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Basie did play with some small groups, but his strength was leading a Big Band.  With the exception of a brief period at the end of the 40s and beginning of the 50s, Basie led a big band from 1935 until his death in 1984.  

Musical Biography

Basie was born in Red Bank New Jersey on August 24, 1904.  Both of his parents were musicians, and he took piano lessons from Fats Waller and other Harlem stride pianists while growing up.  While on tour in 1927, the troupe with which he was touring broke up when it ran out of money, stranding Basie in Kansas City.  This misfortune turned into Basie's greatest opportunity because it stranded him in the midst of a musical revolution in the rambunctious Kansas City, run by mobs and crooked politicians who owned speakeasies selling bootlegged liquor.  All of these illegal clubs needed musicians for entertainment, lots of them.  Although this crooked, crime-ridden environment might have been an awful place to raise a family, it was the best place to raise a band.  The free-spirited lifestyle of Kansas City translated into its music, and the competitive environment inspired some of the greatest musicians ever to innovate and create some of the best music ever.  Being stranded in Kansas City also brought Basie in contact with the musicians who would back up his meteoric rise to fame, including Walter Page and his Blue Devils, with whom he played for a while.

Basie's first big break came two years later in 1929 when he impressed Benny Moten so much that Moten hired him to play piano for his widely-popular orchestra, even though Moten, himself, was already the piano player.  When Moten passed away suddenly, Basie dabbled as a soloist before uniting musicians from Moten's band (including Lester Young on Sax, and Jo Jones on drums) with some of the former Blue Devils (including Walter Page on bass and Jimmy Rushing on vocals) to form his own orchestra: The Baron's of Rhythm.  Up until this point, Basie went by his given name ("William" or "Bill"), but, rumor has it, a radio announcer dubbed him "Count" Basie in the tradition of Swing musicians taking aristocratic titles: for example, "Duke" Ellington, and even Basie's own "Baron's" of Rhythm.  Thereafter, the band dropped the "Baron's" name and simply went by its bandleader's name: Count Basie and His Orchestra.

Basie's band broadcasted regularly from their live gigs for the next year or so.  A rather flukish coincidence garnered Basie's first national attention.  John Hammond, a key, influential music producer during the Swing Era, left a Benny Goodman show in Chicago and turned on the radio in his car.  Somehow, he was able to tune in the radio show from Kansas City broadcasting one of Basie's live shows.  Amazed by the freedom and energy of the light rhythmic Swing he heard, Hammond eventually brought Basie's band to play in Chicago in the fall of 1936, then to Buffalo, New York, and then New York City, itself, which was then the center of the Swing world.  By the end of the year, Basie found himself playing a regular gig at the famous Roseland Ballroom in Harlem.  Swing music as a genre would never be the same.

Even if he did not invent "swing," Basie's 1930s orchestra demonstrated to the world how to "swing" unlike anyone before, inspiring others to write music that was previously unimaginable.  His rhythm section of himself, Jo Jones, and Walter Page lightened the rhythm up so as to free the music from the heavier, "chonk-chonk" sound common in earlier swing music.  This light, swinging rhythm, combined with an energetic, free-flowing band, freed songwriters and musicians up tremendously from the rigid forms that initially made the music possible, but by then had dried up somewhat.  The new energy that Basie's rhythm section developed arguably provided the final musical push that elevated Swing from basement music to music fit for ballrooms and concert halls.  Admittedly, Basie was not the only one who developed this innovation, and in some sense he takes credit for what was happening all across the country in more anonymous venues.  Similarly, Louis Armstrong was not the only one who developed Swing in the first place; he was the most influential of hundreds and thousands of musicians, even though he gets the credit.  Nonetheless, Basie and his band were key, pivotal figures in loosening up the rhythm and opening the full potential that the Swing rhythm offered to Jazz.  And the impact was sudden when Basie came to New York and "defeated" popular Harlem orchestras, such as Chick Webb's, in battle of the bands on their own home turf.

