Basie at Southland (Joker LP SM3084)

Business was brisk and the talent considerable at Boston’s Southland Cafe as 1940 got underway. First Duke Ellington, then Jack Teagarden, then Teddy Powell, and then Count Basie. The great Basie Band rolled in on February 19 for a four-week stay.

Southland, at 76 Warrenton Street, had been downtown Boston’s top spot for jazz since its opening in September 1937. Since April 1939, it had booked name bands exclusively. For the bands, The bands considered Southland to be a prized booking, because it installed bands for two- or even four-week engagements. That gave them a much-needed respite from the buses and the one-nighters. Plus, in 1940, remotes from Southland were broadcast nationwide over the NBC Blue network. The program’s announcer was Fred B. Cole of WBZ radio, who for years was the voice of the big bands on NBC. Many of these broadcasts were issued on LPs and CDs over the years, including those of Chick Webb, Harry James, Duke Ellington, and this Basie band.

The Basie band at Southland roared in all its pre-war glory, with Buck Clayton, Sweets Edison, Dicky Wells, Lester Young, and Buddy Tate—as well as the now-immortal rhythm section of Freddie Green, Walter Page, Jo Jones, and Basie himself.

Southland closed just a few months after Basie’s visit in 1940. Why it closed is a mystery. Bands with star power still packed the house, and the radio wire still sent them from coast to coast. There were always whispers in those days about the club’s mixed clientele. There were always people who resented it, and maybe they were busy behind the scenes. No way to know. But whatever the reason, the club closed, even though people still wanted to hear Southland’s kind of music. Listeners who didn’t take their music light and polite had to look elsewhere for it.

Here’s a video of the Basie band in 1940 that features Jimmy Rushing singing (well, he’s lip-syncing) “Take Me Back Baby.” It’s what you might have heard at Southland in March 1940.