STAN KENTON: THE STUDIO SESSIONS
Jazz Journal Review - September 1998
by Alun Morgan
 When I reviewed the Sparke-Venudor
Kenton on Capitol & Creative World in the September, 1994
issue of the journal I wrote: "It is difficult to imagine
more information about the (Kenton) sessions being possible,
so comprehensive are the details given here."
I was wrong; since the publication of the earlier book the
authors have dug even more deeply to come up with enough new
material to expand the original 156 pages to 236. We now have
the names of all the session producers given, many examples of
the original documentation of the various recording dates and
a wealth of first-hand information about the music. Sometimes
this is contradictory; for example bass player John Worster told
the authors that 'no one ever talks about the Hair album. It
was terrible. Stan was forced into that by Capitol, another of
the many reasons why Stan chose to start his own company', while
trombonist Jiggs Whigham is quoted as saying 'the Hair record
for me was really exciting. Ralph Carmichael is a terrific writer,
and the band took that music and made it sound, for my taste,
a lot better than the original.
The facsimiles of the session sheets give a fascinating insight
into the recording dates. For example on February 22, 1939, Vido
Musso and his orchestra recorded 12 tunes for Davis and Schwengler
Transcriptions in less than two hours of studio time. As leader
Vido received $72; the remaining 13 musicians (including Kenton)
were paid $36 apiece. By June 16, 1958 (when Stan recorded six
titles for the Ballad Style album for Capitol) the going rate
for a leader had risen to $165 with each individual sideman receiving
half that amount.
The book abounds in precise, valuable and well researched
information of a kind not often available to record collectors.
Despite the title it also includes details of some non-studio
recordings, such as the Tropicana date of February 1959 (complete
with the additional titles which appeared on the CD release).
Redlands University and the Decca recordings of the 1972 Croydon
concert (misleadingly titled Live in London). But the inclusion
of such live material is justified by the fact that these were
official recordings. I would like to think that someone, somewhere
is hard at work updating a listing of the plethora of other live
Kenton material which continues to appear on many different labels.
This essential work covers nearly 40 years of studio work
by one of the most dedicated of all big band leaders, from the
days when he was a sideman in bands led by Vido Musso and Gus
Arnheim up to the last official recording in Holland in September,
1976, three years before he died. Sparke and Venudor have produced
a discography which should serve as a model for anyone attempting
a similar study of any other artist.
Presented here with permission of:
Jazz Journal International
1-5 Clerkkenwell Road
London, EC1M 5PA ENGLAND
Tel: 0171-608-1348/1362
Fax: 0171-608-1292
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