Stan Kenton -

[Late]

Easy Go

[Big Beat Steve]

What made you pick out this one, of all Kenton albums?
Opinions? 
According to Discogs and the description on YT this is a sort of "Best Of" of the 1950-52 band. There are quite a few compilations of that time period around, so  if you fancy that period of his bands this one should be as fine as any. 

[jazzcorner]

13 minutes ago, Big Beat Steve said:

What made you pick out this one, of all Kenton albums?
Opinions? 
According to Discogs and the description on YT this is a sort of "Best Of" of the 1950-52 band. There are quite a few compilations of that time period around, so  if you fancy that period of his bands this one should be as fine as any. 

Probably the submitter has only this one.

I am a Kenton fan but have also this one among many other Items

;-]]

 

[Big Beat Steve]

So am I (at least for the period up to the Mellophonium orchestra) - but no real completist. I didn't know about this particular CD but have several other compilations that cover this period. So I am not quite sure how to judge this one in particular - in preference to others. But like I said, anyone who would like to explore this period should be served well with this compilation. 
In general I'd recommend having a look at the live recordings (from the Hollywood Palladium and Birdland) of that period too.

Edited yesterday at 12:11 PM by Big Beat Steve

[jazzcorner]

4 minutes ago, Big Beat Steve said:

So am I (at least for the period up to the Mellophonium orchestra). Don't have that one but several other compilations that cover this period. So I am not quite sure how to judge this one in particular - in preference to others. But like I said, anyone who would like to explore this period should be served will with this compilation. 

Do agree with you for the 'Mellophonium band'.  From this time on Stan lost me as a collector. Dont like that "muddy" sound.

 

[Big Beat Steve]

Actually I meant "up to and including the Mellophonium band". I haven't nearly listened to all the Kenton recordings from that period, but the "Uncollected Vol. 6" on Hindsight, for example, is quite palatable to my ears. 

[Late]

I'm still a Kenton neophyte, but I linked Easy Go up above as a solid comp for those who might just want "one" Kenton album. I only have 6 Kenton discs, and that's been plenty so far. The Innovations Orchestra 2-disc set is really nice.

I wish, for the compact disc issue, the original cover of City of Glass had been used. It's practically a Sun Ra cover!

[Big Beat Steve]

Understandable and I agree ...
I found an original 10" copy of "This Modern World" some 40 years ago (i.e. in my rather younger days ) at a fleamarket, and a couple years ago I scored (at a giveaway price) an original of the somewhat later 12" release that combines "City of Glass" and "This Modern World". But its cover continues the "This Modern World" theme. The thumbnails on the "Nine Classic Albums V.2" CD set on Real Gone Jazz also uses a more recent cover on its photo. So unless I come across a dirt cheap copy of the 10" City of Glass with the original cover the above will (have to) do. Anything else would be overkill.

[JSngry]

That's supposedly Graetinger's actual notation there.

As with so much KentonMusic, credit to him for facilitating it, but 100% credit to Graetinger for the music itself.

[Big Beat Steve]

9 minutes ago, JSngry said:

That's supposedly Graetinger's actual notation there.

As with so much KentonMusic, credit to him for facilitating it, but 100% credit to Graetinger for the music itself.

That is very likely the case. I remember seeing facsimile excerpts of Graettinger's scores somewhere in an online discussion (may have been here in this forum), and they did look like this (on music paper, though), though not quite as colorful IIRC.
Reminded me vaguely of certain medieval music notations that I saw on the walls in the home of some of my parents' friends. 

Edited 17 hours ago by Big Beat Steve

[JSngry]

https://youtu.be/i4ym_KS8b2I?si=qOOcSabtivPzAF5Y

https://youtu.be/i4ym_KS8b2I?si=qOOcSabtivPzAF5Y

[Big Beat Steve]

Yes, those sections with the mostly orange-colored horizontal bars (such as at 2:00 and 3:00) are like those I remember seeing in that other online source. 

[colinmce]

5 hours ago, Late said:

I'm still a Kenton neophyte, but I linked Easy Go up above as a solid comp for those who might just want "one" Kenton album. I only have 6 Kenton discs, and that's been plenty so far. The Innovations Orchestra 2-disc set is really nice.

I wish, for the compact disc issue, the original cover of City of Glass had been used. It's practically a Sun Ra cover!

Definitely nothing wrong with cherrypicking when it comes to Kenton, but personally if I were to pare down to a single source, it would be the Holman-Russo charts Mosaic-- damn near all the information you need is on that.

[jazzcorner]

7 hours ago, Big Beat Steve said:

Actually I meant "up to and including the Mellophonium band". I haven't nearly listened to all the Kenton recordings from that period, but the "Uncollected Vol. 6" on Hindsight, for example, is quite palatable to my ears. 

 

 

Some moth thoughts about Stan and Holman.

The practical problem for me with Kenton Items at that time was that some of his best & swinging recordings as New concepts.... / Modern Concepts / Plays the music of Russo & Holman a.o on the Capitol label were hard to get  In Germany when I started  collecting his band in the late 1960s. Holmans arranging was not Stans favorite kind so we have not much with the Kenton band itself.

Great luck was -after he had parted with Capitol - founding his new label Creative World and reissueing nearly his com- plete Capitol  issues (however not with the original covers) from a sales bureau from the Netherlands. The Bill Holman arrangements are my favorites because I have  nearly every Holman Item under Bill's name.

In addition to that Holman & Mel Lewis had a great  collaboration with the WDR radio bigband from Cologne in the 1980s. The Radioband did not have a regular drummer at that time  so very often Mel Lewis came over to Cologne to rehearsh and perform  with Bill directing his suites and compositions which were tranmitteed via FM radio in 1a quality. Have recorded many of them and made my privat CDrs. The station had offered a 'radio recorder software' for interested listeners.  Making copies for private use was officially allowed.

Here are some cover prints with a foto which mada my late fried W. Weiss who hat visited every rehershal  and shot fotos.

This collaboration was extended to some other radiostations here in Germany

Its not Kenton music per se however.

https://up.picr.de/50570533rv.jpg

https://up.picr.de/50570532mu.jpg

 

 

 

 

[JSngry]

Willie Maiden!!!

 

[JSngry]

 

[Big Beat Steve]

Finian's Rainbow was a painful memory for Kenton in later years and was panned rather mercilessly by Michael Sparke in the "This Is an Orchestra" biography for its uninspired scoring and lackluster playing by what could have been "any anonymous studio orchestra". So YMMV, it seems, isn't it?  

Edited 2 hours ago by Big Beat Steve