Live at the Sands (Before Frank)

by Count Basie

Overview

Frank Sinatra's collaborations with Count Basie were among the singer's better ventures back into jazz in the early 1960s, and led not only to a couple of great studio albums, and one superb live Sinatra album, but also to Basie's being signed to the Sinatra-founded Reprise label in the mid-'60s. The 53 minutes of music captured on Live at the Sands was recorded during the opening sets from three different shows in late January and early February of 1966, by Basie and his band during the engagement with Sinatra at the Sands Hotel that yielded that live Sinatra album. Maybe that raises the expectations, because this release is a slight disappointment -- the band sounds OK, but except for Basie himself and drummer Sonny Payne, it seems like they're walking their way through some of this repertoire. There are a number of good moments here: "I Needs to Be Bee'd With," "Flight of the Foo Birds," "Satin Doll," "Blues for Home," and "This Could Be the Start of Something Big" (which is worth hearing for the ensemble work and Eric Dixon and Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis' solos); the band finally takes flight, but compared with some of the recordings of complete shows by Basie that are nothing less than great, a lot of this is secondary. Given the fact that it was Sinatra's set that was going to be taped for release for certain, the band may, indeed, have been holding back during its own set, for good reason. Even the audience response says it, positive and polite but not excessive -- they were there for Sinatra, and nothing Basie and company did were likely to bowl them over, so why make the effort? It's not a bad set, and some of it -- "Makin' Whoopee" (especially the call and response on the piano), "Corner Pocket," and "Jumpin' at the Woodside" -- has great appeal. But this is overall a legendary band doing a somewhat less-than-legendary set, during some gigs that, in fairness, yielded up a great live album elsewhere. The quality is solid live sound, in crisp stereo from a nicely controlled mid-'60s venue, using state-of-the-art equipment. ~ Bruce Eder

Product Details

Release Date:	11/05/2013
Label:	Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab
UPC:	0821797240116
Rank:	44998

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Count Basie   Primary Artist,Piano
Freddie Green   Guest Artist,Guitar
Al Grey   Guest Artist,Trombone
Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis   Guest Artist,Sax (Tenor)
Bill Hughes   Trombone (Bass)
Al Aarons   Trumpet
Wallace Davenport   Trumpet
Charlie Fowlkes   Flute,Sax (Baritone)
Marshall Royal   Clarinet,Sax (Alto)
Grover Mitchell   Trombone
Bobby Plater   Flute,Fiddle,Sax (Alto)
Percival "Sonny" Payne   Drums
Philip Guilbeau   Trumpet
Eric Dixon   Flute,Fiddle,Sax (Tenor)
Bobby Platter   Flute,Sax (Alto)
Norman Keenan   Bass
Henderson Chambers   Trombone

Technical Credits

Steve Allen   Composer
Andrew York   Composer
Chubby Kemp   Composer
Duke Ellington   Composer
Count Basie   Composer
James Farber   Mixing
Freddie Green   Composer
Carole King   Composer
Don Gibson   Composer
Walter Donaldson   Composer
Greg Calbi   Mastering
Johnny Mercer   Composer
Loren Schoenberg   Liner Notes
Neal Hefti   Composer
Matt Pierson   Producer
Billy Strayhorn   Composer
Quincy Jones   Composer
Gerry Goffin   Composer
Gus Kahn   Composer
Sonny Burke   Producer
Lowell Frank   Engineer
Donald Wolf   Composer
Lee Tanner   Photography
Mark Larson   Art Direction
Dana Watson   Producer
Eric Dixon   Composer
Duncan P. Schiedt   Photography
Ernest Shelby   Composer