Customer Reviews

Kenton's West Side Story

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Only creative collaboration of Johnny Richards and Stan Kenton could improve upon Bernstein's original West Side Story music. And did they! If you like Stan Kenton and the score from this classic musical, you'll love this album.

The instrumentation of each piece captures the emotion of the original. I am continually amazed at the intricate orchestration to produce a coherent sound. Kenton uses the mellophonium to maxiumum benefit, adding an almost vocal dimension to the music. Luckily, you can sample several of the pieces on line. They are among my favorites. Give them a listen.

This is one that ranks up there with the Beatles'"Abbey Road," Coltrane's "A Love Supreme," Brubeck's "Time Out," Sinatra At the Sands," etc., as one of the great albums of ANY genre!! Take a marvelous Bernstein score and give it to collaborators Stan Kenton and Johnnie Richards (who had previously scored BIG on "Cuban Fire") and you end up with a sum greater than the parts. The producers who brought "West Side Story" to the screen were heard to lament after hearing this album, "If we'd known about THIS at the time, THIS would have been the movie score!" Almost all of the score is heard, arranged for the famous "Mellophone Band," with featured soloists Gabe Baltazar, Conte Candoli, Bob Fitzpatrick, Dwight Carver, a percussion section anchored by drummer Jerry McKenzie (with George Acevedo, Mike Pacheco & Larry Bunker) and, of course, Stan. (You jazz and Kenton fans can see where THIS has to lead...). If you loved the show or the movie or just the MUSIC, you're okay here, too! This is just GREAT MUSIC. ( The three ballads, done with Richards' scoring for the mellophones up in the stratosphere, will make those little hairs stand up on the back of your neck, and are worth the price of the CD by themselves!!). All of the fire, fun, beauty and emotion of Leonard Bernstein's monumental creation are captured for the ages on this CD. But writing is BORING...LISTENING is ENJOYING!! (I'm sure not gifted enough to describe how great this sounds anyway...it would be like trying to describe a sunrise!). BUY THIS CD....if you don't agree it's magnificent, please have your hearing checked right away!!

Lovers of big band jazz and serious brass sections will truly enjoy this. You will recognize the melodies imediately, but you will be literally blown away by Kenton's orchestra. You won't hear the original soundtrack again without a small feeling of regret that these arrangements didn't make it into the movie...

Wow! This is one of the CD's that gets played almost daily! Crisp arrangements, great score, dynamite delivery. Very highly recommended.

This is absolutely one of the most innovative interpretations of an American classic you will ever hear. Even if you have no idea of the contribution of Stan Kenton, it is virtually impossible not to be thrilled with this recording. For fans of Kenton, fans of Bernstein or fans of band music this is a sure winner.

When I bought this record in 1965 my father said he would kill me if I played that record again. But I kept playing it over and over again. Only our neighbours didn't liked this record. The mellophonium section is 5 stars. Arrangements 5.5 stars and the whole band is heavenly. I still have the original Lp in MONO and Stereo and the Cd version. It's a shame Stan Kenton didn't lived untill he was 90.

If you want to hear Lenny Bernstein's score played as he composed it, this is not the CD to listen to. However, if you are a fan of big band swing music in general and Stan Kenton in particular, you will enjoy listening to this CD. Kenton's version of West Side Story is a free interpretation; arrangements, phrasing, and rhythms are altered to fit Kenton's exotic style. For example, the prologue from the opening scene is played with a relaxed shuffle beat, not the tense syncopated rhythms and phrasing that Bernstein intended. One does not tamper with a work of a genius without incurring the risk of degrading it. Fortunately, in this case, Kenton can be forgiven, because this is his band at its best.

My favorite track on this CD is Cool, a free interpretation which swings and rocks the rafters. I can listen to it again and again. Another hard-swinging track is Something's Coming.

Perhaps the world needed a refreshing new interpretation of West Side Story in 1961, when this CD was recorded. However, a half century after Lenny Bernstein composed his masterpiece, the listener may prefer to hear the music as the composer intended it to be played.

This is an absolutely stunning album. If you are "into" high-register trumpet playing, your jaw will be on the floor after the first shake in the Prologue. And then you realize that it was just a small, throwaway taste of what they can do. All the band sections are incredibly tight, including the trombones, saxes and drums, but it is the trumpets and mellophoniums that set the virtuoso standard for big-band jazz. Listen to the perfect pitch and the soulfulness of the mellophones in "Maria"...check out the mind-blowing extended shakes in "Cool"...the breakneck speed of "I Feel Pretty"...the way that, maybe to show off, the band twice covers a 4-octave rise at the end of "Officer Krupke." Folks, if you like your big band brass loud, fast, high, and difficult, this is the virtuoso pinnacle. The album benefits tremendously from the consistency of adapting a single musical work. Unlike many jazz arrangements, which keep only the chord changes after the melody is stated, this is always recognizably Bernstein - except even more muscular and hyped-up, and with space enough for some inspired solos.

I consider Cuban Fire the greatest Kenton album (also arranged by Johny Richards), and the early '50s Kenton's bands, with some all-time soloists, as the best set of years for any big band - but Kenton's West Side Story is the most stunning, "I can't believe I just heard that" of his albums.

This album received a Grammy Award in 1961 for the best big band jazz recording of the year. The producers of the motion picture of the same title, commented when they heard Johnny Richard's arrangements: "We had no idea. If only we'd known!". It's that good and would have definitely fitted well into the youth-based story.

I purchased the original LP on Capitol Records in January 1962. Kenton's West Side Story was originally recorded in September 1961. Playing the LP over and over and listening to the great Kenton Orchestra with arrangements by
Johnny Richards was a thrill to behold. Alas, the LP finally became worn and scratched.
I recently purchased Kenton's West Side Story remastered cd on amazon.com and was elated to hear the clarity and
fantastic performance that I had been missing on my LP playing on a 1960 Magnavox Stero system and later on my
components system.
Utilizing my Pioneer Audio-Video Receiver, Pioneer CD Player, and new MTX Speakers, I get to hear all the highs and
lows available. I consider Kenton's West Side Story to be the greatest achievement for the Kenton Orchestra.
I give this cd a 5 Star Plus rating. You will not be disappointed when you hear the great sounds on this cd.