The Atomic Mr Basie

1 out of 10. It feel harsh but Jazz is my least favourite genre. I've never been able to really understand it.

Enjoyable big band type stuff.

smooth

Love a big band to an extent but I wanted something a bit more! got tired well before the end

Count Basie is goin' HAM on those keys

Such a delightful listen. What a pleasant surprise, I wouldn't've expected an album like this on the list but I'm so glad it's here. Definitely a classic. The time flew by listening to this one and it's crazy to me that this was done in 1958. Also how have I never heard of Count Basie? What rock was I living under.

I don’t like big band and I don’t like jazz, but a bonus star for coming in under 30 minutes. Bless you Mr. Basie.

Phenomenal album. The bluesy and jazzy sounds just made this such a great experience. It felt like jazz that had a direction. While I enjoyed it, it is hard giving it a 5 star review because I'm unfamiliar with the genre. Faves were: The Kid from Red Bank, Midnite Blue, and Lil' Darlin'.

Ah, the count of big band himself, Count Basie. I listened to this while making breakfast, so I couldn’t tell you which individual song was what. But I can say I absolutely enjoyed the entire thing. It’s bouncy, it’s bombastic, and it’s fantastic. It was a mélange of jazzy delights. If you like jazz or that big band sound, you’ll never be disappointed by the Count. The cover is grim which really adds some incredible duality. You’ve got swing music meant for dancing and fun with an album cover suggesting Armageddon. He’s certainly got a sense of humor.

Jazz ist sehr cool, aber ich halte nicht all zu viel davon

Big band tis not my thing.

Fett!

Jävla omslag! Här ska det swingas till atomförintelse. Jag har varit underhållen och skakat på höfterna idag. Urstark 3a eller rak 4a

Oooh mer jazzkunglighet. Jag njöt!

För mycket folk i orkestern

meh

Pretty darn cool. This cover for the 1950s seems risqué. Great music with some clearly extremely talented individuals.

First time for me listening an entire jazz album, but I liked the vibe!

I listen to a lot of modern Jazz but have never done the deep dive into its history. Especially not swing. Really enjoyed this and could see it being a big smash on the dancefloors friday night back in the day. If I'm being picky the balance is a bit too much in the trebly side but I guess that's the style of the time and genre.

en general, j'aime pas trop l'orchestre. Mais il est pas trop mal celui la, on peut l'utilise pour des films , des films muets surtt. Ou bien reception d'hotel. On dirait que ca raconte une histoire, apres pas trop mon style. 3.5

Bien, voir le commentaire de la cess, j'y souscrit complètement.

I love jazz, but bigband not so much. I miss Frank Sinatra singing here, that would have made it great. Music from a bygone era.

Lowley very chill and playful jazz but not completely my cup of tea though its very nice

Listenable swing jazz. Some of the tracks have a big sound, but I wouldn't call it atomic. 2.5 stars.

Upbeat and explosive.

C’est bien hein, juste je suis fatigué donc pas trop ce que j’ai envie d’entendre mais bel effort

My introduction to Count Basie was Mel Brooks getting him to play with his orchestra for a throwaway gag in Blazing Saddles. And then years later I got into jazz and swing music and actually listened. Because of the huge shifts in popular music starting in the 1960s no one gives pre-rock and roll popular styles the credit they deserve. Count Basie is an absolute legend, and Neal Hefti is the special sauce that makes this one pop. This album takes the fear of global nuclear destruction and says “If we’re all going to die, then give me a dame, a dance and a drink.” Now that’s a message we should all be able to get behind! 4.5⭐️

I think this album firmly establishes itself on a list of the most worthwhile one-thousand-or-so albums. Is it earth shattering? Will I wake up at night thinking about the tracks on this record? I don't think so. But this is swing jazz at its apogee, with the finest arrangements and virtuosic work from every side of the orchestra. It is so damn impressive in so many ways and I am glad it exists. It is stuff I would have loved to have heard live with these fine musicians in their prime.

🎷🥁🎺🎵🪊

Boring but melodically creative

Big band jazz - all good, I liked the Ella album more

Cool for what it is.

