The Count Basie Orchestra is an American big band, one of the most prominent jazz performing groups of the swing era, founded by Count Basie in 1935 and recording regularly from 1936. Despite a brief disbandment at the beginning of the 1950s, the band survived long past the Big Band era itself and the death of Basie in 1984. It continues as a 'ghost band'. A 16 to 18 piece big band, originally including such musicians as Buck Clayton and Lester Young in the line-up