The Kenton Touch

STAN KENTON presents his glowing Portraits in Strings…twelve stirring theme’s by Stan and his ablest abettor, Pete Rugolo. They provide an unusual and dynamic mood concert that features a score of strings, trombone choir, plus top solo instrumentalists.

The influence Stan Kenton has had on contemporary musical thinking is tremendous; it stretches from composers of symphonies in Europe to writers of mood and movie music. His personal contributions have ranged from a most uninhibited kind of jazz to stately tone poems. The themes employed here are by Kenton and by his early protege Pete Rugolo, now a ranking composer in his own right. All the music was arranged by Rugolo, always a flawless Kenton interpreter. The voicings are balanced between a bank of twenty strings and a choir of trombones led by the incomparable Milt Bernhart. Also heard are guitarist Laurindo Almeida, percussionist Shelly Manne, bassist Red Mitchell, plus other leading musicians. As has been true of past Kenton recordings, there is strong thematic material in these selections, yet the stronger passions are portrayed here by soft instrumental voices. This is mood music, but not the frothy sort—mood music with meat on its bones. These are the selections, and together they provide a pleasing, variety within a grand unity of mood.

side one:

SALUTE indicates immediately what a splendid combination of instrumented sounds Kenton has made… how grand the possibilities. The symphonic-like opening strains are as wide as a theater screen, moonlit and tropical in flavor. A solo trombone rises, grave and restrained; behind. the soft burst and rustle of Latinish percussion and plucked strings, glinting like dark jewelry. There is a return to the lovely legato before the trombone returns for a final statement of the haunting theme.

MONOTONY finds the flute opening, softly, slowly, and a little wistfully, with a chink of bells in the distance. The strings and trombones alternately state the dark lines of the melody while behind, the monotonous backline pounds, relentless as surf, building in intensity as the song moves on.

ELEGY FOR ALTO has served as a vehicle for several Kenton sidemen but it has never been treated more sensitively than it is here. The strings and trombones join to set the scene and the alto appears. pensive and plaintive. The moody, reedy sound of the saxophone seems almost to float on the lovely backlines and a sense of quiet and beauty sustains throughout.

THEME FOR SUNDAY is the longest of the initial side's selections, allowing room for some subtle, unhurried variations of the theme. Stan's piano is heard in concerto-like passages, playing simple. almost stark lines. There"s a descriptive quality to this work, as if depicting an actual Sunday—cairn, a bit lonely, with emotion and drama just below the surface. With the flute sticking close to them the strings move, now soothing and sweet now restless, to a late climax, then settle to a quiet close.

BALLADE FOR DRUMS opens with a unison of dark, low sounds and then the drums seem to come from everywhere. percussive but calm, twinkling in every tone color against the rich cloth of the moving melodic lines. The problem of combining seemingly contradictory elements is beautifully resolved in this selection.

side two:

MINOR RIFF has a Moorish mood here, a mood not evidenced in earlier versions of this Kenton classic. Everyone—the trombones. grouped and single strings, even the tympani—has a shot at staling the simply noted theme, expanding it as he goes. Guitar and flute break through to the surface briefly as well in this compact, profound performance.

THE END OF THE WORLD is a daytime song, not nocturnal sounding like most of these others, and not cataclysmic at all as its title might imply. Actually, its mood might seem to suggest the “ends of the earth” to which fairy tale princes used to go to win their damsels. This pretty ballad is the result of a collaboration between Rugolo and Steve Allen.

OPUS IN CHARTREUSE displays tall, graceful lines at first, but then a great deal of tumbling interplay and interweaving takes over with violins against basses and with all strings against trombones, with the flute falling in where it can. A bit of tasteful guitar is beautiful and then a lively beat takes over, and, for a time, something like a dancing tempo is established. But then the interplay returns and at the last all subsides to calmness.

PAINTED RHYTHM but little resembles its earlier versions and like all these selections suggests nothing so much as a jazz ballet danced appealingly. dreamily under water. The soft flute weaves magic over blends of strings and horns, leaving a pattern like that left by a quiet hand trailed through water. Toward the end groups and soloists build toward bigger statements, but as usual, everything resolves itself at last to pleasant ripples and reflections.

A ROSE FOR DAVID mixes its area and pizzicato much more freely than Mr. Rose is wont to do, skipping then sliding, running then gliding, like a dancer on skates. A most attractive and winning little tribute to the “Holiday for Strings” sort of thing, more importantly it serves to demonstrate that an album can have both a unity of mood and a pleasing multiplicity.