Dr. Elaine Bastos from Blue Lake’s violin faculty gives a short lesson on beginning vibrato.
Please join Blue Lake Public Radio at www.bluelake.org/listen this morning between 9:30 and 10:00am for our final Classics in the Jazzroom broadcast featuring The Count Basie Orchestra performing “Nice N’ Easy” from their 1963 Grammy Award winning album “This Time By Basie.”
Selected by Blue Lake Faculty member James Sawyer, this Quincy Jones arrangement personifies the iconic jazz orchestra’s wide dynamic range, brilliant soloists and finger snapping swing. Doc Sawyer writes:
The Count Basie Orchestra has long been considered the “Rolls Royce of Big Bands.” In the 1930’s the band performed arrangements such as “One O’Clock Jump” and “Jumpin’ at the Woodside”, which were considered “head arrangements: songs mostly made up of riffs which captured the imagination of its audiences and communicated the spirit of the band. These were fast, high-flying arrangements that also featured solos by their outstanding musicians. This carried the band through the war years and beyond.
Basie reorganized the group in 1952 to what has been commonly called “The New Testament Orchestra.” This brought a new line of arrangers such as Neal Hefti, Sammy Nestico, Thad Jones and Quincy Jones. With it came a different style of orchestrations, demonstrating the band’s dynamic contrast, articulate precision and sophisticated musical style.
“Nice N’ Easy” is from the 1963 Grammy-winning album “This Time by Basie”. Arranged and conducted by Quincy Jones, the album returned the orchestra to the pop charts just prior to British Invasion that brought bands like The Beatles to America.
It begins big and loud, then suddenly descends to a low, subtle volume. It continues soft, intermittently infusing flashes of the big sassy brass sound the Basie Orchestra has long been known for. I selected this piece because of how it showcases the vibrant versatility of the Basie Orchestra to play big and loud, then soft and easy within the same arrangement. It was the personification of this iconic jazz orchestra along with the light tinkling of the ivories by Basie at precisely arranged intervals.
Personnel on this pacesetting album included trumpeters Sonny Cohn and Thad Jones; trombonist Urbie Green; saxophonists Frank Foster and Frank Wess who was a well known flute virtuoso; and the timeless rhythm section of guitarist Freddie Green, bassist Buddy Catlett, drummer Sonny Payne and of course the Count himself.
