The man who would be leader of one of the most extraordinary jazz bands in history and make it the absolute paradigm of "swing band" to imitate, he begins receiving her first piano lessons from his mother, a laundress in love music. In 1923 he leaves for New York and listen to great pianists like "stride" prevailing at the time: Fats Waller, James P. Johnson and Willie "The Lion" Smith, primarily. His first important professional work came in 1925 when you are engaged in the group that accompanies singer and dancer, Katie Krippen. Shortly after participating in the "vaudeville", a genre of music with lyrics spicy, which makes the famous "TOBA circuit" acronym "Theater

Owners Booking Association, union of entrepreneurs specializing in entertainment for blacks in the U.S.  In 1929, Kansas City, becomes part of one of the best bands in the city, the pianist, Bennie Moten, which is shortly after its owner and pianist from where he recorded his first single disk. When band dissolved after the death of Bennie, you are engaged in the Reno Club of the city from where it starts to export the sound that made him famous in the world and in that orchestra was already in the string of saxophones, a musician who would revolutionize the way of playing the instrument, the great Lester Young. Reno Club, had an agreement with a local radio station several days a week live connected with the club and since that station was connected to a chain of programs that were heard all over the country, the New York promoter, J ohn Hammond heard a 1935 night in his car radio that orchestra and is struck by the swing that generated the Count Basie band. Just weeks later, Count Basie signed a recording contract with Decca company, and begins a brilliant career that made him famous and popular. World War II appeared on stage and the band with soloists splendid as the aforementioned saxophonist, Lester Young and Herschel Evans, trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry Edison, had a transition period once the war broke out again . Norman Granz, the famous producer hired him for his Verve label in 1952 and Basie reemerges as a phoenix from the ashes with a concept of music and very mature and which introduces significant changes in his orchestra. Extends the band with four trumpets, three trombones, five saxophones and four rhythm. The sound volume increases and the sound is more elaborate. Incorporates great soloists, including the magnificent, Freddie Green and singer Joe Williams. So from those years, and throughout the sixties and during the last twenty years of his life, Count Basie will be transformed along with his orchestra in an institution and no longer spend a year on tours that do not worldwide and even participate in some movies. Count Basie died in his sleep on 26 April 1984, and with it was the largest, along with Duke Ellington, big band leader in the history of jazz.