Contemporary Concepts
Label: Capitol Jazz
Media: CD
Format: Album
WorkNameSort: Contemporary Concepts
Among big-band leaders, Stan Kenton was certainly the most insane. This is a fact that is often overlooked, as his reputation is that of a cool swinger, whose charts provided the proper sultriness for singers like June Christy. Yet, Kenton’s approach to arrangement was always iconoclastic — if not downright bizarre — and even on these sessions (from 1955 and ’56), when Kenton tries to play it straight by digging into the standards, the results are light years removed from typical readings. The wobbly inertia that propels “Stella By Starlight” is as disturbing as it is provocative, while Kenton’s finger-light piano adds an air of discomforting delicacy to “Stompin’ at the Savoy.” Sure, the cuts — four bonus tracks are on this reissue — are swingin’ and the band of typically stellar musicians is in top form. But, needless to say, everything here swings in a way that only Kenton could envisage.
This article appears in Jun 18-24, 2003.