Stan Kenton discography [1950-2006]

Stan Kenton, byname of Stanley Newcomb Kenton, (born Feb. 19, 1912, Wichita, Kan., U.S.—died Aug. 25, 1979, Los Angeles), American jazz bandleader, pianist, and composer who commissioned and promoted the works of many modern composer-arrangers and thrust formal education and big-band jazz together into what became the stage (or concert) band movement of the 1960s and ’70s, involving thousands of high school and college musicians.

Kenton was responsible for the “progressive jazz” label that some mistake for all modern jazz and some use to identify all Kenton-linked jazz. Some critics place his music in the “cool jazz” category and, being based in California, many of his players—including Shorty Rogers, Bill Perkins, and Shelly Manne—were identified with West Coast jazz, a subcategory of cool jazz. 

Gene Krupa - Drummin' Man (Quadromania, 1938-1949) (4 CD, 2005/FLAC)

This Quadromania box set has the best recordings by Gene Krupa's big band. All of the drummer's hits are here including "Drummin' Man," "Drum Boogie," "Bolero at the Savoy," "Let Me Off Uptown," "Rockin' Chair," "After You've Gone," "Leave Us Leap," "Body and Soul," "Opus #1" and "Disc Jockey Jump." In addition to Krupa, the stars on these often-classic swing sides include trumpeter Roy Eldridge, singer Anita O'Day, altoist Charlie Kennedy and tenorman Charlie Ventura among others. Since this was the definitive Krupa set, it is a pity that Columbia has not reissued all of the music intact on CD yet.  

 

Grant Green & Baby Face Willette - Trio/Quartet - Complete Recordings (2 CD, 2014/FLAC)

 Digitally re-mastered two CD set containing all of Grant Green and Baby Face Willette's collaborative albums as leaders. Recorded in 1961-62, they consist of the LP GRANT'S FIRST STAND, issued under the guitarist's name, and Baby Face Willette's albums FACE TO FACE and STOP AND LISTEN. Other than their three LPs as leaders, Green and Willette only recorded together on Lou Donaldson's album HERE 'TIS, from which we have added the title song, a long blues, as a bonus.

 

Kid Ory - The Complete Verve Sessions (8 CD, 1999/FLAC)

 Kid Ory is known best for the work he did in the mid-1920s with the men who had once been his employees. Many essential King Oliver recordings feature Ory, and he is perhaps most famous as the trombone voice on Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five sessions. Ory’s ensemble playing on “Struttin’ with Some Barbecue” would be enough, by itself, to earn Ory pride of place among tailgate trombonists.

Come the Depression, Ory hung up his horn and went to work on a chicken farm outside of Los Angeles. Later, he found employment in a railroad office. It wasn’t until 1942 that Ory got back into the music business: His career enjoyed a renaissance starting in 1944 when Orson Welles hired the pioneering trombonist to lead a band for his radio broadcasts.

By the mid-’50s, when Ory started recording for Norman Granz at Verve, Ory’s second blooming was in full flower. He was touring Europe and the United States to packed houses. Audiences in France were so enthusiastic that Ory supposedly mistook their exuberance for aggression-he thought he was being jeered when he was actually being cheered. A recording of that night’s performance opens the Mosaic set, and in that hyper-charged atmosphere one will hear the closest Ory comes to the sort of raw rowdiness that is typical of so many trad trombonists today.

• Kid Ory - trombone, vocals
• J.C. Higginbotham, Jack Teagarden - trombone
• Alvin Alcorn, Red Allen, Teddy Buckner, Andrew Blakeney - trumpet
• Phillip Gomez, Buster Bailey, Caughey Roberts, Robert McCracken - clarinet
• Cedric Haywood, Claude Hopkins, Lionel Reason, Bob Van Eps - piano
• Wellman Braud, Frank Haggerty - guitar
• Johnny St. Cyr - banjo, guitar
• Arvell Shaw, Charles Oden, Morty Corb, Bob Boyack - bass
• Kansas Fields, Earl Watkins, Jesse Sailes, Alton Redd, Doc Cenardo - drums

 

Louis Armstrong - The Complete Hot Five and Hot Seven Recordings, Vol. 1 - 3 (3 CD, 2003/FLAC)

 

Louis Armstrong compilation of early work, recorded between 12 November 1925 through 23 June 1926. Released 22 April 2003 on Columbia/Legacy label, catalog# 86999, US.

Legacy has seen fit - and rightfully so - to reissue the complete recordings of Louis Armstrong's Hot Five and Seven as individual volumes instead of just a box set. This is a solid way to go for collectors trying to fill holes. It's also the best way for a beginner, not only with Armstrong's music but that of early-recorded jazz, to become acquainted with the development of improvisation in the music. Volume 1 concentrates on the Hot Five material from 1925 and 1926. The first band included Armstrong, Kid Ory on trombone, Johnny Dodds on clarinet, pianist Lil Hardin, and banjo boss Johnny St. Cyr. These 20 recordings were made for the Okeh label. The blues model on which all of these tunes were based is extrapolated upon and remade in the image of first the ensemble and then in the image of the soloist. From "My Heart" and the amazing "Oriental Strut" to "Lonesome Blues," to "Come Back Sweet Papa," to the introduction of scat singing in Lil Hardin's "Skid-Dat-De Dat," the exuberance and professionalism just drip from these tunes. But notions of harmonic invention are also present, places where the soloist slips outside the changes and moves toward reaching a musical unity with the ensemble by whatever means necessary as long as it swung. The sound here is as good as it gets for the time, and after one or two listens, the hiss is barely recognizable. What's important is the fidelity of the music, and it's excellent.

