Encores

♪ ♪ Chorale for Brass, Piano, and Bongos
♪ ♪ ♪ Abstraction
♪ ♪ ♪ Somnambulism
♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Capitol Punishment
♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ He's Funny That Way
♪ ♪ ♪ Peg O' My Heart

This album turns out to be a sort of combination of Stan's Artistry in Rhythm and Progressive Jazz books though it's apparent that this developed more from convenience than intent. This is a collection of odd sides from Capitol’s unreleased store of Kentonia and at least two of the sides and probably a third were made by the old band.

This is merely a commentary and in no sense a complaint, for the old band which, while not as superhip as his 1948 edition, had many elements that appealed more to Kenton devotees than those of the later date. The Chorale to these ears is the weakest side of the lot.

Piano and bongos occupy about half of the wax and merely kick a riff or two around in an annoyingly desultory fashion until rescued by the more interesting works of the brass. Abstraction is well-named and typical of the surrealistics of the band of this and last year. It, too, spots bongos, some nifty bass fiddling by Safranski, and Weidler's wailing alto.

Somnambulism, as a study of musical trig, is intensely interesting but is rather dreary and depressing in mood. It's a Ken Hanna score. Punishment is a gutty, strident bopper a good deal on the order of the, you will pardon the expression, Metronome Riff side the band cut last year. It's an old band side with a wonderful Boots Mussulli alto solo and some fine Kai Winding trombone.

The human voice that acts as an accessory to the brass in the final screamer is exhibitionistic, to be sure, but marvelously effective. Funny is probably an old side and is the only Christy vocal in the group. The high rating is as much for the fine Rugolo score as it is for Miss Christy. He really knows how to orchestrate reeds in a vocal chorus.

Peg is the final old band side with Stan's piano, Vido Musso's gone but not forgotten splashy tone and relaxed improvising and Winding's trombone. Pete Rugolo did all the manuscripts except Somnambulism, and each reaffirms the fact that he is one of the top arrangers in the country. (Capitol album CC-113.)

Tom Herrick. "Record Review. Stan Kenton Encores." Down Beat. 25 March 1949: 14.

STAN KENTON ENCORES—Stan Kenton—(3-10”)
Capitol CC-113

Rating 80 out of 100

Peg O’ My Heart; Chorale for Brass, Piano and Bongo; He's Funny That Way; Abstraction; Somnambulism; Capitol Punishment.

Kenton’s albums have proven to be rather sensational sellers for the kind of music they had to offer. On that ground alone this package has enough to stand up alongside earlier editions. It’s a collection of unrelated sides which vary in age from one to three years on the shelf. The oldest is the “Peg O’ My heart” side which spots Vido Musso’s tenor. This is a comparatively simple item but there should be plenty controversy to be found in the “Abstraction” and Somnambulism” sides. June Christy is represented with a neat “He’s Funny That Way” chant. The album is draped in one of the capitol firm’s most imaginative and striking covers.

JUKES “Funny That Way” is only suitable side.

JOCKS Fine fare for spinners.

Peg O’ My Heart B
Chorale for Brass, Piano and Bongo B
He's Funny That Way C+
Abstraction B –
Capitol Punishment B
Somnambulism B

Capitol has scraped the bottom of the Kenton barrel and come up with an album of sides that might never have been released if the band had continued recording. Strangely enough, these sides, to us at least, are some of the best Stan has recorded. Peg is one of the old ones, as evidenced by the presence of Vido Musso and Kai Winding. Opening with some piano that doesn’t sound like Stan's usual tentative efforts, it goes on to some wheezing Vido, a booting Winding solo full of glisses and roars, some low Safranski bowing that gives a pleasant effect, lots of drum fill-ins and brass smears. “The band almost swings on this,” says Barry. The Chorale is a fresh side, written by Stan and Pete Rugolo for recent concert dates. It opens with a bongo and piano follow-the-leader routine out of Debussy which causes the anti-bongo Ulanov to state: “This has some of the effect that a rhythm instrument might have in a serious composition where it’s used for tonal contrast and not only for rhythmic effect.” The side is beautifully recorded, the trombones achieve a lovely sound, punctuated by the trumpets, the mood is slightly Rhapsody in Bluish. Judging by the airplane effects, Funny is from the band's “middle” period (about 1946), weakest side in the album because of the poor Christy vocal. Abstraction is by Stan and Pete again, one of the recent sides that sounds as though it followed the Chorale in context. It features the keening alto of George Weidler and was recorded with six rhythm instruments, a Spanish beat vying with a kind of military drumming. The side is in the somewhat disconnected Kenton-Rugolo modern style and might have been written as movie music for an old-time Western Tale of the Santa Fe Trail, the brass section representing the Army coming to the rescue. Capitol Punishment is How High the Moon, another old side featuring Boots Mussulli, and Kai in characteristic solos. But the outstanding noises are from trombonist Skip Layton who swings the entire brass section with his high trumpetlike wails that are nevertheless controlled and in tune. Somnambulism is by Ken Hanna, sometime trμmpeter in the band, who was too busy playing to write much but whose effort here is pronounced the best side in the album by Deuce Simon, though Deuce U. calls it “very aptly titled.” It has a kind of Prelude in C# Minor feeling and features Weidler again, plus the blowsy trombone of Milt Bernhardt.

With this album, Capitol has sent Stan off with a bang (his own) and with the tacit title of the Dali of Jazz: a surrealistic cover features red, and blue arms and hands in a bleak setting, with a small Stan, in batoning pose, disappearing.

Simon, George T, and Barry Ulanov. "Record Review. Stan Kenton Encores." Metronome, March 1949: 37.