Count Basie, in a vintage publicity photo.
Perhaps the most famous song ever recorded by Red Bank native William James “Count” Basie, “One O’Clock Jump” was a Swing Era standard as well as Basie’s regular show-closer for decades. It came about casually, while he and his big band were improvising at the Reno Club in Kansas City in 1935 — “we hit it with the rhythm section and went into the riffs, and the riffs just stuck,” he wrote in his 1985 autobiography, “Good Morning Blues” — and he first recorded it in 1937.
Below is a clip of he and his big band performing it in the 1943 movie “Reveille With Beverly,” starring Ann Miller.
New Jersey celebrated its 350th birthday in 2014. And in the 350 Jersey Songs series, we marked the occasion by posting 350 songs — one a day, from September 2014 to September 2015 — that have something to do with the state, its musical history, or both.
To see the entire list, click here.
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