In July 1956, when traffic on New York's 7th Avenue ran two ways, cabs were all different colors and Times Square was jammed late into the night during the week with couples leaving shows for cabaret rooms, jazz clubs, dance halls and restaurants, Birdland on Broadway between 52nd and 53rd Streets was in full swing. The club's namesake, Charlie Parker, died a little over a year earlier but nearly every conceivable jazz artist performed there.
If I could go back in time to hear one artist at Birdland, it would be the Count Basie band. Recordings from the club, especially on Roulette, always sound hypnotic. I can't even imagine what that band must have sounded like in that small space. Enter Steve Allen in 1956, who thank goodness did a live remote at the club when the Basie band was in residence.
I've put this clip up before and, today, I'm doing it again. Here's what you'd experience if you went down to Birdland to hear Basie's New Testament band in 1956. The band plays three songs—One O'Clock Jump, April in Paris and Blee Blop Blues. If this doesn't raise your hairs, nothing will. From the left, the reeds are Frank Wess (ts), Bill Graham (as), Marshal Royal (as,cl), Frank Foster (ts) and Charlie Fowlkes. The rest of the band: Renauld Jones, Taft Jordan, Wendell Cully and Newman Joe Newman (tp); Henry Coker, Benny Powell and Bill Hughes (tb); Basie (p); Freddie Green (g); Eddie Jones (b) and Sonny Payne (d)...
