My musical tastes seem to be aligning more and more with my Dad’s as I get older. I’m not sure whether that’s a cause for concern or not, but it’s led me to a new appreciation of the likes of Count Basie with the inimitable Freddie Green on guitar.
This footage isn’t perhaps the best quality, but what an amazing performance by a group of musicians absolutely on the top of their game. No egos or showboating, just fabulous music and improvisation.....and a drum solo which is actually engaging and worth listening to. Just stunning.
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When I was a final year student I lived in a shared house and felt sorry for the elderly couple next door having to live next to us. Anyway, for some reason I ended up in a discussion with him about music and he loved big band swing, something I was vaguely aware of but expressed polite enthusiasm for. He lent me a bunch of cassettes of various bands so I was revising to those kind of sounds. I don't remember much about them TBH but that was my short lived big band period. I shall give the link in the OP a listen and see if I can suddenly remember all about Durkheim and the division of labour.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bHWJfjJ6bSk&list=PLGIcZonDP3p6DdQbh-lVFYDI053V3NBD3&index=2&t=0s
Walter Page more or less invented waking bass, and Jo Jones more or less invented modern jazz drumming, and Freddie Green more or less invented a whole style of comping.
There's some great 30s and 40s small group recordings with both members of the Basie band and members of Benny Goodman's band playing together, so Charlie Christian and Lester Young, with the Basie rhythm section.
I love that whole era, there's loads of stuff where the Basie, or Goodman, or Lionel Hampton groups basically played Rock'n'Roll years before Elvis and the test.
Oscar Moore's playing with Nat Cole is also great.
I need to do some more exploring and properly listening to this stuff.