Count Basie Orchestra Swings from "April in Paris" to May in C-ville

Media Contact:

Kristen Gleason
Director of Marketing
The Paramount Theater
215 East Main Street
Charlottesville, VA 22902
434.979.1922 ext. 103
kristen@theparamount.net

For Immediate Release

May 9, 2008

The World-Famous Count Basie Orchestra is one of the most thriving big bands in history. In his 80 year life span, William “Count” Basie so expanded and elevated the art form that his legacy is regarded as an American institution. From appearances with Tony Bennett to Tito Puente, Frank Sinatra to Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne to Manhattan Transfer, the Orchestra has taken its rightful place among the world’s first-rate jazz musicians, landing gigs including royal command performances and Presidential inaugurations.

Today, 18 Grammy awards and 19 performers testify to this bandleader and his legacy, a brand of Kansas City swing that is completely original and identifiable as a repertoire -- requiring no more than a simple “plink, plink, plink” closing triplet for a signature. The Orchestra brings their singular sound to The Paramount Theater for a special 4 pm concert directed by Bill Hughes and featuring drummer Butch Miles on Sunday, May 25. Special Media Sponsor is News Talk 1260 AM WCHV.

William Basie, the affable “count,” was a modest gentleman whose motions and musical conversations at the piano closely paralleled his approach to life itself.  The Red Bank, New Jersey native grew up with the tempos of New York’s swing era. Toward the close of the Roaring 20s, Kansas City was drawing notice for jazz, and young pianist “Bill Basie” landed there while working the national vaudeville circuit.

Briefly joining Walter Paige’s Blue Devils, he stayed on with The Benny Moten Orchestra. With Benny Moten’s sudden death 3 years later, Basie went from pianist to bandleader, taking the name “The Count” when his new group headlined at Kansas City’s Reno Club in 1936. Always swinging, Basie’s piano spots became the band’s claim to fame.

Kansas City’s Reno Club was the setting for live radio broadcasts of The Count Basie Orchestra within months of its 1935 debut. Impressed with these programs, jazz critic John Hammond prevailed upon MCA to sign the band, thus bringing Basie back to Manhattan in 1936.

A recording contract with Decca followed, and as the decade closed, a combination of radio airtime and records popularized the band from coast to coast. They played the 1939 World’s Fair in San Francisco and would usher in the 1940s, with the top vocalists of the day all cutting albums backed by the Orchestra. Post-war film appearances and recordings on the new “hi-fi LP discs” with Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Joe Williams, Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra exported the swinging Basie sound to Europe and the Far East.

While other bands were downsizing and vanishing in the 1950s, the orchestra triumphed with European concert tours, a command performance for the Queen of England, and a sold-out 13-week Waldorf-Astoria engagement. More European and Southeast Asian tours followed in the 1960s, along with regular appearances in Las Vegas and on TV, and crowded schedules of playing dates across North America.

Today, the orchestra is led by the legendary Bill Hughes, called "Mr. B" by his bandmates. Hughes joined the Count Basie Orchestra in 1953 at the recommendation of legendary saxophonist/flutist Frank Wess. Playing the tenor trombone in a three-man section with Henry Coker and Benny Powell -- acclaimed as the best trombone section in jazz at the time -- Hughes traveled the world with Basie, and was on the band’s very first trip to Europe. It was during this period that Basie recorded several of his timeless hits including “Shiny Stockings,” “Corner Pocket” and the famous rendition of the classic “April In Paris.”

Hughes has played at every major jazz festival, including The Newport Jazz Festival, Montreux Festival, and the Jazz and Heritage Festival of New Orleans. In addition to playing on numerous Count Basie recordings -- and 15 of the 18 Grammy-winning releases -- Hughes has recorded and performed with such luminaries as Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae, Billy Eckstine, Sammy Davis Jr., Nat “King” Cole, and Rosemary Clooney.

It is this rich musical heritage that the present Count Basie Orchestra is committed to uphold and advance. While some members are new, the majority of their sound still swings from musicians handpicked by Basie himself. In demand for television and films, the band has won every respected jazz poll in the world at least once, and continues to accumulate awards and special recognitions.

As said by The Washington Post, “The band is still purring one moment and roaring the next ... Whispering swing rhythms and shouting horns [are] often abruptly juxtaposed, triggering a series of dramatic shifts in dynamics that never fail to get a rise out of the audience.”

Tickets for The World Famous Count Basie Orchestra on Sunday, May 25 at 4 pm are $38.50, $41.50, $44.50, and $49.50. Students of all ages may obtain half-price student rush tickets at the Box Office with a valid ID 45 minutes prior to curtain. Group discounts are also available.

Tickets are available online or through The Paramount’s Box Office at 434.979.1333.

For more information about The Count Basie Orchestra, please visit www.countbasie.com.