''Montreux '77'' is an album by

Count Basie William James "Count" Basie (; August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. In 1935, he formed the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and the ...

and his orchestra, recorded at the 1977

Montreux Jazz Festival The Montreux Jazz Festival (formerly Festival de Jazz Montreux and Festival International de Jazz Montreux) is a music festival in Switzerland, held annually in early July in Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline. It is the second-largest annual ...

Track listing

# "The Heat's On" (

Sammy Nestico Samuel Louis Nistico (February 6, 1924 – January 17, 2021), better known as Sammy Nestico, was an American composer and arranger. Nestico is best known for his arrangements for the Count Basie orchestra. Early life and education Samuel Luigi ...

) – 3:39 # "Freckle Face" (Nestico) – 6:04 # "Splanky" (

Neal Hefti Neal Paul Hefti (October 29, 1922 – October 11, 2008) was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and arranger. He wrote music for '' The Odd Couple'' movie and TV series and for the ''Batman'' TV series. He began arranging professionally in his ...

) – 4:34 # "

The More I See You "The More I See You" is a popular song composed by Harry Warren, with lyrics by Mack Gordon. The song was first published in 1945. Other recordings "The More I See You" has been subsequently recorded by many artists, notably by: * Bing Crosby ...

" (

Mack Gordon Mack Gordon (born Morris Gittler; June 21, 1904 – February 28, 1959) was an American composer and lyricist for the stage and film. He was nominated for the best original song Oscar nine times in 11 years, including five consecutive years betwee ...

, Harry Warren) – 3:41 # " A Night in Tunisia" ( Dizzy Gillespie, Frank Paparelli) – 4:53 # "Hittin' 12" (Harrison) – 2:23 # "Bag of Dreams" ( Jimmy Forrest) – 6:14 # "

Things Ain't What They Used to Be "Things Ain't What They Used to Be" is a 1942 jazz standard with music by Mercer Ellington and lyrics by Ted Persons. Background In 1941 there was a strike against the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, of which Duke Elling ...

" (

Mercer Ellington Mercer Kennedy Ellington (March 11, 1919 – February 8, 1996) was an American musician, composer, and arranger. His father was Duke Ellington, whose band Mercer led for 20 years after his father's death. Biography Early life and education Ellin ...

, Ted Persons) – 4:14 # "I Needs to Be Bee'd With" (

Quincy Jones Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (born March 14, 1933) is an American record producer, musician, songwriter, composer, arranger, and film and television producer. His career spans 70 years in the entertainment industry with a record of 80 Grammy Award n ...

) – 5:07 # "Li'l Darlin'" (Hefti) – 4:44 # "

Jumpin' at the Woodside "Jumpin' at the Woodside" is a song first recorded in 1938 by the Count Basie Orchestra, and considered one of the band's signature tunes. When first released it reached number 11 on the ''Billboard'' charts and remained on them for four weeks. ...

" (

Jon Hendricks John Carl Hendricks (September 16, 1921 – November 22, 2017), known professionally as Jon Hendricks, was an American jazz lyricist and singer. He is one of the originators of vocalese, which adds lyrics to existing instrumental songs and re ...

) – 3:50 # "

One O'Clock Jump "One O'Clock Jump" is a jazz standard, a 12-bar blues instrumental, written by Count Basie in 1937. Background The melody derived from band members' riffs—Basie rarely wrote down musical ideas, so Eddie Durham and Buster Smith helped him cry ...

" (Basie) – 3:28

Personnel

;The

Count Basie Orchestra The Count Basie Orchestra is a 16 to 18 piece big band, one of the most prominent jazz performing groups of the swing era, founded by Count Basie in 1935 and recording regularly from 1936. Despite a brief disbandment at the beginning of the 195 ...

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

Al Grey Al Grey (June 6, 1925 – March 24, 2000) was an American jazz trombonist who was a member of the Count Basie orchestra. He was known for his plunger mute technique and wrote an instructional book in 1987 called ''Plunger Techniques''. Care ...

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate ...

* Dennis Wilson - trombone *

Mel Wanzo Melvin "Mel" Wanzo, also known as Melvin Wahid Muhammad (November 22, 1930, Cleveland - September 9, 2005, Detroit) was an American jazz trombonist. He is best known for his longtime association with the Count Basie Orchestra. Wanzo received for ...

- trombone * Bill Hughes - trombone *

Waymon Reed Waymon Reed (January 10, 1940, Fayetteville, North Carolina - November 25, 1983, Nashville, Tennessee) was an American jazz trumpeter. While he was principally a bebop soloist, he also worked in rhythm and blues ( R&B). He never had any children, ...

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

Lin Biviano Franklin "Lin" Biviano is an American jazz trumpeter best known for his powerful lead trumpet playing with Buddy Rich, Count Basie, and Maynard Ferguson. He has also played and recorded with Hoagy Carmichael, Jo Ann Castle, Bill Chase, Buddy DeFr ...

- trumpet *

Sonny Cohn George Thomas Cohn (March 14, 1925 – November 7, 2006), known professionally as Sonny Cohn, was an American jazz trumpeter whose career spanned over six decades. After working for fifteen years with Red Saunders (1945–1960), Cohn went on ...

- trumpet * Bobby Mitchell - trumpet * Jimmy Forrest -

tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while ...

Eric Dixon Eric "Big Daddy" Dixon (March 28, 1930 – October 19, 1989) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, flautist, composer, and arranger. Dixon's professional career extended from 1950 until his death in 1989, during which time he was credited ...

- tenor saxophone * Danny Turner - saxophone *

Bobby Plater Robert C. Plater (May 13, 1914, Newark, New Jersey - November 20, 1982, Lake Tahoe) was an American jazz alto saxophonist. Plater began playing alto sax at age 12, and played locally in Newark with Donald Lambert and the Savoy Dictators in th ...

- alto saxophone * Charlie Fowlkes - baritone saxophone *

Freddie Green Frederick William Green (March 31, 1911 – March 1, 1987) was an American swing jazz guitarist who played rhythm guitar with the Count Basie Orchestra for almost fifty years. Early life and education Green was born in Charleston, South Car ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

* John Duke -

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox additions such as the octobass). Similar i ...

* Butch Miles - drums

References

{{Reflist 1977 live albums Count Basie Orchestra live albums Albums recorded at the Montreux Jazz Festival Pablo Records live albums Albums produced by Norman Granz