Yesterday, Jim Eigo sent along a link to an audio clip he received from Jeffrey Sultanof, who posted on the subject at his blog The Eclectic's Corner: About the Arts.
The clip features the voice of arranger Marty Paich providing Stan Kenton with audio notes and direction for his commissioned arrangement of Body and Soul. Such a tape was made by an arranger when a bandleader requested the arrangement while on the road. The tape allowed the arranger to provide a clear sense of the tempo, feel and intent. As you'll soon hear, the tape is a fascinating audio document.
By 1973, Body and Soul had been part of Stan Kenton's book of arrangements for 28 years. The first version was arranged by alto saxophonist Boots Mussulli and featured a tenor saxophone solo by Vido Musso.[Publicity photo above of Stan Kenton]
Kenton first recorded the arrangement for Capitol in November 1945. Go here...
The song was updated by Johnny Richards and recorded live during one of Kenton's Concert in Miniature performances at the Hollywood Palladium in January 1953. I wasn't able to find it to embed.
Kenton recorded the song on Duet with June Christy in May 1955. Go here...
In 1961, tenor saxophonist Sam Donahue took a shot at arranging the song for Kenton, who had the band record it on Adventures in Jazz in December 1961. Go here...
Then in 1973, Kenton commissioned Paich to arrange an updated version, which the band recorded in August 1973 for Kenton's album 7.5 on the Richter Scale. According to notes at Tom Lord's Jazz Discography, Kenton's piano solo intro was spliced on from another take. Go here...
Which brings us to Paich's audio notes. What we have here is a rare recording of Paich's voice and his thinking behind his arrangement of Body and Soul and guidance on how it should be played. It's interesting that Paich arranged the song with the atmosphere of Artistry in Rhythm in mind. Go here...
It's a shame we don't have similar recordings by all great arrangements to gauge what they had in mind for key songs and what their vision was for execution.
The clip features the voice of arranger Marty Paich providing Stan Kenton with audio notes and direction for his commissioned arrangement of Body and Soul. Such a tape was made by an arranger when a bandleader requested the arrangement while on the road. The tape allowed the arranger to provide a clear sense of the tempo, feel and intent. As you'll soon hear, the tape is a fascinating audio document.
By 1973, Body and Soul had been part of Stan Kenton's book of arrangements for 28 years. The first version was arranged by alto saxophonist Boots Mussulli and featured a tenor saxophone solo by Vido Musso.[Publicity photo above of Stan Kenton]
Kenton first recorded the arrangement for Capitol in November 1945. Go here...
The song was updated by Johnny Richards and recorded live during one of Kenton's Concert in Miniature performances at the Hollywood Palladium in January 1953. I wasn't able to find it to embed.
Kenton recorded the song on Duet with June Christy in May 1955. Go here...
In 1961, tenor saxophonist Sam Donahue took a shot at arranging the song for Kenton, who had the band record it on Adventures in Jazz in December 1961. Go here...
Then in 1973, Kenton commissioned Paich to arrange an updated version, which the band recorded in August 1973 for Kenton's album 7.5 on the Richter Scale. According to notes at Tom Lord's Jazz Discography, Kenton's piano solo intro was spliced on from another take. Go here...
Which brings us to Paich's audio notes. What we have here is a rare recording of Paich's voice and his thinking behind his arrangement of Body and Soul and guidance on how it should be played. It's interesting that Paich arranged the song with the atmosphere of Artistry in Rhythm in mind. Go here...
It's a shame we don't have similar recordings by all great arrangements to gauge what they had in mind for key songs and what their vision was for execution.
This story appears courtesy of JazzWax by Marc Myers.
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