STAN KENTON (ABO#423)

STAN KENTON

ARTISTRY IN RHYTHM

(1940-1960)

An off-the-wall choice today. I had it at hand, and decided that it didn't cost anyone to share it. To enjoy this collection, you'll have to have some appreciation of postwar Big Band music or Exotica.
As you begin to explore Jazz, you'll see Stan Kenton's name mentioned often. He is a controversial figure, recognized as a flawed genius by many. This baistoiphe covers roughly 1940-1960. Dates are hard to determine, as most pre-Sixties jazz albums are compiled from 78s and 10" EPs and released on budget labels with no annotation. Be forewarned that this baistophe bounces around stylistically. It opens with a big band sound, but the next tune could be the theme of a '60s action show. Another would be a fitting score for the denouement of a James Bond film; where they confront the villain in his hollow volcano. You may recognize snippets of cartoon music; both Raymond Scott and Carl Stalling borrowed ideas from The Kenton Orchestra. The collection wasn't originally constructed for public consumption, so I won't feel badly if you take cuts from both CDs to make one that suits you.
Kenton's 'Innovations in Modern Music Orchestra' was known less for their music than their sound. While everyone else had a dance band, he had an orchestra. If he were to start today, he would definitely be into heavy metal. He liked everything big and dramatic with unusual time signatures. His progressive musical ideas emphasized power and had more to do with 20th Century orchestral music than jazz. Today, it just sounds like swing music and it's hard to judge how radical some of Kenton's ideas were. It's like a 15 year old trying to figure out what was so different about Nirvana.
He had hired top-flight musicians and vocalists but this was not enough to win the respect of jazz aficionados. The music often veered off into ponderous and overly commercial territory. But he depended on his chart hits to finance his more experimental works. By the mid-Fifties, he was drifting toward more conventional big band arrangements. By 1960, jazz was becoming irrelevant, and Kenton, having been irrelevant to jazz, was just a musician on the margins of popular music. His best musicians had moved on, and he filled their positions with young and inexpensive talent. He tried to reinvent the band by emphasizing a big brass section, but it mostly sounded the same except for more horns.

-BURNS-