Autograph (signed Business card)

Very Good. Verso of business card signed in blue ink thus: "To Alex / Count Basie" - an in person autograph, collected by Alexander Wright (on his own business card) Lead Skycap at Sky Harbor, who retired in 1998. Born William James Basie on August 21, 1904 in Red Bank, New Jersey, "Count" Basie became one of the greatest band leaders of all time. His unique style of fusing blues and jazz, established swing as a predominant music style in the mid-twentieth Century. He was the first black artist to win a Grammy award in 1958. He played himself in a number of movies, among them, Cinderfella (1960), Sex and the Single Girl (1964) and Blazing Saddles (1974). Mr. Basie was a Free Mason. He died of pancreatic cancer on April 26, 1984, in Hollywood, Florida.