Was there ever a big band with a more colossal sound than Stan Kenton’s?
The pianist piled on mountains of brass and woodwinds that devastated appreciative listeners, and many of those fans who were of college age when his orchestra ruled campuses in the ’50s remain in awe of the group’s prowess nearly three decades after his death.
And though Kenton’s name probably isn’t often mentioned in the same hushed tones as Ellington’s or Basie’s, his group was enormously popular in its day. So much so that saxophonist Lynn Baker is presenting some of the music associated with Kenton at Sedalia’s Cherokee Ranch and Castle on Saturday.
“He was the first guy to bring big-band jazz to the university campus. His tremendous contribution was to jazz education, and it still holds a lot of respect,” said Baker, who retains his own degree of respect as the director of jazz studies at the University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music.
Baker has chosen to focus on Kenton’s mid-’50s groups, when the bandleader was releasing then-hit and now-cult favorite albums like “Kenton in Hi-Fi” and “Cuban Fire!” — the kind of records that undoubtedly blew out many a woofer at the time.
“For me, it’s the most swinging period of Kenton’s music. The (’50s) arrangements were clever and not as heavy as the other stuff,” Baker says enthusiastically. Baker, by the way, always seems to be enthused when discussing jazz, and it’s contagious. I’ve been ambivalent about the Kenton myth, but after our conversation, I listened to a handful of recordings from that vintage of Kenton and was sufficiently entertained.
If Baker and the Rocky Mountain Jazz Repertoire Orchestra remain faithful to the original arrangements, which they’ll be playing on Saturday, the audience should be awed by the re-creation. But what does a contemporary big band get out of playing these dusty charts?
“Most big-band tunes are to be played in a specific way every time,” he says. “I don’t feel like I’m being a curator, but I do feel like it’s a joy to be playing that music correctly.”
Lynn Baker and the Rocky Mountain Jazz Repertoire Orchestra, 8 p.m. Saturday, Cherokee Ranch and Castle, 6113 N. Daniels Park Road, Sedalia. Tickets are $95, including castle tours and dinner. Call 303-688-5555.
Jazz giants.
The Monterey Jazz Festival label (in conjunction with the annual California celebration of the same name) has opened up its fabled vaults again and released a half-dozen collections culled from what they claim includes more than 2,000 hours of unreleased music. The titles include nice- enough live compilations from Cal Tjader, Dave Brubeck and Shirley Horn, but one disc stands out from the others in terms of rarity and energy.
“Art Blakey and the Giants of Jazz Live at the 1972 Monterey Jazz Festival” restores an hour of good-natured jousting among drummer Blakey, saxophonist Sonny Stitt, trumpeters Roy Eldridge and Clark Terry, and, most significantly, pianist Thelonious Monk, making one of his final live appearances before fading away from music for good.
The material is mostly stretched-out standards, but no one seems bored on this particular night, with Eldridge and Terry trying to outdo each other throughout, and Blakey, one of the most innovative modern jazz drummers, tears up the predictable-then- as-now “Perdido” and “A Night in Tunisia.”
But it’s Monk’s presence that makes the disc so unusual. He was a member of the Giants of Jazz touring group in the early ’70s, but they didn’t record much, and as far as I know, this is his final available recording. Even when he plays behind any of these exhibitionistic soloists, his off-kilter chords are unmistakable. His own solos show off his eccentricity while remaining true to the spirit of the songs showcased. He would die in isolation a decade later, one of jazz music’s great psychological mysteries.
At this point, everyone playing on this disc, except for Terry, is a ghost who can be heard only on recordings like this. That’s all the more reason to cherish this archival find and wonder what will be unearthed next.
Set list.
It seems like there’s a mountain community festival focused on jazz every week this summer, and this Friday through Sunday, Genuine Jazz and Wine is being presented in Breckenridge with Stanley Jordan, Marion Meadows and Steve Cole. Go to . . . . Distinctive pianist Stanley Cowell makes a rare Denver appearance with his trio at Dazzle Restaurant and Lounge Aug. 21-22.
Bret Saunders’ column on jazz appears every other Sunday in A&E. Saunders is host of the “KBCO Morning Show,” 5:30-10 a.m. weekdays at 97.3-FM. His e-mail address is bret_saunders@hotmail.com.
