Two legends in my lifetime, and I had the pleasure of seeing them both in concert. At the Count Basie concert, Ella Fitzgerald was also on the bill, and she sat in with Basie. At one point, three horn players got up to do their soloing, and Ella stood with them, scatting along as another horn voice. What a terrific experience!
Im 71yrs and listen to all kinds of music however I have hooked on the Blues since I was a kid. I had relitives in New Orleans. My dad liked all kinds of music I was with him in a white man honky tonk when a man of color came in and started singing the blues. As a little boy I thought they were going to throw him in the lake. But he was one of many regulars. Go figure. From that day on I have hunting down Old Blues singers. Kind of thought I found most of them. Then watching a movie some guy tells another to hury up you move slower than Fats Waller. I looked him up and down the road I keep going. I think they have Love and Blues in Heaven!!!!! Peace Out and Love MMLZZZ
😂 WHAT A MARVELOUS! TOUCH! VERY UNDERSTATED Mr Basie had PLENTY OF SPEED AND ATTACK, WHEN REQUIRED! GOD BLESS " COUNT BASIE! Paul Budd Brightlingsea Essex England UK
I'm a huge Count Basie fan and I saw him with his band a few years before he died. It is amazing to look at him playing to a wealthy white audience in 1957, a time when the worst forms of discrimination and segregation were practiced against great artists like Count Basie. He couldn't eat in the same restaurants or stay in the same hotels or many other things like his white dancers. It's hard to believe that's how it was back then.
