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Count Basie's Comping Style. Part I
by
Misha V. Stefanuk
William Count Basie is credited as the father of a piano accompaniment style that is known as comping. Every pianist in jazz uses his style when accompanying other musicians' solos and often ensemble sections as well. Comping is an essential tool for supporting the musical atmosphere that became a trademark of jazz music in general. It is a common mistake to consider Basie's piano style simplified and underdeveloped. Comparing his recordings to other pianists of the time, one might get the impression that Basie's choice to play significantly fewer notes than Art Tatum or Jelly Roll Morton is just a lack of technical skill. The point of this paper is to prove that Basie's style of fewer notes, was an artistic statement much more appropriate for the era of big band music, of which he was one of the main figures. Count Basie's comping style was a result of his sensitivity to the needs of more modern musical developments of the time, and a brilliant foreshadowing of the future of instrumental jazz performing.
"Count is also just about the best piano player for pushing a band and for comping soloists. I mean the way he makes different preparations for each soloist and the way, at the end of his solos, he prepares an entrance for the next man. He leaves the way open." 1
In jazz music before Basie, the pianist's role was very different. Most of the piano players were playing stride piano or boogie-woogie, providing a driving force of music in their left hand. In New Orleans style, the pianist played in almost the same way it would play as a solo instrument, making the music a little noisy and disorganized. However the idea of separating functions between instruments already existed for brass and woodwind players. A trumpet player usually would play the melody, a clarinetist would run scales and arpeggios up and down and a trombonist would play bass lines embellished with sound effects such as slides. Partially, this separation of functions was a result of the very nature of certain instruments, and it is possible that pianists did not a single function because the instrument was capable of serving virtually all of them. Before the 1930's most pianists, including Basie, would play as if they were the only musicians on stage. But with the rising popularity of dance jazz music and introduction of larger instrumental groups, the need for clarifying and refining the piano part and random arrangements, very typical for New Orleans style, became obvious.
William Count Basie was born on August 21 1904 in Red Bank, New Jersey as son of Harvey Lee Basey and Lillian Ann Childs. His father was a coachman and groundskeeper, and his mother was a laundry woman. According to some sources William Basie learned to play piano from his mother as a young child, but others credit the German nanny named Halloway as his piano teacher. By the age of sixteen he moved to New York's Harlem, where he met and listened to James P. Johnson and Fats Waller, from whom he took some lessons. Basie got a job accompanying Keith and Theatre Owners' Booking Association vaudevilles, and his activities started to include musical directing and accompanying for blues and jazz singers, as well as comedians and dancers.
In 1927 William Basie got stranded in Kansas City in the middle of a tour, and started playing for silent movies. The particular skill that a pianist would have to show to get that job included the ability to improvise a variety of sounds illustrating events on the screen. These would include purely illustrative music examples such as fast, medium and moderate grooves, and also supporting emotions such as anger, love or excitement, as well as building the dramatic culminations and reacting quickly to the visuals of explosions, falls and other visual effects. To illustrate the level of proficiency required, it is interesting to mention that Dmitry Schostakovitch held similar job in Russia at about the same time. Soon Basie also started playing with the Blue Devils and in 1929 with Bennie Moten's Band. If Basie had ended his performing completely in 1936, his resume would still be more impressive than most of pianists we know. However, it is the band that Basie formed after the death of Moten in 1935 that made his name a legend and give him the opportunity to fully develop his own artistic personality.
"The group, consisting of Basie, Page, Jones and, from 1937, Freddie Green, altered the ideal of jazz accompaniment, making it more supple and responsive to the wind instruments and helping to establish four-beat jazz (with four almost identically stressed beats to a bar) as the norm for jazz performance." 2
Kansas City was known as sin city, equal to Paris and Singapore in 1920's, the fame which was taken away by Las Vegas. There gambling was legalized in 1931, and Vegas became the new sin city with the opening of the legendary Flamingo Hotel in 1946. And just as Vegas offers jobs to thousands of musicians and entertainers today, at the time Basie got stranded in Kansas City, it was filled with best jazz musicians and bands in the world. Cool-Sanders' orchestra played nightly first at the Muehlebach Hotel and then at the Congress Hotel. Dave Lewis Jazz Boys included drummer Leroy Maxey and trombonist Depriest Wheeler, both of whom would later play in Cab Calloway's band. Grand hotels featured brilliantly decorated ballrooms like Pla-Mor Ballroom, and the sound of jazz by orchestras such as Jap Allen's Cotton Club Orchestra, dominated the air. Outdoor venues such as Fairyland Park featured concerts by Andy Kirk, Harlan Leonard, Jay McSchann and Bennie Moten.
