Count Basie - Basie / The Atomic Mr. Basie (1982 Japanese Roulette Vinyl LP)

Count Basie And His Orchestra / Neal Hefti - Basie (The Atomic Mr. Basie) | Vinyl LP - 1982 Japanese Roulette (YS-7111-RO)

Everyone knows this record by its nickname. Released in 1958 as simply Basie, it came in a sleeve dominated by an atomic mushroom cloud and has been called The Atomic Mr. Basie ever since. It is one of the greatest big-band albums ever made, thanks to a perfect meeting of band and writer. The Count Basie orchestra of the late fifties, the so-called New Testament band, was a precision machine, and in Neal Hefti it found an arranger who wrote every note here to its exact strengths. The results run from the roaring to the sublime. "The Kid From Red Bank" is a barnstorming feature for Basie's own piano, "Whirly-Bird" and "Fantail" swing at full throttle, and then there is "Li'l Darlin'", one of the most beloved charts in all of jazz, a ballad taken so slowly it seems to hang in the air. The band is stacked with soloists, Thad Jones and Joe Newman on trumpets, Frank Foster and Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis on tenors, with Freddie Green's rhythm guitar and Basie's own famous economy holding it together.

Neal Hefti went on to write music the whole world knows, the themes to Batman and The Odd Couple among them, but this is the record that made his name in jazz, and it remains the high point of his partnership with Basie. The album has never been out of favour, and "Li'l Darlin'" in particular has been covered and studied endlessly since.

This copy is the 1982 Japanese reissue on Roulette, part of the label's Count Basie Collection, catalogue number YS-7111-RO.