| Christina Aziz |
An American musician and actor. He was born in Red Bank, New Jersey, USA on August 21, 1904 as William Allen James Basie. He died in Hollywood, Florida, USA on April 26, 1984 of pancreatic cancer. He won a 9-time Grammy Award, a KCH Award in 1981, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1982 for his musical work. He married Catherine Morgan (1942-1983), they had a child, and she remained with him until her death. He is known for Pearl Harbor (2001), The Salton Sea (2002), and Malcolm X (1992). He was a famous composer, pianist, organist, American jazz musician, songwriter, and conductor. He accompanied singers, dancers, and comedians in vaudeville, film and television. After forming his band, he worked on the radio, and in 1936, he went to New York, where he appeared in Libyan hotels, clubs, theaters, and jazz festivals. He expanded the number of his band, used organizers to expand the sounds, so many musicians and singers emerged under his supervision. His father was a herdsman of horses and a guard of the land, and his mother used to wash homes and sell cakes for a living. Each of his parents had a musical background as his father played the mellophone, and his mother played the piano. His mother gave him his first lessons in music and pushed him to receive lessons for 25 cents a class. He learned to improvise music, became interested in drums, returned to the piano again, and played in amateur performances. In 1920, he went to Harlem - the stronghold of negroes and jazz musicians - and toured among many bands. He worked in the vaudeville theater as a soloist and toured a great deal as a solo pianist and a music director for singers, dancers, and comedians, until he formed his own band in 1935. A year later, he headed with his band to Chicago for their first recording to begin a long journey that lasted nearly 50 years. He participated in the cinema as an actor, and his first movie was Policy Man (1938). His last movie was Blazing Saddles (1974). He also participated as a music composer in a large number of movies, the first of which was Take Me Back Baby (1941). He died in 1984 at the age of 79.
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