Free Republic

In 1985 Ronald Reagan awarded Count Basie the Presidential Medal of Freedom. ............ "I think the band can really swing," Basie had said, " when it swings easy, when it can just play along like you are cutting butter." "If you play a tune and a person don't tap their feet, don't play the tune." ............ God Bless Count Basie

Neal Hefti, the trumpeter, composer and arranger best known for composing the themes to Batman and The Odd Couple, died October 11th of an apparent heart attack in Toluca Lake, Calif. He was 85. During his career, Hefti worked with jazz greats such as Count Basie and Woody Herman, but he is best remembered for his work for television and film. Hefti, who was born in Hastings, Nebraska, in 1922, began composing tracks as a teenager for big band leader Nat Towles and for Earl Hines’ band. He played trumpet with Charlie Barnet and others, and toured with Herman, for...

Ken Nordine’s voice was tailor-made for late night radio. His unparalleled, smooth baritone guided WBEZ listeners through the show Word Jazz for more than 40 years. Nordine died Saturday at the age of 98, his son Ken Nordine, Jr. said. “He had a very special mind, an amazing way of looking at the world and making his own sense out of it," his son said. “I think it made sense to a lot of people because a lot of people really enjoyed listening to him.” Word Jazz is a mix of spoken word, poetry and sound design. In a 2000...

For decades jazz cognoscenti have talked reverently of “the Savory Collection.” Recorded from radio broadcasts in the late 1930s by an audio engineer named William Savory... only a handful of people had ever heard even the smallest fraction of that music, adding to its mystique. After 70 years that wait has now ended. This year the National Jazz Museum in Harlem acquired the entire set of nearly 1,000 discs, made at the height of the swing era, and has begun digitizing recordings of inspired performances by Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Bunny Berigan,...