52 Facts About Stan Kenton

Stanley Newcomb Kenton was an American popular music and jazz artist.

Stan Kenton was born on December 15,1911, in Wichita, Kansas; he had two sisters born three and eight years after him.

Stan Kenton attended Bell High School; his high-school yearbook picture has the prophetic notation "Old Man Jazz".

Stan Kenton started learning piano as a teen from a local pianist and organist.

Once he departed from Gus Arnheim's group, Stan Kenton went back to study with private teachers on both the piano and in composition.

In 1938 Stan Kenton would join Vido Musso in a short-lived band but a very educational experience for him.

Stan Kenton would go on to working with the NBC House Band and in various Hollywood studios and clubs.

Stan Kenton started to get the idea of running his own band from this experience; he created a rehearsal band of his own which eventually become his group in the 1940s.

Stan Kenton worked in the early days with his own groups as much more of an arranger than a featured pianist.

Pete Rugolo composed and arranged the great bulk of the new music; Stan Kenton declared these works to be Progressive Jazz.

Stan Kenton's ground-breaking composition City of Glass was premiered by the band in Chicago in April 1948, but not recorded for another two and a half years, in a reworked version for the Innovations Orchestra.

Stan Kenton contributed no new scores to the Progressive Jazz band, although several of his older works were performed on concerts, including Concerto to End All Concertos, Eager Beaver, Opus in Pastels, and Artistry in Rhythm.

The Progressive Jazz period lasted 14 months, beginning on September 24,1947, when the Stan Kenton Orchestra played a concert at the Rendezvous Ballroom.

Bernhart's first big solo with the Stan Kenton band proved to be a major hit, The Peanut Vendor.

Stan Kenton's band was the first to present a concert in the famous outdoor arena, the Hollywood Bowl.

Stan Kenton pocketed half of the box office, walking away with US$13,000 for the evening's concert.

On December 14,1948, the Stan Kenton Orchestra played their last notes for more than a year.

The album Sketches on Standards from 1953 is an excellent example of Kenton appealing to a wider audience while using the band and Bill Russo's arranging skills to their fullest potential.

Arguably the most "swinging" band Stan Kenton was to field came when legendary drummer Mel Lewis joined the orchestra in 1954.

Stan Kenton ended up being stiff and out of place with what the producers tried to achieve.

Stan Kenton had to burn the candle at both ends, flying in to do the show and then flying back to meet his band on the road.

The New York production team was limited to using an American Federation of Musicians roster of local players; Stan Kenton wanted his own band to do the show.

At one point, Stan Kenton faced a controversy in 1956 with comments he made when the band returned from a European tour.

The Stan Kenton band was playing in Ontario, Canada, at the time, and Stan Kenton dispatched a telegram which lamented "a new minority, white jazz musicians", and stated his "disgust [with the so-called] literary geniuses of jazz".

The Stan Kenton orchestra had been on a slow decline in sales and popularity in the late 1950s with having to compete with newer, popular music artists such as Elvis Presley, Bobby Darin, and The Platters.

Stan Kenton's 1961 recording The Romantic Approach for Capitol is the first of 11 LPs that would feature the "mellophonium band".

Stan Kenton arranged the whole first mellophonium album himself and it was very well received in a September 1961 review in Down Beat.

Stan Kenton Conducts the Los Angeles Neophonic Orchestra was an artistic success that garnered another Grammy nomination for the band leader.

The first releases for the Creative World label were live concerts and Kenton had the control he wanted over content but lacked substantial resources to engineer, mix, and promote what Capitol underwrote in the past.

Stan Kenton would take a big gamble to bypass the current record industry and rely far more on the direct mail lists of jazz fans which the newly formed Creative World label would need to sell records.

Stan Kenton made his print music available to college and high-school stage bands with several publishers.

Stan Kenton continued leading and touring with his big band up to his final performance on August 20,1978, when he disbanded the group due to his failing health.

When Stan Kenton took to the road during the early 1970s and up to his last tour, he took with him seasoned veteran musicians teaming them with relatively unknown young artists, and new arrangements were used.

Stan Kenton was a salient figure on the American musical scene and made an indelible mark on the arranged type of big band jazz.

Stan Kenton's music evolved with the times from 1940 through the 1970s.

Stan Kenton was at the vanguard of promoting jazz and jazz improvisation through his service as an educator through his Stan Kenton Band Clinics.

The "Stan Kenton Style" continues to permeate big bands at the high school and collegiate level, and the framework he designed for the "jazz clinic" is still widely in use today.

Stan Kenton was the primary band leader responsible for moving the big band from the dance hall to the concert hall; one of the most important and successful players in the Third Stream movement.

Stan Kenton's arrangements are now published by Sierra Music Publications.

The list of noted jazz players, studio musicians is impressive and the consistency of the group from 1941 to Stan Kenton's passing in 1979 is notable.

Stan Kenton was born on December 15,1911, according to his birth certificate, according to British biographer Michael Sparke.

Stan Kenton was conceived out of wedlock, and his parents told him that he was born on February 19,1912, two months later than the actual date, to obscure this fact.

Stan Kenton believed well into adulthood that the February date was his birthday, and recorded the Birthday In Britain concert album on February 19,1973.

Stan Kenton nonetheless maintained a close relationship with him during his lifetime, though she states that she was emotionally scarred by the experience.

Stan Kenton stated the incidents occurred under the influence of alcohol; he was not fully aware of his actions.

In 1955, Stan Kenton married San Diego-born singer Ann Richards, who was 23 years his junior.

Stan Kenton signed a contract to record with Atco Records, without her husband's knowledge.

Stan Kenton filed for divorce in August 1961; it was finalized in 1962.

Stan Kenton had two serious accidental falls, one in the early 1970s and one in May of 1977 while on tour in Reading, Pennsylvania.

Stan Kenton was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery, Los Angeles.

Between 1944 and 1967, Stan Kenton had numerous hits on Billboard's charts.

Stan Kenton was credited as a co-writer of the 1944 jazz classic "And Her Tears Flowed Like Wine".