Arts & Culture

Count Basie

American musician
Feedback
Corrections? Updates? Omissions? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login).
Thank you for your feedback

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

Also known as: William Basie
Count Basie
Count Basie
Born:
August 21, 1904 New Jersey
Died:
April 26, 1984 (aged 79) Hollywood Florida
Awards And Honors:
Grammy Award (1984) Grammy Award (1982) Grammy Award (1980) Grammy Award (1977) Grammy Award (1976) Grammy Award (1963) Grammy Award (1960) Grammy Award (1958)
Movement / Style:
big-band jazz swing

Count Basie, byname of William Basie, (born August 21, 1904, Red Bank, New Jersey, U.S.—died April 26, 1984, Hollywood, Florida), American jazz musician noted for his spare, economical piano style and for his leadership of influential and widely heralded big bands. Basie studied music with his mother and was later influenced by the Harlem pianists James P. Johnson and Fats Waller, receiving informal tutelage on the organ from the latter. He began his professional career as an accompanist on the vaudeville circuit. Stranded in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1927, Basie remained there and eventually (in 1935) assumed the leadership of ...(100 of 998 words)