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d Miles Davis. Since the early 1970s he has enjoyed a great deal of success in jazz, jazz fusion, and classical music; as a group leader and a solo performer. His improvisations draw not only from the traditions of jazz, but from other genres as well, especially Western classical music, gospel, blues, and ethnic folk music.
In 2003, Jarrett received the Polar Music Prize, the first (and to this day only) recipient not to share the prize with a co-recipient,and in 2004 he received the Léonie Sonning Music Prize.
In 2008, he was inducted into the Down Beat Hall of Fame in the magazine's 73rd Annual Readers' Poll.

Contents
1 Early years
2 Miles Davis
3 1970s quartets
4 Solo piano
5 The Standards Trio
6 Classical music
7 Other works
8 Idiosyncrasies
9 Personal
10 Discography
11 References
12 Sources
13 External links

Early years
Jarrett grew up in suburban Allentown, Pennsylvania, with significant early exposure to music.He possessed absolute pitch, and he displayed prodigious musical talents as a young child. He began piano lessons just before his third birthday, and at age five he appeared on a TV talent program hosted by the swing bandleader Paul Whiteman.The young Jarrett gave his first formal piano recital at the age of seven, playing works by composers including Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, and Saint-Saëns, and ending with two of his own compositions. Encouraged especially by his mother, Jarrett took intensive classical piano lessons with a series of teachers, including Eleanor Sokoloff of the Curtis Institute.
In his teens, as a student at Emmaus High School in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, Jarrett learned jazz and quickly became proficient in it. In his early teens, he developed a strong interest in the contemporary jazz scene; a Dave Brubeck performance was an early inspiration. At one point, he had an offer to study classical composition in Paris with the famed teacher Nadia Boulanger—an opportunity that pleased Jarrett's mother but that Jarrett, already leaning toward jazz, decided to turn down.
Following his graduation from Emmaus High School in 1963,Jarrett moved from Allentown to Boston, Massachusetts, where he attended the Berklee College of Music and played cocktail piano in local clubs. After a year he moved to New York City, where he played at the Village Vanguard.
In New York, Art Blakey hired Jarrett to play with the Jazz Messengers. During a show with that group he was noticed by Jack DeJohnette who (as he recalled years later) immediately realized the talent and the unstoppable flow of ideas of the unknown pianist. DeJohnette talked to Jarrett and soon recommended him to his own band leader, Charles Lloyd. The Charles Lloyd Quartet had formed not long before and were exploring open, improvised forms while building supple grooves; without quite realizing it at first, they were moving into terrain that was also being explored, although from another stylistic background, by some of the psychedelic rock bands of the west coast. Their 1966 album Forest Flower was one of the most successful jazz recordings of the mid-1960s and when they were invited to play the Fillmore in San Francisco, they won over the local hippie audience. Although the band would become plagued by internal instability and (according to Jarrett) siphoning-off of show revenue by Lloyd, its tours across America and Europe, even to Moscow, made Jarrett a widely noticed musician in rock and jazz underground circles. It also laid the foundations of a lasting musical bond with drummer Jack DeJohnette (who also plays the piano). The two would cooperate in many contexts during their later careers.
In those years, Jarrett also began to record his own tracks as a leader of small informal groups, at first in a trio with Charlie Haden and Paul Motian. Jarrett's first album as a leader, Life Between the Exit Signs (1967), was released on the Vortex label, to be followed by Restoration Ruin (1968), which is arguably the most bizarre entry in the Jarrett catalog. Not only does Jarrett barely touch the piano, but he plays all the other instruments on what is essentially a folk-rock album, and even sings. Another trio album with Haden and Motian, titled Somewhere Before, followed later in 1968, this one recorded live for Atlantic Records.

Miles Davis
The Charles Lloyd Quartet with Jarrett, Ron McClure and Jack DeJohnette came to an end in 1968, after the recording of Soundtrack because of disputes over money as well as artistic differences.Jarrett was asked to join the Miles Davis group after Miles heard him in a New York City club (according to another version Jarrett tells, Miles had brought his entire band to see a tour date of Jarrett's own trio in Paris; the Davis band being practically the only audience, an attention that made Jarrett feel embarrassed). During his tenure with Davis, he played both Fender Contempo electronic organ and Fender Rhodes electric piano, alternating with Chick Corea; they can be heard side by side on some 1970 recordings, for instance the August, 1970 Isle of Wight Festival performance preserved in the film Miles Electric: A Different Kind of Blue and now on Bitches Brew Live After Corea left in 1970, Jarrett often played electric piano and organ simultaneously. Despite his growing dislike of amplified music and electric instruments within jazz, he continued with the group out of respect for Davis and because of his desire to work with Jack DeJohnette. He has often cited Davis as a vital influence, both musical and personal, on his own thinking about music and improvisation.
Jarrett is heard on several Davis albums: Miles Davis at Fillmore: Live at the Fillmore East, The Cellar Door Sessions (recorded December 16–19, 1970, at the Cellar Door club in Washington, DC), and Live-Evil, which is largely composed of heavily edited Cellar Door recordings. The extended sessions from these recordings can be heard on The Complete Cellar Door Sessions. Jarrett also plays electric organ on Get Up With It; the song he is featured on, "Honky Tonk", is an abridged version of a track available in its entirety on The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions. In addition, part of a track called "Konda" (recorded May 21, 1970) was released during Davis's late-1970s retirement on a compilation album called Directions (1980). The track, which features an extended Fender-Rhodes piano introduction by Jarrett, was released in full on 2003's The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions.