Pasezam tgd viesnicas foaje un izbaudam so albumu as it was intended

5diena varbūt nav labākais brīdis, kad šo klausīties, bet man ļoti patika

Beautiful way to start the journey. Didn't know anything about Count Basie and it was a great surprise.

Not everything needs to be the Beatles or NIN or Madonna. If you love Jazz, and you love music in general, you will love this album. It's crisp, clean, and innovative for its time.

Today I'm learning that I don’t enjoy brass heavy jazz. That’s a new thing I can know absolutely about myself. Thank you, Count Basie, for teaching me something about me.

Vaca catch up

This kind of jazz is underrepresented on this list. I get that it was already kind of old-fashioned by LPs came into wide use, but still, all the more reason to include *literal* albums from the 40’s.

I liked this much more than I expected. Never been into big band or swing and was further put off by the first song. Pushed through and largely enjoyed the album.

Basie is a classic. Can't argue with the standards. I wouldn't hunt this record down. But I wouldn't avoid it either.

Parece músicas de desenho animado antigo, The Sims, nesse estilo. Bem legal. Ouvi no dia 02/10/2026

Big Band music is really fun to listen to with the walking bass line, loud horns, and jazzy piano and sax. 4/5

Big band orchestra always a fun listen

I usually have a Pavlovian hated of jazz, but this is actually the first jazz record I have enjoyed.

Nice! Good for concentrating

7/10 - great chilled out jazz, can't go wrong

The way my face lit up when I realised this was a purely instrumental album, don't want any of that 50s singing please! It's somewhere between a 4 and a 5 for me, these songs are an absolute delight to listen to, but it does get a little tiring listening to a whole album of them.

This is a big-band classic. "Flight of the foo birds" took me right back to high school jazz band, and that was probably my favorite on the album. I'm struggling to decide between giving a 3 or 4 because I have a hard time thinking of many occasions when I'd actually choose to listen to this album (maybe put it on in the background when hosting people for cocktails?). It's objectively a good album of the genre, just not so much my taste.

Nice to see the new testament Basie band pop up! Really tight arranging by Hefti - even if it doesn't have the magic the 30s Basie Band had for me (Lester Young was on another level). Really wish this list had a better sense of music as a whole and included more things outside of british pop/rock like this.

Jazzy

Album #288 Count Basie: The Atomic Mr. Basie More solid 50s big band; not exactly the most engaging music in my opinion, but I do find it enjoyable whilst it’s on. This kind of music always reminds me of old-timey cartoons that were often soundtracked to jazz, although strangely this one gave me Family Guy vibes. The only thing really ‘atomic’ about the album was that I forgot my volume was at 100, so when I hit play it felt like a nuclear bomb went off in my head. I mean, I’m clueless about jazz and have nothing of value to add, so I’ll stop waffling. Best Songs: Splanky, The Kid From Red Bank, Whirly-Bird Worst Song: Fantail Score out of 10: 6

It's a nice album to listen while you do you daily work or try to download Eva Iron Maiden 2nd while it jams at 0B/s at 99%. Overall its a really well made and consistent album. Not too much. Not too less. A few hype moments in the songs but I'lllet you search for it yourself. Go put it on and do some daily work.

Another genre I'm not real well versed on but I recognized the name. This sounded like it must have been a lot different from the big band era of the music, very jazzy and more complex at times. I enjoyed this one more than expected and was refreshing to go so far outside my comfort zone.

This was a delightful listen. The style of course take you back in time, but the songs & arrangements feel fresh and lively. I recently acquired a live recording of the band from around the same era that I think I enjoyed even more, but for a studio recording, this was top-notch.

The man and his music. Great choice. Great album.

Great jazz album! Loved from top to bottom!

This album had both upbeat and down beat type songs on it

Loved it! It's possible my preferred jazz style is "this could be a cartoon soundtrack".

not really a big band jazz person but this was still fun

it's incredible. perfect. no notes.

Great record 9/10

Not that much to say about this record; pretty good background listening Jazz music, blending those more traditional (and sorta dated by this point) Big Band and swing sounds with the slicker playing of late '50s jazz, with some nice soloing contrasting those typically ear-blowing, brassy sections. It was fun, and I really liked the song 'Flight of the Foo Birds' in particular.

