1954 · Album
This Modern World
Recorded 1951-1953 · Capitol Records · Produced by Not specified in available sources
Robert Graettinger's Modernist Vision Through Kenton's Orchestra
Graettinger's compositions push Kenton's orchestra into territory most bandleaders would never attempt.
Robert Graettinger was the reason this album exists. Kenton could have recorded anybody's charts, but he chose to document Graettinger's work across these sessions, and the choice mattered. Graettinger wasn't a household name then or now, but he was writing things that made conventional big band arranging look small. His compositions for this record don't swing in any traditional sense. They're dense, awkward, dissonant in ways that big band music usually avoided. Kenton's orchestra plays them with precision, but precision doesn't make the music comfortable. It makes it stranger.
What Graettinger was doing in the early 1950s—layering polytonal harmonies, fragmenting melodies across the section, treating the orchestra like a concert ensemble rather than a dance band—wasn't fashionable. The sessions took place across two years, which suggests these weren't quick, easy dates. The band had to live with these charts, understand them, internalize them enough to execute them. That process shows in the recording. These aren't smooth performances. They're musicians wrestling with something genuinely difficult.
This album stands apart from Kenton's more commercial work. It's neither a hit record nor an afterthought. It's a bandleader giving serious space to a composer's vision, even when that vision refused to meet audiences halfway. That's worth hearing, especially if you want to know what ambitious big band music could sound like when nobody was worried about the dance floor.
Who's playing
Don Bagleydouble bass
George Robertsbass trombone
Stan Kentonpiano
Sal Salvadorguitar
Bart Caldarellitenor saxophone
Bob Coopertenor saxophone
Herb Gelleralto saxophone
Johnny Rotellabaritone saxophone
Bud Shankalto saxophone
Vinnie Deanalto saxophone
Bob Giogabaritone saxophone
Bill Holmantenor saxophone
Richie Kamucatenor saxophone
Lee Konitzalto saxophone
Conte Candolitrumpet
Pete Candolitrumpet
Buddy Childerstrumpet
Don Dennistrumpet
Maynard Fergusonsolo, trumpet
Ruben McFalltrumpet
Bobby Burgesstrombone
Keith Moontrombone
Frank Rosolinotrombone
William Russotrombone
Stan Leveydrums
John GraasFrench horn
Lloyd OttoFrench horn
Where next?
More by Stan Kenton
All 37 albums →
The musicians on this record
Subconscious-Lee 1955
Lee Konitz
plays alto saxophone here
plays alto saxophone here
The Bob Cooper-Conte Candoli Quintet 1995
Bob Cooper
plays tenor saxophone here
plays tenor saxophone here
