Spiritworks & Jeff Lewis present a once-in-a-lifetime concert opportunity.. The LEGENDARY COUNT BASIE ORCHESTRA Directed by Dennis Mackrel Featuring special guest vocalist Carmen Bradford Live in Australia in October 2012.
Melbourne – Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne – 10 October 2012
Brisbane – Concert Hall, QPAC – 11 October 2012
Sydney Opera House – 13 October 2012
Perth – Concert Hall – 14 October 2012
The living embodiment of ’30s and ’40s swing, one of the most exuberant and irresistible sounds that ever shook the western world, the Legendary Count Basie Orchestra will make a long awaited return to Australia for a strictly limited run of concert hall performances in October.
Directed by veteran drummer Dennis Mackrel, hired by the late Count himself some 30 years ago, the 18-piece Count Basie Orchestra features a peerless array of instrumentalists with combined credentials that have topped the upper echelons of the international jazz world for decades.
From Billie Holiday to Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra to Nat King Cole, Sarah Vaughan to Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett to Sammy Davis Junior, the Count Basie Orchestra has provided the supremely distinctive sound and swing behind some of the greatest singers of the modern age.
Over the decades, the Orchestra’s evolving ranks have harboured talents as revered as Lester Young, Buck Clayton, Harry “Sweets” Edison, Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, Papa Jo Jones, Thad Jones, Frank Foster, Frank Wess, Clark Terry and Al Grey.
The Basie Orchestra also popularised the two-tenor sax duels, starting in the original band with Lester Young and Herschel Evans, a tradition which continues to this day.
Current members include a solid core of musicians hired by Basie, including saxophonist John Williams, bassist James Leary, trombonist Clarence Banks and singer Carmen Bradford, as well as former members of Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman and Lionel Hampton’s ensembles.
The tradition of excellence continued beyond the Count’s passing in 1984 to make the Orchestra a permanent fixture in Down Beat and Jazz Times polls throughout the ’80s and ’90s. The latest of a total 17 Grammy Awards was bestowed as recently as their Count Plays Duke album of ’99.
Special guest vocalist on this tour is the remarkable Carmen Bradford. Count Basie heard Bradford sing in the early eighties and immediately hired her as vocalist for his Orchestra. She has not only continued to feature with the Count Basie Orchestra since that time, but has performed and/or recorded with such world-class artists as Tony Bennett, James Brown, Herbie Hancock, Lena Horne, Wynton Marsalis, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Wilson, George Benson and many others.
Simply put, the Count Basie Orchestra is the real deal, a who’s who of swing spanning generations to maintain the flame of one of the world’s best-loved sounds. For Australian audiences, this is a once-in-a-lifetime event, a truly elite jazz ensemble staged in some of our most prestigious venues.
Don’t miss these historic concerts.
“The greatest big band working today”
– NEW YORK POST
“Purring one moment and roaring the next in trademark fashion”
– WASHINGTON POST
“If you play a tune and a person don’t tap their feet, don’t play the tune”
– COUNT BASIE
DATES:
Melbourne – Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne – 10 October 2012
Brisbane – Concert Hall, QPAC – 11 October 2012
Sydney Opera House – 13 October 2012
Perth – Concert Hall – 14 October 2012
