12 Facts About Freddie Green

Frederick William Green was an American swing jazz guitarist who played rhythm guitar with the Count Basie Orchestra for almost fifty years.

Freddie Green was born in Charleston, South Carolina on March 31,1911.

Freddie Green was exposed to music from an early age, and learned the banjo before picking up the guitar in his early teenage years.

Walker gave Freddie Green what was perhaps his first gig, playing with a local community group of which Walker was an organizer.

In one of these gigs, he was noticed by the legendary talent scout John H Hammond, who realized the potential of Green and introduced him to Basie.

Except for a brief interruption, Freddie Green would remain a pivotal fixture of the Count Basie Band for the next fifty years.

Freddie Green rapidly changed chords, often with every beat, rather than every measure.

Freddie Green's chord fingering often involved him covering four strings with his fingers, while depressing only a subset of the notes.

Freddie Green dampened the unsounded notes from chords with his left hand.

Freddie Green's playing on his signature Stromberg guitar was the model for Ralph Patt's big-band playing.

Freddie Green was not a prolific composer, but he did make two major contributions to Count Basie's repertoire, "Down for Double" and "Corner Pocket".

On March 1,1987, Freddie Green died of a heart attack in Las Vegas, Nevada at the age of 75.