Basie began his recording career by signing with Decca in 1937 in New York.  By then, his band had a fairly refined sound and was packed with veteran musicians.  His first hit was his eventual signature song, "One O'Clock Jump,"  which he performed with parts of his orchestra blending in with Benny Goodman's orchestra at the legendary Carnegie Hall concert in 1938: the concert that, for many, manifested Swing's coming of age into the popular eye.  Basie recorded for two and a half year on Decca until 1939, producing some of his most heralded work.  However, most of his Top 40 Swing Era hits came with Columbia and then RCA through the 1940s.  He also recorded some V-discs to send to troops overseas in 1942-44, as did other musicians who were hampered by the musicians strike during that time that banned all recording except the V-disc program to support the armed forces overseas.  The musicians strike combined with better economic times eventually caused the end of the Big Band Era by making big bands economically unfeasible, and Basie was forced to disband his orchestra by the end of the 40s.

The common musical perspective pays tribute mostly to Basie's early Big Band of the late 1930s and early 1940s.  However, his later big bands benefited from that innovation and then developed subtle innovations of their own.  

His 1950s Big Bands--anchored by Sonny Payne on drums and Eddie Jones on bass--were dubbed his "New Testament" bands because they inherited and adopted the spirit of the earlier Basie bands but took the music to new heights.  In part due to modern technological improvements in microphones and amplification that allowed the bass and drums to attack the rhythm more softly and subtly, they developed a "groove swing" sound: swing that grooves more strongly yet softer and smoother than before.  The new technology allowed for more subtle and syncopated rhythmic work to be appreciated by audiences who previously could not hear the bass or drums unless they thumped the beat out loudly.  The rhythm thus flowed smoother, with each note seeming to wrap itself around its neighboring notes like a chain instead of a series of individual notes played up against each other.  

Although the jazz elite was off heralding bebop as the only "real" jazz, and the popular eye had turned to Rock and Roll for its music, Basie produced some of his best music ever during this time, and his band was thus one of the few Big Bands that could afford to stay together and tour despite the drop in Swing's overall popularity and the increasing costs of maintaining a Big Band.

Through the mid to late 1960s, Basie's bands somewhat fell prey to the need to produce trite, pop trash.  Even Basie had to pay the bills, especially after Big Band Jazz music fell out of vogue in favor of smaller, Rock and Roll groups.  However, amidst some trivial favorites such as "Basie's Beatles Bag" (a collection of Beatles songs played lifelessly by a Big Band so as to almost sound like Musak), Basie joined with some popular singers of the time like Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Joe Williams to produce music that some jazz enthusiasts found trite, but that most everyone else enjoyed and that still holds its own, today.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Basie re-recorded some old the old favorites, but this period was marked mostly by his blending progressive big band influences into his "groove swing" formula.  Whereas most progressive big band leaders like Stan Kenton slowly and completely abandoned a swing rhythm in their music in order to accomplish more complex harmonic and melodic goals, Basie adapted those more complex harmonies and melodies to his Swing music.  Basie also collaborated with some other great jazz musicians such as Oscar Peterson (pictured with Basie to the left) and Zoot Sims in small jazz combos to create some of the most beloved small band Lindy Hop tunes ever recorded.

Basie's health gradually deteriorated during the last eight years of his life, beginning with a severe heart attack in 1976 that put him out of commission for several months.  He continued recording and performing, thereafter, but was back in the hospital in 1981.  When he returned to action, he did so in an electric wheel chair that he drove onstage.  He died of cancer at 79 on April 26, 1984 in Hollywood Florida.

    Basie's Significance to Lindy Hop

Basie's loyalty to the Swing rhythm is a large part of why Lindy Hoppers love his music so much.  While other great bandleaders after the Swing Era turned to progressive jazz, bebop, or even composing orchestral suites that blended jazz with classical music, Basie mostly remained the master of Swing.  While the others roamed, Basie kept swinging.  In one sense, he performed and recorded so many of Lindy Hoppers' favorite songs because he simply recorded more Swing music than perhaps any other bandleader.

However, Basie's significance is also measured in the qualitative improvements and innovations in his music throughout his career.  In the 1930s and 40s, the lighter, freer rhythms of his music created lighter, freer rhythm for dancing, ultimately inspiring aerials to manifest how the music made you feel like you were flying.  This lighter, freer, athletic dancing contrasted with the abrupt, overly-bouncy movement of, say, the Charleston before, or even the "chonk-chonky," heavier-beated Harlem-Swing that pre-dated Basie's arrival in New York.  His freer rhythm also inspired other musicians to use that rhythm in their own favorites for Swing dancing.  The lighter, more athletic rhythm appealed to the youth that backed the popularity of Swing/Jitterbug music during the Swing Era. 

