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Stan Kenton and His Orchestra: Concert on the Pacific

By Jack Bowers
August 14, 2021
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Stan Kenton and His Orchestra: Concert on the Pacific

The

Stan Kenton

piano
1911 - 1979

" data-original-title="" title="">Stan Kenton Orchestra's Concert on the Pacific is actually a compendium of several concerts recorded between January and March 1958 at the Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa, California—a series that almost emptied Kenton's wallet and caused him to pause and regroup a year or so later. While this was post-Rosolino/Sims/Konitz/Levey, the Kenton Orchestra was never without its share of outstanding soloists, in this case saxophonists

Lennie Niehaus

saxophone, alto
1929 - 2020

" data-original-title="" title="">Lennie Niehaus,

Bill Perkins

guitar
1924 - 2003

" data-original-title="" title="">Bill Perkins,

Richie Kamuca

saxophone, tenor
1930 - 1977

" data-original-title="" title="">Richie Kamuca and

Bill Robinson

saxophone, baritone

" data-original-title="" title="">Bill Robinson; trumpeters

Sam Noto

trumpet
b.1930

" data-original-title="" title="">Sam Noto,

Billy Catalano

trumpet

" data-original-title="" title="">Billy Catalano and

Lee Katzman

trumpet

" data-original-title="" title="">Lee Katzman; and trombonists

Kent Larsen

trombone

" data-original-title="" title="">Kent Larsen,

Archie LeCoque

trombone

" data-original-title="" title="">Archie LeCoque and

Kenny Shroyer

trumpet

" data-original-title="" title="">Kenny Shroyer. Arrangers included

Johnny Richards

composer / conductor
1911 - 1968

" data-original-title="" title="">Johnny Richards, Joe Coccia,

Bill Holman

composer / conductor
- 2024

" data-original-title="" title="">Bill Holman,

Gerry Mulligan

saxophone, baritone
1927 - 1996

" data-original-title="" title="">Gerry Mulligan,

Gene Roland

b.1921

" data-original-title="" title="">Gene Roland and

Pete Rugolo

composer / conductor
1915 - 2011

" data-original-title="" title="">Pete Rugolo.

The Sunday afternoon concerts were broadcast live on the NBC radio network, ensuring that sound quality is generally bright and clear. As for the music, it is pure Kenton—screaming brass, spiraling counterpoint, brash rhythms, lustrous ballads—with engaging vocals on two of the twenty numbers ("Old Devil Moon," "It Never Entered My Mind") by

Ann Richards

vocals
b.1935

" data-original-title="" title="">Ann Richards. Several themes are from Kenton's "dance book," the others from the jazz library. While everything is first-class, the instrumental arrangements by Mulligan ("Swing House") and Holman ("Everything Happens to Me," "What's New," "I Remember You," "Cherokee") must be denoted as highlights, as their swing quotient is off the chart. Each of those masters did some of his best work for Kenton, as evidenced here.

The concert portfolio opens and closes with arrangements by Johnny Richards—"Beyond the Blue Horizon," "I Concentrate on You"— that were reprised on the album Back to Balboa, as was his dramatic take on Cole Porter's "Get Out of Town" (featuring Shroyer) and Richards' own "Rendezvous at Sunset." Rugolo arranged Porter's "Love for Sale," Roland his original, "Jump for Joe," Coccia half a dozen numbers from the dance book. The rhythm, as is always the case with Kenton, is in capable hands, namely those of bassist

Red Kelly

bass
b.1927

" data-original-title="" title="">Red Kelly and drummer

Jerry McKenzie

bass

" data-original-title="" title="">Jerry McKenzie with Kenton at the piano. The solos by Niehaus, Perkins and Noto are alone worth the price of admission, whatever that may have been. In sum, seventy-four minutes of marvelous music by the exemplary Stan Kenton Orchestra make this one a keeper.

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Track Listing

Beyond the Blue Horizon; Love Letters; Begin the Beguine; Everything Happens to Me; High on a Windy Hill; What��s New; Two Shades of Autumn; Swing House; Walkin�� by the River; Love for Sale; I Should Care; It Never Entered My Mind; Old Devil Moon; I Remember You; Get Out of Town; Evening; Jump for Joe; Cherokee; Memories of You; I Concentrate on You.

Title: Concert on the Pacific | Year Released: 2021 | Record Label: Sounds of Yesteryear

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