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Count Basie

Few names in jazz are more revered than Count Basie, not only a great pianist and bandleader, but an inspired composer and arranger too. He was first taught to play as a child by his mother and in his early days also played drums, before concentrating on piano after teaming up with Sonny Greer, a drummer from his own locality in Red Bank, New Jersey. Moving to Harlem in the 1920s, Basie found work playing in clubs and had tutelage from the great Fats Waller. He was given the name "Count" after joining Walter Page's big band, the Blue Devils and by the end of the 1920s he was work...