JAZZ : NEW BASIE BAND LEADER STEPS IN, UPS THE BEAT

“After 22 years,” said Frank Foster, “here I am back home to stay.”

The scene was the Hollywood Bowl; the occasion, Foster’s first major appearance since he took over direction of the Count Basie orchestra a few weeks ago.

A tenor saxophonist, composer, arranger and educator, with a Ph.D. from Central State University in Ohio, Foster is a logical choice to take over the reins of the orchestra, whose founder-leader died April 26, 1984. He was a regular member of the sax section from 1953 to 1964. During the 22-year interim his Countless credits took in stints with the Woody Herman, Lionel Hampton and Thad Jones/Mel Lewis orchestras, with the Elvin Jones Quartet, and frequent jobs leading various groups, the best known being a big band called the Loud Minority.

In addition, Foster received several major composing assignments, one of which is a source of special pride. “I was commissioned by the Jazzmobile organization to write a long suite--seven movements, running a full hour--for an all-star band at the Winter Olympics. I called it the “Lake Placid Suite.” It wasn’t very visible in the jazz world, but it was a great challenge.”

Foster’s best-known writing credits go back to his early Basie days. “My first charts for the band were ‘Blues Backstage’ and ‘Down for the Count.’ I guess the best known is ‘Shiny Stockings.’ I wrote some of the arrangements for Joe Williams’ ‘All right, OK, You Win,’ ‘The Comeback,’ ‘In the Evening’ and ‘My Baby Upsets Me.’ ”

Foster’s academic accomplishments are impressive. He has been a music consultant to the New York City public schools, an assistant or adjunct professor at universities in and around New York, and has conducted workshops and seminars from New England Conservatory to Oakland University.

When his teaching assignments have not tied him down, he has traveled extensively. “I took my own band to the jazz festivals in Pori, Finland, and the North Sea Festival in the Hague--that was in 1978, and since this marked the first time I’d ever taken a large group to Europe, I guess that’s a milestone of sorts.

“Two things that really bug me are all-star jam sessions and tributes to Basie. I’m just sick of all-star groups! You go to Europe as a single and don’t have control over what rhythm section will back you. The only thing good about it is that you get to meet a lot of people you haven’t seen in a long time.

“As for the Basie tributes, a lot of them are nothing more than jam sessions using alumni. I’ve had it up to here with that sort of thing. My idea of a real tribute to Basie is a big band under my own direction, playing the music the way he would have wanted it.”

With his new assignment Foster is now able to bring this objective to reality. After Thad Jones, the former Basie trumpeter who had been leading the band, played his last date with the orchestra on May 6, Foster happened to see the men one night during an interim period when the announcing was left to Freddie Green, the veteran guitarist.

“I became very indignant--the band wasn’t being introduced properly; there was really nobody in charge. So I passed the word along that if any use could be made of my services, I was available.”

A few weeks later a call came from the band’s booking agency. A subsequent meeting was set with Aaron Woodward. “Aaron was a young fellow who lived across the street from Bill and Catherine Basie. He got very close to Catherine and, after her death, to Basie, who persuaded him to take over control of Count Basie Enterprises. He is sincere, a good person, and he’s been doing a fine job of keeping the band together.”

Because he had spent most of the past two decades based in New York, with relatively few long absences, Foster thought long and hard before making the decision. “I decided it’s worthwhile to go on the road again. My children are both grown; my daughter is 19, and my son, who’s 21, has a job with my wife’s company, a black advertising agency. So it’s not as if I’m raising two kids anymore; they act grown; in fact, they don’t take our advice anyway, so, hey, I can leave. As for my wife--well, when we get too lonely, Cecilia can join me wherever the band happens to be.”

The return to his alma mater is meaningful in several respects. He is among old friends: the trumpeter Sonny Cohn, the trombonist Bill Hughes and the saxophonist-flutist Eric Dixon were colleagues in the early 1960s Basie band, as was Freddie Green, who next March will complete a half-century in the orchestra.

“It’s a fine mix--we have some talented young people too, in their 20s or early 30s: Dennis Makrel, our drummer; Danny House on alto sax, Byron Stripling on trumpet, Lynn Seaton on bass.”

As has already become evident, Foster is doing considerably more playing and writing than his predecessor. Jones, though a commanding leader, was a reluctant and less than outstanding cornetist. “We’ll also be featuring all the guys in the band--just about everyone is a capable soloist, and they deserve to be heard,” Foster said.

A curious gap in the band’s activities since Basie’s death has been its absence from the recording studios. There have only been two guest cuts on the Manhattan Transfer “Vocalese” album, and an as yet unreleased LP backing the Paris-born singer Caterina Valente, for which Thad Jones wrote the arrangements.

But the orchestra recently taped a set without guests. It will be the first made specially for compact discs and the first to introduce, in two tunes, the regular Basie vocalist, Carmen Bradford.

“It’s due for release in Japan, on Denon, next month,” says Foster, “and soon afterward in the U.S. The company wanted a lot of old tunes, so we did new versions of ‘Shiny Stockings,’ ‘April in Paris,’ ‘Corner Pocket’ and so forth, along with a few that are less well known, such as a couple of things I did back in the ‘60s that got lost in the shuffle, ‘4-5-6’ and ‘Misunderstood Blues.’ ”

Asked whether this indicated that the Basie band will have to remain mired in the past in order to survive, Foster was ready with a riposte. “Not at all--naturally I want to keep the great tradition going and retain the essential style of the band, but I do intend to expand on it, try some new directions.

“Among other things, I plan to introduce a couple of songs in 3/4 time. The band has never done any real jazz waltzes. Maybe that has been a challenge for some musicians who thought of the waltz in terms of ‘Alice Blue Gown’ or ‘The Blue Danube.’ But I had no problem, after a few days, when I tried it out, and I’m sure this band will be comfortable with whatever I write along those lines.”

Jazz waltzes, yes; modal music and crossover charts, no. Foster is adamant about his intention to avoid electronic music in any shape. This has become such a vital point to him that a couple of years ago he wrote and published a persuasive monograph, “Jazz and the Electronic Revolution.” In it, he made these observations:

“The high technology of the Western world has made fantastic strides in the area of so-called electronic music. . . . I can almost envision the day when all saxophones, trumpets, trombones, tubas etc. will be made into fancy looking table lamps. . . . I’m not making dire predictions for the fun of it . . . the American scientist and technician . . . is out to sound the death knell for jazz as I have known it.”

Does he still feel that this fatality is imminent?

“Not,” said Frank Foster, “as long as I’m around to do anything about it.”