Count Basie: Swingin' the Blues 1936-1950: Ken Vail's Jazz Itineraries 3

by Ken Vail

Overview

The Jazz Itineraries series, a new format based on Ken Vail's successful Jazz Diaries, charts the careers of famous jazz musicians, listing club and concert appearances with details of recording sessions and movie appearances. Copiously illustrated with contemporary photographs, newspaper extracts, record and performance reviews, ads and posters, the series provides fascinating insight into the lives of the greatest jazz musicians of our times.

No.3 in the series, Count Basie: Swingin' The Blues 1936-1950, chronicles Basie's life from the Kansas City years, discovery by John Hammond, triumph in New York with the floating swing of the All-American rhythm section and tenor saxist Lester Young, through to the eventual demise of the swingingest of big bands in January 1950.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780810848825
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	10/22/2003
Series:	Jazz Itineraries , #3
Pages:	112
Product dimensions:	8.46(w) x 10.94(h) x 0.30(d)

About the Author

Ken Vail trained as a graphic designer and for 25 years developed his own graphic design business. The company moved from corporate work into publishing, specialising in designing highly illustrated educational books. In 1996 Ken Vail retired from the business to indulge his life-long interest in jazz. He self-published his first book, Jazz Milestones, which was critically acclaimed, leading to commissions for a series of Jazz Diaries which yielded Bird's Diary, Lady Day's Diary, Miles? Diary, and the two-part Duke's Diary. Vail is now working on the new series of Jazz Itineraries and a scrapbook of the Swing Era.

Editorial Reviews

A serious study resource and an eccentric delight.

The Jazz Rag

Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, and Count Basie are separate 100 page books presenting a chronological listing of performance dates and locations for these artists…if any of these is among your favorites you'll certainly spend a few hours following their travels with these books.

In The Groove

Anyone interested in Basie will find this book interesting and invaluable…Highly recommended.

Red Bank Special

Like cracking a scrapbook from the '40s…plastered with period photographs, newspaper articles, concert and record reviews…a fun and contextual perspective for listening and investigating as well as a window into the life and times of [Count Basie].

JazzTimes Magazine

All three paperbacks make for fascinating reading, whether you start at the beginning or read random pages....these book are terrifically entertaining to read...

The Mississippi Rag

A well-referenced scrapbook, a collage of facts and contemporary reviews that is a pleasure to read yet visually satisfying, too...I can think of few more pleasurable ways…to celebrate Basie's centenary than by rummaging through this fascinating and cleverly devised account of his life and musical times.

New Orleans Music

Like cracking a scrapbook from the '40s…plastered with period photographs, newspaper articles, concert and record reviews…a fun and contextual perspective for listening and investigating as well as a window into the life and times of [Count Basie].

JazzTimes