1970s quartets
From 1971 to 1976, Jarrett added saxophonist Dewey Redman to the existing trio with Haden and Motian (who would produce one more album as a threesome called The Mourning of A Star for Atlantic Records in 1971). The so-called American quartet was often supplemented by an extra percussionist, such as Danny Johnson, Guilherme Franco, or Airto Moreira, and occasionally by guitarist Sam Brown. The quartet members played various instruments, with Jarrett often being heard on soprano saxophone and percussion as well as piano; Redman on musette, a Chinese double-reed instrument; and Motian and Haden on a variety of percussion. Haden also produced a variety of unusual plucked and percussive sounds with his acoustic bass, even running it through a wah-wah pedal for one track ("Mortgage on My Soul," on the album Birth). The group recorded two albums for Atlantic Records in 1971, El Juicio (The Judgement) and Birth; one on Columbia Records, Expectations that included rock-influenced guitar by Sam Brown as well as string and brass arrangements, and for which his contract with Columbia was immediately terminated;[citation needed] eight albums on Impulse! Records; and two on the ECM label.
The last two albums, both recorded for Impulse!, feature mainly the compositions of the other band members, as opposed to Jarrett's own, which dominated the previous albums. Jarrett's compositions and the strong musical identities of the group members gave this ensemble a very distinctive sound. The quartet's music is an amalgam of free jazz, straight-ahead post-bop, gospel music, and exotic, Middle-Eastern-sounding improvisations.
In the mid- and late 1970s Jarrett led a "European quartet" concurrently with the American quartet, which was recorded by ECM. This combo consisted of saxophonist Jan Garbarek, bassist Palle Danielsson, and drummer Jon Christensen. This ensemble played in a style similar to that of the American quartet, but with many of the avant-garde and Americana elements replaced by the European folk influences that characterized the work of ECM artists at the time.
Jarrett became involved in a legal wrangle following the release of the album Gaucho in 1980 by the U.S. rock band Steely Dan. The album's title track, credited to Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, bore an undeniable resemblance to Jarrett's "Long As You Know You're Living Yours," from Jarrett's 'European quartet' 1974 Belonging album. When a Musician magazine interviewer pointed out the similarity, Becker admitted that he loved the Jarrett composition and Fagen said they had been influenced by it. After their comments were published, Jarrett sued, and Becker and Fagen were forced to add his name to the credits and to include him in the royalties.

Solo piano
Jarrett's first album for ECM, Facing You (1971), was a solo piano date recorded in the studio. He has continued to record solo piano albums in the studio intermittently throughout his career, including Staircase (1976), The Moth and the Flame (1981), and The Melody at Night, With You (1999). Book of Ways (1986) is a studio recording of clavichord solos.
The studio albums are modestly successful entries in the Jarrett catalog, but in 1973, Jarrett also began playing totally improvised solo concerts, and it is the popularity of these voluminous concert recordings that has made him one of the best-selling jazz artists in history. Albums released from these concerts include; the 1973 album Solo Concerts: Bremen/Lausanne which Time Magazine gave its 'Jazz Album of the Year' award. The Köln Concert (1975) which became the best selling piano recording in history;[10] and Sun Bear Concerts (1976) - a 10-LP (and later 6-CD) Box Set.
Another of Jarrett's solo concerts, Dark Intervals (1987, Tokyo), had less of a free-form improvisation feel to it because of the brevity of the pieces. Sounding more like a set of short compositions, these pieces are nonetheless entirely improvised.
After a hiatus, Jarrett returned to the extended solo improvised concert format with Paris Concert (1990), Vienna Concert (1991), and La Scala (1995), before his career was interrupted by chronic fatigue syndrome. These later concerts tend to be more influenced by classical music than the earlier ones, reflecting his interest in composers such as Bach and Shostakovich, and are mostly less indebted to popular genres such as blues and gospel. The Vienna Concert in particular has been widely hailed as a masterpiece of improvisation, with its huge, arch-like opening movement, with a stunningly dissonant, virtuosic middle section, framed by more lyrical sections; Jarrett himself, in the liner notes to the album, named it his greatest achievement and the fulfillment of everything he was aiming to accomplish.
Jarrett has commented that his best performances have been when he has had only the slightest notion of what he was going to play at the next moment. He also said that most people don't know "what he does", which relates to what Miles Davis said to him expressing bewilderment - as to how Jarrett could "play from nothing". What Jarrett did during his most creative solo concerts seems to have been to have put himself into a meditative 'altered state of consciousness' which facilitated the flow of many brilliant and original musical ideas. In the liner notes of the Bremen Lausanne album Jarrett states something to the effect that he is a conduit for the 'Creator', something his mother had apparently discussed with him.
Jarrett's 100th solo performance in Japan was captured on video at Suntory Hall Tokyo on April 14, 1987, and released the same year. The recording was titled Solo Tribute. This is a set of almost all standard songs.
Another video recording, titled Last Solo, was released in 1987 from a live solo concert at Kan-i Hoken hall, Tokyo, Japan, recorded January 25, 1984.
Both Solo Tribute and Last Solo were reissued on Image Entertainment DVD in 2002.
In the late 1990s, Jarrett was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and was unable to leave his home for long periods of time. It was during this period that he recorded The Melody at Night, With You, a solo piano effort consisting of jazz standards presented with very little of the reinterpretation he usually employs. The album had originally been a Christmas gift to his second wife, Rose Anne.
By 2000, Jarrett had returned to touring, both solo and with the Standards Trio. Two 2002 solo concerts in Japan, Jarrett's first solo piano concerts following his illness, were released on the 2005 CD Radiance (a complete concert in Osaka, and excerpts from one in Tokyo), and the 2006 DVD Tokyo Solo (the entire Tokyo performance). In contrast with previous concerts (which were generally a pair of continuous improvisations 30–40 minutes long), the 2002 concerts consist of a linked series of shorter improvisations (some as short as a minute and a half, a few of fifteen or twenty minutes).
In September 2005 at Carnegie Hall, Jarrett performed his first solo concert in North America in more than ten years, released a year later as a double-CD set (The Carnegie Hall Concert).
On November 26, 2008, he performed solo in the Salle Pleyel in Paris, and a few days later, on December 1, at London's Royal Festival Hall, marking the first time Jarrett had played solo in London in seventeen years. These concerts were released in October 2009 on the album Paris / London: Testament.

