Cincinnati Enquirer
Arthur Darack : 06/20/1953

Stan Kenton is tall, tense and lean. He is also articulate and outspoken on the subject of music – any kind of music. Though he has strong likes and dislikes in music, and has reasons in either case, he is no cultist. He likes Stravinsky, for example. He finds musical progress in Stravinsky and believes there is no antagonism between Stravinsky and the serious efforts of modern jazz musicians. Each is contributing something to musical culture.

Stan opened at Coney Island for a week’s engagement, last night, and he thinks Coney is the best amusement park in the country. Before the opening, Stan met the press at the Terrace Plaza and while the hungry press went off its diet of wormwood and gall to get attuned to the TP cuisine, Stan told the press a thing or two.

The band which is playing at Coney is Stan’s concert band minus the strings. Stan divides his music making into three categories. First is the “popular music,” for juke boxes and radio. The second type is jazz, the “not too advanced type.” The third is “cultural or art music,” but in Kenton idioms. It is this kind that Stan likes best and thinks of in terms of a lasting contribution to art. He thinks that type number three is no less a contribution to culture than Stravinsky.

Stan mentioned proudly that the Ballet Theater is using three Kenton compositions, Abstractions, Lament and Monotony in their presentations. He also said that the Ballet Theater orchestra used some jazz musicians when the Kenton compositions were played. Stan said modern jazz musicians have a virtuosity which is no less developed than symphony players and he believes that the average jazz musician is much more receptive to modern music than his symphonic counterpart. He thinks more jazz musicians could play acceptably in symphony orchestras than vice versa.

I asked Stan whether he thought there could be a serious meeting of jazz and “classical” music. He did not believe that such music as Rhapsody in Blue is the answer but he thinks that there is much in common between “advanced” jazz and contemporary “classical” music. He sees no necessity to rope them off from one another. In fact, when he gives concerts in Carnegie Hall most of the top New York music critics now attend. This is a fairly recent development.

Stan talked about a composition, recorded by Capitol, called City of Glass which lasts 19 minutes and is a good example of Kenton style number three. A Capitol album titled Kenton Presents is another of Stan’s favorites.

Stan said he is looking forward to a tour of Europe in the near future. He gets more fan mail from overseas than from within the U.S. And he suspects that he will find a ready market abroad for the Kenton brand of concert music. Stan feels that music means more to the average European than it does to Joe Doakes in America. He blames this partly on radio and TV, partly on the European musical traditions which go back so far and cut so deeply into European cultures.

Oddly enough, the only two forms of music which Stan expressed an antipathy toward are the Broadway musical and opera. He believes music is the most important of the arts and does not like to see it diluted with theater. I made a mental note of the slight inconsistency here which goes to the effect that Stan likes to see his music used to choreography by the Ballet Theater and ballet is, after all, theater as well as music. But I remained silent because Stan had just gotten in from Columbus and I don’t think you ought to argue with a man who has just driven over 100 miles on a hot, humid day.

—–

Cincinnati Post
Mary Wood : 08/27/1952

Like his probable forebearer, Simon Kenton, the present-day Kenton (Stan) is another pioneer. Only the new territory Stan is discovering is music.

The handsome, 40-year-old bandleader, whose music has been called everything from “progressive” to “mad,” is playing Coney’s Moonlite Gardens this week. He says he’s “mixing it up,” trying to please both the dancers and the jazz fans who come to hear the kind of music for which he’s famous.

You won’t hear any “bop” talk from Kenton. As a matter of fact, he’s almost scholarly in his discussion of modern jazz.

“It (jazz) has developed a complexity far beyond dance music,” he says, “It’s an artistic expression that reflects an era. If we’ll just give it a chance, modern jazz will give America a place in music.”

Until 1941, Stan Kenton was a pianist who played bistros, radio stations and night clubs on the West Coast. Then his musical curiosity got the better of him.

“I guess I got a band together as a musical experiment. There was so much to do – so many new sounds and harmonies to discover,” he says.

Anyone who has followed Kenton’s musical career since 1941 can attest to that. In ’47, when music switched from dance bands to jazz concerts, the Kenton “Innovations in Modern Music” orchestra made some memorable innovations in the jazz concert field.

Incidentally, that same aggregation has an LP record coming out in November called The City of Glass Suite in Three Movements.

“Look at it from this standpoint,” says Kenton describing today’s jazz, “What was good a hundred years ago has lost its impact. It expressed 1852, yes. But we’re living in 1952.” You know. He has a point.

—–

Dallas Morning News
Frank Malone : 12/14/1952
Who Knows Where Innovations Lead?

The ways of jazz are strange, the end results of jazz are sometimes even stranger. Since the early 1900’s jazz has grown several branches. Dixieland, small hot combinations of the twenties, Whiteman’s symphonic jazz, stylized bands of the early thirties, swing, bop and futuristic jazz can be designated, and the list is still incomplete.

