Basie Straight Ahead is a LP album recorded at TTG Studios

TTG Studios

TTG Studios was a recording studio in Los Angeles, California, founded by Ami Hadani and Tom Hidley.-Studio:"TTG" stood for "two terrible guys." The studio was first established in 1965 at the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Highland Avenue, in Hollywood section of Los Angeles...

, Hollywood, California in October 1968 featuring Count Basie

Count Basie

William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...

 and his orchestra

Count Basie Orchestra

The Count Basie Orchestra is a 16 to 18 piece big band, one of the most prominent jazz performing groups of the swing era, founded by Count Basie. The band survived the late '40s decline in big band popularity and went on to produce notable collaborations with singers such as Frank Sinatra and Ella...

. The tunes were all composed, arranged and conducted by Sammy Nestico

Sammy Nestico

Samuel "Sammy" Louis Nestico is a prolific and well known composer and arranger of big band music...

. The engineers were Ami Hadani and Thorne Nogar, and the producers were Tom Mack and Teddy Reig. The disc was issued in 1968 on Dot

Dot Records

Dot Records was an American record label and company that was active between 1950 and 1977. It was founded by Randy Wood. In Gallatin, Tennessee, Wood had earlier started a mail order record shop, known for its radio ads on WLAC in Nashville and its R&B air personality Bill "Hoss" Allen...

 label and on English EMI

EMI

The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...

.

Track listing

All tracks by Sammy Nestico

Sammy Nestico

Samuel "Sammy" Louis Nestico is a prolific and well known composer and arranger of big band music...

1. "Basie - Straight Ahead" – 3:56
2. "It's Oh, So Nice" – 4:10
3. "Lonely Street" – 2:53
4. "Fun Time" – 3:52
5. "Magic Flea" – 3:09
6. "Switch In Time" – 3:58
7. "Hay Burner" – 4:16
8. "That Warm Feeling" – 3:33
9. "The Queen Bee" – 4:13

Personnel

• Count Basie
  Count Basie
  William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...
  
   – piano
  Piano
  The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
  
  
• Sonny Cohn
  Sonny Cohn
  George T. "Sonny" Cohn was an American jazz trumpeter.After working for fifteen years with Red Saunders , he went on to spend another 24 years in Count Basie's trumpet section .-Biography:...
  
   – trumpet
  Trumpet
  The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
  
  
• Gene Coe
• Oscar Brashear
  Oscar Brashear
  Oscar Brashear is an American jazz trumpeter and session musician.After studying at DuSable High School he worked briefly with Woody Herman before going on to join Count Basie '68-9, returning to freelance in Chicago with Sonny Stitt, Gene Ammons, Dexter Gordon and James Moody...
  
  
• Al Aarons
  Al Aarons
  Albert "Al" Aarons is a jazz trumpeter.Aarons was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Wayne State University in Detroit. He began to gain attention as a trumpet player in 1956, and started working with jazz artist Yusef Lateef and pianist Barry Harris in the later part of that...
  
  
• Grover Mitchell
  Grover Mitchell
  Grover Curry Mitchell was a jazz trombonist and bandleader. He was born in Alabama, but his parents moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania when he was eight...
  
   – trombone
  Trombone
  The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
  
  
• Richard Boone
• Bill Hughes
  Bill Hughes (musician)
  William Henry "Bill" Hughes is an American jazz trombonist and bandleader. He has spent most of his career with the Count Basie Orchestra and was the director of that ensemble until September 2010.- Early life and career :...
  
  
• Steve Galloway
• Marshall Royal
  Marshall Royal
  Marshall Royal was an American clarinettist and alto saxophonist best known for his work with Count Basie, with whose band he played for nearly twenty years....
  
   – alto saxophone
  Alto saxophone
  The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in 1841. It is smaller than the tenor but larger than the soprano, and is the type most used in classical compositions...
  
  
• Bobby Plater
  Bobby Plater
  Bobby Plater was an American jazz alto saxophonist.Plater began playing alto sax at age 12, and played locally in Newark with Donald Lambert and the Savoy Dictators in the 1930s. He played with Tiny Bradshaw from 1940-42 before spending 1942-45 serving in the U.S. military during World War II...
  
  
• Eric Dixon
  Eric Dixon
  Eric Dixon was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, flautist, and arranger.Dixon's professional career extended from 1950 until his death in 1989, during which time he was credited on perhaps as many as 200 recordings...
  
   – tenor saxophone
  Tenor saxophone
  The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble...
  
  
• Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis
• Charlie Fowlkes – baritone saxophone
  Baritone saxophone
  The baritone saxophone, often called "bari sax" , is one of the largest and lowest pitched members of the saxophone family. It was invented by Adolphe Sax. The baritone is distinguished from smaller sizes of saxophone by the extra loop near its mouthpiece...
  
  
• Freddie Green
  Freddie Green
  Frederick William "Freddie" Green was an American swing jazz guitarist. He was especially noted for his sophisticated rhythm guitar in big band settings, particularly for the Count Basie orchestra, where he was part of the "All-American Rhythm Section" with Basie on piano, Jo Jones on drums, and...
  
   – guitar
  Guitar
  The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
  
  
• Norman Keenan
  Norman Keenan
  Norman Dewey Keenan was an American jazz double-bassist.Keenan began on piano before picking up bass at age 15. He worked with Tiny Bradshaw , Lucky Millinder , Henry Wells , Earl Bostic, and Cootie Williams, and jammed at Minton's Playhouse around the same time...
  
   – double bass
  Double bass
  The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
  
  
• Harold Jones – drums