McCoy Tyner & Freddie Hubbard Quartet - Live at Fabrik Hamburg 1986 (2022 Hi-Res FLAC)

 Live At Fabrik presents pianist McCoy Tyner's trio with bassist Avery Sharpe and drummer Louis Hayes and guest artist Freddie Hubbard on trumpet and flugelhorn. In actuality, Hubbard's power-packed presence transforms the unit into a co-led quartet, as the cover art acknowledges. The 2 x CD album is, in effect, the chronicle of a summit meeting between two giants of post-bop jazz—one of them, Hubbard, on the rebound from a fall from grace occasioned by his embrace of fusion in the 1970s, the other, Tyner, a bandleader who had never let his standards drop.

• Freddie Hubbard: trumpet
• McCoy Tyner: piano
• Avery Sharpe: bass
• Louis Hayes: drums.

 

Louis Armstrong - Columbia Jazz Masters Series Volumes 1-7, 1925-31 (1988-1993) [FLAC]

Originally released in LP format in 1961 as the 1st of 4 volumes compiling OKeh singles recorded by Louis Armstrong between 12 November 1925 through 12 December 1928, in chronological order. Columbia acquired OKeh Records in 1926, for its catalog of jazz and blues. Sony purchased Columbia in 1988 acquiring a broad catalog including jazz, pop, rock.

Louis Armstrong – The Hot Fives, Volume I 

Louis Armstrong – The Hot Fives & Hot Sevens, Volume II 

Louis Armstrong – The Hot Fives & Hot Sevens, Volume III 

Louis Armstrong – Volume 4 - Louis Armstrong And Earl Hines 

Louis Armstrong – Volume 5 - Louis In New York

Louis Armstrong – Vol. 6: St. Louis Blues 

Louis Armstrong – Volume 7 - You're Drivin' Me Crazy 

Brian Bromberg - A New Day (1986, 24-96 FLAC)

 Recorded October 1985 through June 1986 at Mad Hatter Recording Studios, Los Angeles

• Brian Bromberg - fretless & fretted electric & piccolo basses, keyboards, emulator II,drum machine
• Ernie Watts - tenor sax
• Alex Acuna - drums, percussion
• Freddie Hubbard - flugelhorn
• Joe Farrell - flute, tenor and soprano saxes
• Kei Akagi - keyboards, piano
• Guy Moon - keyboards
• Arthur Statman - keyboards
• Greg Armstrong - alto sax
• Carl Cherry - drums

Side 1
A1 - Summertime 4:37
A2 - Sunrise 6:24
A3 - Take A Walk In The Park With Me 7:05
A4 - Shana 5:30

Side 2
B1 - Mushy Tushy 6:00
B2 - It's A New Day 6:12
B3 - My Funny Valentine 6:04
B4 - Oriental Ho-Down 6:24 

Benny Goodman — The Complete Capitol Small Group Recordings Of Benny Goodman 1944-1955 (4 CD, 1993/FLAC)

 Benny Goodman took some stylistic chances during his 11-year tenure with Capitol. He listened closely to, then flirted with, bebop during this time, not altering his own swing-based playing but inserting it into a bop framework. He also played traditional swing in various small groups. The sessions covered on this most recent Mosaic four-disc (six-album) set were originally issued on a number of 10" and 12" albums, as well as the CDs BG in Hi Fi and The Benny Goodman Story, a Japanese issue. It shows Goodman mixing and matching idioms, retaining his own style and vision, and ultimately opting to return to the music he felt most comfortable making and playing. Despite some variation in sound quality caused by the music originally being issued on 16" acetate discs, the performance quality certainly compensates for it, and the discographical information and session histories are as exhaustive as possible. 

Abbey Lincoln - Through The Years [1956-2007] (3 CD, 2009/FLAC)

Anyone who has followed Abbey Lincoln’s career with any regularity understands that she has followed a fiercely individual path and has paid the cost for those choices. Through the Years is a cross-licensed, three-disc retrospective expertly compiled and assembled by the artist and her longtime producer, Jean-Philippe Allard. Covering more than 50 years in her storied career, it establishes from the outset that Lincoln was always a true jazz singer and unique stylist. Though it contains no unreleased material, it does offer the first true picture of he range of expression. Her accompanists include former husband Max Roach, Benny Carter, Kenny Dorham, Charlie Haden, Sonny Rollins, Wynton Kelly, Benny Golson, J.J. Johnson, Art Farmer, Stan Getz, and Hank Jones, to name scant few.