Blue Devils, the first band Basie played with, was considered the most musical band in Kansas City, it came to Kansas in 1928 to play at White Horse Tavern. Bennie Moten started hiring musicians from this band to play for his orchestra. Count Basie became one of them, joining Hot Lips Page, Jimmy Rushing and Walter Page. In 1931 the Moten's band included about twenty musicians, and Basie and Eddie Durham convinced Moten to hire more players, and also to try to modernize the style of the band to sound more like bands from the East Coast. In 1935 Basie and Buster Smith form a group of nine musicians which they called The Barons of Rhythm, to play at famous Reno Club. The group also included Jo Jones and Lester Young, and in about a year it becomes known as Count Basie Band and got a contract with Decca Record Company, leading to best-selling recordings such as One O'Clock Jump, Jumping At The Woodside and Taxi War Dance. One interesting detail about Basie's musicians is the social circle of drunks, pimps and prostitutes with which they were associated. That association gave Basie a fairly effective advertisement by being associated with sinners of the sin city, however he also managed to maintain the clean and well-dressed image on stage. Count Basie's band was active all the way through 1970's accompanying such stars as Sarah Vaughan, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett.
Basie's musical talents are almost inseparable from his band. Drummer Jo Jones and guitarist Freddy Green provide the main driving force, the all accented fourth swing groove, which became the trade mark of the orchestra, and the main supporting element for his piano playing. Basie's sensitivity to other musicians is also superb. He never disturbed another player's solo. He saw the purpose of his playing to support the other musicians and the groove. That would explain why his orchestra is so popular with singers and instrumentalists. In a way, Basie's piano playing was the least egotistical when compared to other pianists. He was not interested in representing himself as a great soloist; he wanted communal music to happen.
"His piano work showed that rhythm and space were more important than technical virtuosity: his composing gave many eminent soloists their finest moments. Without the Count Basie Orchestra's sublimely aerated versions of "Cherokee" it is unlikely that Charlie Parker could ever have created "Koko". Modern jazz stands indubitably in Basie's debt." 3
Out of many great pianists besides Basie, not many were capable of sacrificing their time to give others a chance to play long solos. Art Tatum and Erroll Garner, for example, had very few bass solos and almost no drum solos at all in their trio recordings. Only Oscar Peterson and Bill Evans recognized the true value of Basie's approach to music and followed it. It is no surprise that Peterson's recordings with Basie gained significant popularity thirty years later.
"This style of comping is based on a quarter note pattern, which when played perfectly in time, creates a solid foundation in the rhythm section. When the guitarist is using this approach it's often best if the pianist plays sparse and rhythmic. The pianist can treat the comping as accents or he/she can use solid repeated rhythmic patterns. The piano takes on more of a percussive role because the guitarist is constantly supplying the harmonic material." 4
We will continue this discussion in the next month's issue.
Please check my Jazz Album for Piano for music examples and sheet music of complete stylings of Basie and other major jazz pianists.
1 Alun Morgan. Count Basie (New York: Hippocrene Books, 1984), 28.
2 Bradford J.Robinson, Basie Count, Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy. (Accessed 2.11.2006)
3 Stanley Dance, "Count Basie Biography," Encyclopedia of Popular Music(London: Muze UK Limited, 1989 - 2002), 76.
4 Per Danielsson, "Piano/Guitar Comping: How To Avoid Conflicts," Creative Keyboard, Mel Bay Publications, 2003,
http://creativekeyboard.com/feb03/comping.html.
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