Last week, the tour celebrating the 80th Anniversary of the legendary Count Basie Orchestra reached Perth and the Perth Concert Hall. Now under the leadership of Scotty Barnhart, the 18-piece orchestra played two, hour-long sets to an appreciative and attentive audience of young and old.
Now I wouldn’t consider myself a connoisseur of jazz music, I tend to just dip my toes into the jazz world every now and then. But it has to be said that a jazz orchestra in full swing is something to behold, and wonderful to hear; especially if that orchestra is as talented and at the top of their game like the Count Basie Orchestra was.
With a catalogue of songs spanning eighty years, Barnhart led the orchestra and the audience along a journey throughout the orchestra’s history providing each of the musicians an opportunity (in some cases multiple) to show off their skill with a solo or two. I must admit I preferred the instrumental songs to those featuring Carmen Bradford on vocals; for the most part I was a little bit underwhelmed by her performance and for me it didn’t seem like her and the band was on quite the same page performance wise.
The highlight of the evening’s performance for me came towards the end f the second set, with a beautiful and emotional rendition of the Ella Fitzgerald song “I Ain’t Got Nothing But The Blues” in remembrance of Blues legend B.B. King who had passed away only a few hours earlier. It was a lovely moment, and a fitting tribute to a musician who many in the band had worked with in the past.
Highlights of the first set for me where probably the Frank Sinatra classics “Come Fly With Me” and “In The Wee Small Hours” played in celebration of the 100th Anniversary of Sinatra and undoubtedly highlighting the relationship between the orchestra and the legendary crooner. The other indisputable highlight of the opening set was of course the iconic “April in Paris”, a song perhaps most famous thanks to Mel Brooks and Blazing Saddles.
———-
