Classics
2006
The Chronolgical 1951-1952
About This Album
This is volume nine in the Classics Stan Kenton chronology. It opens with the last recordings made by Kenton's Innovations in Modern Music Orchestra, a gigantic ensemble that included quite a number of violins, violas and celli. These fascinating episodes were recorded on December 5 and 7 1951, using ultra-modern compositions by Bob Graettinger, who had earlier made his mark upon Kenton's band with something called "Thermopylae." Many consider "City of Glass" to be Graettinger's magnum opus; it certainly occupies its own plateau within the Kenton chronology and, for that matter, in all of modern music. Gloriously dissonant, wonderfully disorienting and beautifully bizarre, this three-movement work was realized in four sections owing to the temporal limitations of the 12" 78 rpm phonograph record. What makes this particular reissue all the more exciting is the fact that the exacting chronology shuffles the order of the movements; "Third Movement -- Reflections" was recorded (and is therefore heard) first; then comes "Second Movement -- Dance Before the Mirror," and finally the "First Movement" in two parts: "Entrance into the City" and "The Structures.
Track List (try tracks 6,7,18 and 23)

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.