Count Basie Orchestra - High Voltage [CD]

Cat. no: 0211560MSW
Format: CD
Barcode: 4029759115601
Release Date: 08 Apr 2022
Genre: Jazz

Reissue of the Count Basie Orchestra's 1970 album 'High Voltage', arranged by Chico O'Farrill and featuring Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Cecil Payne, Joe Newman, Freddie Green and Harold Jones among others

When in January, 1970 Count Basie entered the studio with his 17-piece big band to record 'High Voltage', he ushered in the last full decade as bandleader of his Orchestra. The Orchestra had left its imprint on the sixties by recording with the likes of Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald. There would be more great albums with star vocalists in the seventies, but the band's purely instrumental works, which had begun in 1965, would also continue. Back then Basie had engaged acclaimed Cuban composer/arranger Chico O'Farrill to arrange the music for such concept albums as "Basie Meets Bond" and "Basie's Beatle Bag", transforming them into crossover gems.

On 'High Voltage' O'Farrill demonstrates his afnity to Basie's big band sound, this time with a repertoire of standards. For this album, Basie specifcally chose pieces the band had never recorded in their more than 30-year existence. This is saying something, since the band covers such an impressive span of jazz history, from the beginning of the swing era to the bop-infuenced bands of the 50's on through to the present album.

The Count's new drummer Harold Jones propels Fred Fisher's "Chicago" with a tremendous drive. The Rogers and Hart classic "Have You Met Miss Jones" features beguilingly dense deep- register horn lines and an almost languorous piano, and Eric Dixon's tasty fute solo spices up "The Lady Is A Tramp". With its smoky sophistication, Eddie Lockjaw Davis' Tenor dominates "Bewitched", whereas guest trumpeter Joe Newman's muted tongue-in-cheek solo highlights "Day In Day Out". Of course, Basie himself also steps forward: for instance, on the Fats Waller-like intro to "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You", and with the playful grace notes on "If I Were A Bell"." Reminiscent of the Las Vegas shows the band performed with Frank Sinatra, "Get Me To The Church On Time" is also a masterful dialogue between the horn sections.

CD Tracks: Chicago / Have You Met Miss Jones / The Lady Is A Tramp / I'm Getting Sentimental Over You / Bewitched / Day In Day Out / Get Me To The Church On Time / When Sonny Gets Blues / On The Sunny Side Of The Street / Together / If I Were A Bell / I Didn't Know What Time It Was

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