Count Basie and his Orchestra

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In this clip from the 1943 film, “Reveille with Beverly” Count Basie and his Orchestra perform “One O’ Clock Jump.”

I remember asking Count Basie during breakfast after his concert the previous evening in the main hall of the 1979 North Sea Jazz Festival at The Hague in Holland about “One O’clock Jump”, his theme and composition. The Count said: “It was recorded in New York City on July 7th, 1937. I co-composed it with Eddie Durham and Buster Smith, two of my musicians. In fact, I seldom composed much; we usually played from head arrangements and many of our numbers were medium tempo riffs improvised by soloists or sections. Tempos were pre-eminent for us and in Jo Jones we had the perfect drummer for it.”

– Henry Holloway

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