Stanley Newcomb Kenton was an American popular music and jazz artist. As a pianist, composer, arranger and band leader, he led an innovative and influential jazz orchestra for almost four decades. Though Kenton had several pop hits from the early 1940s into the 1960s, his music was always forward-looking. Kenton was also a pioneer in the field of jazz education, creating the Stan Kenton Jazz Camp in 1959 at Indiana University.
Helen Merrill is an American jazz vocalist. Her first album, the eponymous 1954 recording Helen Merrill, was an immediate success and associated her with the first generation of bebop jazz musicians. After an active 1950s and 1960s, Merrill spent time recording and touring in Europe and Japan, falling into obscurity in the United States. In the 1980s and 1990s, she was recorded by EmArcy, JVC and Verve, and her performances in America revived her profile. Known for her emotional, sensual vocal performances, she continues to perform today, her career now in its sixth decade of concerts and recordings.
Milton "Shorty" Rogers was an American jazz musician, one of the principal creators of West Coast jazz. He played trumpet and flugelhorn and was in demand for his skills as an arranger.
June Christy was an American singer, known for her work in the cool jazz genre and for her silky smooth vocals. Her success as a singer began with The Stan Kenton Orchestra. She pursued a solo career from 1954 and is best known for her debut album Something Cool. After her death, she was hailed as "one of the finest and most neglected singers of her time."
Richard Aaron Katz was an American jazz pianist, arranger and record producer. He freelanced throughout much of his career, and worked in a number of ensembles. He co-founded Milestone Records in 1966 with Orrin Keepnews.
Paul Thatcher Smith was an American jazz pianist. He performed in various genres of jazz, most typically bebop, but is best known as an accompanist of singers, especially Ella Fitzgerald.
Ann Richards was an American pop and jazz singer. She was the second wife of bandleader Stan Kenton. She had a short career in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Samuel Koontz Donahue was an American jazz saxophonist, trumpeter, and musical arranger. He performed with Gene Krupa, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Billy May, Woody Herman, and Stan Kenton.
Will Friedwald is an American author and music critic. He has written for newspapers that include the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Village Voice, Newsday, New York Observer, and New York Sun – and for magazines that include Entertainment Weekly, Oxford American, New York, Mojo, BBC Music Magazine, Stereo Review, Fi, and American Heritage.
Willis Leonard Holman, known professionally as Bill Holman, is an American composer, arranger, conductor, saxophonist, and songwriter working in jazz and traditional pop. His career is over seven decades long, having started with the Charlie Barnet orchestra in 1950.
Something Cool is the debut solo album by June Christy, released on Capitol Records first as a 10-inch LP of seven selections in September of 1954, and then as a 12-inch LP of eleven selections the following year, both times in monophonic sound. The original seven selections for the 1954 release were recorded over seven sessions from August of 1953 through March of 1954, with the additional four for the 1955 issue from four additional sessions in December of 1954 as well as May and June of 1955, with arrangements for all sessions written and conducted by Pete Rugolo. Her saxophonist husband, Bob Cooper, also played on many of these sessions. In April of 1960, Christy and Rugolo re-recorded all 11 selections in stereophonic sound, so that a stereo version of Something Cool could be issued. For many years, this re-recorded version of the album was the only one commercially available.
Cuban Fire! is an album by Stan Kenton and his orchestra released in 1956 by Capitol Records. This was Stan Kenton's big band's first full-length recording of Afro-Cuban-styled music. The LP charted for four weeks in Billboard starting on September 15, 1956, peaking at #17. The concept of the original 1956 recording centers on the Cuban Fire! suite Kenton had commissioned from composer Johnny Richards. The 1991 CD re-issue is augmented with one extra track from the 1956 sessions and five cuts recorded four years later by the first of Kenton's mellophonium orchestras.
Adventures in Jazz is an album by the Stan Kenton Orchestra, recorded in late 1961 but not released until about a year later in November 1962. The album won a Grammy Award in the category for Best Jazz Performance – Large Group (Instrumental) category in 1963. This would be Kenton's second Grammy honor in as many years, the first being Kenton's West Side Story winning the Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album in 1962. Adventures In Jazz was also nominated for Best Engineered recording for the 1963 Grammys. The 1999 CD re-issue of Adventures In Jazz is augmented with two alternate takes from the original recording sessions and one track from Kenton's release Sophisticated Approach.
Kenton's West Side Story is an album by the Stan Kenton Orchestra recorded in 1961 and released by Capitol Records. It won the Grammy Award in 1962 for Best Jazz Performance – Large Group (Instrumental). The album was recorded in 1961 and released quickly to take advantage of the movie premiere of the musical West Side Story. Kenton won his first Grammy Award and he won again the next year in the same category with Adventures in Jazz. Kenton's West Side Story peaked at No. 16 on the Billboard magazine album chart.
Sketches on Standards is an album by pianist and bandleader Stan Kenton featuring performances of jazz standards recorded in 1953 and originally released on the Capitol label as a 10-inch LP.
Kenton Live from the Las Vegas Tropicana is a live album by bandleader and pianist Stan Kenton featuring a concert recorded at the Blue Room of the Tropicana Hotel in 1958 and released on the Capitol label.
Adventures in Blues is an album by the Stan Kenton Orchestra featuring compositions by Gene Roland recorded in late 1961 and released by Capitol Records in 1963.
Adventures in Time is an album by the Stan Kenton Orchestra featuring compositions by Johnny Richards recorded in 1962 and released by Capitol Records.
This One's for Tedi is a studio album by American jazz vocalist Johnny Hartman, released in 1985 by Audiophile Records. It was his final studio recording, made in August 1980, three years before his death. The album is dedicated to Hartman's wife Theodora (Tedi). According to producer George H. Buck Jr., This One's for Tedi "was the first digital recording to be made in Canada."
Joseph P. Lippman was an American composer, arranger, conductor, pianist, and songwriter working in jazz and traditional pop. His musical career was over five decades long, having started at age 19 with the Benny Goodman orchestra in 1934 and writing for television, films, and Broadway in the 1980s. He composed and arranged for Bunny Berigan, Jimmy Dorsey, Sarah Vaughan, Charlie Parker and worked as staff arranger in television for Perry Como and Hollywood Palace.
