The Jazz Review - Jazz Studies Online

most of us thought was padded. We
got up a petition to pull out and signed
our names to it, I was the only one
brave enough to sign at the bottom
of the page. Instead of me getting
the band when we left, Basie took
over. That was in 1934.
I remember Duke coming through
on his way West that year. They
were playing the Main Street Theatre
and some of the boys in Duke's band
wanted to go to hear Basie. Braud
was in the band and he acted biggety,
didn't want to go, said, "What's
he got?" We were playing at the Sunset
Club and finally Duke and the
rest crept around the scrim and
started sitting in. I was playing
right on top of Duke and he 'told
Basie he was going to steal me out
of the hand. Basie told him I owed
him $300.00 and that's how I didn't
get to join Duke during all those
good years he had. It was the smartest
move Basie ever made . . .
Finally Basie opened up, he had
Carl Smith, Lips on trumpet and a
good drummer. We'd start around
ten that night and work straight
through until five in the morning and
never repeat a number. We'd play
nothing but heads and all the pretty
numbers. After we'd finish a set some
of the smaller groups around town
would start in . . .
I left Kansas City that fall to join
Jeter-Pillars band in St. Louis. They
were working for Tom Strapella who
owned the Club Plantation in St.
Louis, and he loved me, gave me
everything I wanted. I could really
drink then and he'd fill up my glass
with solid whiskey. I was up around
260 then, sharp, and a prince. His
brother Jim was the trigger man,
and I said than ten words
to him during the whole time I was
there Wilbur Kirk was playing
arums ano narnionica in me nan«.
He had the same set of drums that
Snnnv freer neeri to rarrv around
• u*i. • .
tiajesi liars was a Dig star, jut
like tied been with I rent a couple
of years earlier.
When Bennie died early the next
year, Tatti Smith. Mack Washington.
Jack Washington. Buster Smith and
some others formed the nucleus of
the hand Basie had in the Reno Club.
Jo Jones didn't come in until the next
year after that. He was with Bennie
Moten for a while but didn't feel he
had enough experience, even though
we all tried to convince him to stay.
He went back up to Omaha and
worked with Lloyd Hunter.
Basie didn't have it any too easy
for quite a while, because he had to
scuffle for a couple of years before
he started getting big. We were playing
mostly heads too in those early
years, that's why those records jump
so much. The arrangements made a
lot of the bands stiff, especially when
you came in to record. You didn't
want to make any mistakes so you'd
tighten up ... if you were a breath
off. the mike would have you. Basie's
band was a great experience and
everyone in the band always knew
when to come in. no signals either,
just a common understanding . . .
I could have been doing the same
thing that Blanton did with Duke in
1939. because Duke explored his
men. and if they had anything to
offer, he'd spot them, which Basie
didn't do. Now that I'm doing it,
they say I'm copying Jimmy, and I
say I'm playing Walter Page. But
here's something, I love Basie ... all
I want is credit where it is due me.
After Basie broke up his band in
the late 40's, I went into Eddie Condon's
and had some big concerts and
record dates. Braud came around. He
quit music and was running a pool
hall and a meat store. I used to have
drinks with him and tried to get him
back into the music business. 1
helped him get inspired to start playing
again. Now he's with Kid Ory,
been to Europe and everywhere.
The young musicians all respect
me and love me. When I was up at
Newport this year, I came home with
Wendell Marshall and he was happy
to be with me. We opened up at Jazz
City with Ruby Braff just a while
back and Milt Hinton came backstage
to tell Ruby he was lucky to
have the daddy with him on bass. I
don't want praise, all I want to know
is that they appreciate what I'm doing
I know what's going on But I
want to know that it's going home.
1 know it is
Every year at the Apollo they have
an all-night session for charity. I
went up with one of my old friends
for a few drinks and felt I wanted
to get in one of the ad-lib sessions
and play a little I felt good but my
friend dragged 1116 back to talk some
more. A bunch of the young kids
came up to us and said, "Hey, old
man why don't you get back and
give us youngsters a chance 9 " I
told them. "Look man, I made mine
you make y o u rs ."They laughed
at me and I told them they ought to
be in their rooms learning their instruments,
woodshedding. I bet them
they didn't know why they were
playing bass. I told them I had my
music foundation and that they
should get theirs.
I learned the history of the great
masters, Cluck, Beethoven, Wagner,
Schuman, Liszt. Bach, Brahms, Puccini,
Verdi, etc. I used to play Bohemian
Girl in concert with the horn
and bass violin. I played bass violin
in a concert brass band for the first
time anywhere, and I used to fan that
horn with a derby thirty years ago
the way the trumpet plavers do today.
I'm not just a bass player, I'm
a musician with a foundation.
If the record companies could just
get to a joint when a band is feeling
right and slide the machine in and
set it up in a corner they'd really get
the band as it should he heard. On
the job, you're natural, but in the
studio you tend to hold back some
things you do when you are in a club.
We've got plans for a Blue Devils
LP that Atlantic wants me to do. I'm
trying to get Buster Smith to come
up from Dallas, but he won't fly. I'll
get him here by train. I'm going to
use Vic (Dickenson! and Buddy
iTate), and probably Sir Charles on
piano. We're going to do all the numbers
we made famous way back then,
and some originals that Buster will
write.