Music: Big-Band Jazz

Through the dim and smoky atmosphere of the Manhattan jazz den called Birdland came some old and familiar piano tones. The holiday crowd quieted and the music took over, its tones pure and glassy, its melody suggested almost as much as stated, its long moments of silence as pregnant as the notes themselves. William "Count" Basie, the man who was as instrumental as Benny Goodman in popularizing swing, was back on the bandstand again, jumping high and handsome as ever.

Each number, whether a melancholy Bunny or Plymouth Rock or a driving version of Lulu's Back in Town, bore the basic Basie...