton would dance on stage, Patten became known as Gene Gene, the Dancing Machine.
Summary
Wikipedia Source: Count Basie