Billboard : 05/19/1956
Score of 80

Peterson salutes Basie, the composer, pianist and bandsman by building a program on numbers long associated with the band (e.g., Lester Leaps In and Easy Does It). Peterson even adopts the “Count’s” sparse piano styling for a few numbers, subtly mixing in some comments of his own. One O’Clock Jump and Peterson’s original Blues for Basie deserve special note in that connection. The Basie favorites are here, all played with gusto and affection. Should be one of Peterson’s best sellers.

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Cashbox : 05/19/1956

Oscar Peterson doffs his keyboard cap to Count Basie on this one. Playing 4 Basie compositions and 6 other pieces related to Basie’s great band moments, Peterson gives out with some fancy twists and turns on the ivories. Fellas like Herb Ellis, guitar, and Buddy Rich, drums, play convincing supporting roles on the waxing. Basie and jazz fans should take pride in this distinguished jam session.

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Down Beat : 06/27/1956
Jack Tracy : 4.5 stars

Oscar Peterson Plays Count Basie is the title of this one, and he indeed does play the hell out of him. Oscar’s regular companions, Herb Ellis and Ray Brown, are augmented by the fluid drive of Buddy Rich, and this set does more than any I’ve heard so far to show up the wonderful interplay between Oscar, Herb, and Ray, and the way they work so beautifully together as a unit.

This is four men who love the music they’re playing and do it with joy and a skill of the highest order. Especially is it obvious on Easy Does It, which contains a finger-numbing solo from Brown and gets a compulsive beat at slow tempo; on Blue and Sentimental (a perfectly descriptive title for the Basie composition); on Woodside, on which the background mutterings and growls from Oscar and Rich are almost as interesting as the music. Rich plays bongos on Jive at Five, by the way, the first time I’ve heard him do so.

You would, I am sure, find it difficult not to enjoy this one.

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Liner Notes by Unknown

Although this aspect of Count Basie‘s career is not nearly so widely known as his bandleading and piano playing activities, it is a fact that William “Count” Basie is quote a composer, too. And one of his numbers in particular, One O’Clock Jump will surely live so long as anyone has ever heard of Count Basie – which should be a long time indeed. Since the celebrated jazz pianist Oscar Peterson is high among the admirers of Count Basie, it seemed an altogether reasonable notion to have Oscar record a number of Basie selections as well as songs associated for long with the great Basie bands. And to make an even more personal contribution, Oscar is also heard playing his own tribute to the Count – Blues for Basie.

About One O’Clock Jump the legends have grown, but the truth makes a better story than any. Bill Basie, to begin with, was never much for titles; the music was always the important thing. Basie had come out of Redbank N.J., a piano player with a theater unit when, in the middle 1930s, he found himself stranded in Kansas City. After a time working as a pianist in silent movie houses, he played with the Walter Page Blue Devils and then the Benny Moten band. Later, after Moten’s death and the eventual breakup of the band, Basie organized his own band which soon – with an assist from John Hammond and Benny Goodman – gained wide recognition. One night, back in 1936, the Basie crew was broadcasting out of Kansas City when the program was nearing its end and the announcer was asking for the title of the final tune. Basie shrugged. The song – well, it was his own composition, but it didn’t have a title and likely wouldn’t have had until this day if Basie hadn’t glanced at a clock. The time was rapidly approaching one o’clock. “tell you what,” Basie said to the announcer, “let’s just call it One O’Clock Jump.” He did and the song became the Basie theme.

As for some of the others, Jive at Five got its title because Basie wanted to pay his respects to a disk jockey whose show bore precisely that name. Jumping at the Woodside was written in 1396 while the Basie band was rehearsing at the Woodside Hotel in New York – hence the title. At a recording session in 1938, one more song was needed. Basie supplied one of his own and for no reason that he can think of today, called it Blue and Sentimental. Topsy, whose co-composer was Eddie Durham, was turned out the same year. Two of Lester Young‘s compositions are included as well as one by Earl Ronald Warren – both Young and Warren playing important roles in the Basie organization, one a tenor, the other an alto saxophone star.

The selections are played with appropriate gusto and affection by Oscar Peterson, one of today’s foremost jazz artists. Peterson, barely into this 30s, has been a featured performer with Jazz at the Philharmonic since leaving his native Canada in 1949. Since then he has led his own trio and picked up Down Beat and Metronome poll awards.

Accompanying pianist Oscar Peterson on these sides are the following: Herb Ellis, guitar, Ray Brown, bass, and Buddy Rich, drums.