Egypt and the broader Arab world, donating the proceeds
of her concerts to the Egyptian government.
Health problems plagued the singer most of her life.
During the late 1940s and early ’50s, she worked only on a
limited basis, and on a number of occasions throughout
her life she traveled to Europe and the United States for
treatment of a variety of ailments. Most obviously, prob-
lems with her eyes (purportedly from years spent in front
of stage lights) forced her to wear heavy sunglasses, which
became a hallmark during her later life. Such was her
popularity that news of her death provoked a spontaneous
outpouring of hysterical grief, and millions of admirers
lined the streets for her funeral procession. She remained
one of the Arab world’s best-selling singers even decades
after her death. In 2001 the Egyptian government estab-
lished the Kawkab al-Sharq Museum in Cairo to celebrate
the singer’s life and accomplishments.

Count Basie

(b. Aug. 21, 1904, Red Bank, N.J., U.S.—d. April 26, 1984,
Hollywood, Fla.)

A

merican jazz musician William Basie, popularly known
as “Count,” was noted for his spare, economical piano
style and for his leadership of influential and widely her-
alded big bands.
Basie studied music with his mother and was later
influenced by the Harlem pianists James P. Johnson and
Fats Waller, receiving informal tutelage on the organ from
the latter. He began his professional career as an accompa-
nist on the vaudeville circuit. Stranded in Kansas City,
Mo., in 1927, Basie remained there and in 1935 assumed
the leadership of a nine-piece band composed of former
members of the Walter Page and Bennie Moten orches-
tras. One night, while the band was broadcasting on a

7 Umm Kulthum 7