Some of the branches have grown to their fullest extent. Who will disagree that Dixie has reached its ultimate peak and can progress no further? So how can jazz progress along the lines of today’s trends?

In the middle forties futuristic, impressionistic jazz (or whatever name you want to use) came into being. This trend reached its peak with Stan Kenton, wending its way through several little-known bands over several years.

Kenton got into futuristic music by first making a name for himself as a great dance band leader. His first attempts in the field received acceptance from the public and he kept going until he had the nerve to try anything. In my opinion, he lost his public, and I mean the buying public who pay the way at the night clubs and purchase phonograph records, nearly two years ago.

The end result of Kenton’s futurism, and I honestly don’t believe that he can go any further than this point, reaches us in a Capitol 10-inch, LP record titled City of Glass (H353). At this point individual musicianship and group teamwork becomes relatively unimportant and the musical composition takes the spotlight.

City of Glass is literally a suite in four movements. Subtitles are Entrance Into the City, The Structures, Dance Before the Mirror and Reflections. The music is abstract and nonobjective, and is an attempt to create visual associations through the medium of sound. It is a composition of the 29-year-old Californian, Robert Graettinger.

But my considered opinion is that jazz has now entered the field of classical, or shall we say concert, music. We will hand the next record in this vein to another department of this page for comment.

—–

Pittsburgh Courier : 12/27/1952
Morgan Says Classics, Jazz Are Blending

NEW YORK – The classics and jazz are being drawn closer and closer together. Such is the observation offered by Loumell Morgan, one of the nation’s top pianists.

“The emergence on the scene of such competitions as City of Glass by Stan Kenton, Ebony Concerto by Igor Stravinsky, Jazz Pizzicato by Robert Russell Bennett (written for Jascha Heifetz),” says Morgan, “illustrates the increase in the joining of classical concepts and forms with modern rhythms and innovations. Both jazz and classical musicians are participating.”

According to the popular pianist, all this is a healthy trend. “Misconceptions, prejudices and lack of knowledge have done much to keep the two musical forms apart,” Loumell points out. “Now, the inevitable blending of these two major musical forces is taking place. People are learning that both the classics and jazz have much to contribute to art, and that the two forms are complementary, rather than in opposition.”

—–

Portland Press Herald
Franklin Wright : 07/12/1952
Stan Kenton At Beach Palace Produces Musical Excitement

For years I’ve stood firm against the blandishments from the exponents of the modern school of music.

No Stan Kenton nor any of his consorts were going to turn my head. The dissonance in Kenton music was just a reflection of an atonal era. If we closed our ears maybe it would go away.

But it hasn’t gone away. It’s closer and closer – right into the Palace Ballroom at Old Orchard Beach. Thanks to the promotion of Bobby Selberg, Maestro Kenton and his new crew of 18 musicians played a one-night stand Thursday at the resort dine and dance spot.

I decided to talk with Stan before he went to work, listen to half a dozen numbers. At least, give the guy a chance, I reasoned.

My plan fell through. I listened to the dozen numbers but this decided me to stop for more.

Musical Excitement

Here was the first musical excitement heard in these parts in a long time. Probably it was heard when Kenton was last here but I would have no part of him then. This was a new band, only four months old, but it had a drive and spark.

Here was an introduction to a band with ten brass, five trumpets and five trombones, five saxes and four rhythm – bass, drums, guitar and Stan’s piano – and a girl named Helen Carr who sang in the Christy tradition.

The very atonality from which I had cringed became moments of inspired arranging. It fired the imagination. True, it was not as prevalent as in the concert orchestras Stan has presented. This band is designed for dancing, among other things, and the joint was jumping with dancers.

What are the musical objectives of this newest crew organized by this missionary of modern music?

“I suppose we’re a bunch of rebels,” Stan said. “We’re fighting for new things. We’re trying to achieve in music what other arts have accomplished. We’re not just a bunch of irresponsible characters trying to hog headlines by making as much noise as possible. We’re as proud of our profession as doctors or lawyers and we’re trying to do something for it.

I told him I’d always felt he was doing more to it than for it. He grinned and said a lot of people felt that way.

“Have you ever heard the band before?” he asked. “No? Well, listen to it. This group has been together only four months. I sincerely believe that by the end of the year this band will be the greatest we’ve ever had.”

He pointed to Stan Levey, a truly wonderful drummer, the first left-handed drummer I had ever encountered.

He thinks Levey will, in a few months, be as sensational as Shelly Manne. After all, he pointed out, it took one-and-a-half to two years for Shelly to reach the heights after he joined the Kenton band.

Talented Crew

Stan pointed out others in the crew who, he feels, have particular promise. There’s Frank Rossolino, trombone; George Roberts, bass trombone; Vinnie Dean and Dick Meldonian, altos, and Bill Holman, tenor, big men in the reed section.

