Stan Kenton Cuban Fire - The 7th Track

[Teasing the Korean]

The original LP of Cuban Fire has six tracks. There is a seventh track called "Tres Corazones" that was recorded and eventually released on the CD.

The original LP clocks in at only 31 minutes; adding this seventh track would have made the LP only 34+ minutes.

Does anyone know why this was left off the original LP? Also, is it intended as the last tune in the sequence, or was it supposed to fit in someplace else?

[John Tapscott]

There has been a rather lengthy and vigorous discussion about this very track among Kentonites. The consensus at the present time based on examining the score (but even that evidence is not totally convincing and there is a strong dissenting position), is that Tres Corazones was NOT part of the original Cuban Fire Suite, though recorded at the same session. Tres Cor. was apparently written by Johnny Richards for the Music '55 summer TV series for which Kenton flew in every week from wherever the band was playing to conduct a NYC studio band for the show and do the MC'ing. I don't know whether or not TC was ever played on that show.

So TC was not part of the original LP because it was apparently not part of the CF Suite. However, it fits well and IMO provides a fitting close to the Suite. If it was an earlier composition it certainly provided a model for Cuban Fire (which was written in early '56).

Wasn't 30-35 minutes just about the usual length for LP's in the mid '50's?

[Teasing the Korean]

Thanks for the reply. Very helpful.

As for the LP length, mono LPs in the 1950s often clocked in at 40-45 minutes, sometimes as much as 50 minutes. Sinatra's early Capitol albums had 8 songs per side.

Shorter LP lengths became more common in the stereo era, with apprehension about groove cramming and inner groove distortion.

So, based on Capitol mono LP lengths in 1956, Cuban Fire runs a tad short. Still, it's a lot of music compacted into 31 minutes.