The Standards Trio
In 1983, at the suggestion of ECM head Manfred Eicher,Jarrett asked bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette, with whom he had worked on Peacock's 1977 album Tales of Another, to record an album of jazz standards, simply titled Standards, Volume 1. Two more albums, Standards, Volume 2 and Changes, both recorded at the same session, followed soon after. The success of these albums and the group's ensuing tour, which came as traditional acoustic post-bop was enjoying an upswing in the early 1980s, led to this new Standards Trio becoming one of the premier working groups in jazz, and certainly one of the most enduring, continuing to record and tour for more than twenty-five years.
The trio has recorded numerous live and studio albums consisting primarily of jazz repertory material. The trio members each cite Ahmad Jamal as a major influence in their musical development for his use of both melodic and multi-tonal lines.[citation needed].
The Jarrett-Peacock-DeJohnette trio also produced recordings that consist largely of challenging original material, most notably 1987's Changeless. (These recordings are noted above.) Several of the standards albums contain an original track or two, some attributed to Jarrett but mostly group improvisations. The live recordings Inside Out and Always Let Me Go (both released in 2001) marked a renewed interest by the trio in wholly improvised free jazz. By this point in their history, the musical communication among these three men had become nothing short of telepathic, and their group improvisations frequently take on a complexity that sounds almost composed. The Standards Trio undertakes frequent world tours of recital halls (the only venues in which Jarrett, a notorious stickler for acoustics, will play these days) and is one of the few truly successful jazz groups to play both straight-ahead (as opposed to smooth) and free jazz.
A related recording, At the Deer Head Inn (1992), is a live album of standards recorded with Paul Motian replacing DeJohnette, at the venue in Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania, 40 miles from Jarrett's hometown, where he had his first job as a jazz pianist. It was the first time Jarrett and Motian had played together since the demise of the American quartet sixteen years earlier.

Classical music
Since the early 1970s, Jarrett's success as a jazz musician has enabled him to maintain a parallel career as a classical composer and pianist, recording almost exclusively for ECM Records.
In The Light, an album made in 1973, consists of short pieces for solo piano, strings, and various chamber ensembles, including a string quartet and a brass quintet, and a piece for cellos and trombones. This collection demonstrates a young composer's affinity for a variety of classical styles.
Luminessence (1974) and Arbour Zena (1975) both combine composed pieces for strings with improvising jazz musicians, including Jan Garbarek and Charlie Haden. The strings here have a moody, contemplative feel that is characteristic of the "ECM sound" of the 1970s, and is also particularly well-suited to Garbarek's keening saxophone improvisations. From an academic standpoint, these compositions are dismissed by many classical music aficionados as lightweight, but Jarrett appeared to be working more towards a synthesis between composed and improvised music at this time, rather than the production of formal classical works. From this point on, however, his classical work would adhere to more conventional disciplines.
Ritual (1977) is a composed solo piano piece recorded by Dennis Russell Davies that is somewhat reminiscent of Jarrett's own solo piano recordings.
The Celestial Hawk (1980) is a piece for orchestra, percussion, and piano that Jarrett performed and recorded with the Syracuse Symphony under Christopher Keene. This piece is the largest and longest of Jarrett's efforts as a classical composer.
Bridge of Light (1993) is the last recording of classical compositions to appear under Jarrett's name. The album contains three pieces written for a soloist with orchestra, and one for violin and piano. The pieces date from 1984 and 1990.
In 1988 New World Records released the CD Lou Harrison: Piano Concerto and Suite for Violin, Piano and Small Orchestra, featuring Jarrett on piano, with Naoto Otomo conducting the piano concerto with the New Japan Philharmonic. Robert Hughes conducted the Suite for Violin, Piano, and Small Orchestra. In 1992 came the release of Jarrett's performance of Peggy Glanville-Hicks's Etruscan Concerto, with Dennis Russell Davies conducting the Brooklyn Philharmonic. This was released on Music Masters Classics, with pieces by Lou Harrison and Terry Riley. In 1995 the record label Music Masters Jazz released a CD on which one track featured Jarrett performing the exquisite solo piano part in Lousadzak, a 17-minute piano concerto by American composer Alan Hovhaness. The conductor again was Dennis Russell Davies. Most of Jarrett's classical recordings are of older repertoire, but Jarrett may have been introduced to this modern work by his one-time manager George Avakian, who was a friend of the composer. Jarrett has also recorded classical works for ECM by composers such as Bach, Handel, Shostakovich, and Arvo Pärt.
In 2004, Jarrett was awarded the Léonie Sonning Music Prize. The prestigious award usually associated with classical musicians and composers has only previously been given to one other jazz musician—Miles Davis. The first person to receive the award was Igor Stravinsky, in 1959.

Other works
Jarrett also plays harpsichord, clavichord, organ, soprano saxophone, drums, and many other instruments. He often played saxophone and various forms of percussion in the American quartet, though his recordings since the breakup of that group have rarely featured these instruments. On the majority of his recordings in the last twenty years, he has played acoustic piano only. He has spoken with some regret of his decision to give up playing the saxophone, in particular.
On April 15, 1978, Jarrett was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live. His music has also been used on many television shows, including The Sopranos on HBO. The 2001 German film Bella Martha (English title: Mostly Martha), whose music consultant was ECM founder and head Manfred Eicher, features Jarrett's "Country," from the European quartet album My Song.