Sal Salvador has been doing big things on guitar. And there are such Kenton fixtures as the great Conte Condoli on trumpet and Don Bagley, for four years Stan’s bass player. Buddy Childers is doing a lot in the trumpet section too.

“What we’re playing is not bebop,” said Stan, “but you’ll find a bebop influence in the solo work. What Leonard (Leonard Feather, widely known critic and writer on jazz) forgets sometimes is that jazz is constantly changing and developing. The next generation will come up with something that will outdate what we’re doing. Jazz didn’t stop with Dixieland or the blues. It didn’t end in the swing era either.

“We’re working to develop music both in the classical and popular fields. We want to create a feeling for new things in music. But the old must be torn down before the new can be seen. When you take a group of violinists from a classical orchestra and put them in an organization like our 40-piece unit that toured in concerts last Winter you’re bound to find a strong classical tendency,” Stan said.

“But this band now yields most to rhythm for we want people to dance to it. We do some things for excitement but we’re trying to make the fans dance but to a modern and forward moving band.”

Stan believes one of the greatest things any band of his has ever done is City Of Glass, an 18-minute production soon to be released on records.

It was incorporated in his Innovations tours. He adds, further, that he thinks his best recorded efforts are to be found in his albums.

He also admits that there are several things he wishes he’d never put on wax. Tortillas And Beans falls in that category. He thought it one of the cutest things he’d ever done. His opinion was not reflected in record sales.

—–

Down Beat
Leonard Feather : 03/07/1952
Stan Kenton: Is He Prophet or Fraud?

New York – Is Stan Kenton, who has been acclaimed by Down Beat readers as the leader of America’s No. 1 band, truly a pioneer in his field, a Messiah of jazz, a spearhead of new thoughts and sounds? Do fans, critics and musicians alike agree on the preeminence of the Kenton organization?

Or is Stan Kenton a phony and his orchestra a fake?

What Is Status?

The question of Stan’s status has been bothering me, as it has bothered many who spend some of their time speculating on the nature and future of the art form we still reluctantly refer to as jazz.

There have been times when I have found it hard to be objective, because Stan is unquestionably one of the nicest and most intense people you will ever meet in this business, and one of the most completely absorbed in the music that has enveloped him.

On the other hand, there have been moments when I have even doubted whether Stan is sincere about his much-vaunted musical sincerity.

Stan Doesn’t Help

Talking to Stan himself doesn’t help. He can tie himself up in more verbal knots than you will ever unravel. When I gave him a Blindfold Test a couple of years ago, he had enough to say about every record to make a separate article in itself. But his talkitis, long the delight of disc jockeys who can ask him one question and turn over the mike to him for the rest of the week, never enables you to understand more clearly the basic issues in any penetrating discussion of Kentonia.

These issues are, first, the question of how much Stan wants to stay with jazz, how much marriage there can be between jazz and classical music; second, the matter of his frequent insistence on such words as “progressive” and “innovations” in publicizing his music and of how justifiable they may be.

Stan will talk around in circles for hours about these and allied subjects. After you have come out of the spin you still won’t really know the answer, but you will have had a damned interesting conversation.

Some Views Worthless

There is a segment of opinion in the music business, especially around Tin Pan Alley, where the opinions expressed are based more on ignorance and illiteracy than on thoughtful analysis. We can dismiss as worthless the views of those who shrug off Kenton’s music with such comments as “Them crazy modern sounds; that guy goes too far out; who does he think he is, Stravinsky?” etc.

But we cannot as easily reject the opinions of musicians, based on a sound knowledge of music and a sincere interest in its advancement. Among them, there is a sharp divergence of opinion on the value of Kenton’s contributions.

Recently I went to enormous trouble and absolutely no expense to plough through some 65 Blindfold Tests in search of every comment ever made by a blindfoldee regarding a Kenton record. The exploration brought startling results. Most of the comments consisted either of mild praise, apathy, or outright condemnation. The records were typical Kenton items of all kinds and the critics a diverse bunch of noted jazzmen and singers.

Favorable Comments

Of the comments that were unreservedly enthusiastic, a number were made several years ago with reference to some of Stan’s more swinging efforts. “Kenton got off the Lunceford kick and loosened up,” commented Dave Tough. “I like this (1946) band very much.” And Ray McKinley, in 1947, said, “He always manages to get a nice balance and continuity to the arrangements.”

Terry Gibbs declared: “I didn’t like Kenton’s first band, but the strings at the concert sold me. I dig him now.”

Chubby Jackson, speaking of Theme to the West, said, “highly dramatic, very emotional; sounded like moving picture music… four stars.”

Neal Hefti admitted he was prejudiced: “I know this is Stan, and I like everything about him, personally and professionally.”

