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Special Collections and Archives
COUNT BASIE
researched by Music Librarian Christopher Popa
The Count Basie Orchestra is still performing, operated by Count Basie Enterprises, Inc. of Port Jefferson, NY, and has the rights to use Basie's music library.
Many tunes played by Basie, particularly those composed or arranged by Sammy Nestico and Quincy Jones in later years, were also sold as stock arrangements.
The Library of Congress in Washington, DC has about 85 "Count Basie Stocks" in its Music Division. "These are stocks contemporary with the band's recordings, not later sets of parts designed for reconstruction of Basie's performances: they may not in all cases be 'as played by the Basie orchestra' and contain few transcriptions of improvised solos," it is stated.
The University of Missouri-Kansas City holds the "Buck Clayton Collection," which spans his career including photographs and information from his days as a member of Count Basie's band from 1936 to 1943.
In Basie's hometown of Red Bank, NJ, a theatre for the performing arts, opened in 1926 as the Carlton Theater and renamed in Basie's honor in 1984, is in operation.
Other memorabilia, such as the 1941 photograph of Basie shown below, is in the hands of private collectors.
sources:
Count Basie Orchestra, http://www.countbasie.com/index.html.
Count Basie Stocks, http://www.loc.gov/rr/perform/basiestocks.html.
Count Basie Theatre, http://www.countbasietheatre.org/.
LaBudde Special Collections Dept., http://library.umkc.edu/spec-col-collections/clayton.
