Good Bait is a jazz standard co-written by Count Basie and Tadd Dameron, first introduced in 1944. The tune is an AABA form piece that uses rhythm changes based on I Got Rhythm, with the bridge transposed up a fourth and harmony that nods to La Mer, and its title may allude to the sea. It became a signature number for Basie’s band, with the earliest known recording from a 1948 Royal Roost live performance, and Dameron’s group with Fats Navarro recording it the same year. The track gained wide fame in the 1940s and 1950s through a string of influential versions by Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Nina Simone, and many others. Good Bait is often studied as a bebop contrafact and is celebrated for its spirited interplay between composition and improvisation.
