Count Basie Orchestra
Founded in 1935, the Count Basie Orchestra is an institution in the history of American jazz. A band that embodies Kansas City and the traditional big band style.
His orchestra continues to perform sold-out concerts all over the world, with members personally chosen by him, 40 years after his death. His name? William James “Count” Basie, a big name in swing, personifying the grandeur of American jazz. The Count Basie Orchestra, today directed by Scotty Barnhart, has won 18 Grammy Awards – including Best Large Instrumental Jazz Ensemble for “Basie Swings the Blues” in 2024. The big band appears at every major jazz festival, has played in major concert halls and for Kings, Queens and other world royalty, as well as appearing in films and television shows. Some of the greatest soloists, composers, arrangers and vocalists in jazz history, such as Lester Young, Billie Holiday, Thad Jones, Snooky Young, Frank Wess and Joe Williams, became international stars once they began working with the Count Basie Orchestra. Today, this great 18-member orchestra is still continuing the excellent history started by Count Basie of stomping and shouting the blues, as well as refining those musical particulars that allow for the deepest and most moving of swing. One of the secrets of the orchestra's longevity: the fact that Basie encouraged his musicians to compose and arrange especially for the band and its soloists. Marked by its impressive longevity, the Count Basie Orchestra has thus created a unique sound and way of phrasing, that is now known as "the Basie way".
Christophe Dal Sasso, one of France's finest arrangers, revisits Chick Corea's "Three Quartets" with three extraordinary saxophonists.
Born in 1968 in Hyères in south-eastern France, Christophe Dal Sasso began his career as a trumpet player. He was trained in the music schools of La Londe-les-Maures and Solliès-Toucas by Yvan Belmondo, father of saxophonist Lionel Belmondo and his trumpeter brother, Stéphane, who would soon include him in most of their orchestral projects. He was introduced to jazz by Tony Petrucciani and took classes with the arranger, Ivan Jullien, at the Centre d'Informations Musicales, a private jazz and contemporary music school in Paris. Winner of the Orchestra Prize at the Heineken Jazz Competition at La Villette, in 1996 he created a big band, which played regularly in Parisian clubs. A musician and teacher who has performed numerous reinterpretations of John Coltrane classics, such as "Africa/Brass" and "A Love Supreme", a suite whose four movements are transposed to the scale of a big band, here Christophe Dal Sasso tackles "Three Quartets", recorded by pianist Chick Corea in 1981. Expertly guided by the arranger, his big band, named group of the year at the Victoires du Jazz awards in 2020, revisits this legendary album characterised by its open-mindedness, through the meeting of jazz and classical music. In the front line, under the musical direction of Christophe Dal Sasso, three extraordinary saxophonists revisit the role of Michael Brecker: David El-Malek, Stéphane Guillaume and Rick Margitza. A vibrant and spectacular tribute to the great Chick Corea, who died in 2021.
