Contemporary Concepts - Bill Holman and Stan Kenton

© Introduction. Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

“THERE'S A STORY (VERY PROBABLY APOCRYPHAL) THAT DURING A rehearsal Kenton regarded his band quizzically. "We've tried Latin," he said, "we've tried progressive, we've used strings - what's left?" And from the back row came the small voice of Al Porcino: "We could always try swinging, Stan."

The fact is, every Kenton orchestra swung, but not all the time, and some more than others. By common consent, the swingingest of all was the band of 1955, and that came about because Stan made it happen.

First, he appointed two unrepentant swingers to the pivotal chairs in the orchestra, Al Porcino on lead trumpet and Mel Lewis on drums. According to Bill Holman: "Stan more or less turned the band over to Al and Mel, as far as the direction was concerned, and they set about getting the band to swing." Alumni recall that Porcino practically took over the '55 orchestra, pressing for personnel changes, and telling members how to play their parts.

Next, Kenton made Bill Holman head arranger, and gave him carte blanche to write a series of concert-length variations on standard songs of his own choice. Stan's only inspired stipulation was that one of them should be "Stompin' At The Savoy." In Don Reed's opinion: "Bill was the best writer the band ever had. Stan really preferred the heavy music, he got a little nervous if the band swung too much, but Stan was open-minded and smart enough to realize that what Bill wrote were great things that would help the band." But while Kenton was happy to play this music in live performances, he was much less certain about a permanent recording of this dramatic change of direction, as Mel Lewis explains:

In 1955 the critics were saying the Kenton band was swinging for the first time in its history. The band had a fresh, light feeling to it, and credit was being given to me - the new, young drummer on the scene - and to Bill Holman's writing. We had acquired an ex disc-jockey named Bob Martin as road manager, and when we got to the Blue Note m Chicago, Martin said to Stan: "You know, we really should record this music while it's fresh, and while the band is sounding so good." And Martin talked Stan into it, he even went and booked the studio time, so Stan gave in and we did it.