Bird Dug Him

Charlie Parker found Monotony “weird” and “marvelous” and gave another four-star rave to Elegy for Alto.

Tadd Dameron said of Pete Rugolo‘s Mirage that it was competing with some of the great minds in modern music – “you’re going into another field here; you can’t judge it as jazz; it’s straight music” – but ascribed some warmth to it and gave it three stars.

Kenton alumnus Kai Winding declared himself “very impressed by what Stan and this band (1950) are doing, the use of strings and the whole range of musical ideas.” The above few comments are the sum total of all the unqualified praise ever heaped on Stan in 5 1/2 years of blindfold tests. The full essence of each subject’s comments was always faithfully reported verbatim.

Other Side

Now let’s look at the other side of the picture.

Boyd Raeburn, once considered a contender and contemporary of Stan’s in the vanguard of big band jazz, typified the views of many listeners when he complained that “Stan doesn’t run the gamut of moods in music. If he just wants excitement, he does it well, but there’s no contrast.” And Mrs. Raeburn, singer Ginnie Powell, complaining that “Stan has to prove something with every number,” added, “I’m afraid he’s very serious about a lot of things I think are very funny.”

On another double-blindfold, that of Ella Fitzgerald and Ray Brown, who reviewed the Christy-Kenton Lonely Woman, Ella said, “This is over-arranged; there’s so much happening you can’t tell whether it’s the melody or what.” Added Ray, “They could have let her sing it. It sounds like she’s acting.”

Goodman Not Enthused

Benny Goodman, puzzled by Monotony and inclined to view it as music for “some sort of exotic dancing,” said he didn’t think it was progressive and was quite sure it wasn’t jazz. “I think it’s a fair composition, period.”

Charlie Barnet: “After hearing this (Somnambulism) I can understand why people put the band down. I’ll give it one star, and I wouldn’t even give it that except that Safranski is on it.”

Tex Beneke: “I don’t like that type of thing (Thermopolae) at all. A lot of discordant sounds. You’ve got to cock your head to make it fit.”

Shep Fields?

Allen Eager, of an early Kenton-and-saxes-only opus: “Could that be Shep Fields? Those saxes are So sweet and sugary – it’s horrible!”

Billie Holiday, on a Christy-Kenton side: “This is just fair; the band and the singing, all fair, didn’t move me.”

Joe Bushkin, on the Kenton-Cole Jambo: “Sounds like a 96-bar ending on The Peanut Vendor. You wait for something, and nothing happens.”

Flip Phillips summed up his feelings about what he called “the usual Stan Kenton sound” by describing it in three significant words: “Happy New Year!” And Bill Harris, horrified by Maynard Ferguson, said “Give this minus four stars!”

Tristano School

The Tristano school of musicians, who might be expected to look benignly on anything attempting to take music forward, are predominantly anti-Kenton. Typical views are Lee Konitz‘s “Most of Kenton’s records are overloaded with things done for effect’s sake” (but Konitz reserved a rave for Art Pepper); and Tristano’s comment on the Bill Russo Solitaire: “The schmaltzy melody leaves me apathetic. Arrangement is a little clumsy; mostly vertical writing.” But very professionally executed, he added.

Norman Granz: “This could have been a real swinging band; but as Stan is verbose, his band is the same way. This band cheats; it uses gimmicks and advertising slogans. If you have a musical idea you sell it on its own merits; you don’t press agent it with a lot of loud talk.”

Arrangers Talk

Of the arrangers I have either blindfolded or talked to on open-eyed occasions about Kenton, the general view seems to mix respect for Kenton’s attempt to accomplish something with regret at his failure to achieve it. Typical is Billy Strayhorn‘s comment: “Kenton is trying to do very wonderful thing with his band, but becomes too frantic about the whole thing; everything is a do-or-die struggle. There’s no looseness, which I think is one of the great ingredients of all good jazz.”

Most of Duke Ellington‘s comments to me on Stan Kenton have been off the record, and would not be printable even if their publication were sanctioned. But Duke, who says he “never makes uncomplimentary remarks” for public consumption, approved heartily of Artistry in Percussion while under the impression that Shelly Manne might be Gene Krupa.

‘Should Get Credit’

Ralph Burns is another who feels that Kenton should be given credit because “at least he tries, when everybody else has given up trying.” He considers Mirage “one of the few things” that have really thrilled him in Kentonia, claims that many of Stan’s recordings must be judged according to classical standards, and tends to prefer such things as Shorty Rogers‘ arrangements for the non-concert band: “At those times Kenton sounds exactly like Woody.” He can’t see the Artistry series or “all of those screaming things,” and “wouldn’t know” whether Maynard Ferguson has talent.

Burns sums up Stan by pointing out that “he’s done so much good and so much harm at the same time. It’s a lot of noise, but at least he’s making a lot of noise for music.”

