Search - Stan Kenton :: Kenton's West Side Story

This is my favorite Stan Kenton album!

Porter H. Davis | Oklahoma | 01/21/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Only creative collaboration of Johnny Richards and Stan Kenton could improve upon Bernstein's original West Side Story music. And did they! If you like Stan Kenton and the score from this classic musical, you'll love this album. The instrumentation of each piece captures the emotion of the original. I am continually amazed at the intricate orchestration to produce a coherent sound. Kenton uses the mellophonium to maxiumum benefit, adding an almost vocal dimension to the music. Luckily, you can sample several of the pieces on line. They are among my favorites. Give them a listen."

Forget "Categories"...One of the 50 BEST ALL-TIME ALBUMS

C. Law | Las Vegas, NV USA | 10/25/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is one that ranks up there with the Beatles'"Abbey Road," Coltrane's "A Love Supreme," Brubeck's "Time Out," Sinatra At the Sands," etc., as one of the great albums of ANY genre!! Take a marvelous Bernstein score and give it to collaborators Stan Kenton and Johnnie Richards (who had previously scored BIG on "Cuban Fire") and you end up with a sum greater than the parts. The producers who brought "West Side Story" to the screen were heard to lament after hearing this album, "If we'd known about THIS at the time, THIS would have been the movie score!" Almost all of the score is heard, arranged for the famous "Mellophone Band," with featured soloists Gabe Baltazar, Conte Candoli, Bob Fitzpatrick, Dwight Carver, a percussion section anchored by drummer Jerry McKenzie (with George Acevedo, Mike Pacheco & Larry Bunker) and, of course, Stan. (You jazz and Kenton fans can see where THIS has to lead...). If you loved the show or the movie or just the MUSIC, you're okay here, too! This is just GREAT MUSIC. ( The three ballads, done with Richards' scoring for the mellophones up in the stratosphere, will make those little hairs stand up on the back of your neck, and are worth the price of the CD by themselves!!). All of the fire, fun, beauty and emotion of Leonard Bernstein's monumental creation are captured for the ages on this CD. But writing is BORING...LISTENING is ENJOYING!! (I'm sure not gifted enough to describe how great this sounds anyway...it would be like trying to describe a sunrise!). BUY THIS CD....if you don't agree it's magnificent, please have your hearing checked right away!!"

If only they had used this for the original soundtrack...

C. Law | 07/18/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Lovers of big band jazz and serious brass sections will truly enjoy this. You will recognize the melodies imediately, but you will be literally blown away by Kenton's orchestra. You won't hear the original soundtrack again without a small feeling of regret that these arrangements didn't make it into the movie..."