Unwell in 1981 after a European tour the year before, Count Basie decided to sit out a series of booked engagements abroad. Instead, he dispatched nine members of his band to fulfill the obligations. They called themselves the Basie All Stars.
Mind you, I'm not a big fan of leaderless pocket bands, which never stack up to the real deal. But in this case,…
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to JazzWax to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.