Basie, Count (1904–1984)

US jazz band leader and pianist. He developed the big-band jazz sound and a simplified, swinging style of music. He led impressive groups of musicians in a career spanning more than 50 years. Basie's compositions include ‘One O'Clock Jump’ (1937) and ‘Jumpin' at the Woodside’ (1938).

Basie's solo piano technique was influenced by the style of Fats Waller, his organ teacher in Harlem, New York.

He was born in Red Bank, New Jersey, and began his musical career as an accompanist in vaudeville performances. He moved to Kansas City, Missouri, in 1927, where became an accompanist for silent films. He put together his own nine-piece band in 1935 which expanded in the late 1930s, becoming the Count Basie Orchestra. The orchestra brought him international success, although by the 1950s he had returned to smaller line-ups. He continued to tour until the early 1980s.

Basie was awarded a posthumous Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002.