Idiosyncrasies
This section may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding references. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. (March 2012)
One of Jarrett's trademarks is his frequent, loud vocalizations (grunting, squealing, and tuneless singing), similar to that of Glenn Gould, Thelonious Monk, Erroll Garner, Oscar Peterson, Ralph Sutton, Willie "The Lion" Smith, Paul Asaro, and Cecil Taylor. Jarrett is also physically active while playing, writhing, gyrating, and almost dancing on the piano bench. These behaviors occur in his jazz and improvised solo performances, but are for the most part absent whenever he plays classical repertory. Jarrett has noted his vocalizations are based on involvement, not content, and are more of an interaction than a reaction.
However, Jarrett is notoriously intolerant of audience noise, including coughing and other involuntary sounds, especially during solo improvised performances. He feels that extraneous noise affects his musical inspiration, and distracts from the purity of the sound. As a result, cough drops are routinely supplied to Jarrett's audiences in cold weather, and he has even been known to stop playing and lead the crowd in a group cough. This intolerance was made clear during a concert on October 31, 2006, at the restored Salle Pleyel in Paris. After making an impassioned plea to the audience to stop coughing, Jarrett walked out of the concert during the first half, refusing at first to continue, although he did subsequently return to the stage to finish the first half, and also the second. A further solo concert three days later went undisturbed, following an official announcement beforehand urging the audience to minimize extraneous noise. In 2008, during the first half of another Paris concert, Jarrett complained to the audience about the quality of the piano that he had been given, walking off between solos and remonstrating with staff at the venue. Following an extended interval, the piano was replaced. In 2007, in concert in Perugia during the Umbria Jazz Festival, angered by photographers Jarrett implored the audience: "I do not speak Italian, so someone who speaks English can tell all these assholes with cameras to turn them fucking off right now. Right now! No more photographs, including that red light right there. If we see any more lights, I reserve the right (and I think the privilege is yours to hear us), but I reserve the right and Jack and Gary reserve the right to stop playing and leave the goddamn city!" This caused the organizers of the Festival to declare that they will never invite him again.
Jarrett has been known for many years to be strongly opposed to electronic instruments and equipment. His liner notes for the 1973 album Solo Concerts: Bremen/Lausanne states: "I am, and have been, carrying on an anti-electric-music crusade of which this is an exhibit for the prosecution. Electricity goes through all of us and is not to be relegated to wires." He has largely eschewed electric or electronic instruments since his time with Miles Davis.
Jarrett is a follower of the teachings of Georgian spiritual teacher G. I. Gurdjieff,and he visited Princeton University's ESP lab run by Robert Jahn.and in 1980 recorded an album of Gurdjieff's compositions, called Sacred Hymns, for ECM.
Jarrett has also visited Princeton University's ESP lab run by Robert Jahn.

Personal
Jarrett lives in an 18th-century farmhouse in Oxford Township, New Jersey, in rural Warren County. He uses a converted barn on his property as a recording studio and practice facility.
Jarrett's first marriage, to Margot Erney, ended in divorce. He and his second wife Rose Anne (née Colavito) divorced in 2010 after a thirty-year marriage. Jarrett has four brothers, all younger, two of whom are involved in music. Chris Jarrett is also a pianist, and Scott Jarrett is a producer and songwriter. Noah Jarrett, one of two sons from Jarrett's first marriage, is a bassist and composer. Another son, Gabe, is a drummer based in Vermont.
He has acknowledged that audiences, and even fellow musicians, have at times been convinced he is African American, due to his appearance.He relates an incident when African American jazz musician Ornette Coleman approached him backstage, and said something like, "Man, you've got to be black. You just have to be black", to which Jarrett replied, "I know. I know. I'm working on it.

Discography
Main article: Keith Jarrett discography

References
^http://www.polarmusicprize.org/newSite/aboutprize.shtml. Retrieved Jan. 19, 2010.
^ "Music: Growing Into The Silence". Time. October 23, 1995.
^ Carr, Ian. Keith Jarrett: The Man and His Music (New York: Da Capo, 1992), p. 8.
^ Carr, Ian. Keith Jarrett, p. 7.
^ Carr, Ian. Keith Jarrett, p. 17.
^ Topic Galleries - mcall.com
^ Carr, Ian. Keith Jarrett, pp. 38–39.
^ Davis, Miles. The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions. Columbia/Legacy, 2003.
^ Don't Mess with Steely Dan; Brian Sweet, Steely Dan: Reelin' in the Years (London: Omnibus Press, 1994), p. 144.
^ Keith Jarrett Biography, All About Jazz accessed April 6, 2010
^ Smith, Steve. "40 Years Old, a Musical House Without Walls". New York Times, Dec. 23, 2009
^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0246772/soundtrack. Retrieved Jan. 16, 2010.
^ Jarrett, Keith. The Art of Improvisation. (DVD). Euroarts, 2005
^ Woodard, Joseph (July 16, 2007). "Keith Jarrett Officially Banned from Umbria Jazz Festival After Outburst". JazzTimes. Retrieved March 26, 2012.
^ Chase, Christopher W. (October 1, 2010). "Music, Aesthetics and Legitimation: Keith Jarrett and the 'Fourth Way'". Academia.edu. Retrieved March 29, 2012.
^ a b Samuel, Lawrence R. (2011). Supernatural America: A Cultural History. ABC-CLIO. p. 165. ISBN 0-313-39899-2. Retrieved March 29, 2012.
^ a b Carey, Benedict (February 10, 2007). "A Princeton Lab on ESP Plans to Close Its Doors". The New York Times. p. 2. Retrieved March 29, 2012.
^ "A One-of-a-Kind Artist Prepares for His Solo". The Wall Street Journal. 2009-01-09. Retrieved 2009-04-08.
^ "The Blackest White Folks We Know", The Root, July 2011
^ Interview, Fresh Aire with Terry Gross, September 11, 2000

