This triple-CD collection (spanning the years 1937-46) not only includes largely unheard facets of Stan Kenton’s early musical life, it also offers the greatest collection of very rare Kenton performances to date. Among the rare sessions included here are those from 1938 with the Vido Musso Orchestra and Herb Jeffrey, both of which pre-date the creation of Kenton’s own orchestra. Also included are some of the earliest performances by future jazz superstars such as Art Pepper, Stan Getz and Shelly Manne, plus the very first recording of vocalist June Christy. Also to be found here are occasional commentaries by Frank Sinatra and pertinent recollections by Kenton himself. Most of the music included on these three CD’s (74 numbers in all!) is original material of the post-swing / ”early modern” genre, plus a few evergreens.
Released 2001.