Count Basie and Alan Freed

Too often, we think of rock 'n' roll as a jazz killer. It wasn't. The music appealed to a growing number of adolescents and teens who had greater access to the dance music in the 1950s thanks to radio, 45 singles and concerts. It simply grew from there as jazz focused on a more mature demographic. But in the mid-1950s, when rock 'n' roll was still in it…