I'll Always Remember When I First Heard Lester [young]. I'd Never Heard Anyone Like Him Before. He Was A Stylist With A Different Sound. A Sound I'd Never Heard Before Or Since. To Be Honest With You, I Didn't Much Like It At First.
I Decided That I Would Be One Of The Biggest New Names; And I Actually Had Some Little Fancy Business Cards Printed Up To Announce It, 'count Basie. Beware, The Count Is Here.'
Freddie Green Has Been My Right Arm For Thirty Years. And If He Leaves The Band One Day, I'll Probably Leave With Him.
I, Of Course, Wanted To Play Real Jazz. When We Played Pop Tunes, And Naturally We Had To, I Wanted Those Pops To Kick! Not Loud And Fast, Understand, But Smoothly And With A Definite Punch.
I Don't Dig That Two-beat Jive The New Orleans Cats Play. My Boys And I Have To Have Four Heavy Beats To The Bar And No Cheating.
All I Wanted Was To Be Big, To Be In Show Business And To Travel ... And That's What I've Been Doing All My Life.
I Think The Band Can Really Swing When It Swings Easy, When It Can Just Play Along Like You Are Cutting Butter.
I Got Everything I Wanted. When I Was Young In Kansas City, I Knew Nothing About Frank Sinatra, Billy Eckstine, Ella Fitzgerald, Of All Those Concert Halls, Of All Those Countries. I Did Not Know What It Was Like To Direct A Band... All I Wanted Was To Be Big, To Be In Show-business, And To Travel...and That's What I've Been Doing All My Life.
I Was Always Willing To Say, "let's See What Happens," When Something Came Up That Looked Like It Might Help Me Get A Little Closer To Where I Wanted To Be . . .
