Walter Page

Walter Sylvester Page (February 9, 1900 – December 20, 1957) was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist and bandleader, best known for his groundbreaking work as a double bass player with Walter Page's Blue Devils and the Count Basie Orchestra.

Early life

Page was born in Gallatin, Missouri, on February 9, 1900, to parents Edward and Blanche Page. Page showed a love for music even as a child, perhaps due in part to the influence of his aunt Lillie, a music teacher. Page's mother, with whom he moved to Kansas City in 1910, exposed him to folksongs and spirituals, a critical foundation for developing his love of music. He gained his first musical experience as a bass drum and bass horn player in the brass bands of his neighborhood. Under the direction of Major N. Clark Smith, a retired military bandleader who provided Page his first formal training in music, Page took up the string bass in his time at Lincoln High School. The band included Page's future Basie bandmates Jimmy Rushing and Count Basie himself. The band soon fell apart, however, which led to the formation of Walter Page and the Blue Devils in 1925. The Blue Devils were a territory band based out of the Oklahoma City-Wichita, Kansas area. Throughout various times in its six-year lifespan (1925-1931) the band featured such noteworthy figures as Basie, Rushing, Buster Smith, Lester Young, and Hot Lips Page. In his autobiography, Basie recalls the first time he ever saw the Blue Devils Play: The leader was the heavyset, pleasant-looking fellow playing the bass and doubling on the baritone. His name was Walter Page, and at that time the band was known as Walter Page and his Blue Devils. But you could also hear the musicians addressing him by his nickname, which was Big 'Un. You could also tell right away that they didn't just respect him because he was the boss; they really liked him and felt close to him because he was also one of them." Page wanted badly to have his band square off against Moten's band, which he states in an interview never happened. What is indisputable, however, is that Moten did seem to shy away from competition with the Blue Devils, opting to buy off individual members with higher salaries and absorb them into his own group rather than do battle directly. Basie and Eddie Durham defected in 1929, followed shortly by Rushing and eventually by Page himself. Despite this seemingly underhanded tactic, Page still felt that "[Moten] had one of the biggest hearts I knew of." He then proceeded to join Moten's band himself in 1931, staying on until 1934. Count Basie describes the immediate effect Walter Page had upon joining the Moten Band: "Big 'Un in there on bass made things a lot different in the rhythm section, and naturally that changed the whole band and made it even more like the Blue Devils." In an interview published shortly before his death, Page recalls an encounter with Duke Ellington in 1934: I remember Duke coming through on his way West that year. They were playing the Main Street Theatre and some of the boys in Duke's band wanted to go hear Basie. [Wellman] Braud was in the band and he acted biggety, didn't want to go, said, "What's he got?" We were playing at the Sunset Club and finally Duke and the rest crept around the scrim and started sitting in. I was playing right on top of Duke and he told Basie he was going to steal me out of the band. Basie told him I owed him $300.00 and that's how I didn't get to join Duke during all those good years he had. It was the smartest move Basie ever made. Together with drummer Jo Jones, guitarist Freddie Green, and pianist Basie, the rhythm section pioneered the "Basie Sound", a style in which Page, as bass player, clearly established the beat, allowing his bandmates to provide accompaniment more freely. Until this point, the rhythm of a jazz band was traditionally felt in the pianist's left hand and the kick of the bass drum on all four beats. After his second stint with Basie, Page worked primarily as a freelancer until his life was cut short in 1957. The artists he worked with in the later portion of his career included former bandmate and trumpeter Page, Jimmy McPartland, Eddie Condon, Ruby Braff, Roy Eldridge, Vic Dickenson, Buck Clayton, Rushing, and others, including many Basie alumni.

Death The death of Walter Page on December 20, 1957, was very much a surprise, as the bassist had been playing gigs around New York City right up until his death. It is reported that Page contracted pneumonia on his way to a recording session in the midst of a snowstorm. It is speculated that Walter Page's early death may be a factor contributing to his relative obscurity in the history of jazz, despite his major influence and stylistic contributions. In an interview published only a month before his death in The Jazz Review, Walter Page expressed how he never sought praise and that he just wanted to know that he was appreciated for his influence on music. "He started that 'strolling' or 'walking' bass", recalls Harry "Sweets" Edison, "going way up and then coming right on down. He did it on four strings, but other bass players couldn't get that high so they started making a five-string bass." Page himself acknowledged the influence of Wellman Braud, who may have been the first bassist to actually record the "walking bass" technique on Washington Wobble. Page's imposing stature led Durham to state that "he was like a house with a note." Jazz critic Gunther Schuller notes describes some of Page's other stylistic contributions: "For the bass functions simultaneously on several levels: as a rhythm instrument; as a pitch instrument delineating the harmonic progression; and, since the days of Walter Page, as a melodic or contrapuntal instrument." Page was also famous for his restraint, a lesson fellow bassist Gene Ramey recounts: "There's a whole lot [you] could do here... but what you must do is play a straight line, because that man out there's waiting for food from you. You could run chord changes on every chord that's going on. You've got time to do it. But if you do, you're interfering with that guy [the soloist]. So run a straight line." Drummer Jo Jones recalled an instance when "somebody was fooling around [in the band], Mr. Walter Page left his bass, went down quiet as a cat, got the baritone, played the sax parts, and went back to his place."

Page is perhaps best known for his work with the Count Basie Orchestra from 1935 to 1942. Page, drummer Jo Jones, guitarist Freddie Green, and pianist Count Basie became known as the "All-American Rhythm Section" and set the standard for jazz rhythm sections that is still emulated and considered the gold-standard today. Page's playing was a great influence on Jo Jones, who "says that it was Page who really taught him to play in Kansas City: 'An even 4/4'." Indeed, Berliner notes that "During the swing period, Walter Page's largely stepwise walking bass accompaniment in Count Basie's band epitomized the changing emphasis on the four-beat approach to meter described by Foster." "As part of the pianist's outstanding rhythm section", says Richard Cook, "Page's rock-solid time and unflustered swing was a key part of the four-way conversation." Jo Jones describes the dynamic of the rhythm section as a process and a group endeavor: "We worked at it, to build a rhythm section, every day, every night. We worked alone, not with the band all the time. I didn't care what happened—one of us would be up to par. If three were down, one would carry the three. Never four were out."

Discography As leader of the Oklahoma City Blue Devils Squabblin and Blue Devil Blues (Vocalion, 1930) With Count BasieThe Original American Decca Recordings (GRP, 1937-39 ) With Buck Clayton The Huckle-Buck and Robbins' Nest (Columbia, 1954) How Hi the Fi (Columbia, 1954) Jumpin' at the Woodside (Columbia, 1955) All the Cats Join In (Columbia 1956)With Lester Young and Buck ClaytonThe "Kansas City" Sessions (Commodore, 1938 )With Paul QuinichetteFor Basie (Prestige, 1957)With Lester Young, Charlie Christian and Buck ClaytonFrom Spirituals to Swing (Vanguard, 1938 - 1939 )With Ruby Braff'''The Ruby Braff Octet with Pee Wee Russell & Bobby Henderson at Newport'' (Verve, 1957)