Difford and tilbrook count basie biography

Full name, William James Basie; born August 21, 1904, in Red Bank, N.J.; died of pancreatic cancer, April 26, 1984, in Hollywood, Fla.; ashes interred at Pine Lawn Cemetery, Farmingdale, N.Y.; son of Harvey (a gardener) and Lillian (a domestic; maiden name, Childs) Basie; married Catherine Morgan (manager of Count Basie Enterprises), July 1942; children and adopted children (some informally): Diane, Aaron, Woodward III, Lamont Gilmore, Rosemarie Matthews, Clifford.

Education: Attended public schools until about the ninth grade; studied piano during 1920s with Thomas "Fats" Waller.

In his monumental second volume on the history of jazz, The Swing Era, Gunther Schuller delays his attempt to define swing until, some two hundred pages into the book, he introduces Count Basie in a section titled "The Quintessence of Swing." Schuller states: "That the Basie band has been from its inception a master of swing could hardly be disputed....

For over forty years [Basie] has upheld a partic Difford & Tilbrook (album) - Wikiwand NYSAK