Count Basie

Numbered, limited edition 180-gram gatefold double LP
Live big-band album recorded during the Count's 1966 warm-up sets for Sinatra in Vegas

Mastered from the original master tapes and pressed at RTI, MoFi's analog version of Live at the Sands (Before Frank) gives you a dead-center, eighth-row seat at the famed Sin City club. You'll just need to supply your own table and cocktail. Renowned for its sonic clarity, transparency, crispness, and punch, the record is now tremendously enhanced, with improved tonality, a deeper soundstage, correct balances, and lifelike presence. Each horn occupies its own space, and Basie's transfixing piano, a focal point throughout, resonates with gorgeous detail and impeccable pacing. The collective's energy almost demands to be measured with an SPL meter.

Captured in late January and early February 1966 in the Copa Room, Sands Hotel, Las Vegas, Live at the Sands (Before Frank) contains most of Basie's signature pieces delivered with enthusiasm and style. His band is stacked to the nines, with tenor saxophonist Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, saxophonist/flautist Eric Dixon, and drummer "Sonny" Payne among the prized cast. The Sands dates marked the first time in years that these players, as well as trombonist Al Grey, gathered onstage together.

TRACKLIST
Side 1
Introduction
Splanky
I Can’t Stop Loving You
I Needs to Be Bee’d With
Flight of the Foo Birds

Side 2
Satin Doll
Makin’ Whoopee!
Corner Pocket

Side 3
One O’Clock Jump
Hello Little Girl
Whirly Bird

Side 4
Blues for Ilene
This Could Be the Start of Something Big
Jumpin’ at the Woodside