 has not been to Count Basie's hometown of Red Bank, New Jersey. Don't bother going there. The only thing really worth knowing about Red Bank is it's an hour outside of New York and it's where Count Basie grew up. And he couldn't wait to get the heck out of Red Bank. He initially thought the way out of Red Bank, where his father was a gardener, his mother was a laundress, and they were in a home that was wealthier than the Armstrong home and poorer than the Ellington home.