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 Sub-Series

Unidentified

Scope and Contents

From the Series:

Series 7 contains audio and moving image recordings that encompass Count Basie’s roles as a musician, band leader, and trusted ear, as well as personal recordings from his family and friends. It includes unreleased live recordings, broadcasts by the Basie Orchestra and others, personal audio and moving image recordings from the Basie family, recordings that document the creation and development of commercially issued albums by Basie and his associates, and recordings by other artists, including song and performance demos from both well-known and obscure musicians. Among the recordings are multi-reel sets documenting unreleased live performances of the Basie Orchestra at the Holiday Ballroom, Chicago, IL, in 1958, Liederhalle, in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1963, Disneyland, Anaheim, CA in 1975, and Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada, in 1981, along with multiple standalone tapes of single-evening performances in Milwaukee, Memphis, New Orleans, Lausanne, and elsewhere. There are recordings of broadcasts made for the Armed Forces Radio Service from the 1940s, live performances aired on WNEW in 1963, interviews on WXXI in the 1970s, and other radio (and television) transmissions at all points in between; personal recordings made by or for the Basie family, including tapes from Louis Armstrong, George Spink, and others; and recordings from labels and studios documenting Basie’s work with Frank Sinatra, Milt Jackson, Oscar Peterson, and others. Other artists are also represented with demo recordings by Erroll Garner, Gerry Mulligan, Cy Coleman, broadcasts from Teddy Wilson, advertisements featuring Lena Horne and Billy Eckstine, live recordings from Sarah Vaughan and Grover Mitchell, and studio and label reference recordings from Joe Pass, Benny Carter, and others. The series also includes commercial releases with inscriptions to Basie from Red Callendar, Eubie Blake, and others. The Basie family is additionally represented in a sequence of home movies recorded without sound in the 1960s and 1970s that offer an intimate experience of the personal lives of Basie, his family, and their friends, as well as limited footage of the Count Basie Orchestra.

Conditions Governing Access

The original recordings in the collection are currently open for visual inspection only. Access copies for select audio and moving image recordings are available on site at the Institute of Jazz Studies. Contact the Institute for details or to make a request.

Language of Materials

From the Collection: English

From the Collection: French

From the Collection: German

From the Collection: Spanish; Castilian

From the Collection: Japanese

From the Collection: Czech

From the Collection: Swedish

From the Collection: Portuguese

From the Collection: Dutch; Flemish

From the Collection: Norwegian Nynorsk; Nynorsk, Norwegian

From the Collection: Danish

From the Collection: Hebrew

Creator

Part of the Institute of Jazz Studies Repository

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