Count Basie – Farmer’s Market Barbecue

A May day with the Basie orchestra

Count Basie recorded Farmer’s Market Barbecue at Group IV Studios in Los Angeles on May 4, 1982. Norman Granz produced the session, with Dennis Sands and Greg Orloff handling the recording. The album belongs to Basie’s later Pablo period, bringing familiar repertoire together with compositions written by members of the orchestra.

Basie is at the piano, Freddie Green plays guitar, James Leary bass and Gregg Field drums. Trumpets, trombones and saxophones complete a personnel list of 17 named musicians. A large ensemble offers much more than sheer volume. One of the pleasures is following how its different sections connect, and how individual parts contribute to a shared sense of rhythm.

Compositions from within the band

Three selections draw particular attention to the players as writers. Trumpeter Sonny Cohn contributed Blues For The Barbecue, Freddie Green wrote I Don’t Know Yet, and alto saxophonist Bobby Plater supplied Ain’t That Something. These credits bring the repertoire close to the people performing it: the orchestra is also drawing on ideas from within its own ranks.

Running a little over ten minutes, Blues For The Barbecue makes room for several soloists. The documented solos pass from Plater’s alto to Eric Dixon’s tenor, Booty Wood’s trombone and Cohn’s trumpet. It offers a clear opportunity to hear different personalities working within a shared blues structure. Such changes of focus are part of the attraction of big-band music: a player steps forward while the orchestra remains an active presence around him.

Familiar routes through swing

Ernie Wilkins’ Way Out Basie opens the programme. W. C. Handy’s St. Louis Blues, Harry Edison’s Beaver Junction and Lester Young’s Lester Leaps In also appear, with Basie’s Jumpin’ At The Woodside closing the record. The sequence connects several strands of the repertoire, allowing established material and contributions from current band members to share the same programme.

Try following Freddie Green’s rhythm guitar and its relationship with bass and drums while the horns establish another layer. Then shift attention to the changing colours of the solo instruments. The personnel list makes it easier to hear an orchestra of individuals behind the famous bandleader’s name. That movement between the collective and the personal is a good reason to return to a record like this.

The Pablo Series edition and its Doug Sax cut

Analogue Productions issued this version in 2024 as part of The Pablo Series. It is a stereo 180-gram LP playing at 33⅓ RPM, pressed at Quality Record Pressings. The jacket is a single-pocket Stoughton tip-on sleeve rather than a gatefold.

The mastering history matters: this pressing uses metalwork from Doug Sax’s 1995 cut for the earlier APJ 023 edition. It should therefore not be described as a newly cut 2024 mastering. The publisher identifies the original analogue master tape as the source for Sax’s cut. That distinction helps collectors understand the release, while the music leads back to a May day in 1982 and an orchestra whose many relationships invite attentive, pleasurable listening.

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More by Count Basie: Me And You · 88 Basie Street

Customer question: Buying Analogue Productions records in Europe

Series: Pablo – all 30 records, musicians and the session book

Musicians

Participants and documented credit status. Track references correspond to the tracklist.

• Count Basiepiano, bandleaderParticipation: Album personnel
• Chris AlberttrumpetParticipation: Album personnel
• Dale CarleytrumpetParticipation: Album personnel
• Sonny CohntrumpetParticipation: Album personnel
• Bob SummerstrumpetParticipation: Album personnel
• Grover MitchelltromboneParticipation: Album personnel
• Dennis WilsontromboneParticipation: Album personnel
• Booty WoodtromboneParticipation: Album personnel
• Bill Hughesbass tromboneParticipation: Album personnel
• Danny Turneralto saxophoneParticipation: Album personnel
• Bobby Plateralto saxophone, fluteParticipation: Album personnel
• Kenny Hingtenor saxophoneParticipation: Album personnel
• Eric Dixontenor saxophone, fluteParticipation: Album personnel
• Johnny Williamsbaritone saxophoneParticipation: Album personnel
• Freddie GreenguitarParticipation: Album personnel
• James LearybassParticipation: Album personnel
• Gregg FielddrumsParticipation: Album personnel

17 musicians documented by name. Produced by Norman Granz. Recording: Dennis Sands and Greg Orloff. Doug Sax cut from 1995; repress using existing metalwork. Album credits do not assign every individual instrument to every track.