Count Basie Live At The Sands (Before Frank) CD

 The other side of the coin
I grew up, literally, listening to Frank Sinatra's Live At The Sands. While not his greatest set of recordings (what is, anyway?) It showed Frank in the setting I think he preferred, doing songs I'm sure he preferred, with the one band he always expressed admiration for. Which brings us to this recording. I often wondered if the producers, while recording Sinatra, had just a bit of the Basie band tucked away in the vaults. They did, and the results are well worth the wait. Taken from the short opening set before Frank took the stage, the tracks represent the best of the Basie band at that time, with the impressive Sonny Payne back in the drum chair, along with Al Grey and Grover Mitchell on trombone, Marshall Royal, Eric Dixon, and Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis in the sax section and Freddie Green on guitar - not to mention Bill Basie on piano. Not only are there classic and compelling versions of such Basie classics as One O'Clock Jump, Satin Doll, Jumpin' At The Woodside, but included are the Neal Hefti compositions Splanky, Flight Of The Foo Birds, and Whirly Bird, all of which did much to secure Basie's fortunes in the 50's as he rebuilt the band from a small unit dominated by superb soloists into a dynamic, arrangement-driven modern big band that swung. Quincy Jones, who wrote much of the arrangements for Sinatra for this date, contributed I Needs to Be Bee'd With. Basie leads the band more as a superb editor than as a pianist, even though he plays more robustly here than on any number of other 60's vintage Basie releases. With 14 cuts in all, only 2 are less than superb. Jumpin' At The Woodside, paired down to single-size, just flat jumps. This is the perfect companion to Frank Sinatra's Sinatra At The Sands and should be in any big band collection.
Submitted by rick (Arvada CO)
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