Talk:Count Basie Orchestra

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Count Basie Orchestra & Count Basie and His Orchestra
Greetings All - I have a number of recordings credited to the latter with various line-ups featuring major names such as Lester Young, Jo Jones, Harry Edison, Snoioky Young etc., none of whom are mentioned in the infobox for this article. Not sure if this is explained either here or at the Count Basie article (I haven't seen it), but maybe someone could do something about it. Cheers!--Technopat (talk) 23:49, 7 December 2008 (UTC)

Discography problems
I find the Discography section to be quite misleading as it only contains album releases from the 50s onwards. A true discography section would start back in the mid 30s, although obviously Basie made so many recordings that it would be difficult to list them all here. A compromise?--Trevhutch 01:06, 27 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Actually, did you see the entries for 1930s or 1940s? But 78 RPM versus LP is the issue. It was not until about 1949 that record companies began issuing LPs. The recordings before 1950 or so were originally 78 RPM single song (per side) records.  Few of the Brunswick, Columbia or RCA backlog from the 1930s to the 1940s were reissued in the 1950s and 1960s on LPs, or since 1989 on CDs.  The post-1950 recordings appear so prominently since they are from the LP era.

And besides that, pre-1937 recordings would be very rare, as Basie was signed onto Brunswick (in recent decades reissued on Decca or GRP) Records in '37. Dogru144 (talk)
 * I just dropped by this page and was also disappointed by the poor discography--a problem which seems endemic among entries for performers from Basie's era and earlier. I understand most releases through the 1940s were on 78 RPM single-song records, but I don't understand what makes it an "issue."  Why not just list them, whatever format they happen to be in?  I'd do it myself but I don't have the information (that's why I'm here in the first place!) OphidianD (talk) 18:43, 19 May 2013 (UTC)

20:56, 7 April 2012 (UTC)
 * The pertinent articles: LP records, 78 RPM records.Dogru144 (talk) 13:10, 8 April 2012 (UTC) Dogru144 (talk) 13:11, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Ideas about this article
It's unsourced, as is the discography on the Count Basie entry. Where did this information come from? How will the reader know it's reliable? I don't want to see a citation for every line, but I would like to see something.

I wonder if this discography ought to be combined with the main entry discography. In fact, when I read this article I get confused about whose album is whose. On Wikipedia, there are usually separate sections for albums as a leader, co-leader, guest, and so on. These sections use headers with the standard equal-sign format. This is especially important with long discographies where there is a lot information on the page.

There needs to be some standardization, consistency, consensus, and knowledge of the proper use of these terms: with, featuring, leader, co-leader, sideman, guest.

If you are going to add "with" after the title, it make sense to me to limit it to the co-leader. I've discouraged people from trying to put every sideman next to "with". Often there are simply too many to list. If you did list only a few for every entry, the page would still look too cluttered to read clearly. Because "with" is used inconsistently, I don't know whether the names that follow "with" are sidemen, guests, or co-leaders. Headers usually solve the problem, but they have to be used correctly.

Why add "(live)" next to album called Live at Montreaux? Why add "with Ella Fitzgerald" to album called Count Basie Meets Ella Fitzgerald?

Clues about attribution are usually on the album cover and sometimes in the title. Basie & Zoot, Satch and Josh, Count Basie Swings, Joe Williams Sings — these are are solved by the title and the album cover. In each case it's clear that this is a duo album, so each person is a leader or co-leader. No Count Sarah isn't "with" Sarah Vaughn. It is Sarah Vaughn. It's her album. She's the leader. It's her solo album. It's Basie that's "with" her as a guest, an orchestra functioning as a sideman.

Basie's orchestra did support a lot of people. But there are also albums performed only by Basie and his orchestra. Those albums are Count Basie albums, meaning the band is the leader or perhaps Basie himself is the leader. Strike Up the Band is listed in the Basie discog "with" Tony Bennett, as though Bennett stopped by one day to add his vocals to a couple Basie songs. Is it a Tony Bennett album with support by the Basie band? Or is it a Basie album with guest vocals by Bennett? Or is it some kind of collaboration or duo? Here you can click on the album link for more information. The cover says in huge letters "Bennett and Basie", but that doesn't solve it for me because the lede says it's a Tony Bennett album. There are places you can go (sources) to answer these questions. Readers shouldn't have to click another link. Suppose the album article is wrong. Suppose there is no album link, which is usually the case.

Pipe and link the record label once, on its first appearance in the list. Same with the co-leader and sidemen. The more links there are, the harder the page is to read. There's no point in using more than one link, particularly when these names usually appear in the body text.

Most of the site uses the format (Record label, year), e.g. (Columbia, 2010) not (2010, Columbia) so the former should be followed. Otherwise you get mistakes being repeated by new contributors, and thus more inconsistency, leading to more mistakes...and so on. Inconsistencies perpetuate themselves. Credibility of Wikipedia diminishes. Every piece of information should be thought out. If your local sports reporter repeatedly gets the score of the game wrong, will you trust that station's news? –Vmavanti (talk) 22:03, 19 January 2018 (UTC)

Article Evaluation
My name is Chelsea, and I am an English 101 student at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. I am evaluating this article as a part of my class.

The sections seem to be a little unbalanced. There isn't a lot of information in the New York section, or the Count Basie Orchestra after Basie. The 1937-1939 section in the discography only lists a recording company, is it possible to gather information on what was recorded in those years? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Clab24 (talk • contribs) 02:32, 8 February 2019 (UTC)

Evaluation of Article
I feel as though this article could do with more detail in the heights of their success. While there is a list of honours section, I feel as though their peak was not well integrated into the article. At no point was there mention of their success as a band regarding recognition of their work. Additionally, I think there could be more detail into the influence the Count Basie Orchestra had on the jazz culture of the time. Not only were they internationally recognized during their time, their influences on modern jazz were not really spoken of in the article. --Arstb14 (talk) 04:51, 13 January 2024 (UTC)