Joel Kaye

Joel Kaye and His Neophonic Jazz Orchestra: Live at Vartan Jazz, Vol. 2

by Jack Bowers
December 1, 2002

Bandleader Stan Kenton and his chief arranger, Johnny Richards, constructed formidable sound-castles in the ’50s and ’60s. Those pieces and others are given a fresh coat of paint by Joel Kaye’s marvelous 24-piece Neophonic Jazz Orchesta in this dynamic concert appearance, recorded in February ’01 at Vartan Tonoian’s (now-shuttered) Jazz Club in Denver, CO. While Kenton may have been the first to use the word “neophonic” to describe his muscular style of music-making in the mid-'60s, he didn’t copyright it--so ...