Results for "Stan Kenton"

For the Grand Prize: April Is . . . ?

by Jack Bowers
April 4, 2010

Did you know that April is Jazz Appreciation Month? Neither did I until I chanced upon a press release to that effect. According to the Smithsonian Institution's Smithsonian Jazz website, there are “celebrations in all 50 states and 40 countries." If I'm not mistaken, New Mexico is one of those 50 states, and no one here ...

Stan Kenton Alumni Band: Have Band Will Travel

by Nicholas F. Mondello
April 4, 2010

Stan Kenton Alumni Band Have Band Will Travel Summit Records 2010 In the golden era of television, the late 1950s and early 1960s, there was a popular Western series titled Have Gun Will Travel. It starred Richard Boone as the San Francisco-based Paladin, a dressed all in black ...

Stan Kenton Alumni Band: Have Band, Will Travel (Live)

by Robert J. Robbins
March 8, 2010

Stan Kenton Alumni Band Have Band, Will Travel (Live) Summit Records 2010 For over two decades, trumpeter Mike Vax, a veteran of the 1970-72 Stan Kenton Orchestra, has been a tireless crusader maintaining the legacy of his erstwhile boss, who died at age 67 in 1979. Have Band, Will Travel ...

Charlie Mariano: The Great Concert

by John Kelman
February 15, 2010

When expat American woodwind multi-instrumentalist Charlie Mariano passed away in the summer of 2009 at the age of 85, his death--like much of his life--seemed sadly lost in the shuffle in North America. The expat American--who relocated to Europe in the early 1970d-- should have cemented an international reputation with his early alto work with Stan ...

My Best Jazz Experiences Through the Decades

by Larry Taylor
February 12, 2010

I've been a jazz fan since I was a teenager in the late forties, growing up in Southern California. From grammar school on, I listened to pop tunes of the day--the hit parade songs and big band music that were in the air on the radio. As I entered junior high, I became ...

The Albuquerque Jazz Orchestra Meets Fred Sturm

by Jack Bowers
February 1, 2010

The Albuquerque Jazz Orchestra was onstage January 23, 2010 at the University of New Mexico's Woodward Hall for a concert featuring the compositions and arrangements of Fred Sturm, director of Jazz Studies at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. The concert was a part of the New Mexico All-State Band Competition, which was being held at the ...

RG Royal Sound Orchestra: Impact

by Robert J. Robbins
February 1, 2010

Take a group of A-List Miami-based musicians--many of whom are alumni of the big bands of Woody Herman,Maynard Ferguson, and Stan Kenton)--combine them with guitarists and percussionists from Madrid,Spain, and the result is the RG Royal Sound Orchestra, making its debut withexactly what the title promises. The arrangements integrate Afro-Cuban rhythms, Iberian romanticism, and North American ...

Patti Page: Patti Page with Pete Rugolo and His Orchestra

by Samuel Chell
January 18, 2010

The Classic Jazz Calendar 2010, with photographs by Chuck Stewart--a full-page devoted to each of 12 jazz greats--includes a striking photo of Patti Page, representing the month of May. While her inclusion may strike many as unexceptional, for jazz followers who remember the best-selling female singer of the 1950s, her name would seem a problematic fit. ...

The Four Freshmen: The Four Freshmen and Live Trombones

by Robert J. Robbins
December 31, 2009

Over six decades ago, four undergraduates at Indiana's Butler University first joined their voices in song as The Four Freshmen and, in 1950, the quartet was heard by Stan Kenton, on whose trombone section the “Frosh" had modeled their sound. Kenton immediately demanded that the group be signed by his label, Capitol, and began an association ...

Blues Between and Betwixt

Featuring the music of Stan Kenton
Duration: 7:57
December 15, 2009