Moten Swing

Composed by Bennie Moten and Buster Moten, arranged by Ernie Wilkins

http://youtu.be/88bZ8fbS3bk

Our Ernie Wilkins arrangement of Moten Swing is from Count Basie’s 1958 classic album Chairman of the Board.

The lineup is: Count Basie (p), Freddie Green (gt), Eddie Jones (b), Sonny Payne (dr), Snooky Young, Thad Jones, Wendell Cully, Joe Newman (tp), Al Grey, Henry Coker, Benny Powell (tb), Frank Foster, Billy Mitchell (ts), Marshal Royal (as,cl), Frank Wess (as,ts,fl), Charlie Fawlkes (bs,b-cl)

From Bob Bernotas’ liner notes:

Before "One O'clock Jump," the Count's original theme song was “Moten Swing”, first recorded in 1932 by Bennie Moten's Kansas City-based band with young Bill Basie on piano. In Ernie Wilkins' updated chart the leader handles the first chorus with typical economy and understatement, the band introduces the once heard, never forgotten theme, and Frank Wess on tenor and Joe Newman on muted trumpet split a chorus. The full ensemble returns with an infectious variation that builds into some brass-versus-saxes riffing, bringing the performance, and the disc, to a joyous close.

I compared this studio recording with a few other live Basie recordings of the tune (ca. 1959-62), and he always played the same (rocking left-hand?) piano intro (or some minor variation of it) you hear on this recording, not the simplified one notated in our copy of the arrangement. Otherwise, I think it matches our chart exactly as far as I can tell.

And the following "compare-and-contrast" jag is kind of interesting. Check out the ("original") Moten Swing recorded by Bennie Moten's band in 1932:

http://youtu.be/sV_r_GEBf3w

I was surprised at out how it got simplified over 27 year span, but how you can still hear some of those lines in the original (and incredibly hip) '32 arrangement.

And then there's the original "You're Driving Me Crazy" (Guy Lombardo, 1930) it was based on (what a leap!):

http://youtu.be/OMeLSsnxsFE