MUSIC OR DIE #9–Count Basie, "The Atomic Mr. Basie" (1957)

That escalated rather quickly, don't you think.

Part 9 of my 1000+ part series
(For info on that, clickety-click-click)

In which I continue to demonstrate my lack of ability to review instrumental tracks.

TL;DR

Some things never change.

More after The Cut>>>


The songs:
Like with my Duke Ellington review, I'm just going to do weird free-form instant reaction comments, mkay?

1.) Kid from Red Bank
Ahhh, Red Bank, NJ. 
Jersey. So many songs to be written about the pothole Garden State.

Here are some here!
...what do you mean they weren't written about Jersey?

Starts out hard and fast, which is quintessentially Jersey to me. 

BASSSSSSSS. And the horns remind me of NJ traffic, not going to lie. The piano, of police sirens. Clearly my views of New Jersey are all very complimentary. No, but I really do like NJ, honestly.

This is a perky track. I like how the piano skips around a lot. It reminds me a lot at times of nickelodeon pianos from the old silent films. Good stuff.

Oh, it's over? I was getting into it! All good things must come to an end, I suppose.

2.) Duet
The only other song I know with the title "Duet" is by Rachael Yamagata feat. Ray Lamontagne, and it's pretty much diametrically opposite of this one. 

Despite the title, it's more of a trio so far–piano, bass, drums.

Oh wait, plus trumpet. How could you lie to me like this, Basie?

Now there are all kinds of instruments! 

WHOA TUBA (trombone? bull moose? some sort of loooow noise)

It ends with a whop-whop-whoooop sort of trumpet noise. Sold.

3.) After Supper

This sounds like a jazz bar at first, minus the haze and the murmurs, drinks being poured, etc.

Ooh, sultry saxes have come in. "After supper" is a euphemism if ever I heard one. 

...not quite the direction I was going for.

A walking bassline comes in for support. This is suuuuper minimal and stripped down. Quiet and seductive, methinks. 

Feels like it's both building up and unwinding towards the end. Is that a contradiction of terms? Yes and no. 

4.) Flight of the Foo Birds

I don't know what a 'foo bird' is, or how it flies (or doesn't), but in my heart, it's basically this:

(In all seriousness, though, I'll start listening to the actual song now)

Ooh, swingy! It sounds as if Sinatra's vocals should come in at any time. 

Sweeet saxophone solo right now! I like the horns jamming themselves in there now and again like a counterpoint, I guess you could say. 

Ooh, this deeper sax (bari?) sounds like a rooster puffing itself up and strutting around. I don't even know why I thought that, but no takebacks! 

Ok, ok, I know I should have been listening more to the end of the song (and I did listen! Honest!) buuuuut I couldn't not Google the 'foo bird'. This is what I found. Again, I'd like to think that it's what Count Basie had in mind. Clearly I have an overactive imagination. 

5.) Double-O

This sounds at first like the soundtrack for an oooold school cartoon or something, like Felix the Cat.

You have to admit, aesthetically this isn't *that* far off from this album/era

Ooh, now piano + bass! Me likey

OHAI ALL THE OTHER INSTRUMENTS! It's like an old cartoon soundtrack, but way more BOMBASTIC. I can't put my finger on why it reminds me of that, but I'd wager that it's the tempo combined with something about the melody. WHO KNOWS.

It's getting strangely discordant...reminds me of swarms of insects somehow.

INTENSITY BUILDING

Boooo it's over JUST AS IT WAS GETTING TO THE GOOD PART. Oh well.

...I'm getting double o doesn't refer to Double Stuf Oreos

6.) Teddy the Toad

So right off the toad bat, this sounds like a song I'd love. TEDDY THE FREAKIN' TOAD. HOW AWESOME IS THAT?! The greatest children's action cartoon that never was. Cartoon Network, return my calls. 

There is a vaguely James Bond-esque BWAH BWAH trumpet-y bit at the beginning! GO TEDDY!

