LAST LISTENED TO last week
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT quite good
RATING
It's so nice to finally have the Count here. He was one of the most important band leaders of the swing era, who played with his big band for over fifty years. This song was recorded at the tail end of the swing era, when smaller (and cheaper to run) bands were taking over. Their stripped-down and more raucous sounding, this style became known as rhythm 'n' blues and was as much a child of swing as the blues.
Count Basie And His Orchestra were clearly dipping a toe into that sound with this tune. Whilst it opens with the kind of big brassy fanfare you'd expect, what happens next comes as a surprise: a vocal. We get treated to several verses about the baseball player Jackie Robinson, interspersed with the full band singing the chorus.
The song fits into the smoother end or r'n'b, apart from the short solo section. Here the big band returns to support two short solos, the second of which is taken by a fiery trumpet and is really swinging.
This is not your every day Basie number, but none the less it's a cracker.
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