Consisting chiefly of itineraries, souvenir programs, photographs, travel receipts, royalty statements, news clippings, correspondence, and award certificates documenting the career of rhythm guitarist and composer Freddie Green, who got his start with the Jenkins Orphanage Band in Charleston, S.C., and went on to become a key member of the Count Basie Orchestra for almost fifty years, starting in 1937. Materials provide precise dating and nature of Count Basie tours, domestic and foreign, 1956-1987, with detailed itineraries, hotel receipts, photographs, reviews, along with souvenir programs from such performances as the Royal [Command] Performances in London, jazz festivals in France, Holland, Switzerland, Finland, and such American appearances as the 1960 Washington Jazz Jubilee, 1961 Tribute to Martin Luther King, and 1979 Playboy Jazz Festival in Los Angeles. Includes credentials tags for 1981 and 1985 appearances at the White House; scrapbook, 1984, documenting Count Basie's death; handwritten copy of music Green chose for the Basie band to play when Green conducted the orchestra while a new leader was being sought after Basie's death; copy of Green's 1940 tax return showing his income as a member of the Basie band that year. Also including 3 issues, 1985-1986, of The Red Bank Special, the official journal of the Count Basie Society; Playboy Magazine certificates of merit from its All-Star jazz polls for 1957, 1958, and 1963, showing Green's nomination as outstanding jazz artist; and program from unveiling of a portrait of the Rev. Daniel Joseph Jenkins, 1985, with receipt showing Green's financial contribution to Jenkins Orphanage.