Aaaaand now it's substantially more mellow. Not sure how I feel about this. Is Teddy tired already? I get you, Teddy boo. 

Take a load off. You earned it, pal.

BWAH BW–j/k I'm too tired. 

BWAH BW–now I'm just teasing you all. 

Basically:

7.) Whirlybird

Again, great title. Both evocative of a helicopter and of little kids pretending to fly and spinning in circles until they puke. 
...maybe that last part is just me.

There's something a little more latin-flavored in this than normal, I think. Like merengue-esque in the saxophones. AND THAT DRUMMER. SAVE THE DRUMMER. HE'S GOING TO BURST INTO FLAMES.

Yes.

The version I heard (the one I linked to above) is longer than the album version, from what I can glean, but was never boring for me, which is saying something considering my ridiculously short attention span when it comes to this kind of music. 

The saxophones remind me of cracked out dolphins doing the merengue (I dare you to challenge this description), and DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THAT DRUMMER. I could've listened to just hours of him. Amaaaazing.

Favorite moment: when they take the tempo DOWN and do a joke bar of "Do Your Ears Hang Low?" at around 6:30. Priceless. 

8.) Midnite Blue

Swelling saxophones/tuba(?) = 83% of the beginning of this. Super low key and, I suppose midnight/nite-y. Doesn't seem super 'blue', but what do I know. Rhetoric question, guys. 

Not really my scene, overall–a lot of just some tinkly piano and some low tempo, swell-y sort of horns. It does create a sort of mood overall, and I like how it builds up to where the trumpets take over around the halfway mark. That's a highlight, for sure. 

9.) Splanky

...what is a splanky? How does one 'splank'? Is this a dance craze I wasn't aware of? An adjective to describe a mode of dress? ANOTHER CARTOON CHARACTER? Cartoon Network, you're killing me here.

I like the opening 'splanky'ness of it. (As I don't know what that word means, I reserve the right to use it for whatever meaning I see fit. Here it just refers to the quality of being this song.)

Google tells me 'splanky' means/meant 'cool'/'fly'. Alright, I can see that. It seems very mellow and chill, but swaggering. That whole too cool for school vibe. 

Disclaimer: this is in his pre-face grabbing/personal space-defying days, ok? Don't send me your angry letters.

10.) Fantail

Bass + piano combo that has defined the opening of many of these numbers. 

The trumpet melody around 0:40 or so reminds me of later action movie soundtracks, once again. Pretty snazzy. 

I...I'm running out of things to say about these at this point. 

11.) Lil' Darlin'

Aight...let's slay this beast 

Aaaaand *play*

Wow...that's....not what I expected. It opens with pretty, vaguely Romantic (capital R) piano and...a harp? Ah, THERE are the requisite jazz instruments. Plus...more harp. OK, why not! I'm game!

OH I just noticed what I *think* may be Spanish guitar lurking behind the intermittent harp. INTRIGUING.
WAIT THAT'S NOT A HARP THAT'S A GUITAR
I CAN'T
EVERYTHING IS A LIE

As it continues, it almost feels like a 'role reversal'–instead of the horns barging in on the piano melody, it's the piano/GUITAR barging in occasionally on everything else.

Trumpet solo. Can you say vibratoOOoOoooO?

Aaand it's done!

FINAL THOUGHTS:
I was hoping that as I continued with this challenge, I'd get better at reviewing this type of music. Spoiler: I haven't. (Can it be a spoiler if it's at the end? No? Ok then.)
I personally feel as though I've noticed certainly patterns and similarities/differences among this and the others I've reviewed...but I'm still terrible at conveying it. STILL, in spite of my ineptitude at writing about it, I did enjoy this album. It's good background music, I think. For me personally, I couldn't just listen to it like I could, say, the Louis Prima album, but it's a solid album and I think I understand more now the kind of impact this had on other artists, as well as the genre as a whole.

Knowledge is seeping into my head, like a sparkly rainbow of...knowledge.

Personal standout tracks:
"Kid from Red Bank", "After Supper", "Double-O", "Whirlybird"