This Time By Basie – COUNT BASIE****

This Could Be The Start Of Something Big/I Left My Heart In San Francisco/One Mint Julep/Swingin’ Shepherd Blues/I Can’t Stop Loving You/Moon River/In Other Words/What Kind Of Fool Am I/Walk Don’t Run/Nice ‘N’ Easy/Theme From The Apartment

Legendary jazz big band leader Count Basie enjoyed his only solo US top twenty album chart success with this collection of 1950s & 1960s tunes. Jazz purists decried this venture into 'pop music', but in reality nearly all of the arrangements are of MOR standards. (US:19)

"This eleven song release reveals a wonderful body of work, and deserves to be better known. For starters, This Time By Basie swings, smooth and easy but taut, or hot and heavy."

"Highlights amid all of this surprising splendour include Marshall Royal's alto sax on What Kind Of Fool Am I and Frank Foster's tenor sax on Something Big."

"This album from the sixties showcases the big band sound brilliantly and there are a good number of swinging tunes like Nice & Easy, Swinging Shepherd Blues and One Mint Julep which receive the Basie treatment. A good introduction for any newcomer to the Basie sound."

"If anyone wants to know what a big band should sound like, then this is the album for you. This is absolutely first rate is all respects."

"Great album by Basie with fine arrangements by Quincy Jones and Billy Byers. Includes the Grammy-winning song I Can't Stop Loving You."

"Decades after the fact, people looking at releases like This Time By Basie would tend to dismiss it as pandering Basie doing a 'pops' type outing."

"This is one of the best swingin' efforts he made. Do not feel discouraged that the material's origin is pop-oriented, the music is 100 per cent Basie."