1930s With little money, Kenton traveled to San Diego and Las Vegas playing piano in
speakeasies. Kenton's first appearance in New York was in February 1942 at the
Roseland Ballroom, with the marquee featuring an endorsement by
Fred Astaire. By late 1943, with a contract with the newly formed
Capitol Records, a popular record in "Eager Beaver", and growing recognition, the Stan Kenton Orchestra was gradually catching on; it developed into one of the best-known West Coast ensembles of the 1940s. Its soloists during the war years included
Art Pepper, briefly
Stan Getz, altoist
Boots Mussulli, and singer
Anita O'Day. By 1945, the band had evolved.
Pete Rugolo became the chief arranger (extending Kenton's ideas),
Bob Cooper and
Vido Musso offered very different tenor styles, and
June Christy was Kenton's new singer; her hits (including "
Tampico" and Greene's "
Across the Alley from the Alamo") made it possible for Kenton to finance his more ambitious projects.
Artistry in Rhythm and orchestra, Kenton on right, New York, 1946 When composer/arranger
Pete Rugolo joined the Stan Kenton Orchestra as staff arranger in late 1945, he brought with him his love of jazz,
Stravinsky and
Bartók. Given free rein by Kenton, Rugolo experimented. Although Kenton himself was already trying experimental scores prior to Rugolo's tenure, it was Rugolo who brought extra jazz and classical influences much needed to move the band forward artistically. During his first six months on the staff, Rugolo tried to copy Kenton's sound; on encouragement from the leader, he explored his own voice. By incorporating compositional techniques borrowed from the modern classical music he studied, Rugolo was a key part of one of Kenton's most fertile and creative periods. , Stan Kenton (age 36), and Bob Graettinger (1948) After a string of mostly arrangements, Rugolo turned out three originals that Kenton featured on the band's first album in 1946 (
Artistry in Rhythm): "Artistry in Percussion", "Safranski" and "Artistry in Bolero". Added to this mix came "Machito", "Rhythm Incorporated", "Monotony", and "Interlude" in early 1947 (although some were not recorded until later in the year). These compositions, along with
June Christy's voice, came to define the
Artistry in Rhythm band.
Afro-Cuban writing was added to the Kenton book with compositions like Rugolo's "Machito". The resulting instrumentation, utilizing significant amounts of brass, was described as a "
wall of sound" (a term later coined independently by
Andrew Loog Oldham for
Phil Spector's production methods). The
Artistry in Rhythm ensemble was a formative band, with outstanding soloists. By early 1947, the Stan Kenton Orchestra had reached a high point of financial and popular success. They played in the best theaters and ballrooms in America, and had numerous hit records. Dances at the ballrooms were typically four hours a night and theater dates generally involved playing mini-concerts between each showing of the movie. This was sometimes five or six a day, stretching from morning to late night. Most days not actually playing were spent in buses or cars. Days off from performing were rare. For Kenton they just allowed for more record signing, radio station interviews, and advertising for
Capitol Records. Due to the financial and personal demands, following an April performance in
Tuscaloosa, he broke up the
Artistry in Rhythm incarnation of Kenton ensembles.
Progressive Jazz After a hiatus of five months, Kenton formed a new, larger ensemble to present
Concerts in Progressive Jazz. Sustaining the ensemble on its own proved mostly attainable but the band still had to fill in its schedule by booking dances and movie theater jobs, especially over the summer. Pete Rugolo composed and arranged the great bulk of the new music; Kenton declared these works to be
Progressive Jazz. A student of famed composer and educator
Russ Garcia,
Bob Graettinger wrote numerous works for the band, starting with his composition
Thermopylae. His ground-breaking composition
City of Glass was premiered by the band in Chicago in April 1948, but not recorded for another two and a half years, in a reworked version for the Innovations Orchestra.
Ken Hanna, who began the tour as a trumpet player, contributed a few compositions to the new band, including
Somnambulism. Kenton contributed no new scores to the
Progressive Jazz band, although several of his older works were performed on concerts, including
Concerto to End All Concertos,
Eager Beaver,
Opus in Pastels, and
Artistry in Rhythm. Cuban inflected titles from the
Progressive Jazz period include Rugolo's
Introduction to a Latin Rhythm,
Cuban Carnival,
The Peanut Vendor,
Journey to Brazil, and
Bob Graettinger's
Cuban Pastorale. The addition of a full-time bongo player and a Brazilian guitarist in the band enabled Kenton's cadre of composers to explore Afro-Latin rhythms to far greater possibilities. The
Progressive Jazz period lasted 14 months, beginning on September 24, 1947, when the Stan Kenton Orchestra played a concert at the
Rendezvous Ballroom. And it ended after the last show at the
Paramount Theatre in New York City on December 14, 1948. The band produced only one album and a handful of singles, due to a recording ban by the American Federation of Musicians that lasted the entirety of 1948. The lone record, "
A Presentation of Progressive Jazz", received a 3 out of 4 rating from Tom Herrick in
DownBeat. Metronome rated it "C" calling it a "jerry-built jumble of effects and counter-effects" and "this album presents very little that can justifiably be called either jazz or progressive".
