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Count Basie Orchestra

William Count Basie started the Count Basie Orchestra in 1935, in Kansas City, Missouri. Within a year, America was listening in on popular radio shows throughout the country to hear what would become "The Swingingest Band In All The Land"!  A phenomena was born in 1935, that is still going strong today!

Since Basie's passing in 1984, Thad Jones, Frank Foster, Grover Mitchell, Bill Hughes and now, Dennis Mackrel have led the Count Basie Orchestra and maintained it as one of the elite performing organizations in jazz. The Count Basie Orchestra has won 17 Grammy Awards and 20 Downbeat and Jazz Times polls. More than any other big band in jazz.

DENNIS MACKREL - BIOGRAPHY  
Drummer/Composer/Arranger Dennis Mackrel was born on April 3rd, 1962.  A child prodigy, he began playing the drums when he was two.  He graduated from Clark High School in Las Vegas, Nevada and attended the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.  He is the recipient of numerous awards such as "Who's Who in Music", 1979; National Endowment For The Arts grant for composition in 1983; and in 1992; "Outstanding Alumni" from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
 
While attending UNLV, he was a member of the acclaimed UNLV Jazz Ensemble where his drumming and arranging skills caught the attention of vocalist Joe Williams. In 1981, at 19 years of age, Dennis moved to New York City and landed a gig as a drummer on Broadway. His Broadway credits include "The First" and "A Chorus Line". Then in January of 1983, Dennis joined the Count Basie Orchestra on the personal recommendation of Mr. Williams. He would become the youngest member of the orchestra and the last drummer to be hired by Mr. Basie personally.

Dennis stayed with the band, when Frank Foster took over as leader, until December of 1987. Dennis’s composition “Bus Dust” was included on the CD “Long Live The Chief” which was recorded during Mr. Foster’s tenure as leader.
 
After leaving the Orchestra, he returned to New York to become the drummer of choice for a number of large ensembles including The American Jazz Orchestra, The Carla Bley Big Band, The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, The Dizzy Gillespie All Star Big Band and his own band, The Manhattan Symphony Jazz Orchestra. 
 
Dennis’s connection to the Basie  family of musicians has remained strong having been a member of Buck Clayton’s Swing Band and veteran trombonist Grover Mitchell’s 12 piece orchestra which incidentally was co-led by another veteran trombonist, Bill Hughes. Both Mr. Mitchell and Mr. Hughes successively would follow Frank Foster as the leaders of the Count Basie Orchestra. Dennis is one of the few musicians who has performed with the Basie band under every leader since Mr. Basie himself and in 2010, Dennis succeeded Bill Hughes to become the leader of the Count Basie Orchestra.
 
In addition to becoming a seasoned musician and bandleader, Dennis has also become a highly respected conductor/arranger/educator whose works have been recorded and performed by ensembles such as The WDR Big Band in Koln, Germany, The Klüvers Big Band in Aarhus, Denmark,  and most notably The McCoy Tyner Big Band, whose Grammy winning CD's "The Turning Point" and "Journey" included four of Dennis's arrangements. He has also served as a jazz educator in Europe, Asia, Canada and the USA.
 
Some of the other notable musicians Dennis has performed with include: Lionel Hampton, Hank Jones, Take 6, Tony Bennett, Nancy Wilson, Clare Fischer, Quincy Jones and Sir George Shearing, who said "If I ever have a record date coming up that calls for a drummer and Dennis is not available, I'll postpone the session. He's that good."


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