The World of Jazz

I was listening to CBC Radio 2’s Tonic the other night. This is a great commercial free jazz music show. You can follow CBC Radio 2’s Tonic on twitter @cbcr2tonic and I definitely check out their play lists from previous days if you’re looking to discover some new to you jazz music.

The intriguing thing on the show which inspired this post was some information about Count Basie and some new tunes by The Count Basie Orchestra. Yeah, you heard it right, new tunes. The report started off with a historical review about how Count Basie got stranded in Kansas City, when it the blues / jazz center of the United States, and how he formed the Count Basie Orchestra out of members of Bennie Moten’s band after Bennie’s death. Then how he was brought to New York by John Hammond and the commercial success enjoyed in the later year. I really expected what would follow would be some classic Count Basie tunes from some of my favorite like these:

But instead the follow up was mention of the fact that even though Count Basie died in 1984 his orchestra continues to record as “a ghost orchestra“. Recording in the spirit of Count Basie I suppose. This really intrigued me. When I went out to find some of the more recent recordings I discovered the Count Basie Orchestra is still active on the Jazz circuit. I wonder if there could be any original members left? Here is some of the most interesting stuff I found out there.

I also found a ton of Count Basie tunes up on eMusic including the 1999 release Swing Shift
by The Count Basie Orchestra. If you’ve been thinking of joining eMusic or picking up some Count Basie it might be a good time to sign up and get some great tunes for free as part of the trial subscription.

Thanks for checking this out and I hope you listen to some of the samples, find some new music to love and follow me and CBC Radio 2’s Tonic on twitter @cbcr2tonic.