Billboard scored it 80 out of 100, but declared it "as mumbo-jumbo a collection of cacophony as has ever been loosed on an unsuspecting public. Many sidemen from the
Artistry band returned, but there were significant changes.
Laurindo Almeida on classical guitar, and
Jack Costanzo on bongos dramatically changed the band's timbre. Both were firsts for the Kenton band, or any jazz band for that matter. The rhythm section included returnees
Eddie Safranski (bass) and
Shelly Manne (drums), both destined to win first-place Down Beat awards. Four of the five trumpet players returned:
Buddy Childers,
Ray Wetzel,
Chico Alvarez, and
Ken Hanna.
Al Porcino was added to the already powerhouse section.
Conte Candoli joined the band, replacing Porcino, in February 1948.
Kai Winding, star trombonist of the
Artistry in Rhythm band, would not be a part of the
Progressive Jazz era, except for a few dates on which he subbed.
Milt Bernhart came in on lead trombone. And Bart Varsalona returned on bass trombone. Bernhart's first big solo with the Kenton band proved to be a major hit,
The Peanut Vendor. The saxophone section was much improved and modernized. Returning saxophonists included baritone Bob Gioga, holding down his chair since the very start, and
Bob Cooper on tenor. With
Vido Musso's departure, Cooper and his modernist sound became the featured tenor soloist.
Art Pepper came on as second alto, the "jazz" chair. And the new lead alto was
George Weidler. They received five first place awards in the Down Beat poll at the end of 1947, and similar awards from the other magazines. The arrangers continued to push the limits of the instrumentalists in their compositions. Works from this period are some of the first and most successful "
third stream" compositions. The band criss-crossed the country, appearing in the nation's top concert venues, including
Carnegie Hall,
Boston Symphony Hall,
Chicago Civic Opera House,
Academy of Music (Philadelphia), and the
Hollywood Bowl. They had extended stays at New York's
Paramount Theatre and Hotel Commodore, Philadelphia's Click, Detroit's Eastwood Gardens, Radio City Theater in Minneapolis, and the
Rendezvous Ballroom, a special place in Kenton's musical life. Kenton's band was the first to present a concert in the famous outdoor arena, the Hollywood Bowl. His concert there on June 12, 1948, drew more than 15,000 people, and was both an artistic and commercial success. Kenton pocketed half of the box office, walking away with US$13,000 () for the evening's concert. The band broke attendance records all across the country. Thanks to Kenton's public relations acumen, he was able to convince concert goers and record buyers of the importance of his music. Comedy numbers and June Christy vocals helped break up the seriousness of the new music. Kenton's successes did not sit well with everyone. In an essay entitled
Economics and Race in Jazz, Leslie B. Rout Jr. wrote: Rout contrasted this with the relative lack of critical and public recognition for another leading jazz artist: At the end of 1948, as the band was fulfilling an extended engagement at the Paramount Theater in New York City, the leader notified his sidemen, his bookers, and the press, that he would be disbanding once more. Kenton's most artistically and commercially successful band ceased to be at the top of their game. On December 14, 1948, the Stan Kenton Orchestra played their last notes for more than a year. They would return with new faces, new music, and a string section.
