William James Basie desperately wanted to be a drummer until a kid down the street named Sonny Greer, the future Duke Ellington drummer, proved undeniably better. That pivot to piano set up one of the most consequential careers in American music. This episode follows Basie from 25-cent lessons and silent-movie accompaniment at the Palace Theater in Red Bank, New Jersey, to Harlem cutting contests and rent parties alongside Fats Waller and Willie the Lion Smith, the physical demands of stride piano, and years on the vaudeville circuit backing comedians, tap dancers and contortionists, an education the hosts frame as ego-stripping training in making someone else look good.

In the Midwest he joined Walter Page's Blue Devils, picked up the name Count, and moved to Bennie Moten's Kansas City band before Moten's death in 1935 forced him to lead.  ...