Sy Oliver, after observing that “Stan Kenton stands for flashy sensationalism,” promptly swallowed his own tongue by giving a four-star rave to Dynaflow under the impression that it was a Les Brown record.

Eddie Sauter says: “It’s hard to say whether Kenton is accomplishing anything. They aren’t doing anything original, spectacular or new. Even Bob Graettinger, who seems to be the most daring of his writers, doesn’t do anything many practicing concert composers couldn’t do.

Nothing ‘Progressive’

“I don’t think this music is progressive; as to whether it’s jazz, it’s nobody’s prerogative to say what is and isn’t jazz. Whether it’s music is an altogether different question. A lot of it is pretentious as hell, and to make a categorical statement, I wouldn’t say it should be classed as the No. 1 band.

“Kenton provides a great opportunity for his writers, but none of them are the sort of genius one needs to be in that position. Without detracting from Pete, that goes for him, and it would go for me too if I wrote for the band.”

Audience Unaware

Another noted arranger, who wished to remain anonymous, observes: “When Kenton plays those pretentious concert pieces, I’ll bet 75 percent of his audience hasn’t the remotest idea what’s going on. They don’t even enjoy the music, but they’re afraid to let their girl friends or classmates know that they don’t understand and appreciate it.

“Kenton’s personality has enabled him to get away with it, to establish himself on the basis of snob appeal. Hell, when it comes to the so-called serious music, those writers are just children beside contemporary classical writers, and as for the things that are closer to jazz, the best he can do will never touch even a second-rate Woody or Duke performance of eight or 10 years ago.”

After a moment’s pause, he added: “The trouble with most of that music is its neurotic quality. It sounds like neurotic music for neurotic people. Never a happy moment. And even when it tries to be extrovert, they go into a screaming fortissimo with absolutely no sense of shading. I guess the philosophy is, make a big enough noise and people will have to listen; they won’t get a chance to talk with that much sound around.”

Private Opinions

The private thoughts of musicians on the individual members of the Kenton personnel are as widely varied as those on the band as a whole.

Of the Kenton soloists through the years, those who have come closest to earning unanimous approval from contemporary musicians are Shelly Manne, Art Pepper, and Ed Safranski. Many of the others, including Stan himself as a pianist and arranger, have variously been described as competent, overrated, or mediocre. Early Kentonians such as Kai Winding and Stan Getz have, of course, since earned wide acclaim.

The straight-Kenton-ticket philosophy, which results in high poll ratings for a number of instrumentalists solely by virtue of their happening to be currently (or even formerly) with Kenton, has been a source of much resentment.

Re June

June Christy has been the butt of many complaints in this regard. After the last Kenton Carnegie concert I talked with numerous prominent musicians and singers, whose opinions on her work that night varied all the way from those who thought she was out of tune to those who considered she had poor intonation.

But because June is a sweet person who has taken so much criticism, many of her critics happily bend over backwards to hail her for a record or performance that rises above what they consider her norm. (Me, I still find I’ll Remember April a very pretty record.)

As for Maynard Ferguson, I have discussed him with innumerable musicians, trumpet players, and others. While many concede his technical greatness, not one in a hundred gets any esthetic pleasure out of listening to him. The reactions to his Beat poll victory ranged from surprise through mild disapproval to downright indignation.

Doesn’t Need Maynard

The most eloquent summation of most opinions on this subject was expressed by the brilliant British musician and writer, Steve Race, who wrote in the Melody Maker: “I need Maynard Ferguson like I need a hole in the head. To my mind, it represents everything that is worst in modern jazz.

“It was when Ferguson joined the Kenton band that I first began to have doubts about the much-
publicized ‘artistic integrity’ of Star Kenton… I don’t doubt that Ferguson is a great technician, of course. I just wish he were an artist, too.”

There is much confusion in the general feeling about Stan Kenton’s place in jazz because those who discuss him are not quite sure which Kenton they are discussing: Solemn Stan, Swingin’ Stan, or Silly Stan.

The first offers albums of ambitious concert works by a 40-piece orchestra. The second is typified by such factors as a Shorty Rogers score, a Woody Herman feel, and frequent jazz solos. The third category is Tortillas, Enchiladas, and Beans, or Laura, or September Song, or anything else clearly designed for the cash register.

Like Swingin’ Stan

As far as it is possible to generalize about a band that has earned such a broad range of comment, one might say that no matter how important, pretentious, skilled, modern, significant, and brilliant the orchestrations in the Solemn Stan library may be, it it the works of Swingin’ Stan that have gained most acceptance among musicians.

This is possibly not the way Stan would like things to be, for when he announces a new concert work he does so with the air of one who is disclosing the existence of a new atomic weapon.

