# Count Basie & Zoot Sims; Ellington Duke’s Big 4 on videos, Photos

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2023/04/09/count-basie-ellington-dukes-big-4-on-videos-photos/
- Published: 2023-04-09T00:02:40+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**One of the less sexy corners of the discography are the hundreds of LPs from the‘
70s and ‘80s produced by Norman Granz for his Pablo label. Nothing is wrong with
most the music, exactly, but there’s something a shade undercooked and staid about
many of the releases. **

Most of the players — many among the greatest of all time — are rendering somewhat
predictable repertoire in somewhat predictable ways. The sonics are rarely that 
charismatic, either.

Not that there aren’t wonderful things. Shuja Haider encouraged me to listen to 
the 1975 set of Count Basie and Zoot Sims in a quartet with John Heard and Louis
Bellson, _Basie & Zoot_. My impression is that Granz put out the session in the 
order that the music was recorded, for the date warms up as it goes along. A highlight
is “Honeysuckle Rose.” Basie tips along for a several casual choruses before Zoot
enters in a marvelously high gear. Indeed, Zoot is tooting so hard he is swinging
the rhythm section rather than the other way around.

The session closes with “I Surrender Dear” with Basie on organ. Really pretty awesome.
The Count goofs off, switching up the organ stops like he is accompanying a silent
movie. Since his piano style was mostly percussive, with blocky short stabs, it 
is fascinating to hear the man play sustained pads of full flawless harmony.

At one point the whole session of _Duke’s Big 4_ was on YouTube, including a fair
amount of rehearsal and discussion. I didn’t save it as a download, partially because
it was a little hard for me to watch: my firm impression was that neither Joe Pass
nor Ray Brown were being deferential enough to Ellington. (Louis Bellson was fine.)

Ellington repeatedly tosses out unusual ideas that are more or less ignored by the
guitarist and bassist. A taste of that can be seen in a clip that is still up, rehearsal
and a take of “The Blues.”

Ray Brown is teaching the riff to Pass, and apparently to Ellington as well (even
though it is Ellington’s riff from many years earlier). After a minute and half 
of fooling around, Duke starts finding something primeval and churchy for a potential
reharmonization. He also is working on an idiosyncratic kind of Bobby Timmons falling
scale/riff/shout to replace the stereotypical blues descent Brown is playing on 
the bass. Finally, Duke wants to find exactly the right juicy close-position harmony
for each note in the middle of the phrase.

Pass and Brown steamroller over all of that in favor of stuff they already understand.
Right before recording the work in progress, Ellington turns and tries to gain some
room to maneuver. “This could take a little while.”

The others rush to cut him off. “No, it ain’t!” “It’s just a blues!”

They then roll tape, and that take is what is on the record.

The slight tune starts on a major seventh (E natural over F7) which is pretty cool
and pretty weird. (Especially the way Ellington _lays into_ that major seventh. 
He sounds like a whole band with just one note.) But, sadly, I see Brown and Pass
suck the mystery out of that major seventh in real time. The guitarist and the bassist
are playing a conventional professional blues, not an idiosyncratic Ellington blues.
By the end of the take, the major seventh is starting to sound _wrong_, rather than
the whole reason to play the melody to begin with.

_Duke’s Big 4_ is okay overall, and it’s objectively great to have one last small
group album with a few shocking piano chords the year before Ellington died. But
the rehearsal videos show the album could have been a lot better if Pass and Brown
had just shut up and listened to the piano player.

Brown is one thing: he’s not my favorite for this context but he’s certainly an 
awesome musician and Ellington could be a master of ignoring bassists. Pass is another
kettle of fish. Guitar has a lot of power in this situation. I don’t think Joe Pass
picks up on a single Ellington offering. Instead he just noodles away while looking
into the distance. Maybe he’s bored to be playing with Duke? Cynical? It’s very 
hard for me not to judge Joe Pass here; just at this moment I’m prepared to never
listen to Joe Pass again. Ever.

A good producer keeps the session going in the right direction. Duke was the greatest
musician present, and he was almost at the end of the road. Frankly, it was Granz’s
fucking _job_ to step in and say, “let’s take a break,” and then talk to Pass and
Brown privately about following Duke’s lead. Instead, they ended up with the kind
of track that exists in similar form on almost every Pablo release.

I can just see boring old Norman Granz settling back in his chair. He’s paying the
freight, the musicians are great, so what’s the problem? How many times did he say,“
Nice work today, gentlemen. We are still one tune short, so pick a key to play a
medium blues in. Do you want to dedicate it to a friend or a musician from the past?”

(On _Basie and Zoot_ the dedication is “Blues for Nat Cole,” which, to be fair, 
is fabulous — although probably mis-titled, for it is uptempo rhythm changes. Next
in sequence is “Captain Bligh” which is a medium slow blues with Basie tinkling 
the ivories like Nat Cole. Probably the titles for “Captain Bligh” and “Blues for
Nat Cole” should be switched around.)

It’s easy to criticize. We are certainly better off to have all those Granz sessions.
In a future edition of TT I’ll highlight some beautiful Pablo albums.

During the recording of _Big 4_ there’s a man in a corner, smoking and looking nervous.
That’s Stanley Dance! During the pandemic I wrote up a few Stanley Dance-related
items. God bless Stanley Dance.

**UPDATE on “The Blues.”** At first I thought the riff might be by Ray Brown, for
he is leading the ensemble in rehearsal. However, both Carl Woideck and René Michaelsen
helped me out by sourcing “The Blues” to Ellington records from the 1940s. It’s 
briefly part of “The Blues” section in _Black, Brown, and Beige,_ and much more 
obviously “Carnegie Blues.”

Both ‘40s versions are in D-flat, and the rhythmic phrasing is notably different
than what ends up on _Big 4_. In my view, Ray Brown’s version removes a lot of the
best things about “Carnegie Blues.” I have no idea why Brown is in charge of teaching
the music to Pass and Ellington.

![BASIE,COUNT - Basie & Zoot - Amazon.com Music](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/
W/IMAGERENDERING_521856-T1/images/I/715bwyKxe0L._UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg)

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