Stan Kenton Revisited

When I was growing up my dad had a few Kenton lps. I must confess that I didn't enjoy them. It took me awhile to appreciate Stan's music. I like his hits from the 1940's and his swinging band of the 1950's. Later on when I was playing in my college jazz band we played some of Stan's charts off the record Kenton 76'. After rehearsing these charts I grew to like them and wanted to listen to more of his songs.

When I moved to to Texarkana I met an avid jazz fan and saxophonist named Jerry Atkins. Jerry and I quickly became friends as we liked a lot of the same artists. He introduced me to the music of John Park who Jerry told me had played lead sax with the Kenton band in 1973.  Jerry had a couple biographies of Kenton in his jazz book collection which he let me read. Jerry was responsible for getting me an announcing job at KTXK-FM. This is the station that airs my Big Band show Saturdays at 10:00.

The cover to the left was one of the Kenton records in my dad's collection. This was some of the first music by Kenton that I ever heard.









On the show this week I'll be looking at the career of Stan Kenton and playing some of his many early hits. This weeks songs come from a Mosaic Records collection that I have that is no longer available. If you are a Kenton fan then this is the program for you.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/big-band-bash/id486135958?mt=2