Customer Reviews

Kenton in Hi Fi

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My Father only listened to two or three jazz artists during his 71 year stay on this planet. The Stan Kenton Big Band is the one I will most remember him by.

This recording was prepared in 1956, with the advent of high fidelity recording technology. On this disk, Mr. Kenton made a concerted effort to re-record his most popular pieces with the most talented musicians he had worked with over the course of his career to that date.

It is fitting that we can hear the results on compact disk technology, which gives us access to fidelity that was then only accessible to the professional musicians and the record companies of his day.

Hearing 'Peanut Vendor' or 'Concerto to End All Concertos', today, reminds me of why My Father was so inspired by this music. I hope you will also feel this same sense of artistic integrity as you audition Kenton in Hi-Fi.

Kenton's music still has its appeal after all these years. All of the selections date from the forties but completely re-recorded in the best high fidelity technology that existed in 1956.....three additional selections with strings taken from a recording of 1958.

Stan certainly had his critics but I've always loved his music! He was radical for that time but his approach was certainly original....as shown in the contents of this album. Lot's of emotion and advanced harmonies! With Kenton you always got your money's worth (5 saxes, 5 trombones, and 5 trumpets synonomous of the POWER of this organization). The list of well known musicians who were sidemen in his band reads like a legendary "Who's Who" in jazz.

My favorites on this cd are the lovely "Interlude" and "Collaboration", "Peanut Vendor" (so many things going on....the excellent punctuation of bongos and timbales throughout, but especially during Stan's extended piano solo), "Intermission Riff", and "Concerto To End All Concertos". The remainder of the selections are not that far behind!

This album is one of my all-time favorites. If you dig Kenton, this is a must! If you've never been exposed to his music, I can't think of a better place to start!

This was the first album I ever owned. I was a young jazz drummer and broke most of the time. I memorized every beautiful bar on it. The level of play in this band surpasses that of any big band I've ever heard. Very difficult charts masterfully played by some of the greatest jazz players who ever came up.

This is a great recording of terrific music. But this Capitol reissue has one major flaw. I have the original stereo album consisting of the cuts recorded February 11, 1956. Selections 1 to 13 were all released in TRUE STEREO on the original LP. With the exception of the alternate take of Minor Riff and the last three cuts (recorded in 1958)the remaining original cuts from the Capitol LP were issued in mono on this Capitol jazz CD. I do not understand why Capitol will not issue the CD in the original stereo format.

I knew this man and this album represents his excursions in musicand in his life...colorful and expressive. He brought his "Innovations" symphony orchestra tothe Bradley University fieldhouse and set the Jazz lovers of central Illinois in orbit! This CD is onealbum that would probably describethe musical genius of Stan the manas much as any other.

When I was a Senior in Oak Ridge Hi School, Stan Kenton came to Whittle Springs in Knoxville! All of the Hood, Dolan & Hamrick Crew wished to hear such an Awesome Band of 5 humongeous Saxes, 5 tremendous Trombones plus 5 Reknown Hi-floating Trumpets! They also included Eddie Safranski as Bassist & Shelly Mannes as the Drummer par-excellance! That was the original sound of the Late 1940's. The most awesome, ad-libbing, creative, outstanding to say the least, likely the most Melifilous, Tremendous Crew ever to be assembled.

Upon hearing Jazz played in the late 40's, unlike this sound of today's CD of KENTON HI-FI we missed that super digital stereo update of "Artistry in Rhythm, Colaboration, Painted Rhythm, and Peanut Vendor with the different Trombones: Carl Fontana, Milt Berhart, alongside Hi-floating Trumpets like Pete Candoli and Maynard Fergusion! The great arrangements of Stan Kenton & Pete Rugolo leave an indescribable taste for hearing all of the fine-tuned transitions between Saxophone Sections and the Brass Men, blowing the roof-off with their screaming Hi-tones above those Latin-American Percussion rhythms.

Needless to add more of this perspective from my 50yr history of being immersed in Church and Classical Music, into becoming once again...An old Jazz Student as today's Church Musician! Retired Chap Fred W Hood

This was the first Kenton album that I ever owned and it still has a special place in my heart. How could you ask for more swinging tunes than "Intermission Riff" or "Eager Beaver". Great solos by Musso, Noto, Candoli, Ferguson and a young Lennie Neihaus. If you can own only one Kenton album, this is it!

The CD version of this album was the first time I'd heard it. Musically, it's a set of re-recordings of his best-known songs from earlier years, with a stellar cast of musicians.

One thing I wanted to point out (hence my review), is that this album is, for the most part, a reissue of the monaural version of the album. While I would have preferred the stereo version, the mono is actually the better sounding of the two. I own both the stereo and mono versions of the LPs, and it has been interesting to compare the two. On the mono LP, the mix is a lot tighter and more cohesive; the bass, especially, is balanced well with the big band. On the stereo version, the mix is indeed wider, but due to poor microphone placement, a lot of the instruments are not balanced well, and the bass line is very faint.

In those early stereo days, Capitol engineers would have set up two different microphone configurations and run them to two different recorders: being more familiar with monaural recording techniques, the mono recording sounds a lot better. On the stereo version, a few imbalances were evident, and they were not too aware of phase cancellations back then either. And it was also common practice to run the stereo mixes through the reverb chamber--many early Capitol stereo recordings were loaded up with too much reverb. (Check out "Viva Kenton" on LP, in its muddy, overly-reverbed mix, and compare it to the newly remixed version that is now available on CD. The LP is so congested with reverb, you never really hear the big band as it was originally recorded.)

You can actually compare stereo vs. on this "Kenton in Hi-Fi" CD by comparing the two versions of "Minor Riff": these are actually the versions from the mono and stereo ("alternate take") albums respectively. The stereo version is also shorter. Reason? Back then, they could not cut as much time onto the side of an LP in stereo as they could in mono. For that reason, not only was "Minor Riff" a shorter take on the stereo album, the stereo album also omits "Southern Scandal".

Ideally, this could have been reissued with both the mono and stereo versions of the album on it, but other than "Minor Riff", which uses a shorter arrangement, the songs are otherwise identical.

This is a must have compilation of music by Stan Kenton and his band. It is a good start in collecting his (their) music.

I am a great Stan Kenton fan and it is very difficult to find high quality CD's that have been remastered to surround sound. Many of Kenton's recordings were cut in the 40's before HiFi was born. I do wish you would annotate in your shopping list if the CD has been remastered or the original cut. I do appreciate doing business with you. You have good prices and you do exactly what you say you will do. Glad your around Amazon.
Bill Breedlove