William F. Lee, Stan Kenton: Artistry in Rhythm, Ed. Creative Press

«This is the only authorized biography of bandleader Stan Kenton. It was begun in February, 1979, and is based on the tapes recorded by Kenton and Lee during that month, as well as the Kenton Archives in Ohio, exhaustive research covering Kenton‘s long professional career, and on hundreds of interviews, tapes and letters from persons who had been associated with Kenton during his immensely successful years in jazz.

Stan Kenton was perhaps the most controversial musician of the 1900s. In Scandinavia, he was called the American, Sibelius, In America, he was called a pompous fraud. He was a musician first, then an innovator, an experimenter, a businessman, an administrator, a developer of talent, and educator.

Few musicians have been more acclaimed, more deprecated, more honored and more misunderstood than Stan Kenton. Regardless, he left an enduring imprint on modern music.

La sua orchestra, fortemente caratterizzata da un particolare suono (Kenton Sound) sapiente e seducente (anche grazie alla collaborazione di diversi arrangiatori come Pete Rugolo, Lennie Niehaus, Gene Roland, Gerry Mulligan e lo sperimentatore Bob Graettinger) getta un ponte tra la musica jazz afro-americana e le acquisizioni raffinate e suggestive della musica colta del novecento. La sua orchestra si avvalse sempre di importanti personalità, ad esempio trombonisti, quali Frank Rosolino, Kai Winding e Carl Fontana, o alfieri del suono cool-newyorkese come Lee Konitz e Dave van Kriedt.