Those who like Kenton’s concert works claim that they represent the ultimate in modern music. Those who are less enthusiastic base their reservation sometimes on a lack of understanding, sometimes on an even deeper understanding of the works of Milhaud, Stravinsky, and others.

These latter dissidents feel that Stan, far from being an innovator, is removing all the basic jazz qualities and placing his music on a level where it must bear comparison with the work of modern classical writers.

Open Mind

Personally, I’m open-minded. I have been variously intrigued, bored, enthused, disgusted, mystified, horrified, fascinated, and stimulated by Stan and his writers and bands and soloists. I have compared the band with a magnificent, super-speed vehicle, streamlined in style and impeccable in performance, whose driver is not quite sure where he is going.

But at least, along with a few million other citizens of the world of music, I have found the Stan Kenton phenomenon worthy of a great deal of serious thought. Whether he’s a pacemaker or a faker, a Messiah or a liar, Stan is getting a lot of people interested in music per se. For this alone we all owe him a little gratitude.

—–

Down Beat : 01/28/1953
Rob Darrell : 4 stars

If your nerves are still raw and twitchin’ from New Year’s… If a kitten daintily padding across an inch-deep rug-nap sets you groanin’ “Pul-lease quit that stompin’ around!”… Then you’re in no fitten shape for such rackety-rax aural calisthenics as I’m prescribing today. For I’ve got a rugged workout for ya, man, and no softies or kids are gonna stand the gaff.

But if you’ve got tough ears and constitutions, I can promise you an adventure in new sound you’ll never forget… and more fun than you’ve had since that great day when you learned to pitch sliders and knucklers with a pile of rocks in grandpaw’s hothouse!

You’ll be feeling no pane either when Stan Kenton gets through with Bob Graettinger‘s City of Glass – probably the most exciting, maybe one of the most vital, and certainly the noisiest symphonic experiment yet achieved by a jazz composer and conductor.

Actually, there’s no jazz in it (except for an echo or two in the Dance Before a Mirror third movement) but it sure is as “modern” as you can get. It’s out of Schoenbergian and Bartokian bloodlines, perhaps, as far as the music itself goes, but all dolled up with the very latest in Graettinger and Kenton-style innovations where the frenzied but dazzling interplay of sonorities is concerned.

It’s almost intolerably harsh and shrill in stretches. Some of the stunts are beaten to exhaustion, a few are thrown away before they really get going, and oftentimes the use of too many effects at once tends to cancel out much of their impact. I wish Graettinger were as clever a dramatic psychologist as he is a sound-pattern weaver, for his work needs more astute editing and organization. Yet, for all that, he’s got something here that’s brashly alive and at its best tremendously exciting.

Many of his strictly musical ideas might have come straight out of the futurismus experiments of the symphonic enfants terribles of the ’20s – and he could profit by a refresher course in Stravinsky‘s later works to learn more about thinning out these ideas and developing the best of them either more tersely or more fully, according to their demands.

But in clothing these ideas in brittle, acrid, but always electrifying sounds, Graettinger is a genuine pioneer in his own right. And in capturing Stan’s intensely driving performance on LP, Capitol makes a sizzling contribution of its own.

—–

Liner Notes by Robert Graettinger

City of Glass, a fascinating contribution to contemporary American music, has been heralded by connoisseurs and damned by skeptics since its conception, for it is an extreme departure from the modern jazz idiom with which Stan Kenton has long been identified.

Its fresh new sound almost defies technical explanation. It is music of completely abstract quality, with broken rhythmic lines and intricate contrapuntal melodies, rich with vibrant imagination and
uninhibited spirit. An augmented Kenton orchestra, skillfully recorded, projects all its wonderful vitality.

The music of City of Glass is primarily abstract and non-objective, but it has vivid visual associations for me. The composition as a whole suggests, I feel, a city in which the structures are shapes of musical sound, transparent and in constant motion, so that through one can be seen the outlines of others – a city of moving glasslike edifices.

The work’s development covers the passing of a single day. The various textures of the instruments chosen to produce the tonal skyscrapers seem to describe the reflections of the day’s changing illumination.

Part 1 – Entrance Into the City – opens with a gradual transition from a distant perspective that envelops the entire metropolis to a relatively close perspective in which single objects can be made out. Throughout this entrance and during an imaginary stroll down the avenues of the city, the glimmering architecture reflects the fresh brilliant light of early morning.

Part II – The Structures – describes several of the edifices, exposing them to close inspection. A perspective of extreme awareness of each is suggested by the use of only one family of instruments at a time – first the brass, then the strings, then saxophones. As the walk concludes, there is an air of anticipation and excitement.

Part III – Dance Before the Mirror – takes place in a maze of midday light. The structures are now seen through rapidly changing perspectives as though one were viewing them while whirling around in a spirited dance before a huge mirror. There is a frenzied climax and then abrupt silence.

