Jon Bon Jovi gets stoned in front of the Count Basie Center for Arts. (Photo courtesy of Count Basie Center for the Arts) Click to enlarge.)
By BRIAN DONOHUE
From right to left, Jon Bon Jovi, State Sen. Vin Gopal, Monmouth County Commissioner Tom Arnone, TS Monk (at podium) Red Bank Mayor Billy Portman, Count Basie Center for the Arts Board Chairman Jeremy Grunin and Count Basie Center for the Arts President and CEO Adam Philpson at the first Walk of Fame unveiling. (photo by Brian Donohue)
“For as long as I can remember, the Count Basie Center was at the center of our musical community,” Bon Jovi said in a speech that included a reference to the aforementioned Krauszer’s and its once less-than-luxurious dressing rooms.
In his introduction of Bon Jovi, State Sen. Vin Gopal mentioned the band Bon Jovi’s annual charity Christmas shows, which ran from 1989 until the mid 1990s and became a harbinger of he and his wife’s charitable efforts, including the opening of the nonprofit restaurant JBJ Soul Kitchen a few blocks away.
“Until that introduction,” the Sayreville-raised rocker said, he thought the shows “had long been forgotten.”
Bon Jovi touted his fellow Walk of Fame member, Count Basie, as the “original Monmouth County rock star.”
As the first member of the new Walk of Fame, Basie’s granite plaque sits directly in front of the theater’s front door.
Its unveiling was preceded by a stirring speech by musician T.S. Monk, the son of the late jazz great Thelonius Monk, on the impact Basie had on jazz, the arts, and the entire world.
“When you’re talking about Count Basie, you’re not just talking about a guy who played the piano,” Monk said. “You’re talking about a sound, a feeling. You’re talking about a groove that started right here in Red Bank, New Jersey, and went on to circle the globe.”
He called Basie an “ambassador” for the nation and its art in the mid-20th century, “When people were trying to figure out what this American thing was all about.”
“The music that Count Basie took around the world was the music of freedom,” he continued. “And that’s what people around the world, particularly in repressed places –they thought of this thing called jazz from America as the music of freedom. And that is one of the reasons people like Count Basie are so important.”
“It made people move, it made people smile, it broke barriers,” Monk said of Basie’s music. “It lifted spirits in really hard times” he said, referring to the Great Depression and World War II.
“He reminded us that good times are always possible,” he added. “That’s the gift.”
The plaques bearing the names of Basie and Bon Jovi are the first of about four dozen set in the sidewalk outside the theater that will be enscribed and dedicated annually to yet-unnamed performers in the coming years, according to Count Basie Center for the Arts President and CEO Adam Phillipson.
Yesterday’s unveiling is the first major event in a 16-month schedule of programs marking the theater’s 100th anniversary in 2026. (see previous coverage below.)
RED BANK: BASIE ARTS CENTER UNVEILS 100TH BIRTHDAY BASH PLANS
redbankgreen editor Brian Donohue may be reached via email at [email protected] or by calling or texting 848-331-8331 or yelling his name loudly as he walks by. Do you value the news coverage provided by redbankgreen? Please become a financial supporter if you haven’t already. Click here to set your own level of monthly or annual contribution.
