Kenton '76

Newman, Peter C. "Record Review: Kenton '76 / Journey to Capricorn / Live in Europe." High Fidelity Apr. 1977: 145.

Kenton '76. Robert Curnow, producer. Creative World ST 1076. $6.50.

Stan Kenton: Journey to Capricorn. Stan Kenton, executive producer. Creative World ST ST 1077, $6.50.

Stan Kenton—Live in Europe. Ray Few, producer Decca/London SP 44276, $6.98. Tape: SP5 442 76, SP8 44276, $7.95.

These three albums are testimony to Kenton’s unflagging musical integrity. At sixty-five, he is the Billy Graham of jazz, proselytizing from his chartered bus at one-night stands beneath the floodlights. On “Kenton ’76,” he turns Sondheim’s Send in the Clowns into an evocative musical statement about the values of our society and My Funny Valentine into a pseudo-symphonic tone poem. ‘"Journey to Capricorn” includes Hank Levy’s Time for a Change, Decoupage, and Journey to Capricorn. Here the band band skids along in velvet virtuosity punctuated by yelps of passion from Tim Hagan’s trumpet and Terry Lane’s saxophone. In Pegasus, Levy combines 6/8 and 3 /4 time signatures to lift the Kenton sound to its ultimate potential. Only in Bill Holman's Tiburon (“Kenton ’76”) and Alan Yankee's arrangement of Chick Corea’s Celebration Suite (“Journey”) does the orchestra sound disoriented and uncertain of its territory.

The best of the albums is “Stan Kenton—Live in Europe,” recorded at an Amsterdam concert in the fall of 1976. The band sounds relaxed and free, its swirl of tonal colors adding new dimensions to such standards as I’m Glad There Is You and My Old Flame. Dick Shearer’s solo on Love for Sale clearly establishes him as one of the best jazz trombonists in captivity. The band leans heavily on Maurice Ravel for the Bolero-like extravaganza, Fire and Ice, but quickly redeems itself with Tattooed Lady, an Alan Yankee original that documents tonal progressions lacking in much of rock. A magnificent version of Billy Strayhorn’s haunting Lush Life completes the set.

This is vintage Kenton. But unlike his early, pretentious efforts, these recordings reflect the joy of a man who has not only survived, but grown. Stan Kenton a his best is now playing music as purely pleasurable as any. PETER C. NEWMAN

"Record Review: Kenton '76." Jazz Journal Dec. 1976: 32.