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Count Basie and the piano that swings the band

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2008

Mark Tucker
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Extract

In late 1932, after a run of hard luck on tour – jobs that evaporated, buses that broke down, and money that ran out – the Kansas City orchestra of Bennie Moten headed for Camden, New Jersey to record for Victor. The session produced ten sides, among them a piece bearing the leader's name: ‘Moten Swing’. Guitarist and trombonist Eddie Durham had come up with the arrangement in Philadelphia not long before, constructing a series of brass and reed riffs over the chord changes of Walter Donaldson's hit song of 1930, ‘You're Driving Me Crazy’. The opening of ‘Moten Swing’ featured the band's pianist, William ‘Bill’ Basie.

Type
Research Article
Information
Popular Music , Volume 5 , January 1985 , pp. 45 - 79
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

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