Father Quote by Brian Stokes Mitchell

Count Basie was college, but Duke Ellington was graduate school.

— Clark Terry

My dad was a jazz fan and he used to have lots of old 78s, so I grew up with big jazz bands and…

— Ric Sanders

I think I just had it by osmosis: an appreciation of Duke Ellington before I really even knew who he was.

— Brian Stokes Mitchell

I was raised on jazz. My father, from the time I was born, used to get up early on Saturdays and Sundays and put…

— Brian Stokes Mitchell

I joined Count Basie's band to make a little money and to see the world. For two years I didn't see anything but the…

— Billie Holiday

And, well of course, Count Basie, and I think all of the black bands of the late thirties and early forties, bands with real…

— Buddy Rich

I decided that I would be one of the biggest new names; and I actually had some little fancy business cards printed up to…

— Count Basie

I play citified Count Basie piano. As few notes as possible, my left hand in my pocket, that kind of stuff.

— Henry Mancini

“I started going to jazz clubs in New York when I was twelve or thirteen, first with my older cousins Mike and Jack, and…

— Donald Fagen

When I was 16 or 17 I heard the Count Basie band with Jo Jones and Lester Young and Herschel Evans and I couldn't…

— Illinois Jacquet

Count Basie practically adopted me at 13. We became closer and closer and I ended up conducting for him and Sinatra.

— Quincy Jones

We were all influenced by Lester [Young]. Listen to the records that he made with [Count] Basie. Nobody's got what he's got. He's still…

— Zoot Sims