Homage to the Count

The jazz world puts all its heroes in "bags"--tight little schools of artistic similarity that confine each jazzman to his own musical neighborhood: Funk, Freedom, Groove, Bop, Soul. Only three great players have managed to avoid classification--Thelonious Monk because he is inimitable and Monkishly alone, Duke Ellington because he is a kind of president emeritus, and Count Basie because he so perfectly swings. Last week, in a wild and woolly engagement at Manhattan's Basin Street East, the Count's pigeonhole at last be came apparent: he's in the New Year's Eve bag.

Long Eclipse. The Count is more loved than admired by his immense audience, and at Basin Street East, his fans were strictly of the ilk that whistle, stamp their feet and shout, "Yeah, Count!" Basie was at his amiable best, beaming proudly at his players from the piano, even playing fun-and-games accompaniments to Singer Keely Smith.

Running through his familiar book--Jumpin' at the Woodside, Walk, Don't Run and One O'clock Jump, his theme song--Basie built a cheerful and exciting feeling that seemed intended for an imagined dance floor.

Basie, 59, has been a big-band maestro for 28 years. Except for the brazenly modern harmonies and voicings of his new arrangements, the "Basie sound" has remained steadfastly the same all along. With Benny Goodman his main competition, Basie was a swing king in the '30s, and his style is still defiantly prewar. In the first years of bop, Basie was considered so sadly reactionary that his band endured a long eclipse. Then, after four years' touring with a small combo, Basie collected a new 16-piece ensemble in 1952, and within a year it was fully established as the swingingest band in the land.

Glass Tones. Basie's piano playing is a long way back from the front, but he plays the blues with great authority, nimbly riding the beat with quietly assertive chords and 30-year-old blues riffs. His band is the best-drilled orchestra in jazz--which is why it swings like no other. The rhythmic nuances jazz needs to swing are blurred by the slightest imprecision in ensemble playing, but in Basie's band, the timing is flawless, and the result is a driving pulse that never for an instant falters.

Among the band's members are some authentic jazz virtuosos. Sonny Payne is the grooviest of the big-band drummers--to watch, if not to listen to. Alto Saxophonist Marshall Royal, Trumpeter Snooky Young and Guitarist Freddy Green are all heartfelt blues soloists. Bassist Buddy Catlett, the band's newest member, gives the whole orchestra a subtle and highly advanced sense of rhythm. Keenly aware of all these virtues, Basie never lets his audience get a glimmer of the solemn musicianship behind them. "Now a little foot-pattin' music," he announces happily. Then he sits down and sizzles away into the glass-toned jazz arrangements his band alone can play.

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