Part IV – Reflections – starts softly in a description of the rich somber hues of late afternoon. A gradual feeling of ascension finally provides one with a vantage point from which to view the city in its entirety once again. Now the structures reflect the fiery blaze of sunset, and the composition ends as darkness slowly falls on THE CITY OF GLASS.

—–

A tale of Stan Kenton visiting Dublin in September 1953, and the fans who were forced to travel to see him there, as told through newspaper articles.

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London Daily Mirror
Keith Waterhouse : 08/27/1953

In the half-mad world of jazz they are thumbing their noses at the moguls of the Musicians’ Union.

For years the Musicians’ Union have been driving the jazz fans raving mad by refusing to allow American bands to play here. This action – which fully reciprocated by America where British bands are similarly not allowed to appear commercially – is more than nettling to the fan who wants to hear a favourite U.S. band in the flesh instead of on a disc.

Union Man

Now someone – a British band-leader and staunch member of the Union at that – has got round this little rule.

Joe Loss, who is following Jack Payne and Jack Hylton in the impresario business, has gone to extraordinary lengths to let British jazz fans see America’s Stan Kenton in person with his nineteen-piece jazz orchestra.

First, for two Sunday concerts, Joe hired a theatre where the Musicians’ Union could do nothing about it. The theatre is in Dublin.

Then he chartered two special boats to sail from Holyhead.

On September 20 about 5,000 jazz fans will make the pilgrimage across the water to hear Stan Kenton, whose music is known as “progressive” jazz. Many of them will take their own instruments and organize jam sessions in railway stations and on the boats. The Irish equivalent of the Musicians’ Union – the Irish Federation of Musicians – have no objection to American bands playing in the Green Isle.

Maybe Joe Loss, by calmly moving the West End to Dublin for the day, has started a new fashion.

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Manchester Evening News
Jack Florin : 09/18/1953

Sunday is “K-day” for 3,000 British jazz lovers. They will cross the Irish Sea to hear Stan Kenton‘s Orchestra in Dublin’s Theatre Royal.

Manchester jazzman Frank Dixon is just back from Eire’s capital where he has been looking over the local music scene.

At a jazz session this week Frank put down his baritone saxophone just long enough to tell me that Dubliners are not excited about the Kenton concerts.

Why? “They take it all as a matter of course,” he said, “for American musicians are not banned there.

“In fact, without British support the concerts would be a flop.”

One of the many Dublin-bound enthusiasts is Tony Adkins, of Levenshulme, who has tape-recorded all Kenton’s European broadcasts.

Having closely studied them, he says: “This is the best crew Kenton has had. And there’s not a band to beat it for sheer musicianship.”

Although Kenton can’t play here he will speak during to morrow’s B.B.C. “Jazz Club.”

But American pianist Teddy Wilson beats the Musicians’ Union ban by appearing here as a variety artist when he starts a tour of Britain next week. He’ll be on tomorrow’s “Jazz Club,’ too.

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London Daily Mirror
Unknown : 09/21/1953
They Cross the Sea for Two Hours’ Jazz

More than two thousand “progressive jazz” enthusiasts crossed the Irish Sea yesterday to listen to a two-hour performance by Stan Kenton and his Orchestra in Dublin.

They had planned to sacrifice two nights’ sleep so that they could dance on board the “Jazz Special,” the steamer Princess Maud, during the crossings from Holyhead and back.

But it was the Princess Maud that did the jitterbugging, jiving and bopping.

For a storm blew up and the boat was buffeted and tossed about.

The jazz fans – many of them teenagers, girls in sweaters and loose black skirts, boys in drain-pipe trousers and draped corduroy jackets – couldn’t keep their feet.

A Musicians’ Union ban on American bands has prevented Kenton from appearing before British audiences in England.

Kenton knew nothing of his followers’ suffering at sea. He and his band FLEW to Ireland.

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London Daily Mirror
Laurie Henshaw : 09/21/1953
£5 Worth of Frenzy

Tonight four thousand jazz fans will be on their way to Dublin to hear music that has been described as frantic, dynamic, vital – and a hideous racket.

These disciples – or dupes, according to your taste – will be paying nearly £5 each to see a 40-year-old Kansas-born pianist, Stan Kenton, conduct his 20-piece orchestra in the Theatre Royal.

Why? For the music is sparked by ear-searing brass that punches and pounds listeners into unconditional surrender or frenzied retreat.

And when the curtain comes down Kenton will be damp, limp and trembling. For his style of conducting is a strenuous performance. He has fallen from his stand more than once – and broken bones!

Most of the audience will be young, of course, and the only explanation of their fanaticism is that to them Kenton represents progress. His ideas are new. They match the pace of the times.

To others the music is just another sign of youthful decadence.

