Above all else Count Basie’s work is celebratory and earthy. His hallmark was simplicity. But an elegant simplicity that was the result of refinement and distillation. There is no better example of neatness and precision in the work of any artist in any medium. Nor has any other musician been more completely committed to the proposition of stomping, swinging, jumping and dragging away the blues. Count Basie died in 1984, but the Count Basie band is still touring today, and his music remains very much alive. ibid.
The Dave Brubeck quartet ... became synonymous with modern jazz sixty years ago. Arena: Dave Brubeck – In His Own Sweet Way, BBC 2013
The first jazz musician to appear on the cover of Life magazine. ibid.
In the early fifties a kind of jazz developed on the west coast which was laid-back and lyrical – it was labelled Cool. ibid.
He became one of the great jazz ambassadors. ibid.
In 1959 four major jazz albums were made that changed music or ever: Miles Davis: Kind of Blue; Dave Brubeck’s Time Out; Charles Mingus: Mingus Ah Um; and Ornette Coleman’s The Shape of Jazz to Come. 1959: The Year That Changed Jazz, BBC 2013
Jazz was pushed to new heights of innovation, beauty and groove. ibid.
The birth of a whole new free jazz movement. ibid.
A total of just seven hours recording A King of Blue. ibid.
Bebop was a fast and frenetic style of jazz. ibid.
Aged only 18, Miles became a member of Charlie Parker’s band. ibid.
The single Take Five is in 5/4 time and built around a drum solo. ibid.
The Dave Brubeck Quartet was one of America’s top jazz bands. ibid.
Bass player and composer Charles Mingus saw the question of how to take jazz forward in a different way. ibid.
Mingus Ah Um was a tightly focussed master work. ibid.
Born from oppression, jazz is at its heart political. ibid.
But the record that has most changed jazz in this last half century is Ornette Coleman’s The Shape of Jazz to Come. ibid.
When Benny Goodman made his first radio broadcast in 1935 he couldn’t possibly have known that his music would change America and later the world for ever. That Swing Thing, BBC 2013
It sparked the world’s first youth cultural revolution. ibid.
At its most basic, Swing is a mixture of orchestrated big band music and improvised jazz. ibid.
Pop music’s first superstars. ibid.
The story of Swing is partly about poverty, crime and sex, but chiefly it’s about race. ibid.
King of the white dance bands was Paul Whiteman. ibid.
In 1924 Whiteman commissioned Gershwin to write Rhapsody in Blue. ibid.
New Orleans produced some of the greatest improvisers of the age. ibid.
Like many of the greatest Jazz musicians, Armstrong had extraordinarily wide-ranging tastes in music all his life. ibid.
His name was Fletcher Henderson … the fusion of the two would create what we would now know as Swing. ibid.
Into this artistic melting pot stepped arguably the greatest American composer of the twentieth century and he took Swing to a whole new level: Duke Ellington. ibid.
Swing was the music of black self-expression; but most importantly of all it was dance music. ibid.
Duke Ellington was the star turn at Harlem’s legendary Cotton Club, a few hundred yards from the Savoy Ballroom. ibid.
Racism wasn’t the only problem Ellington and the other bands faced. ibid.
Easy listening big bands seemed to be taking over. ibid.
By the time Benny Goodman arrives, Swing was already ten years old … He was about to become the Elvis Presley of Swing. ibid.
Goodman was heavily indebted to Fletcher Henderson’s arrangements. ibid.
The great Swing band of all time – the Count Basie Orchestra. ibid.
The arrival of some of the greatest singers of the twentieth century – people such as Billie Holiday, Peggy Lee and Ella Fitzgerald. ibid.
Strange Fruit – a song about the horrors of lynching in the south. ibid.
The most famous Swing musician of all time: Glenn Miller. ibid.
Much to the annoyance of the Nazi leadership, German troops were tuning their radios into it too. ibid.
Big bands were giving way to more cost-effective small bands. ibid.
Capitol Records in Los Angeles signed not only vocalists such as Sinatra but brilliant arrangers. ibid.
Swing continues to exert an endless fascination for modern performers. ibid.
In the post-war years a bunch of British musicians looked to New Orleans for a taste of freedom. Trad Jazz Britannia, BBC 2013
George Webb’s Dixielanders ... ‘the first band in this country that ever sat down and played the innovators.’ (George Webb). ibid.
A revival of New Orleans’ jazz in Britain. ibid.
The Crane River Jazz Band: [Ken] Colyer based his music on old-time musicians who stayed in New Orleans (Traditional Jazz). ibid.
Ken [Colyer] was deported back to England. ibid.
Around Soho cellar clubs and late-night dives throbbed with young sweaty jivers. ibid.
A rival movement had developed – modern jazz. This was jazz from New York. ibid.
Chris Barber was also kicking against the traditional jazz boundaries. ibid.
In between sets they thrashed out old American folk songs and called it Skiffle. ibid.
British jazz was endorsed by the gods. ibid.
Acker Bilk: Stranger on the Shore: the theme tune was a number one hit in both the UK and USA. ibid.
A new generation with electric instruments and slightly more sex appeal took over the pop scene. ibid.
Jazz is smooth and cool. Jazz is rage. Jazz flows like water. Jazz never seems to begin or end. Jazz isn’t methodical, but jazz isn’t messy either. Jazz is a conversation, a give and take. Jazz is the connection and communication between musicians. Jazz is abandon. Nat Wolff
‘It was the beat. It was the beat. That beat – it got into my bones.’ Blue Note: A Story of Modern Jazz, Alfred Lion, BBC 2015
Two German immigrants who founded a jazz record company in 1939. ibid.
I just loved jazz … I learnt from everything really. Amy, Channel 4 2015
I found it difficult to stand up to her. ibid. Amy’s mum
Amy wasn’t well and wasn’t right. ibid. female friend
She has one of the best voices of anybody of all time. ibid. Jools Holland, Mercury music awards
Salaam, yeah, I keep coming out with all battle raps and they’re just pouring out of me. ibid. Amy, message to producer
She had the complete gift.’ ibid. Tony Bennett
Miss Simone, you are idolized, even loved, by millions now. But what happened, Miss Simone? What Happened, Miss Simone? Maya Angelou, 2015
‘I haven’t seen you for many years since 1968.’ ibid. Simone at jazz festival
‘Everything fell apart.’ ibid. daughter
It’s got a sort of jazz reptile feel. The Comic Strip Presents s3e4: The Yob, music video dude, Channel 4 1988
I was destroyed. And I was curious about what happened to Helen. And then I heard that the police had arrested her and taken her to jail. And I never saw her again. I Called Him Morgan, musician, 2016
It was fun to watch him almost challenge Dizzie in the band musically. ibid.
Lee was going to be a star. ibid. drummer
He had a nice laugh too. ibid. bassist
He was such a rare talent. ibid. musician
He had sold his shoes to get some drugs. ibid.
It was Lee Morgan: he looked like a homeless person. ibid.
My heart went out to him. ibid. Helen
I feel like something bad is going to happen … I can’t live like this. ibid.