1965 · Album
Sammy Davis & Count Basie: Our Shining Hour
Recorded 1965 · Verve Records · Produced by Sonny Burke
Two Showmen Find Their Groove
Sammy brings the showbiz, Basie brings the swing, and somehow it all holds together.
Sammy Davis Jr. was never a purist's jazz singer — he was an entertainer who could sing jazz, and that distinction matters here. On Our Shining Hour (1965), he's paired with Count Basie and the full orchestra, and the pairing works better than you might expect precisely because nobody's pretending this is something it isn't. It's a big, swinging, occasionally schmaltzy vocal album, and it delivers exactly that.
The band — a 16- to 18-piece big band that Basie had been running since 1935 — is in fine form throughout. These musicians had been doing this for three decades by the time this record was cut, and it shows in the looseness. They don't push Davis; they hold space for him, which is the right call. Tracks like 'The Fly Me to the Moon' arrangement and the title track let Sammy do his thing — that slightly over-the-top phrasing he was known for — without the band getting in the way. Basie himself is typically understated at the piano, playing less and meaning more.
Is this a great jazz record? Probably not. It's a great Sammy Davis record, which is a different thing. If you come in expecting deep swing or bebop adventurousness, you'll be disappointed. If you come in wanting a well-produced, genuinely fun collaboration between a showman at his peak and one of the best-drilled bands in American music, this hits the spot. It's the kind of album you put on when you want something polished but not stiff, familiar but not boring. Basie's orchestra had survived the death of the big band era by being exactly this adaptable.
Who's playing
Ray Browndouble bass
Count Basiepiano
Freddie Greenguitar
Eric Dixontenor saxophone
Charlie Fowlkesbaritone saxophone
Marshall Royalalto saxophone, clarinet
Frank Wesssaxophone
Al Aaronstrumpet
Sonny Paynedrums
Emil Richardspercussion
Where next?
More by Count Basie
The Atomic Mr. Basie 1958
First Time! The Count Meets the Duke 1961
Arthur Prysock / Count Basie 1966
At Newport 1957
The musicians on this record
Their own records, close in time
