Count don’t do nothin’. But it sure sounds good.
I decided that I would be one of the biggest new names; and I actually had some little fancy business cards printed up to announce it, ‘Count Basie. Beware, the Count is Here.
Of course there are a lot of ways you can treat the blues, but it will still be the blues.
The real innovators did their innovating by just being themselves.
If you play a tune and a person don’t tap their feet, don’t play the tune.
If a guy is gonna to play good bop, he has to have a sort of a bop soul.
Keep on listening and tapping your feet.
I just think swing is a matter of some good things put together that you can really pat your foot by. I can’t define it beyond that.
I, of course, wanted to play real jazz. When we played pop tunes, and naturally we had to, I wanted those pops to kick! Not loud and fast, understand, but smoothly and with a definite punch.
Well, if you find a note tonight that sounds good, play the same damn note every night!
If you find a note tonight that sounds good, play the same damn note every night!
Of course, there are a lot of ways you can treat the blues, but it will still be the blues.
All I wanted was to be big, to be in show business and to travel… and that’s what I’ve been doing all my life.
I’ll always remember when I first heard Lester [Young]. I’d never heard anyone like him before. He was a stylist with a different sound. A sound I’d never heard before or since. To be honest with you, I didn’t much like it at first.