Sources
Carr, Ian. Keith Jarrett: The Man and His Music. 1992 ISBN 0-586-09219-6
Ian Carr, Digby Fairweather, Brian Priestley. 'The Rough Guide to Jazz'. 2003 ISBN 1-84353-256-5

External links
KeithJarrett.it The most complete fan site dedicated to Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett fansite.
Interview with Keith Jarrett for BBC (2009)
Art of the States: Keith Jarrett performing Lousadzak, op. 48 (1944) by Alan Hovhaness
Keith Jarrett at Yahoo!Groups.
Keith Jarrett on ECM Records.
Keith Jarrett by Otacílio Melgaço
Keith Jarrett: a short biography (fan site).
"Keith Jarrett Standards Trio Celebrates Its 25th Anniversary" by Ted Gioia Jazz.com.
Keith Jarrett on Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz (NPR).
Recent Interview (2007)
1997 New York Times profile of Jarrett
Keith Jarrett Transcriptions Project – Transcriptions
Keith Jarrett on ECM Records

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Order Release : Tender Huang

ater years he was active as an educator.

Contents
1 Early life
2 Career
3 Later years
4 Criticism
5 Legacy
6 Noted band personnel
7 Discography
7.1 Studio albums
7.2 Live albums
7.3 Compilations
8 Notes
9 References
10 External links

Early life
Stan Kenton was born in Wichita, Kansas, and raised first in Colorado, then in California. He learned piano as a child, and while still a teenager toured with various bands. He attended Bell High School, in Bell, California, where he graduated in 1930. In June 1941 he formed his own band, which developed into one of the best-known West Coast ensembles of the 1940s. In the mid-1940s, Kenton's band and style became known as "The Wall of Sound", a tag later used by Phil Spector.

Career
Kenton played in the 1930s in the dance bands of Vido Musso and Gus Arnheim, but his natural inclination was as a band leader. In 1941 he formed his first orchestra, which later was named after his theme song "Artistry in Rhythm". A competent pianist, influenced by Earl Hines, Kenton was much more important in the early days as an arranger and inspiration for his loyal sidemen. Although there were no major names in his first band (bassist Howard Rumsey and trumpeter Chico Alvarez come the closest), Kenton spent the summer of 1941 playing regularly before a very appreciative audience at the Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa Beach, CA. Influenced by Jimmie Lunceford (who, like Kenton, enjoyed high-note trumpeters and thick-toned tenors), the Stan Kenton Orchestra struggled a bit after its initial success. Its Decca recordings were not big sellers and a stint as Bob Hope's backup radio band was an unhappy experience; Les Brown permanently took Kenton's place.

Stan Kenton with Eddie Safranski, 1947 or 1948
By late 1943 with a Capitol Records contract, a popular record in "Eager Beaver", and growing recognition, the Stan Kenton Orchestra was gradually catching on. Its soloists during the war years included Art Pepper, briefly Stan Getz, altoist Boots Mussulli, and singer Anita O'Day. By 1945 the band had evolved quite a bit. Pete Rugolo became the chief arranger (extending Kenton's ideas), Bob Cooper and Vido Musso offered very different tenor styles, and June Christy was Kenton's new singer; her hits (including "Tampico" and "Across the Alley From the Alamo") made it possible for Kenton to finance his more ambitious projects. A popular recording of "Laura" was made, the theme song from the film Laura (starring actress Gene Tierney), and featured the voices of the band.
Calling his music "progressive jazz," Kenton sought to lead a concert orchestra as opposed to a dance band at a time when most big bands were starting to break up. By 1947 Kai Winding was greatly influencing the sound of Kenton's trombonists, the trumpet section included such screamers as Buddy Childers, Ray Wetzel, and Al Porcino, Jack Costanzo's bongos were bringing Latin rhythms into Kenton's sound, and a riotous version of "The Peanut Vendor" contrasted with the somber "Elegy for Alto". Kenton had succeeded in forming a radical and very original band that gained its own audience.
In 1949 Kenton took a year off. In 1950 he put together his most advanced band, the 39-piece Innovations in Modern Music Orchestra that included 16 strings, a woodwind section, and two French horns. Its music ranged from the unique and very dense modern classical charts of Bob Graettinger to works that somehow swung despite the weight. Such major players as Maynard Ferguson (whose high-note acrobatics set new standards), Shorty Rogers, Milt Bernhart, John Graas, Art Pepper, Bud Shank, Bob Cooper, Laurindo Almeida, Shelly Manne, and June Christy were part of this remarkable project, but from a commercial standpoint, it was really impossible. Kenton managed two tours during 1950-1951 but soon reverted to his usual 19-piece lineup.
Then quite unexpectedly, Kenton went through a swinging period. The charts of such arrangers as Shorty Rogers, Gene Roland, Gerry Mulligan, Marty Paich, Johnny Richards, and particularly Bill Holman and Bill Russo began to dominate the repertoire. Such talented players (in addition to the ones already named) as Lee Konitz, Conte Candoli, Sal Salvador, Stan Levey, Frank Rosolino, Richie Kamuca, Zoot Sims, Sam Noto, Bill Perkins, Charlie Mariano, Mel Lewis, Pete Candoli, Lucky Thompson, Carl Fontana, Pepper Adams, and Jack Sheldon made strong contributions. The music was never predictable and could get quite bombastic, but it managed to swing while still keeping the Kenton sound.

