The story behind puzzle No. 32
Count Basie and His Orchestra · Single · Decca · 1937
It was never really written down. One O'Clock Jump grew out of riffs the Count Basie band made up on the spot at a Kansas City club, and it became their theme song for the next 50 years.
After Bennie Moten's death in 1935, Count Basie formed his own band and played the Reno Club in Kansas City, where the shows were sometimes broadcast on local radio. One night, to fill airtime, the rhythm section started a groove and the horns added riffs. As Basie put it, the riffs just stuck.
The tune was reportedly first called Blue Ball, but a radio announcer thought that was too risqué. Since it was played close to 1 a.m., it became One O'Clock Jump.
The band recorded it for Decca in New York on July 7, 1937. It is a head arrangement, meaning the players worked out their parts by ear rather than from written music. Soloists include saxophonists Herschel Evans and Lester Young, trumpeter Buck Clayton and Basie himself.
Who's on it
Keep listening
Play Moten Swing, puzzle No. 22, to hear Basie five years earlier in Bennie Moten's band.
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