One O’Clock Jump, made up on the air

The band played the Reno Club in Kansas City, and some nights it was broadcast on local radio. Late one night, with time to fill, it started improvising.

In Basie’s words

“We hit it with the rhythm section and went into the riffs, and the riffs just stuck. We set the thing up front in D-flat, and then we just went on playing in F.”

On record

The band recorded it for Decca in July 1937, and it became its signature. In 1938 Benny Goodman recorded it too.