Today's post came out of a post on Facebook featuring selections from the Brantford International Jazz Festival (the Brantford west of Toronto, not the one in the UK) which included the Count Basie Orchestra. I mentioned that I had see him in the 1970s and got a surprised comment from a friend.
The concert I saw was part of the Belvedere King Size Jazz Festival, which was held at Varsity Stadium in Toronto in July 1974. I remember it still quite vividly. It included performances by Moe Koffman, Maynard Ferguson, Peter Appleyard, Louis Bellson, Woody Herman, Dizzy Gillespie, and Count Basie and His Orchestra, among others. It was a hot weekend of hot jazz.
As for Count Basie, I wasn't particularly a fan before the concert, but I left a fan. His orchestra was amazing; they had the smoothest sound I have ever heard from a big band.
Here's a performance recorded at the North Sea Jazz Festival on July 14, 1979.
The second concert of bandleader/pianist William ‘Count’ Basie and his Count Basie Orchestra at the North Sea Jazz Festival 1979 features great solos by bassist John Clayton and drummer Butch Miles."
Basie did two concerts at the festival, one month before his 75th birthday.
This is the second concert with some great solos by John Clayton, Butch Miles, Freddie Green, Sonny Cohn and Danny Turner.
Enjoy.
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