Basie

Eddie Jones held the bottom of the band on Count Basie At Newport (1957) and on Basie (1955). He left Count Basie's orchestra in the early 1960s and spent the years that followed employed at IBM, playing only occasionally — the anchor of that rhythm section changed day jobs.

Frank Wess joined Count Basie's saxophone section in 1953 as a tenor player, but the thing he actually changed was the flute — an instrument big bands had written off as too quiet to carry. From inside the reed section on Basie (1955), and under his own name on Flutes & Reeds the same year, he made it a standard big-band voice and became a fixture in the DownBeat flute poll.