Unreleased Ballad Album

In 1961 Kenton took his jazz orchestra into the studio to record a series of new arrangements for his newly expanded instrumentation. In addition to the the 5 saxes, 5 trumpets, and 5 trombones, Kenton added a section of 4 mellophoniums. After two days of recording the project was scrapped. The band played a few of these charts in live performances, but none would ever make it back to the studio.

Two months later, Kenton took the band back to the studio and recorded 12 tracks for the album “The Romantic Approach.” Unlike the arrangements for the aborted session, these selections were shorter by half, featuring only one climax, rather than the two that the earlier ones had possessed.

Like most of Kenton’s output during these years, each arrangement follows the same formula. The same voicings are utilized throughout. The climaxes are loud and predictable, and are all the same: fat brass chords, saxes in 16th-note filigree, and the mellophoniums screeching too high to really do a good job.

The recordings sat on the shelf for the past 60 years, only heard by a select few. There are no plans to ever mix, master, and release this material by Capitol.

—TV