One O'Clock Jump One O'Clock Jump "One O'Clock Jump" is a jazz standard, a 12-bar blues instrumental, written by Count Basie in 1937. The melody derived from band members' riffs--Basie rarely wrote down musical ideas, so Eddie Durham and Buster Smith helped him crystallize his ideas. The original 1937 recording of the tune by Basie and his band is noted for the saxophone work of Herschel Evans and Lester Young, trumpet by Buck Clayton, Walter Page on bass and Basie himself on piano. "One O'Clock Jump" became the theme song of the Count Basie Orchestra. They used it to close each of their
Famous Maroon Band The name "Famous Maroon Band" was coined in the 1930s after an incident that led to the 40 members of the band being called the "Famous Forty". At the time of an A&M vs. Alabama football game, the bands participated in a band contest with the winner taking home a trophy. Unbeknownst to the Alabama band, the A&M band had brand new non-military themed uniforms and after the A&M band performed first to thunderous applause the Alabama band refused to play. The band still has the trophy on display in the band room and the forty members of the band