Enjoyed this album a lot. Thought it was going to feel more dated but that was not the case

Great. Great. Great. Manic fun with Count Basie. The band is so tight, you could drop a quarter on them and it would bounce. The slower numbers are dreamlike and effortless in feeling. Light touches on the instruments reflect real playing in the studio and not engineering skill. There's craftsmanship here - Basie at the very top of his game.

the man was an incredible talent no doubt. this is certainly an album I could listen to regularly and enjoy while doing other things. so relaxing and motivating at the same time.

Always tough to rate good albums in genres I don’t care for, and big band probably ranks right there with edm for me on genres that I typically give a hard pass. That said, The Atomic CB has a lot going for it, likely the best album the genre has to offer, maybe the coolest album cover ever, it’s got got the right amount of chaos to keep my attention, it’s a swan song to a genre which ties back into the brilliant album name and cover and on a personal note, I live and grew up 10 minutes from red bank NJ, where the kid is from. Prob the only 4 star album I won’t listen to again, but for the above reasons I don’t think I can give it anything lower. Soft 4.

The level of talent on this 1958 big-band jazz record is extraordinary (especially bassist Eddie Jones and drummer Sonny Payne) but on the other hand this isn't something that I could see myself ever seeking out again, so it becomes yet another album that falls into the "split the difference" category.

this is definitely nathan music. i actually quite like it. listening to it live would be a fantastic experience--big band styles like this are so fun to swing to.

Great fun!

So much energy in the band. Very musical. Not my usual thing but really nice.

I love big band music ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I love weird type of jazz, this is very good

Jazz Big Band -- smooth Favourites to come back to: Flight of the Foo birds, Double-O, Whirly Bird, Fantail

Christmas romcom

I had a friend tell me yesterday that jazz is the only good genre in the 50s. I'm starting to think he might be right. This is a high 3

You’re telling me this has the same composer as the Batman TV theme?!

I keep saying 'more jazz, please', and here you go. A total groove.

I still don’t like much jazz. Sometimes it works, mostly it doesn’t for me.

Count Basie's playing sounds like a smoother, more polished, Thelonius Monk to me. I love the subtle, swung compositions here. It's hard to believe that this album was recorded in the 50s, as it sounds so clean. I especially like how the recording is so bass forward. I haven't heard this before and it was an absolute treat. Liked Songs Added: Duet Flight Of The Foo Birds Double-O Splanky Fantail

A solid swing album. Not a whole lot to note. I think the slower pieces might be the highlights for me.

incredible album, soo much fun the whole band sounds super energetic and all the songs are bops

3,5 Stars

This was fantastic! I love all types of jazz but, other than Duke Ellington, I rarely listen to big band. This has an energy to it that really works. Put it on when your cooking or playing a frenetic video game.

As expected, this is great.

An excellent swing album. Just nails the vibe. Highly recommended!

Instrumental big band swing! This is really good, and also I'm pretty sure I've heard several of these songs (especially Whirly-Bird) in so many things that it has become absurd. A really fun toe-tapper album. It's snazzy. I think that's how I'd put it.

for the nights I feel like dancing in the kitchen while cooking with a bottle of wine in my hand.

I've spent years hearing this music on the radio so it was very relatable and enjoyable listening to this.

Very solid big band jazz

Good ol' classic jazz.

Not my style

Deece.

A joy to listen to. Some a bit frenetic but what would one expect from the atomic age. Favorite track: Lil’ Darlin’ - let’s just slow down from all this frenzy

Very interesting!

I’m not a big fan of big band jazz, but Count Basie is as good as it gets and this album in particular shows him embracing and absorbing the energy, precision of the new post war era of bop jazz, which I love. Kansas City Swing, Flight of The Foo Birds and Whirly-Bird show clear bebop influences exhibiting fast, complex horn lines and angular phrasing probably due to employing younger players like, trumpeter Thad Jones and saxophonist Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis into the orchestra. This album is veering toward jazz as art and less as dancehall music. My only complaints are when it stagnates in tradition a couple of times and the restraints on drummer Sonny Payne, who obviously wants to cut loose, but is restricted by the big band format. 3.6

damn i love big band/jazz era stuff

Perfect for reading and sipping whiskey on a rainy day

jazzy little jaunt with a punk rock album cover.

Really good, chill Jazz like music.