The
Count Basie Orchestra is a 16 to 18 piece
big band, one of the most prominent jazz performing groups of the
swing era, founded by
Count Basie in 1935 and recording regularly from 1936. Despite a brief disbandment at the beginning of the 1950s, the band survived long past the Big Band era itself and the death of Basie in 1984. It continues as a '
ghost band'.