Dickie's Dream-Basie

Dickie's Dream Basie 1957
When he was two he sat on Count Basie's knee, one of the first things he remembered and that's why this clip is dedicated to my new Youtube friend Napoleon. Napoleon lives in Lausanne Switzerland and is a jazzfan, a jazz festival organizer and has a collection of hundreds of hours of video. His friends Harry Sweets Edison and Ray Brown gave him his nickname Napoleon.

Dickie's Dream
The Count Basie Band in 1957, that's to say a band where all the musicians at some time had played in the Basie Orchestra
In this all star feature I recognize most of the players. First solo is by Ben Webster ( you see also shots of Billy Holiday hanging around and talking to Hawkins), next trombonist Benny Morton , then a trumpeter I don't recognize, following that is Gerry Mullligan, then trombonist Vic Dickenson. After that the high note man Roy Eldridge, then other trumpet players Joe Wilder, Emmett Berry and Joe Newman. The big sound of Coleman Hawkins followed by the specific recognizable trombone sound of Dickie Wells.
All together an impressive big band with Basie on piano, Jo Jones on drums and Freddie Greene on guitar .
This is a piece of jazz history on film not done before. Aren't we lucky we can witness this jazz event some 50 years later.