The smoother "groove swing" of the New Testament band of the 1950s inspires dancers to smooth out their movement even more, and create more flowing, connected movement, instead of jerky, abrupt movement.  Instead of floating so much as to linger up in the clouds like most Swing Era music seems to do, the deeper sound brought the music back down to Earth, felt richer, and made people use the dance floor more creatively.  Similar to how each rhythmic note seemed to link with its neighbors in a chain instead of just thump next to one another, dance moves would link together more smoothly instead of just abruptly follow one another.  Dancers connected better with each other by manifesting the rhythmic momentum and flow of the music in their movement.  

Basie also innovated with more moderately-tempoed songs during this time period.  Although he did play slow music in his early years and fast music during his later years, his early band is known for its up-tempo music, whereas his later bands are known for their moderate-tempo music.  When dancing, these more moderate tempos provide more room for improvisation on the dance floor.  Instead of just repeating standard moves at a fast and furious pace, dancers could play around and create their own moves as they danced.  This improvisational element generated a new vitality to the dance, maintaining and fostering a growing interest in social dancing as more than just a casual hobby, but instead more of an art form in its own right.

In his later years, Basie's incorporation of progressive harmonic and melodic elements into Big Band Swing also provides fodder for inspiration, as well.  Although beginner dancers might understandably find those progressive influences a bit confusing, these influences provide advanced dancers an interesting new perspective on not only the music, but the dance, as well, just as they do to advanced musicians.

Finally, perhaps the greatest reason Basie is so beloved by dancers is because, at the core, he almost always kept it simple.    Basie had the musical ability to play fast with the best of them, but he knew that such furious playing did not swing or edify.  Although he learned to play piano from the flowery, Stride musicians known for packing thousands of notes into each solo, he developed an appreciation that he could do more with less.  Less noise, less clutter... just let it swing.  His solos and melodies became more and more sparse, and flowed from the rhythm, instead of playing on top of or regardless of the rhythm as is the style for most bebop jazz musicians.  Some live performances from his New Testament band feature extended, 32-bar riffs of nothing but the rhythm section grooving along, with him playing one well-chosen note here and there.  Dancers could improvisationally feed off that simplicity with their own movement and rhythm, similar to how musicians do.  Dancing manifests intangible music into physical movement, but it simply cannot do so for all music.  Music can intangibly move faster and more complexly than the human body tangibly move, so not all music can be manifested into dance.  Moreover, for partners to dance with each other, a certain underlying rhythmic simplicity must be present.  It need not be redundant, but it need be solid.  Basie appreciated that fact, and kept the rhythm flowing at the expense of nothing.

Much of this later innovation in the dance came during the recent revival in Lindy Hop, long after Basie had passed away.  After the Swing Era faded and dancers went from dancing with a partner to wiggling near a partner, Lindy Hop slowly faded into obscurity in the United States until the mid-90s, when the Neo-Swing fad and the infamous "Gap Swings" commercial brought Lindy Hop back into the public eye.  

Fortunately, the recordings remained.  These recordings allowed Lindy Hop to evolve as the music had done decades before.  Lindy Hop has evolved into a more flowing, connected dance that still retained its dirty, fiery, street-dance roots, but also grew up into something less awkward and more refined and beautiful.  Although the evolution has led to dancers discovering new possibilities with many other, modern, mainstream, small jazz bands, it all was made possible by the innovations that Basie's bands contributed to Swing music through the years.  

        "Playing music has never been work.  Not to me.  Money has never been a big consideration with me personally (although) it is very important because as a bandleader I have to try and get the top rates for my musicians.  But that is just a part of the dues that you have to pay to have the kind of band to make the kind of music you like.  However, I still say the main thing for me is the music.  That's what excites me.  That's what keeps me going.  The music and people having a good time listening to it.  People dancing or just tapping their feet."  

                -(From Count Basie's autobiography, "Good Morning Blues")

        "Count Basie could Swing by just playing one note in the right place at the right time."  

                -(Popular saying by many, original source unknown)

C) Lawrence Page and Austin Lindy Hop 2002

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