Swing was the sound of William “Count” Basie for more than fifty years. At the keyboard, his spare yet exuberant style has been widely imitated. On the bandstand, he was the first to bring the jumping rhythms of Kansas City to a national audience. William James Basie was born on August 21, 1904 in Red Bank, New Jersey, and died on April 26, 1984. His father, Harvey Lee, worked as a coachman and caretaker for a wealthy family. His mother, Lillian Ann Childs, was a cook and laundress. It was she who first encouraged him in music, and gave him his first lessons on the piano. Young William developed into a confident and eager musician. He picked up the drums, then dropped out of junior high school to play at silent movie houses. By age twenty he was in New York, where he mingled with the creators of the Harlem stride piano style, including James P. Johnson, Willie “The Lion” Smith, Don Lambert, and a character named The Beetle. Basie left New York to tour on the Theater Owner’s Booking Association (TOBA) vaudeville circuit with shows such as the Gonzelle White and Her Big Jazz Jamboree show. The show landed in Kansas City, where he discovered a different flavor of the blues, far from the urbane sophisticates he had idolized in Manhattan. He died in Hollywood from pancreatic cancer on April 26, 1984, having established his name in the pantheon of jazz royalty, for which he received numerous awards, including multiple Grammys, Hall of Fame inductions, and a Kennedy Center Honor in 1981.