Stan Kenton: Monotony
Musicians:
Stan Kenton (piano),
leading a 20-piece band featuring Buddy Childers (lead trumpet), Laurindo Almeida (guitar), Eddie Safranski (bass), Shelly Manne (drums)
.Arranged by Pete Rugolo. Composed by Pete Rugolo & Stan Kenton
.Recorded: Hollywood, October 27, 1947
Rating: 95/100 (learn more)
In 1948, at the pinnacle of success, bandleader Stan Kenton—who at his wife's urging had entered psychoanalysis—announced his intention "to give up music and become a psychiatrist." Kenton soon reconsidered his projected 12-year metamorphosis, and returned to music. "Monotony" shows Kenton's fascination with the obsessive-compulsive repetition of Ravel's Boléro (1928) that led French neurologists to detect (65 years postmortem; ain't science grand?) "the influence of progressive cerebral disease on Ravel's creative process." No doubt the more original an artist, the better a target for the shrink squad. But what's crazy about repetition? What's crazy about repetition? What's crazy about repetition?
Reviewer: Alan Kurtz
Tags: 1940s jazz · avant-garde · big band
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