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Count Basie And The Kansas City 7


This record presents Count Basie in a fresh and unusual small-band context, one in which he permits himself more freedom than he ordinarily does with his big band.  It is a context, however, not without precedent.

In October 1936, on his way East from Kansas City to his ultimate triumphs in New York, he entered a Chicago studio with a quintet and recorded, among others, two of the titles found here - Shoe Shine Boy and Oh, Lady Be Good.

His Kansas City Seven was originated three years later, when he recorded with another small section of his band.  The band had become world famous in the meantime, and the musicians he chose then were Buck Clayton, Dicky Wells, Lester Young, Freddie Green, Walter Page and Jo Jones.  They rode once more in 1944, with Rodney Richardson in place of Walter Page, but it was not until March 1962, when this album was recorded, that Basie called out Kansas City Seven again.

Time brought great changes to jazz during those eighteen years, and the changes were inevitably reflected in Count Basie's band, in its music and in its personnel.  His basic policy nevertheless went unchanged, and the emphasis remained on swinging, forthright and relatively uncomplicated jazz.