Later years
Stan Kenton in Munich, September 25, 1973
Kenton's last successful experiment was his mellophonium band of 1960-1963. Despite the difficulties in keeping the four mellophoniums (which formed their own separate section) in tune, this particular Kenton orchestra had its exciting moments; the albums "Adventures in Jazz" and "West Side Story" (arrangements by Johnny Richards) each won Grammy awards in 1962 and 1963. Kenton Plays Wagner (1964) was an important project, produced in concert with his interests in jazz education and encouraging big band music in high schools and colleges instructing what he called "progressive jazz." Stan knew what he had in the body of work that was The Stan Kenton Orchestra and in the remainder of his life and career, he took on the challenge of ensuring his legacy that was Progressive Jazz.
In the early 1970s Kenton split from his long-time association with Capitol Records and formed his own label, "The Creative World of Stan Kenton". Recordings produced during the 1970s on this new label included several "live" concerts at various universities and are a testament to his devotion to education. In addition, Kenton made his charts available to college and high-school stage bands. When Kenton took to the road during the early 70's and up to his last tour, he took with him seasoned veteran musicians (Willie Maiden, Warren Gale, Graham Ellis and others) teaming them with relatively unknown young artists to mentor America's youth and take advantage of the unchecked energy in those young players while at the same time preserving the legacy of his work as an active art form. New Kenton arrangements (including those by Hank Levy, Bill Holman, Bob Curnow, Willie Maiden and Ken Hanna) expanded the creative foundation that nurtured original musical exploration by these younger artists long after Gabe Baltazar's "graduation" in 1965. Many alumni became educators and itinerate clinicians caught up in the art of inspiring younger players (Mike Vax, The Baron Jon Von Ohlen, Chuck Carter, and Richard Torres). A few went on to take their musical careers to the next level (Peter Erskine, Dick Shearer) and beyond.
Jack Sandmeier, Road Manager during these years, tells the story of an unusual meeting in a hotel lobby lounge between Woody Herman and Kenton. Unusual because they both toured more than fifty (50) weeks a year "one-nighters," in order to keep their respective bands on the road, they hardly ever met. In discussing a chronically late band member, Herman said to Kenton..."Fire his ass, there's thousands of them and only two of us."[3][4]
He had a skull fracture from a fall in 1977 while on tour in Reading, PA. He entered Midway Hospital on August 17, 1979 after a stroke and later died.

Criticism
In 1956, when the band returned from its European trip, the Critics Poll in Down Beat reflected victories by black musicians in virtually every category. The Kenton band was playing in Ontario, Canada, at the time, and Kenton dispatched a telegram which lamented "a new minority, white jazz musicians," and stated his "disgust [with the so-called] literary geniuses of jazz." Jazz critic Leonard Feather, alone of all the critics, responded in the October 3, 1956, issue with an open letter which questioned Kenton's racial views. Feather implied that Kenton's failure to win the Critics Poll was probably the real reason for the complaint, and wondered if racial prejudice was involved.
Fellow DownBeat critic Ralph J. Gleason wrote that Feather's verdict was passed on Kenton "...without, unfortunately, any real forethought or public statement from the only musicians really in a position to know.”[6] Jazz writer Jack McKinney stated that the night Kenton wrote the telegram, there were two African-Americans trombonists touring with him.[7] Previous to Feather's letter, in the December 16, 1953, issue of Down Beat, critic Nat Hentoff had written that ". . . Stan is as free from prejudice of any kind as any man I know."
Feather's allegation of prejudice ignored Kenton's well-known close friendships with Duke Ellington and Count Basie.[8] In July to September, 1955, the year before Feather's letter, Kenton hosted the CBS summer replacement, Music 55, for which he invited Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, Louis Jordan, Cab Calloway, and many other African-American artists to participate.[9] He toured with Basie and his Orchestra in Fall, 1960, and released a single with the Nat King Cole Trio in 1962 that included Orange Colored Sky.
McKinney wrote further, in 1965, that "All points [of the Feather letter] except the last were based on conjecture, and events preceding and following Feather's complaint have shown how ridiculous they were." He further pointed out that many budding African-American jazz musicians, such as Art Tatum and Charlie Parker, were given more exposure on Kenton-sponsored tours than elsewhere.[7] One Kenton band member, trumpeter Donald Byrd, in discussing Kenton's hands-on college and university music program, said, "My experience with the Stan Kenton clinic at the National Band Camp has left me in complete ecstasy ... The camp was interracial, both in the teaching faculty and the student body..."[7]
Feather himself realized his error, and in August, 1960, apologized for the letter he then claimed was a "result of sorrow."[6] Kenton later lamented of Feather's apology, "I think it was on the back page of the Pittsburg Inquirer."[7] Kenton reportedly felt that Feather had created a great ill feeling toward him by African-American musicians, and no matter how apologetic Feather would be, much of that "prejudice-in-reverse" would remain.

Legacy
Kenton was a salient figure on the American musical scene and made an indelible mark on the arranged type of big band jazz. Kenton's music evolved with the times throughout the 1960s and 1970s, and although he was no longer considered a contemporary innovator, he promoted jazz and jazz improvisation through his service as an educator. The "Kenton Style" continues to permeate big bands at the high school and collegiate level, and the framework he designed for the "jazz clinic" is still widely in use today.
His music has experienced a resurgence in interest, with later critical "rediscovery" of his music and many reissues of his recordings. An alumni band tours to this day, led by lead trumpeter Mike Vax, which performs not only classic Kenton arrangements, but also new music written and performed in the Kenton style.
Kenton donated his entire library to the music department of North Texas State University[10] (now the University of North Texas), and the Stan Kenton Jazz Recital Hall is named in his honor. His arrangements are now published by Sierra Music Publications.[11]
Kenton continued leading and touring with his big band up to his final performance in August 1978. He suffered a stroke in August 1979. Kenton did not recover and died on August 25, 1979. He was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery, Los Angeles.
The complex machinations of Kenton's private life have recently been disclosed in the 2010 memoir "Love Affair", written by his daughter Leslie Kenton.[12] She describes her experience of life within the Kenton family and discloses secrets, including the incestuous relationship she had with her talented and celebrated, yet self-doubting and frequently troubled, alcoholic father.

