In a few days I will be 64 years of age and I am fighting back tears of joy as I listen to this song. When I look back on my youth growing up in a rural town just south of the Mason-Dixon Line, I am blessed to have had parents who played music like this. This is nothing short of majestic. Dad always said of Count: Nobody swings like Basie. Thanks Dad.
I first heard this song in 1962 over the BBC in the mess hall at RAF Brize Norton. I was in the U.S. Air Force stationed in England. I became a Count Basie fan at that moment. As was the case then. as now, Europeans like American Jazz more then we Americans do.