Count Basie - The Complete Atomic Basie (1958)

BLUE NOTE 25 "BEST" ALBUMS* MONTH (JULY 2026)

Note: the CD I listened to was the 1994 mono reissue with 5 bonus tracks. The album was originally simply called Basie, it is also known as The Atomic Mr. Basie or E=MC², and reissued here as The Complete Atomic Basie.

Big band music that seems effortless but also controlled. I recognize the name Neal Hefti from the 1966 Batman series theme song (and you just sung that theme in your head, didn't you?), but was unfamiliar with his work on this album prior to buying this disc. Nefti wrote all the charts here and every note is in the right place. In 1958, big band music was on the wane, being replaced by smaller (and cheaper) jazz combos, but Basie proves that he could still make the whole enterprise swing and glide.

Original liner notes by Barry Ulanov.

Reviews/ratings:

• High Fidelity: "without any qualification the best LP that Basie's current band has ever made"
• CashBox: "Terrific readings"
• Billboard: "The Basie's band's debut on the Roulette label is an auspicious one."
• The Penguin Guide to Jazz (5th ed., 2000): ★★★★
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★★★

In addition to being named as one of Blue Note's 25 Best Albums, The album won both Best Jazz Performance, Group and Best Performance by a Dance Band awards at the 1st Annual Grammy Awards. It was later recognized in the books 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, edited by Robert Dimery, and The New York Times Essential Jazz Library by Ben Ratliff. (The 1001 Albums write up claims this is "Basie's last great record" but my vote for that title would be Sinatra at the Sands.)

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: All 11 original tracks are fantastic, but if I'm picking favorites, I'll mention Duet, Double-O, and Splanky (because they just sound like Basie tunes oughta sound), and the laid back ballads After Supper, Midnite Blue, and Li'l Darlin'.

Bonus tracks: These five tracks were arranged by Jimmy Mundy and therefore have a slightly different feel to them - not quite as tight. We're offered the Mundy original Silks & Satins, two takes of Sleepwalker's Serenade, and two takes of The Late Late Show, one with a vocal from Joe Williams. Nothing terrible, they're just a little lacking compared to what came before.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None, but I wish I had somehow discovered it during my big band phase in the 1980's.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Big Boss Band (1990) with George Benson
Sinatra at the Sands (1966) with Frank Sinatra
It Might As Well Be Swing (1964) with Frank Sinatra
First Time! The Count Meets The Duke (1962) with Duke Ellington

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*In 1987, the European offices of Blue Note records compiled a list of the 25 Best Blue Note Albums in an effort to promote sales of classic Blue Note albums released on CD for the first time. Albums selected for the list were originally released in the years 1953-1967.

At the time, the Blue Note label had been subsumed by the EMI group. This allowed the selections to be made from other EMI labels, namely Capitol, United Artists, and Liberty. Therefore, the list-makers were able to look outside the Blue Note label and squeeze in titles by artists such as Miles Davis, Chet Baker, & Count Basie. It reads more like "albums we had the rights to, by 25 well-known jazz artists," making the list as much about artists as albums. As a marketing tool, it makes sense. As a starting place to build a Blue Note collection you could do worse. Of course, you could also do much better. But the thing exists, it caught my attention, and here we are.