Deborah Silver & The Count Basie Band - Basie Rocks!

(DeborahSilver Entertainment, 2025)

Photo courtesy of Fadil Berisha

Projects like Deborah Silver’s Basie Rocks! are fraught with hazard from conception to release. The wholesale assimilation of one established musical genre into another has many working parts, any of which can break down, fouling efforts altogether. Fortunately, Silver, and Scotty Barnhart, director of The Count Basie Orchestra, do this through solidly conceived and clever arrangements. These arrangements and Silver’s sense of humor save this project from being one more ill-conceived novelty recital.

The Count Basie Orchestra lends legitimacy to the project through its reputation and Barnhart’s steady hand. The repertoire is of AOR FM radio between 1970 and 2000. Silver and the band can transform even the most maudlin song into a swing-era gem (Joe Walsh’s “Life’s Been Good” and Steve Miller’s “Fly Like an Eagle,” this latter featuring Bill Frisell on guitar). The group gracefully removes the camp from Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock & Roll” (which Silver sings with Wycliffe Gordon) transforming it into a New Orleans second-line stable.

A bright arrangement of Gloria Jones’ 1964 “Tainted Love” shines among anything considered questionable (and there is much to like of all the selections addressed). A good many writers have dismissed this project as dilettantish and posing. Far from that, Basie Rocks! and Silver produce a thoughtfully arranged and presented a collection of the soundtrack of the late baby boom.