William “Count” Basie was one of the most innovative and influential personalities in jazz during the middle decades of the 20th century.

Basie’s music transcends the worlds of small group jazz, big band music, swing and R&B, with many future stars of the genre coming to prominence playing with his orchestra. Having honed his skills with Bennie Moten’s band in Kansas City, he formed his own orchestra in 1936 after Moten’s death and after a lengthy engagement in Chicago signed to Decca.

This 3CD set includes his releases for Decca during those years, which laid down a marker as to the talent and style of his bands, and constitute a significant and satisfying body of work.

The collection features many of his well-known compositions like One O’Clock Jump, Blue And Sentimental, Blues In The Dark, along with some of the classic standards of the era. A number of the tracks feature vocals by the great singers Jimmy Rushing and Helen Humes, and among the predominantly big band recordings are some by Basie with a trio comprising Fred Green, Walter Page and Jo Jones. Among the other musicians in his line-up were Buck Clayton, Lester Young, Harry Edison and Dickie Wells.

REVIEWS

Nothing can be more welcome than the rerelease of this superb collection of 78s which have been out of the catalogues for some time. These 63 gems are all the A and B sides of Basie's earliest band recorded during its Decca period, 1937 to 1939. It is hard to imagine what was the sensational impact on the New York jazz world when Bill Basie and his Kansas City band arrived there in 1935, breathing fire... Wild and spontaneous, here is where it all started with the band called the Magnificent Swing Machine. It is 84 years since Basie recorded these tunes but there is no need to make allowances for the passage of time. Here they are again in 2021 and still fresh as daisies, thanks to brilliant remastering by, that doyen of sound engineers, the late John RT Davies - John Martin (Jazz Rag Issue 165)

A subststantial, thorough and enlightening overview of this key era of Basie's career - Pete Lay (Just Jazz Issue 276)

It would take much, much more than the space afforded here to do justice to this outstanding release and to provide more than a cursory round up of the highlights contained therein. It's always satisfying to read that a set contains the complete recordings of an artist during the defined period and that's what Acrobat have provided here...  One of the sets of the year without doubt. - Gerry Stonestreet (In Tune Issue 350)

Covering just two years from January 1937 to January 1939, it contains pretty much all you need to appreciate why this edition of the pianist's band was rightly regarded as a game-changer. Although there may be those who question why we need yet another edition of material long familiar to record buyers, it's worth remembering that somewhere there may be millennial jazz fans who've never heard a note of this music. I for one cannot imagine a richer feast for anyone curious as to the ingredients of ‘swing’. In clear sound, with helpful booklet notes and available at bargain price, this makes a great introduction to anyone who may only know Basie from the Atomic period onwards. Highly recommended. **** - Simon Spillett (Jazzwise Issue 263)

Acrobat Records have produced a three-CD box of all Basie’s output for the Decca label. They have chosen to issue the titles in order of first release rather than strictly chronologically. The A and B sides of all issues are here and where alternate takes were recorded, these have been included. Together with a 27-page book giving discographical information and exhaustive track-by-track notes on the sessions, this is a useful and thorough document of early Basie... MAGIC ***** - Derek Ansell (Jazz Journal September 2021)