''Stan Kenton's Milestones'' is an album by pianist and bandleader
Stan Kenton
Stanley Newcomb Kenton (December 15, 1911 – August 25, 1979) was an American popular music and jazz artist. As a pianist, composer, arranger and band leader, he led an innovative and influential jazz orchestra for almost four decades. Though K ...
compiling performances recorded between 1943 and 1947 and originally collected on the
Capitol
A capitol, named after the Capitoline Hill in Rome, is usually a legislative building where a legislature meets and makes laws for its respective political entity.
Specific capitols include:
* United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.
* Numerous ...
label as a 10-inch LP in 1950 then reissued as a 12-inch LP with additional tracks in 1955.Vosbein, P Stan Kenton Discography accessed April 15, 2016Watts, R., Edwards, D., Eyries, P. and Callahan, M accessed April 15, 2016
Reception
The
Allmusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
review by Scott Yanow said "This music is essential in one form or another" and noted "These performances are still exciting a half-century later".
Track listing
All compositions by Stan Kenton except where noted.
# "Artistry in Rhythm" - 3:20
# "Eager Beaver" - 3:11
# "Collaboration" (Pete Rugolo, Stan Kenton) - 2:41
# "
The Peanut Vendor
"El manisero", known in English as "The Peanut Vendor", is a Cuban son- pregón composed by Moisés Simons. Together with "Guantanamera", it is arguably the most famous piece of music created by a Cuban musician. "The Peanut Vendor" has been record ...
Dorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker (née Rothschild; August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967) was an American poet, writer, critic, and satirist based in New York; she was known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th-century urban foibles.
From a conflicted and unhap ...
) - 2:47 Additional track on 12 inch LP
*Recorded at C.P. MacGregor Studios in Hollywood, CA on November 19, 1943 (tracks 1 & 2), at
Radio Recorders
Radio Recorders, Inc. was an American recording studio located in Los Angeles, California. During the 1940s and 1950s, Radio Recorders was one of the largest independent recording studios in the world. Notable musicians recorded at Radio Recorder ...
in Hollywood, CA on October 30, 1945 (track 9), January 14, 1946 (track 7), July 26, 1946 (track 8), February 28, 1947 (tracks 3 & 11) and September 25, 1947 (track 10) and at RKO-Pathé Studios, NYC on December 6, 1947 (track 4), December 22, 1947 (track 5 & 6)
Personnel
*
Stan Kenton
Stanley Newcomb Kenton (December 15, 1911 – August 25, 1979) was an American popular music and jazz artist. As a pianist, composer, arranger and band leader, he led an innovative and influential jazz orchestra for almost four decades. Though K ...
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piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...
Alfred "Chico" Alvarez
Alfred "Chico" Alvarez (February 3, 1920 – August 1, 1992) was a Canadian jazz trumpeter with the Stan Kenton Orchestra and other bands.
Life
Alvarez was born in Montreal, grew up in Southern California. Upon graduation of high school, he at ...
(tracks 3, 4, 6, 8, 10 & 11), John Anderson (tracks 3, 7-9 & 11), Ray Borden (tracks 1 & 2), Russ Burgher (tracks 7 & 9), John Carroll (tracks 1 & 2), Buddy Childers (tracks 1-4 & 6-11), Karl George (tracks 1 & 2),
Ken Hanna
Kenneth Lucien Hanna (July 8, 1921 - December 10, 1982) was an American jazz trumpeter, arranger, composer, and bandleader, best known for his work with Stan Kenton. Hired in 1942 by Kenton to add commercial arrangements to the library, he also ...
(tracks 3, 4, 6, 8, 10 & 11), Bob Lymperis (tracks 7 & 9), Dick Morse (tracks 1 & 2), Al Porcino (tracks 4, 6 & 10),
Ray Wetzel
Ray Wetzel (September 22, 1924 – August 17, 1951) was an American jazz trumpeter. Critic Scott Yanow described him as "greatly admired by his fellow trumpeters".
Career
Wetzel played lead trumpet for Woody Herman from 1943 to 1945 and for St ...
(tracks 3, 4 & 6-11) -
trumpet
The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...
*
Milt Bernhart
Milt Bernhart (May 25, 1926 – January 22, 2004) was a West Coast jazz trombonist who worked with Stan Kenton, Frank Sinatra, and others. He supplied the solo in the middle of Sinatra's 1956 recording of '' I've Got You Under My Skin'' conducted ...
