FINAL BAR
Source: Down Beat, May 1987, page 13
Freddie Green, guitarist with the Count Basie Orchestra for half a century,
died March 1 in Las Vegas of an apparent heart attack. He was 75. Green
was the last surviving member of Basie's "All-American Rhythm Section"
which included Basie on piano, Walter Page on bass, and Joe Jones on drums.
Born in Charleston, South Carolina, Green was introduced to Basie by record
producer John Hammond, who had discovered the guitarist playing in a Greenwich
Village nightclub. Green was not the Basie band's first guitarist, but
he remained with the orchestra far longer than anyone else after joining
it in March 1937. He rarely took solos, concentrating instead on rhythmic
accompaniment. His playing, in the words of music critic George T. Simon,
was "wonderfully light yet propulsive". Green also recorded
several albums under his own name, as well as with Billie Holiday, Benny
Goodman, Benny Carter, Lionel Hampton, and many others.
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