Broadway

Count Basie's 1940 recording of the classic standard Broadway proved to be a big hit for the band, due in no small part to a now-legendary tenor saxophone solo courtesy of Lester Young. This version, a re-scored arrangement by Frank Foster, was recorded for the 1961 retrospective double album The Count Basie Story. Other than a few subtle modernized touches it is virtually identical to the Henri Woode original 1940 arrangement. A swinging full band riff and bright trumpet pronouncement serve as a simple, yet effective, introduction for the melody at measure 13. Handled by the saxes with some jabbing brass interjections at first, Basie's piano gets a brief spotlight on the bridge at measure 23 before the melody resumes eight measures later. A brief tagged figure sets up the arrangement's real attraction: a single chorus of tenor sax solo beginning at measure 41. Although Young's performance is a hard act to follow, Billy Mitchell offers up a performance that's certainly no slouch in and of its own on the 1961 version. Following the tenor solo is half a chorus of trumpet solo at measure 65, handled by Buck Clayton on the 1940 version and Joe Newman on the 1961 version. The band engages in some good-natured call-and-response riffing at measure 74, with the piano once again getting the spotlight on the bridge. Things begin to slowly wind down at measure 91, with the saxes returning to the melody and the brass providing some simple prodding for good measure. The dynamics continue to tail off until the brass and piano play a typically Basie-esque plunking ending, polished off by a simple thump from the rhythm section to wrap things up. This arrangement is not a transcription - it has been prepared from the original 1961 set of parts used by the Count Basie Orchestra.