(tracks 3-6, 10 & 11),
Eddie Bert
Edward Joseph Bertolatus (May 16, 1922 – September 27, 2012), also known as Eddie Bert, was an American jazz trombonist.
Music career
He was born in Yonkers, New York, United States. Bert received a degree and a teaching license from the Manha ...
(tracks 4-6 & 10),
Harry Betts
Harry Betts (September 15 1922 – July 13 2012) was an American jazz trombonist.
Background
Born in New York and raised in Fresno, California, he was active as a jazz trombonist and played with Stan Kenton's orchestra in the 1950s. He can be hea ...
(tracks 4-6 & 10), George Faye (tracks 1 & 2), Harry Forbes (tracks 1-6, 8, 10 & 11), Milt Kabak (tracks 7 & 9), Ray Klein (track 7), Skip Layton (tracks 3 & 11), Jimmy Simms (track 9), Miff Sines (track 8), Kai Winding (tracks 3, 8 & 11), Freddie Zito (tracks 7 & 9) -
trombone
The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate ...
*Bart Varsalona - bass trombone
*Al Anthony (tracks 7-9), Eddie Meyers (tracks 1-3 & 11),
Boots Mussulli
Henry "Boots" Mussulli (November 18, 1915 in Milford, Massachusetts – September 23, 1967 in Norfolk, Massachusetts) was an Italian-American jazz saxophonist, based chiefly out of Boston.
According to the Social Security files, he was born in ...
(tracks 3, 7-9 & 11), Frank Pappalardo (track 10), Art Pepper (tracks 1, 2, 4 & 6), George Weidler (tracks 4, 6 & 10) - alto saxophone
*Maurice Beeson (tracks 1 & 2), Bob Cooper (tracks 3, 4 & 6-11), Red Dorris (tracks 1 & 2),
Vido Musso
Vido William Musso (January 16, 1913 – January 9, 1982) was an American jazz saxophonist.
Biography
Musso moved with his family from Sicily to the U.S. in July 1920, having arrived at the Port of New York on the Italian steamship ''Patria''. T ...
tenor saxophone
The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while ...
Laurindo Almeida
Laurindo Almeida (September 2, 1917 – July 26, 1995) was a Brazilian guitarist and composer in classical, jazz, and Latin music. He and Bud Shank were pioneers in the creation of bossa nova. Almeida was the first guitarist to receive Gra ...
(tracks 4-6 & 10) -
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...
*
Eddie Safranski
Eddie Safranski (December 25, 1918 – January 10, 1974) was an American jazz double bassist, composer and arranger who worked with Stan Kenton. He also worked with Tony Bennett, Charlie Barnet, Benny Goodman and Bobby Darin. From 1946 to 1953 h ...
Shelly Manne
Sheldon "Shelly" Manne (June 11, 1920 – September 26, 1984) was an American jazz drummer. Most frequently associated with West Coast jazz, he was known for his versatility and also played in a number of other styles, including Dixieland, sw ...
(tracks 3-11), Joe Vernon (tracks 1 & 2) - drums
*
Jack Costanzo
Jack Costanzo (September 24, 1919 – August 18, 2018) was an American percussionist.
Biography
A composer, conductor and drummer, Costanzo is best known for having been a bongo player, and was nicknamed "Mr. Bongo". He visited Havana three ...
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bongos
Bongos ( es, bongó) are an Afro-Cuban percussion instrument consisting of a pair of small open bottomed hand drums of different sizes. They are struck with both hands, most commonly in an eight-stroke pattern called ''martillo'' (hammer). The ...
(tracks 4-6 & 10)
*
René Touzet
René Touzet y Monte (September 8, 1916 in Havana, Cuba – June 15, 2003 in Miami, Florida) was a Cuban-born American composer, pianist and bandleader.
Career as bandleader
Living in the city of Cojimar, he learned classical piano from the ag ...
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maracas
A maraca (), sometimes called shaker or chac-chac, is a rattle which appears in many genres of Caribbean and Latin music. It is shaken by a handle and usually played as part of a pair.
Maracas (from Guaraní ), also known as tamaracas, were ...
(track 4)
*Stan Kenton (tracks 1, 2, 8 & 9), Ken Hanna (track 11),
Pete Rugolo
Pietro "Pete" Rugolo (December 25, 1915 – October 16, 2011) was an American jazz composer, arranger and record producer.
Life and career
Rugolo was born in San Piero Patti, Sicily. His family emigrated to the United States in 1920 and settle ...