The Fanatic

Kenton first shattered the still air in California in 1941. Kenton the fanatic had talked musicians into playing their jazz in his strident way, had talked his way into a Californian engagement, strictly on a trial basis.

In novelty-mad America, the news that something new was happening spread like a prairie fire. Kenton stayed four months.

His records, released here, had much the same effect. His teenage fans were almost hysterical in their loyalty to a new sound. To their Mums and Dads it was a neurotic cacophony.

To Kenton himself it was progress.

In the face of prophecies of failure from promoters and agents, Kenton went ahead. He scored a resounding success and swept U.S. popularity polls. Authoritative opinion on the worth of Kenton’s music varies. Some sneer at his “amateurish” incursions into the realms of Bartok, Hindemith and other modernists in the fields of “straight” music. Jazz experts applaud the pulsing beat that gives greater fire to harmonic experiments.

He has been decried as a consummate showman; close associates defend his burning sincerity. When fans mourned Kenton’s retirement after a nervous breakdown, cynics scoffed: “He’ll be back,” they said.

‘We are proud’

They were right. Kenton soothed his nerves by fishing in the Pacific. Refreshed, he pronounced the Rebirth of the Progressive.

“We are proud of what we have done so far,” he declared, “but we are by no means satisfied. We can never stand still or go backward.”

The fans must go to Dublin to see him because the Musicians’ Union bans American orchestras performing in this country. But to them the journey will be worth it.

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Nottingham Evening Post
Unknown : 09/22/1953
To Ireland for Two Hours Jazz

Sixty red-eyed and weary Nottingham jazz enthusiasts returned to Nottingham yesterday. They had gone without sleep for 48 hours so that they could hear a two-hour performance by Stan Kenton and his Orchestra in Dublin.

Because of a Musicians’ Union ban on American bands, Mr. Kenton was prevented from appearing in England. But this country’s jazz enthusiasts were not to be denied – a special excursion took them to Dublin for the performance on Sunday.

More than 2,000 “progressive jazz” enthusiasts crossed the Irish Sea from Holyhead among them 60 Nottingham folk. Special trains started from London, Glasgow, Nottingham and Newcastle, picking up people en route.

Mr. Roy Kirchen, of 79 Lenton Road, Nottingham, who was in the Nottingham party said that the steamer Princess Maud on which they went to Ireland, was buffeted and tossed about by gales both on the outward and return journeys.

“It was a terrible journey,” he said. “Almost everybody was ill and some were very sick indeed. I have been on the sea several times before but I have never known anything like it. It was impossible to stand, and if you tried to sit down your chair would be knocked over.

“Sleep was impossible. My band and I (he is a dance band leader in his spare time) left Nottingham Midland Station at 2:40 on Sunday morning, and, apart from a few hours in Dublin, we were travelling all the time. We arrived back in Nottingham at 11:00 a.m. yesterday. We have not been to bed since Friday night.”

Asked if it was worth it, Mr. Kirchen replied emphatically: “Oh yes, it certainly. was. It was marvelous in spite of all we went through. I would do it all again to hear Stan Kenton.”

—–

Manchester Evening News
Jack Florin : 09/25/1953

The Stan Kenton Orchestra is fantastic. It is a band of musical virtuosos. And it plays incomparable big band jazz.

Kenton can’t play here because of a Musicians’ Union ban. So close on 3,000 fans – 300 from Manchester – went to Dublin to hear the orchestra give two concerts last Sunday.

But he has given a couple of concerts in England for American troops.

Through the courtesy of Sgt. Bobby Thompson, manager of the N.C.O.’s Club, I heard the Kenton Orchestra at Burtonwood airbase on Monday.

Frank Rosalino did the “impossible” on his trombone. Lee Konitz, Conte Candoli, Zoot Sims, Don Bagley, and Stan Levey stood out as the stars of a very brilliant orchestra. And there was no exhibitionism – it was music all the way.

Stan Kenton, who is 41, is a friendly 6 foot 4 1/2 inch Californian, with personality and sincerity. He told me: “After having had six or seven orchestras I find that the really progressive jazz won’t go with the public. So today we feature three different styles: ‘Sketches’ – dance arrangements mainly for radio; ‘Modern’ – the swinging jazz; and ‘Advanced’ – complex pieces such as City of: Glass.'”

Stan was taking a snack prior to his Burtonwood concert. “With this policy,” he went on, “we hope to bring the public round to Advanced Jazz.”

Frank Dixon’s reference in last week’s column to lack of Irish excitement about the Kenton concerts brings comment from a well-known musical journalist.

“Interest in Dublin was enormous,” he says. “Of the 7,000-strong audience more than half were Irish.

“I was with Kenton in his hotel and he had to be ‘smuggled’ out the back way to escape the big crowds. At the stage door and at the front of the theatre he was again besieged by hundreds of fans.”