Review of the Count Basie Orchestra, “Count Basie Live at Birdland”
I confess I rolled my eyes when I read about this one — the Count Basie ghost band was going to recreate what I believe is one of the greatest jazz albums ever: Count Basie Live at Birdland, recorded in 1960. They are even echoing the original cover art. There’s nowhere to go but down: here’s a ghost band playing at a ghost night club (the original Birdland closed in 1965; the present club opened in 1996 at a completely different location and trades off the famous name). I expected about as much from this as I would from a Jimi Hendrix cover band playing a festival in Woodstock, Illinois.
I am happy to report that I was completely, utterly, and spectacularly wrong. This double album (on Candid) is a gem. I listened to all 33 songs straight through and never got weary of it — the arrangements are either from Basie’s original songbook or in that spirit, the ensembles are tight where they should be and loose where they should be, and even the recording captures the ambiance and feel of the original album. And, yes, it swings. Hard. Like hammock-in-a-hurricane hard, at every tempo, just as the Count would have it.
The style of the band is much like Basie left it when he died in 1984. It’s pleasantly retro where it needs to be with the hits dating back to the ’30s, but most charts are in the mode of the Basie bands that recorded those loose-limbed and joyful sessions on Pablo. Every solo and vocal turn is terrific, and there are many, with honors going to trombonist Clarence Bank who is apparently the reincarnation of Al Grey.
There’s nothing quite like hearing a hard-swinging big band full of excellent musicians having the time of their lives on a dream gig.
(Originally published on the Arts Fuse, October 7, 2021)
https://artsfuse.org/238347/october-short-fuses-materia-critica/