Count Basie News
American jazz musician, bandleader, and composer (1904-1984)
Commemorations 2024 (Birth: Count Basie)
- Hammond organ, Jazz piano, organ, piano
- big band, jazz, swing music
- United States of America
- actor, autobiographer, bandleader, composer, conductor, jazz musician, musician, organist, pianist, songwriter
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2024-04-24
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2024-04-08 03:30:00
A Jazz Musician on Classical Music and Jazz
[…] the title, I was also reminded of something you mentioned somewhere. You wrote an article about Billie Holiday, and you considered the title “Billie Holiday: Technician.” And it seems that a lot of stuff that you've written is about assessing jazz from, I guess, a technical standpoint in some way. That it is music that can be explained in those terms. And the piece that you've chosen for this title is a deceptively simple, Count Basie-ish tune... EI: Well, that's right. A lot of the time, something simple on the surface is full of complexity underneath. Many people think they've got Billie Holiday's number, but, actually, they don't have her number. The same goes for all great jazz. The composed melodies of Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue can be scratched out on a paper napkin, but there are so many other elements that make the album very sophisticated. Often there hasn't been enough of the […]
2024-01-16 20:02:00
New Jersey Symphony. Xian Zhang, conductor; Augustin Hadelich, violin. January 13, 2024.
Count Basie Center, Red Bank, NJ. Orchestra (Seat H-104, $68).Augustin Hadelich and Xian Zhang after the Beethoven Violin Concerto.ProgramI am a white person who __ Black people by Daniel Bernard RoumainViolin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61 by Beethoven.Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky/Ravel.The main draw for the program is of course Hadelich performing the Beethoven violin concerto. Indeed that's the headline on the Program Notes handed out at the concert. For me the Mussorgsky/Ravel piece is also interesting on two fronts: the music itself is very enjoyable; and, having listened to it at a NY Phil concert a couple of months prior, I wonder how NJS would compare.Roumain (DBR) is NJ Symphony's "Resident Artistic Catalyst." No idea what the job description is, but seeing his work on the program would not surprise anyone. He did come on the stage to talk a bit about the work. It was composed for […]
2023-10-26 15:25:00
New Jersey Symphony. Joseph Young, conductor; Sterling Elliott, cello. October 21, 2023.
Count Basie Center, Red Bank, NJ. Orchestra Center (Seat G101, $55).Soloist Elliott acknowledging the orchestra, with conductor Young looking on.ProgramSnapshots by Jessie Montgomery.Cello Concerto in A Minor, Op. 129 by R. Schumann.Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36, "Enigma" by Elgar.The draw of the concert, for me, is the Schumann Cello concerto. About ten days prior we heard the piano concerto performed by Trifonov. Today's Program Notes isn't as "educational" as the writeup in NY Phil's Playbill, but the music is equally fascinating. Instead of taking years to write the piano concerto, Schumann took all of two weeks to do it for the cello; it was written in 1850, a few years later.It's a lovely concerto. Again I am more familiar with it than I thought. The young soloist is a recent Avery Fisher Prize winner. He is from a musical family, and was brought up with a jazz and blue-grass […]
2023-05-04 20:46:00
New Jersey Symphony. Gemma New, conductor; George Li, piano. April 29, 2023.
Count Basie Theater, Red Bank, NJ. Balcony Center (Seat F113, $61).ProgramSarah Gibson warp & weftRachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43Berlioz Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14Gemma New at the end of the concert. The applause was justifiably quite enthusiastic.This is another of those "former NJSO conductor" concert. Gemma New was assistant (or associate) conductor when Jacque Lacombe was the music director of the orchestra. When I started to type this I didn't remember ever seeing her conduct. A review of the blog returned one concert, in 2016. By that time she had left as associate director of the orchestra. Other than that I didn't say anything about her conducting, one can take whatever from such silence.While this concert happened about a week ago, I remember one of the things I noted was this was an enjoyable concert. While my added understanding of the Rachmaninoff and Berlioz pieces no doubt played […]
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