I'm in my early 80's and the opening strains of Malaguena still make the hairs on my arm stand on end. I first heard this fantastic band a couple times in the late 50's with my girlfriend (now my wife of 64+ years) while attending the University of Nebraska. One event was a concert while the other was at a dance hall and even there most people just stood and listened to the great "wall of sound" (which someone else coined) created by Kenton and his talented musicians. Kenton and his innovative sounds and band MAY be equaled but will never be bettered.
Alicia Goldstein Madison Scouts and every other jazz drum corps owes its entire existence to Stan Kenton. He invented the in-your-face wall of jazz sound that jazz corps imitate. As a professional musician who did corps as a kid, it is impossible to compare the skills of real professional musicians to practicing the same three songs all day every day for an entire summer.
Did Bill Holman ever get credit/money for the original arrangement that was redone as a Drum & Bugle arrangement? I mean sure, it was expanded and set to different instrumentation, but the Corps were still playing Bill Holman!
My introduction to Stan Kenton was in high school jazz band by our director, a huge Kenton fan. I was a sophomore tenor sax player going straight from junior high to the lead jazz band and the first piece I played was Hank Levy's Chiapas in 5/4. We grew into a band my senior year "that could turn goat piss into gasoline!" Along the way, we did a concert with a guest drummer, one of the director's old friends, Kenton drummer Jon "Baron" Von Ohlen. That last year we blew away every band in Indiana playing pieces from two radically different bands... Count Basie with "Tall Cotton" and Stan Kenton "Time for a Change." We won every solo category (me for sax) and every contest. It was a helluva year. I even skipped my senior prom to see Stan Kenton, meet him and talk to his tenor soloist, Roy Reynolds, whose solo I emulated. That was a thrill made more so because Stan died not too long after. Although our high school was the state marching champs both my junior and senior years we were in that transition from "show band" style to Drum Corps style. We beat out a show band one year and a corps style band the second. I was hooked on DCI after seeing my first competition which featured the Madison Scouts. But that's another story...
The Saxist on the right-hand end of the Sax Section is playing BASS SAX - he quickly switches to Baritone @4:55 to get ready for the next tune. STAN was all about => SOUND! ...And there's the inimitable DON MENZA in the Sax Section too - WOW (he solos @3:25). I'd like to know what YEAR this is.
That baritone/bass sax player is my friend Joel Kaye, who passed away in September. He was performing, writing, and leading his own band right up to the end. This video is from 1962.
This is the wall of sound, tower of power that today’s so called musicians can not do. To be in the audience at this kind of performance is exhilarating. There’s nothing like it. No rock concert can compare. These instruments have no electronics or amplifiers. It’s pure sound.
