Results for "Gene Roland"

Gene Roland

Born: September 15, 1921

Stan Kenton and His Orchestra: In a Lighter Vein

by Jack Bowers
December 13, 2020

Stan Kenton was a man of many moods, as was his intrepid and popular orchestra, which endured until his passing in August 1979 and whose renown is kept alive even today by the Stan Kenton Legacy Orchestra. Kenton dons his carefree hat on In a Lighter Vein, an assortment of straight-ahead themes from the orchestra's jazz ...

Stan Kenton: A Kenton Trilogy, Part 2 / The Sound of Jazz

by Jack Bowers
January 13, 2020

The Sound of Jazz by the legendary Stan Kenton Orchestra follows Part 1 of a Kenton Trilogy, Dance Time, and hopefully precedes a third component yet to be named. Although Kenton has been gone for more than forty years (he died in August 1979), he has hardly been forgotten, with reissues of concert and studio sessions ...

Stan Kenton and His Orchestra: Jazz Journey

by Jack Bowers
November 5, 2018

For those who thought that reissues of albums by the Stan Kenton Orchestra had faded away as the well ran dry, think again: from Sounds of Yesteryear comes a welcome and invigorating Jazz Journey, traversing half a dozen concerts by the superb Kenton Orchestra that consist for the most part of unissued material from the years ...

Los Angeles Jazz Institute Festival - Woodchopper's Ball: Part 1-4

by Simon Pilbrow
September 22, 2018

Los Angeles Jazz Institute Festival “Woodchoppers' Ball" Four Points by Sheraton at LAX Los Angeles, CA May 23-27, 2018 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 The Los Angeles Jazz Institute (LAJI), under Ken Poston, has continued for some thirty years to ...

Stan Kenton Orchestra: Mellophonium Memoirs

by Jack Bowers
December 8, 2017

Among bandleader Stan Kenton's many ensembles, surely none has given rise to as many differences of opinion--pro and con--as the Mellophonium Orchestra of the early 1960s. Audiences generally loved the warm and inviting sound of the mellophonium, residing in a nether region between trumpet and trombone; musicians, on the other hand--both those who played the mellophonium ...

Dick Meldonian and Sonny Igoe

June 26, 2017

Saxophonist Dick Meldonian began his recording career in Charlie Barnet's band in 1950. He then moved on to Stan Kenton at the start of 1952. He remained with Kenton until the mid-1950s, when he left to record on 12-inch LPs with Pat Moran, Sam Most, Erroll Garner, Nat Pierce, Bill Russo, Marion Evans (he's on the ...

Stan Kenton Orchestra / BYU Synthesis Big Band: A Kenton Celebration

by Jack Bowers
October 28, 2016

Fasten your seat belts, Kenton fans. Just when you feared the once-overflowing wellspring of material from the Stan Kenton Orchestra's archives may have run dry, along comes Tantara Productions with this jet-propelled and emphatically pleasurable two-disc set, the first half of which reclaims a long-lost concert date recorded in February 1959 at Brigham Young University, a ...

Stan Kenton Orchestra: Kenton Roars! At the Golden Lion

by Jack Bowers
November 13, 2014

1969 was a year of transition for Stan Kenton and his orchestra, one in which Kenton's long-term contract with Capitol Records was ended, which led in turn to the establishment of his own label, Creative World. The orchestra itself remained active, motoring back and forth to one-night stands and brief engagements in various locales. What it ...

Gene Roland: Swingin' Friends

March 20, 2014

Over the course of his career, Gene Roland appeared on 230 recording sessions either as an instrumentalist or arranger. He began recording in 1944 with Stan Kenton, and his contributions to the band included Tampico, Just a-Sittin' and a-Rockin', Easy Street, I Get a Kick Out of You, Jump for Joe, Opus in Chartreuse and a good ...