When the Count Met the Singers
Basie's orchestra and Lambert, Hendricks & Ross found something together that neither had quite done before.
By 1958, Count Basie and his orchestra were already legends—the rhythm section was the best in jazz, the horn players could cut through anything, and Basie himself sat at the piano like he owned the room. Lambert, Hendricks & Ross had made their name doing vocalese, turning horn solos into lyrics and singing them in tight, clever harmony. Putting them together with Joe Williams was not a gimmick; it was a collision of two things that actually worked in the same language. The Count had always had singers, but this was different. Williams had a voice that could sit inside Basie's swing like it belonged there, and the trio brought arrangements that made the band sound fresher than it had in years. The orchestra swings exactly as hard as you'd expect, but it swings *with* the voices rather than just behind them. This is not a side project or a novelty album. It's a session where everybody involved knew what they were doing and did it well. The balance between orchestral power and vocal clarity is precise—you hear both without one drowning the other out. For listeners coming to Basie, this is solid middle-period work, not his essential statement but proof that he could still surprise. For fans of Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, it shows them working in a different setting, less about their own arrangements and more about serving the music.
Who's playing
Eddie Jonesdouble bass
Count Basiepiano
Freddie Greenguitar
Frank Fostertenor saxophone
Charlie Fowlkesbaritone saxophone
Wendell Culleytrumpet
Thad Jonestrumpet
Henry Cokertrombone
Where next?
More by Count Basie
The Atomic Mr. Basie 1958
First Time! The Count Meets the Duke 1961
Arthur Prysock / Count Basie 1966
Sammy Davis & Count Basie: Our Shining Hour 1965
The musicians on this record
Their own records, close in time