1950s After a year's hiatus, in 1950 Kenton assembled the large 39-piece
Innovations in Modern Music Orchestra that included 16 strings, a woodwind section, and two French horns. The music was an extension of the works composed and recorded since 1947 by
Bob Graettinger,
Manny Albam,
Franklyn Marks and others. Name jazz musicians such as
Maynard Ferguson,
Shorty Rogers,
Milt Bernhart,
John Graas,
Art Pepper,
Bud Shank,
Bob Cooper,
Laurindo Almeida,
Shelly Manne, and
June Christy were part of these musical ensembles. The groups managed two tours during 1950–51, from a commercial standpoint it would be Stan Kenton's first major failure. Kenton soon reverted to a more standard 19-piece lineup. Kenton had to burn the candle at both ends, flying in to do the show and then flying back to meet his band on the road. The New York production team was limited to using an
American Federation of Musicians roster of local players; Kenton wanted his own band to do the show. There would be another attempt for the Kenton organization to place the band on regularly scheduled television programming in 1958. After six Kenton-financed episodes on
KTTV in Los Angeles, there would be no sponsors to step up and back the show. Bill Mathieu was highly skeptical of the decision to record his music like
Cuban Fire! in a cavernous ballroom. Mathieu adds: "Stan and producer Lee Gillette were absolutely right: the band sounds alive and awake (which is not easy when recording many hours of slow-tempo music in a studio), and most importantly, the players could hear themselves well in the live room. The end result is the band sounds strong and cohesive, and the album is well recorded." The new instrument was used by Kenton to "bridge the gap" in range, color, and tonality between his trumpet and trombone sections. Essentially it creates a
conical, midrange sound that is common in a
symphonic setting with a
horn (
French horn) but the bell of the instrument faces forward. Kenton's 1961 recording
The Romantic Approach for
Capitol is the first of 11 LPs that would feature the "
mellophonium band". Kenton arranged the whole first
mellophonium album himself and it was very well received in a September 1961 review in
Down Beat. The Kenton Orchestra from 1960 to 1963 had numerous successes; the band had a relentless recording schedule. The albums ''
Kenton's West Side Story (arrangements by Johnny Richards) and Adventures In Jazz, each won Grammy awards in 1962 and 1963 respectively. Ralph Carmichael wrote a superb set of Christmas charts for Kenton which translated into one of the most popular recordings from the band leader to date: A Merry Christmas!.'' Also, Johnny Richards'
Adventures in Time suite (recorded in 1962) was the culmination of all things the
mellophonium band was capable of. After the Fall 1963 U.S./U.K. tour ended in November, the
mellophonium incarnation of Kenton bands was done. The conditions of Stan's divorce from jazz singer Ann Richards was that a judge ordered Stan to take a year off the road to help raise their two children or lose custody altogether. Kenton would not reform another road band for tour until 1965. Kenton had ties from earlier writing of country/western songs that were a success with Capitol and again he tried his hand in that genre during the early 1960s. In a music market that was becoming increasingly tight, in 1962 he cut the hit single "
Mama Sang a Song"; his last Top-40 ( 32
Billboard, No. 22 Music Vendor). The song was a narration written by country singer Bill Anderson and spoken by Kenton. The single also received a Grammy nomination the following year in the Best Documentary or Spoken Word Recording category. The other attempt he made into that market was the far less successful
Stan Kenton! Tex Ritter!, released in 1962 as a full LP. After the breakup of the
mellophonium band,
Kenton / Wagner (1964) was an important recording project that Kenton himself arranged, again moving towards "progressive jazz" or
third stream music. This album was not a financial success but kept Kenton at the forefront of 'art music' interpretation in the commercial music world.
Stan Kenton Conducts the Los Angeles Neophonic Orchestra (1965) was an artistic success that garnered another Grammy nomination for the band leader. During this time Kenton also co-wrote the theme music for the short lived
NBC television series
Mister Roberts (1965–66). The 1966–1969
Capitol releases for Stan Kenton were a severe low point for his recording career.
Capitol producer Lee Gillette was trying to exploit the money making possibilities of numerous popular hits to include the 1968 musical
Hair featuring contemporary
rock music. Kenton also made his print music available to college and high-school stage bands with several publishers. Kenton continued leading and touring with his big band up to his final performance on August 20, 1978, when he disbanded the group due to his failing health. In June 1973
Bob Curnow had started as the new artists and repertoire manager overseeing the whole operation of the Creative World Records. It was just the year before (in 1972) the Kenton orchestra recorded the
National Anthems of the World double LP with 40 arrangements all done by Curnow. As per Curnow himself: When Kenton took to the road during the early 1970s (one in London in 1972) and up to his last tour, he took with him seasoned veteran musicians (John Worster, Willie Maiden, Warren Gale, Graham Ellis, and others) teaming them with relatively unknown young artists, and new arrangements (including those by
Hank Levy,
Bill Holman,
Bob Curnow, Willie Maiden, and Ken Hanna) were used. Many alumni associated with Kenton from this era became educators (Mike Vax, John Von Ohlen, Chuck Carter, Lisa Hittle, and Richard Torres), and a few went on to take their musical careers to the next level, such as
Peter Erskine,
Douglas Purviance, and
Tim Hagans. ==Timeline of Stan Kenton Orchestras==