Count Basie - Good Time Blues

Pablo 5319-2

The dawn of the Seventies marked a relatively bleak time for the Basie Band on record. Swing sales were in a serious slump and even customarily lucrative European tours were tougher to come by. The Count responded to the waning tastes in a manner comparable to his immediate peers. He hit the road harder and longer, stewarding his sidemen on grueling schedules that sometimes involved road-stints of over three hundred days in a single year. On the fortunate side the orchestra was stocked with players who could handle the rigours and lean rewards. Old hands like “Sweets” Edison and Freddie Green filled slots right alongside journeymen like Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis and Sonny Cohn and newcomers like trombonist Mel Wanzo. By most accounts, all took the tribulations in stride, the privilege of serving in the Count’s court a potent counterweight to any physical or financial discomfiture.

This new Pablo disc’s proffers an airshot from a gig in Budapest, Hungary in the spring of ’70. Basie’s outfit registers at a formidable sixteen men strong, with Carmen McRae-influenced vocalist Mary Stallings joining the fun for two numbers “Four or Five Times” and “The Party’s Over.” The set’s fourteen tunes tick off in rapid succession, a sort of on-stage Basie jukebox with most clocking at three minutes or less. Lockjaw earns bragging rights as the most frequent soloist, muscling through meaty choruses on tracks like “Light and Lovely” (for which he also supplies the arrangement) and “Magic Flea.” Saxophonist and flautist Eric Dixon handles the majority of arranger’s chores and revamps both “Summertime” and “A Night in Tunisia” into spirited features for Harold Jones’ Buddy Rich-style drumming and “Sweets” Edison’s sassafras trumpet, respectively. The former tune receives a shot of rhythmic nitrous, as the horns dispense with the theme and commence to riffing at a racing clip behind the soloists. The latter makes fortuitous use of the familiar loping theme in a layered foray buttressed by Cecil Payne’s plush baritone. Edision’s pungent brass also garners the spotlight on the lengthiest cut, a nine-minute rendering of Quincy Jones’ jaunty blues “I Needs to Be Bee’d With” that also yields some killer Green.

Dapper Basie adopts his usual utilitarian and understated stance. His spry digits preface several of the tunes with sleek piano preambles that say more with a handful of strategic notes than most other pianist’s are able to convey with a songbook full. It might seem like easy hyperbole, but his impeccable and intuitive sense of swing anchors each and every number. Also advantageous, Basie leaves little room for filler and the disc carries the welcome quality of an LP in its economical forty-nine minute scope. Sound quality is notably clean and scrubbed free of blemish. Basie enthusiasts and listeners with fondness for large group swing should waste no time in adding this disc to their grocery lists.

~ Derek Taylor