TITLE:
April In Paris (VERVE Master Edition)
ARTIST:
Count Basie

PERSONNEL: Wendall Culley, Reunald Jones, Thad Jones, Joe Newman(t); Henry Coker, Bill Hughes, Benny Powell(tb); Marshall Royal(as, cl), Bill Graham(as), Frank Wess (ts,as,fl,cl), Frank Foster(ts,cl), Charlie Fowlkes(bs), Basie(p), Freddie Green(g), Eddie Jones(b), Sonny Payne(d).

TRACK LISTING:
1. April In Paris
2. Corner Pocket
3. Didn't You?
4. Sweetie Cakes
5. Magic
6. Shiny Stockings
7. What Am I Here For?
8. Midgets
9. Mambo Inn
10. Dinner With Friends

Additional Tracks:
11. April In Paris
12. Corner Pocket
13. Didn't You?
14. Magic
15. Magic
16. What Am I Here For?
17. Midgets

Original Release Date: 1956

T he original Count Basie Band was essentially the group that Basie inherited from Bennie Moten at Moten's death in 1935. Basie made it the stompin' swing band of all time, a breath of fresh air just when commercial swing threatened to choke the life from the music. It was also the home of a group of distinctive soloists, such as Lester Young, that gave the band a sound no one could match. Unfortunately, time and World War II took its toll, and Basie lost many of these great voices until, in 1950, he disbanded the group and worked instead with a small band briefly before disbanding that as well. The first great era of the Count Basie Band was at an end.

In 1952 Basie returned with a new and different big band. The idea this time was to work with a series of arrangers and composers who Basie would hand-pick. These arrangers would codify the Basie sound and make it permanent by creating a book of classic charts that any group of good musicians could play. Soloists would still be part of the mix, but they would no longer be irreplaceable. It is from this era that the classic April In Paris comes.

The opening classic title track was arranged by organist Wild Bill Davis, a forgotten master of the instrument who certainly belongs up there with Jimmy Smith and Jack McDuff. It became Basie's biggest hit, charging up to number 28 on the pop charts. The arrangement is expansive and features the classic Basie reed section that is smooth as can be without becoming syrupy. Thad Jones lays in with a nice trumpet solo and we also get a solo from Benny Powell, who obtains the sweetest sound I've ever heard from a trombone. Then there's the matter of Basie's repeated "one more time" false endings, which certainly must have added to the record's popularity with the general public. In any case, when it is over, it's pretty hard not to just start the song up all over again.

"Corner Pocket", arranged by Ernie Wilkins, features a trumpet duo in the melody from Jones and Joe Newman, then Newman solos while the brass and reeds kick into some nice figures behind them. Whereas these might have been improvised in the old days, they now were written out in charts. The effect was no less swinging, however, because the charts were written to be played by this band. Frank Foster plays a couple of tenor choruses, then we get the precision ensemble work that is the hallmark of the post-'52 Basie groups.

Every high school jazz musician in the country has probably played this chart or Frank Foster's "Shiny Stockings", and if you have played Basie charts you know how very difficult this is. Basie and his musicians make it sound easy, of course.