One O'Clock Jump - Count Basie (1943)

This tune is one of the Big Band standards for its era. Released in the Summer of 1937, it became the signature tune for William "Count" Basie and his band, the purveyors of a new jazz sound that came out of the heartland metropolis of Kansas City, Missouri.

Basie (1904-1984) was already a big local success in night clubs and local radio shows when he was discovered via a late night program by a VIP listener, John Hammond, a producer for Benny Goodman and many other swing greats.

The Basie Band (which originally featured featured jazz legends like Lester Young on tenor sax and Buck Clayton on trumpet) proved popular enough to break out early and stay one of the top bands of the era.

One of Basie's earliest piano teachers was none other than the great "Mayor of Harlem" and piano virtuoso, Fats Waller.

Despite the loss of big band popularity in the early fifties, Count Basie continued to tour with his band and new members right in the 1980's. He recorded and performed with legends like Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra in bands and smaller groups in Hollywood, New York and Las Vegas.

This clip is from a wartime B-picture from 1943 called "Reveille With Beverly" featuring future MGM star Ann Miller as the "disc jockey."