Noted band personnel
Instrumentalists
Pepper Adams
Sam Aleccia
Ashley Alexander
Laurindo Almeida
Alfred "Chico" Alvarez
Jim Amlotte
Buddy Arnold
Don Bagley
Gabe Baltazar
Michael Bard
Dave Barduhn
Gary Barone
Dee Barton
Tim Bell
Milt Bernhart
Bud Brisbois
Ray Brown
Bob Burgess
Tony Campise
Frank Capp
Conte Candoli
Pete Candoli
Fred Carter
Billy Catalano
Bill Chase
Buddy Childers
Bob Cooper
Jack Costanzo
Curtis Counce
Bob Curnow
Vinnie Dean
Jay Daversa
Don Dennis
Sam Donahue
Peter Erskine
Maynard Ferguson
Mary Fettig
Bob Fitzpatrick
Dr. William "Bill" Fritz
Carl Fontana
Stan Getz
Bob Gioga
John Graas
John Harner
Dennis Hayslett
Skeets Herfurt
Bill Holman
Marv "Doc" Holladay
Clay Jenkins
Richie Kamuca
Red Kelly
Jimmy Knepper
Lee Konitz
Jack Lake
Keith LaMotte
Kent Larsen
Skip Layton
Archie LeCoque
Stan Levey
Mel Lewis
Willie Maiden
Shelly Manne
Charlie Mariano
Al Mattaliano
Jerry McKenzie
Dick Meldonian
Greg Metcalf
Vido Musso
Boots Mussulli
Lennie Niehaus
Dennis Noday
Sam Noto
Lloyd Otto
John Park
Kim Park
Art Pepper
Bill Perkins
Al Porcino
Mike Price
Doug Purviance
Ray Reed
Clyde Reisinger
Kim Richmond
George Roberts
Gene Roland
Frank Rosolino
Shorty Rogers
Ernie Royal
Howard Rumsey
Bill Russo
Eddie Safranski
Sal Salvador
Carl Saunders
Jay Saunders
Dave Schildkraut
Bud Shank
Dick Shearer
Jack Sheldon
Kenny Shroyer
Gene Siegel
Zoot Sims
Dalton Smith
Mike Snustead
Ed Soph
Lloyd Spoon
Marvin Stamm
Ray Starling
Vinnie Tano
Lucky Thompson
Richard Torres
Bill Trujillo
Jeff Uusitalo
David van Kriedt
Bart Varsalona
Mike Vax
John Von Ohlen
Ray Wetzel
Rick Weathersby
Jiggs Whigham
Stu Williamson
Kai Winding
Composers and arrangers
Manny Albam
Dave Barduhn
Dee Barton
Ralph Carmichael
Joe Coccia
Bob Curnow
Dennis Farnon
Bob Graettinger
Ken Hanna
Neal Hefti
Bill Holman
Hank Levy
Willie Maiden
Franklyn Marks
W. A. Mathieu (Bill)
Gerry Mulligan
Lennie Niehaus
Chico O'Farrill
Marty Paich
Johnny Richards
Pete Rugolo
Bill Russo
Vocalists
Anita O'Day
June Christy
Chris Connor
Jean Turner
Jerri Winters
Ann Richards

Discography
This section requires expansion. (December 2009)

"Machito", Capitol Records 78, No. 408, 1947.

