I saw the band at the Jazz Clinic at Sacramento State in the summer of 1977. John Worster (bass) was with the band again and it was his last performance with the band. Kenton wasn't there due to health problems. After the band played MacArthur Park, John ceremoniously held up his part, ripped it in half, and tossed it on the floor. (One of the reasons he didn't like playing it was that he had to make a fast change from acoustic to electric bass in the middle of the arrangement. When I saw him play the arrangement that summer and the summer before, he wore the electric bass on his right shoulder while he played the acoustic bass, so that the bass was on his back with the headstock down, so that he could make the change fast enough.)
I enrolled in the Kenton 1 week jazz summer camp that year at the age of 18. Dennis Noday, Mike Vax, Dick Shear, and a young Peter Erskine, Willie Maiden, wow! An a unheralded Richard Torres with fattest deep tenor sound I have yet to hear again. My music theory instructor? Hank Levy! Great memories.
That must have been insane....I can't even imagine being around that amount of talent at one time. Dick was the best lead bone player ever.....I played saxophone but I still had great respect for his talent. He had such a talent for dynamics and his sound was so bright.
I too was at the camp ! The guys were great teachers and mentors, Stan was jazz itself. I became a band/orchestra/stage-band teacher for 12 years because of the camp. Maiden, Shear, Vax, Efraim Logeria (conga) plus Stan Kenton ! I was lucky
Amazing to hear/see after so many years! Stan Kenton evolved with musicians …an outrageously precious titan of jazz We are blessed to have one his band members, Mike Vax, living right here in the Prescott area…life is good!
Chuck Anderson was the bus driver for that trip. He loved to tell me what an awesome band it was & what a privilege and huge responsibility it was to be the driver - he did much more than just driving - managing the money, helping unload & load, setting up...and to be able to hear all those exciting jazz "charts!"
The older glow of fame had receded for Stan Kenton by this, but sheer musicianship, quality, undeniable class and keen players, arrangers, solid fans, established reputation kept him in there. This is actually so good, up with the best 1972 imaginable Ellington Basie, ANYONE ELSE, and, this has fuelled the continuation of Jazz as the great art of the 20th Century, well ahead of bullshit scribbling painting or non literary poetry, divisive experimental drama, distorted sculpture, perverted mass earning cynical pop crap music, and mass (turbatory) media. Jazz remains the only relatively pure, honest, personal, individual, genuinely gifted art form still going...( pleased to have met Mike Vax )
“Hey, when I auditioned nobody asked me if I could sing!” You know that band is going to rip it wide open any moment, but all in all it’s a pretty restrained arrangement.
I was twelve when we walked backstage- shaking Ramon Lopez’s hand was memorable- good Lord the power - my Dad was such a groupie, Stan let him direct. Twice.
I saw the band at the Jazz Clinic at Sacramento State in the summer of 1977. John Worster (bass) was with the band again and it was his last performance with the band. Kenton wasn't there due to health problems. After the band played MacArthur Park, John ceremoniously held up his part, ripped it in half, and tossed it on the floor. (One of the reasons he didn't like playing it was that he had to make a fast change from acoustic to electric bass in the middle of the arrangement. When I saw him play the arrangement that summer and the summer before, he wore the electric bass on his right shoulder while he played the acoustic bass, so that the bass was on his back with the headstock down, so that he could make the change fast enough.)
Always tasteful! Awfully good arrangements and crazy talent in that band!
I enrolled in the Kenton 1 week jazz summer camp that year at the age of 18. Dennis Noday, Mike Vax, Dick Shear, and a young Peter Erskine, Willie Maiden, wow! An a unheralded Richard Torres with fattest deep tenor sound I have yet to hear again. My music theory instructor? Hank Levy! Great memories.
3 years attending the Kenton Clinics for me.
two for me.
That must have been insane....I can't even imagine being around that amount of talent at one time. Dick was the best lead bone player ever.....I played saxophone but I still had great respect for his talent. He had such a talent for dynamics and his sound was so bright.
ever see Mort Sahl?
I too was at the camp ! The guys were great teachers and mentors, Stan was jazz itself. I became a band/orchestra/stage-band teacher for 12 years because of the camp. Maiden, Shear, Vax, Efraim Logeria (conga) plus Stan Kenton ! I was lucky
Amazing to hear/see after so many years!
Stan Kenton evolved with musicians …an outrageously precious titan of jazz
We are blessed to have one his band members, Mike Vax, living right here in the Prescott area…life is good!
brilliant!!!!!
A crowd of us saw Kenton in Southampton in1955 What an evening
I remember Donna Summer sang a song based on this theme. On seventies...
Wonderful !!!
Chuck Anderson was the bus driver for that trip. He loved to tell me what an awesome band it was & what a privilege and huge responsibility it was to be the driver - he did much more than just driving - managing the money, helping unload & load, setting up...and to be able to hear all those exciting jazz "charts!"
The older glow of fame had receded for Stan Kenton by this, but sheer musicianship, quality, undeniable class and keen players, arrangers, solid fans, established reputation kept him in there. This is actually so good, up with the best 1972 imaginable Ellington Basie, ANYONE ELSE, and, this has fuelled the continuation of Jazz as the great art of the 20th Century, well ahead of bullshit scribbling painting or non literary poetry, divisive experimental drama, distorted sculpture, perverted mass earning cynical pop crap music, and mass (turbatory) media. Jazz remains the only relatively pure, honest, personal, individual, genuinely gifted art form still going...( pleased to have met Mike Vax )
😲 great arrangements! I wish I could play trumpet like that 🎺 very tight and tasty!
You CAN. It’s all about the air stream.
@@johnflorio3576 how? My tongue arch doesn't make me play like that
So good to see a very young JVO.
The great thing about this piece is its big and dramatic and sorrowful orchestral arrangement contrasted by the most mundane act of life in the lyric.
Wow! Dick Sherer before he became enormous.
starker song
“Hey, when I auditioned nobody asked me if I could sing!”
You know that band is going to rip it wide open any moment, but all in all it’s a pretty restrained arrangement.
Is that John Van Ohlen and Ramon Lopez on percussion?
That’s right.
I was twelve when we walked backstage- shaking Ramon Lopez’s hand was memorable- good Lord the power - my Dad was such a groupie, Stan let him direct. Twice.
It may be Lopez or Logeria
Ray Brown trumpet solo
Pretty sure that is drummer John Von Ohlen.
Certainly is…..Gene Krupa, Peter Erskine…..wow
Man, Stan didn't really seem checked in at that point.
Who’s on congas?
Probably Lopez or Effraim Logeria (canadian)
Wonderful!