Good Morning Blues: The Autobiography of Count Basie (as Told to Albert Murray) - Hardcover

Count Basie; Albert Murray

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0394548647 ISBN 13: 9780394548647

Publisher: Random House, 1985

Synopsis

Presents the life and times of the great jazz musician and band leader as told by the man himself, from his early days playing pickup at local social events, through his arrival--and eventual triumph--in New York

About this title

About the Author:

William James “Count” Basie (1904-84) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer.

Albert Murray (1916-2013), author of thirteen books including Stomping the Blues, was a renowned jazz historian, novelist, and social and cultural theorist. He cofounded Jazz at Lincoln Center in 1987. 

Dan Morgenstern is a jazz critic and Director Emeritus of the Institute for Jazz Studies at Rutgers University. He is the author of Jazz People (1976); and Living with Jazz (2004), a reader edited by Sheldon Meyer, both winners of ASCAP’s Deems Taylor Award. In 2007, he received the A.B. Spellman Jazz Masters Award for Jazz Advocacy from the National Endowment for the Arts.

From Publishers Weekly:

Long before he thought about becoming a musician, William Basie, son of a Red Bank, N.J., coachman and caretaker, longed to "go on the road touring everywhere in the world of show business with a troupe." In these long, rambling memoirs, skillfully put together from tape recordings, the Count recollects his experiences as a traveling pianist in Missouri and Oklahoma, as a member (with Hot Lips Page and Jimmie Rushing) of the Blue Devils, as organist in a silent-movie house, with Bennie Moten's orchestra in Kansas City, and as leader of one of the greatest jazz bands of all time. Basie pays tribute to his colleagues and managers (and to John Hammond for "discovering" him), but does not hesitate to discuss their weaknesses and shortcomings; his language is direct and earthy. Although some of the book reads more like a catalogue or itinerary than an autobiography, it will have strong appeal for jazz buffs and fans of the late bandleader. Photos not seen by PW. January 1
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House
• Publication date: 1985
• ISBN 10: 0394548647
• ISBN 13: 9780394548647
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 416