Studio albums
Stan Kenton And His Orchestra - McGregor #LP201 (1941)
The Formative Years - Decca No. 589 489-2 (1941–1942)
Stan Kenton Encores - Capitol No. 155 (various early years)
Stan Kenton's Artistry In Rhythm - Capitol No. 167 ('45-'48)
Opus In Pastels - Jazz Roots (1945–1952)
A Presentation Of Progressive Jazz - Capitol #T172 (1947)
Innovations In Modern Music - Capitol No. 189 (1-30-1950)
Stan Kenton's Milesones - Capitol #T190 (thru 1950)
Stan Kenton Presents - Capitol No. 248 (1950)
City Of Glass (Stan Kenton recording) - Capitol #H353 (1951)
Stan Kenton Classics - Capitol No. 358 (various years)
New Concepts of Artistry in Rhythm - Capitol 383 (1952)
Stan Kenton's Greatest Hits (orig.recordings) - Capitol No. 398 (1943–1951)
Sketches On Standards- Capitol No. 426 (1953)
This Modern World- Capitol No. 460 (1953)
Portraits On Standards - Capitol No. 462 (1953)
Kenton Showcase: The Music of Bill Holman And Bill Russo - Capitol #W524 (1954)
The Kenton Era - Capitol #WDX569 (1940–1953)
Duet (June Christy) - Capitol No. 656 (1955)
Contemporary Concepts - Capitol No. 666 (1955)
Kenton In HI-FI - Capitol No. 724 (1956)
Cuban Fire! - Capitol No. 731 (1956)
City Of Glass And This Modern World - Capitol No. 736 (various years)
With Voices - Capitol No. 810 (1957)
Rendezvous With Kenton - Capitol No. 932 (1957)
Back To Balboa - Capitol No. 995 (1958)
The Ballad Style Of Stan Kenton - Capitol No. 1068 (1958)
Lush Interlude - Capitol No. 1130 (1958)
The Stage Door Swings - Capitol No. 1166 (1958)
The Kenton Touch - Capitol No. 1276 (1958)
Viva Kenton - Capitol No. 1305 (1959)
Standards In Silhouette - Capitol No. 1394 (1959)
Too Much (with Ann Richards) - Capitol No. 1495 (1960)
Sophisticated Approach - Capitol No. 1674 (1961)
The Romantic Approach - Capitol No. 1533 (1961)
A Merry Christmas - Capitol No. 1621 (1961)
West Side Story - Capitol No. 1609 (1961)
Adventures In Blues - Capitol No. 1985 (1961)
Adventures In Jazz - Capitol No. 1796 (1961)
Adventures In Standards - (1961)
Stan Kenton Plays 18 Original Big-Band Recordings - Hindsight #HCD=407
Mellophonium Magic - Status #CD103 (1962)
Mellophonium Moods - Status #STCD106 (1962)
Adventures In Time - Capitol No. 1844 (1962)
Stan Kenton - Tex Ritter - Capitol No. 1757 (1962)
Artistry In Bossa Nova - Capitol No. 1931 (1963)
Kenton/Turner - Capitol No. 2051 (1963)
Artistry In Voices And Brass - Capitol No. 2132 (1963)
Kenton/Wagner - Capitol No. 2217 (1964)
Stan Kenton Conducts The Los Angeles Neophonic Orchestra - Capitol No. 2424 (1965-1966)
Stan Kenton Plays For Today - Capitol No. 2655 (1966-1967)
The World We Know - Capitol No. 2810
The Jazz Compositions Of Dee Barton - Capitol No. 2932 (1967)
Hair - Capitol #ST305 (1968)
Finian's Rainbow - Capitol No. 2971 (1968)
Today: Recorded Live In London - London #B944179-80 (1972)
National Anthems Of The World - Creative World No. 1060
Birthday In Britain - Creative World No. 1065 (1973)
7.5 On The Richter Scale - Creative World No. 1070 (1973)
Kenton Plays Chicago - Creative World No. 1072 (1974)
Fire, Fury and Fun - Creative World No. 1073 (1974)
Kenton '76 - Creative World No. 1076 (1976)
Journey Into Capricorn - Creative World No. 1077 (1976)
Some Women I've Known - Creative World No. 1029
Stan Kenton Without His Orchestra (solo) - Creative World No. 1071
Street Of Dreams - Creative World No. 1079

Live albums
Stan Kenton Stompin' At Newport - Pablo #PACD-5312-2 (1957)
Road Show, Stan Kenton, June Christy, The Four Freshmen - Capitol #TBO1327 (1959)
Kenton Live From The Las Vegas Tropicana - Capitol No. 1460 (1959)
Stan Kenton at Ukiah - Status #STCD109 (1959)
Stan Kenton In New Jersey - Status #USCD104 (1959)
Live at Redlands University (1970)
Live at Brigham Young (1971)
Stan Kenton Today - Live In London - London/Creative World #BP 44179-80 (1972)
Live at Butler University (1973)
Live in Europe (1976)

Compilations
The Kenton Era - Capitol #WDX569 (1940–1953)
Stan Kenton On AFRS - Status DSTS1019 (1944-1945)
One Night Stand - Magic #DAWE66 (1961–1962)
The Complete Capitol Recordings Of The Holman And Russo Charts (Mosaic)
The Complete Capitol Recordings (Mosaic)
The Peanut Vendor
The Jazz Compositions Of Stan Kenton - Creative World #ST1078 (1945–1973)

Notes
^ Sparke, Michael (2010). Stan Kenton: This Is An Orchestra!. Denton, Texas: University of North Texas Press. p. 1. ISBN 978-1-57441-284-0. Retrieved February 2012.
^ a b c d e f allmusic Biography
^ Interview with Jack Sandmeier, June 7, 2009
^ Jack Sandmeier's unpublished memoir "Where's the Bus"
^ "Stan Kenton, Band Leader, Dies; Was Center of Jazz Controversies". New York Times. August 27, 1979. Retrieved 2009-02-19. "Stan Kenton, the band leader, died Saturday night in a Hollywood hospital. He was 67 years old. Mr. Kenton entered Midway Hospital on Aug. 17 after a stroke. His manager, Audrey Coke, said Mr. Kenton had never fully recovered from a skull fracture he suffered in a fall two years ago."
^ a b http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=8330
^ a b c dhttp://www.jazzprofessional.com/interviews/kenton%20story.htm
^ Arganian, Lillian (1989) Stan Kenton: The Man and His Music. Artistry Press. ISBN 978-0-9621116-0-0
^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047759
^ http://www.library.unt.edu/music/special-collections/kentonlibrary.unt.edu
^http://www.Sierramusicstore.com/Stan_Kenton_Orchestra_s/52.htm
^ Kenton, Leslie. Love Affair: The memoir of a forbidden father-daughter relationship, Random House, 2010

References
Easton, Carol (1981). Straight Ahead: The Story of Stan Kenton. Da Capo. ISBN 978-0-306-80152-5.
Lee, William F. (1994). Stan Kenton: Artistry in Rhythm. Los Angeles: Creative Press. ISBN 978-0-89745-993-8.
Sparke, Michael (2011). Stan Kenton: This Is an Orchestra!. North Texas Lives of Musicians Series. University of North Texas Press. ISBN 978-1-57441-325-0.

External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Stan Kenton
Bell High School Alumni Page for Stan Kenton
Article on Stan Kenton's Mellophonium Band
An Interview with Jo Lea Starling, wife of Ray Starling
An Interview with Tony Scodwell, Stan Kenton Mellophoniumist
The Stan Kenton Collection at the University of North Texas
Stan Kenton's music published by Sierra Music Publications

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