I saw Kenton's band at one of his Drury College clinics later this same year. They played this tune and I was knocked completely out. One of the other songs they played was an extremely tasty version of "A Foggy Day", which included an extraordinary solo by Willie Maiden (who wrote this tune). Von Ohlen's performance that evening propelled me to take up the drum kit. His drive, power and the way the band responded to his rhythmic kicks just fascinated me. I was twelve years old at the time !!
Just a note: Ray Brown stopped playing due to surge in his recording studio headphones rupturing his inner ear, not because of a lip injury. In addition to teaching, he continues to be a brilliant arranger for big band and studio orchestra.
Big Bands are dead. I'm glad I took up a profession (Network Administrator) that puts food on the table, a big house, 401K , Pension and Retirement. A few of my friends have been scratching at jazz for the past 35 years and they still live in apartments. Are closed-minded to any other music than jazz. It's pathetic that they haven't listened to any new music for the past 35 years because they think they're Prima Donna's and that no one understands their suffering for The Art.
This 'era' of the Kenton band doesn't get enough credit in my view. I believe, due largely to their later work with odd time signatures and instrumentation, that people often forget that they could flat out SWING with the best of them. This particular chart is a great example and remains one of my favorite Kenton band tunes.
To answer Hepcat's question as to no jazz bone in 72 video..
I can say partially that I guess that I was one of the few musicians EVER to turn down an offer to play jazz bone in his band.This was a face to face confrontation on the band bus ride from N. Jersey back to Manhattan in 67.Dick Shearer never spoke to me again.It turned out to be a smart move on my part because a year later I began a very successful period as a busy studio trombonist/composer-arranger in Holland!
That's got to be my favorite Stan Kenton tune. Willie Maiden wrote it and it COOKS. Have played it several times and I love playing it as much as I love listening to it.
Agreed on J.L. McKenzie (who told me he prefers not to be called Lestock)... the '61 series of 3 "Adventures" LPs were superb. Besides "...jazz" and "blues" there was "Adventures in Standards" finally issued c 1972. However, when for Adventures in Time the drummer was Barton. RE: why there were no "jazz bone" in this '72 band (which to me was the most dynamic of the bunch) there actually were: Shearer (lead) & Jamieson. Wallace also soloed on occasion.
Everybody taking about John Von Ohlen and Peter Erskine. No One said a word about Jerry Lestock McKenzie. I think Jerry really kick the band just list to Adventure in jazz, Adventure in blues and Adventure in time
rlneesam, are you kidding me, no dynamics? I hear them all over the place. I love how it just flows. The tbones are awesome. They're all so in connection with each other and the music.
Dude, there are dynamics galore here. The szforzandos are almost oversttated, actually. I get that the overall attitude of this arrangement is "big", but that's the point. And I personally love it, and I personally understand why one might not like it (I guess), but please - this arrangement builds as masterfully as any other in terms of shape and dynamics.
mel lewis was the model for drummers in stan's band. john learned how to play the drums by playing along with mel on stan's classic middle 50's sides - john told me this himself. he also led a terrific band in indianapolis in the 70's before going to cincinatti. peter erskine is a fantastic drummer - but he never fit the mel lewis example.
Hey youngster.I am a former member of the Air Force bands(several) We have an group called AFMA(Air Force Musicians Association) Do you guys have one too?
after kenton vonohlen playedwith the blue wisp band in cincinnati where did he go after where did he finally wind up i was in the army band with john i always liked the guy a fine musician where did he wind up
Van Ohlen swung but Kenton's best drummer was Peter Erskine. And I mean hands down! Listen to Kenton's album titled "Birthday in Britain" and get back to me.
scuse, me, axxhole......and I can spell "axxhole" well, can't I? that was a typo. Actually I am degreed and proficient in two languages ......studied my axe intensely and performed on it for 25+ years...and made a solid living at it too!....and you, my critical axxhole?
This video is SOOOO COOL!!!! Minor Booze in one of my all time favorites. I attended Diablo Valley College and we recorded it. We slowed it down and it gave it such a different sound and it SWUNG SO HARD!!!! It was beautiful!! I get chills listening to it..
John Von Ohlen was the definitive Kenton drummer... he fit the band like no one before him or after.... He's a gas... still here him live in Cincy every Wed night at the Blue Wisp Jazz Club on 3rd street....
in my early days of performing, I had the opportunity to open for the Kenton band at a club in Atlantic City, NJ. ...VonOhlen was the drummer. I'll never forget that date. The band was late, rolled off the bus and without even having time to change, blew the gig to kingdom come! Willie Maiden was with the band at the time. John had to use my drums because there wasn't space enough to set up his. I remember him putting those hugh 22 inch Zildjians on my cymbal stands and knocking them over !!!
my dad got in big trouble when Dick Shear gave him all the orchestra charts for minor booze maleguena and et al and our band was rthe only one who had them. screw the copyrights we really appreciated getting to play these tunes in front of live audiences for the first time.
i have seen many kenton bands over many years i identify them with certain mysicians there ere pete and conti condoli then the jack sheldon band then one nite buddy bris bois ontrumpet who did whisteling walk by the way bob gioga wason barrytone then in mid 60s doc severenson doing solo and a kid from frankfort ky on trombone tommy simph who i had the preveiidge to play with many years later this band for some reason is not not very loose but is good
God I loved this band. They used to come to Columbus, Ohio, twice a year to the Grandview Inn. A rather loud crowd. I got tickets in the first row (about 5 feet from the band) so as not to be distracted by all the audience chatter. I have no idea why one would go to see Kenton and then talk throughout the show.
The only kenton band member on the Blue Wisp Big Band currently is John Von Ohlen himself. Tim Hagens who was a member of the kenton band was on the Blue Wisp Big Band in the early 80s, however he left for New York in about 1984 . Those are the only two ever that were on Stan Kentons band, and now theres only one, Von Ohlen.
gamma632 you are wright it is a flugel horn that ray brown is playing , ihave an original conn mellophonium made in 1962 for the kenton orchestra and O WHAT A SOUND.
You have one of the mellophoniums? I read in a Kenton bio that they were all sent back to Conn (after they were done with the Mellophonuim Orchestra) and the warehouse destroyed them or they were lost after the factory relocated.
Many of the marching bands use them. They are called "marching baritones" or "marching horns". In the early 70's we used to borrow mellophoniums from the UC Berkeley Cal Band and play Kenton charts with them. We wern't the only area band doing it either. UC was doing a tidy little business renting them out
Did you by any chance go to El Camino High in South San Francisco? I knew that their jazz band at one time used the mellophoniums for their Kenton charts, and I always wondered where they got them. I went to Jefferson High School a couple of miles up from you.
I did not go to El Camino, but I remember that band and their director, Warren C. Heckman. He was a SF State Grad and really got hooked on SK in the late 60's. He was among the first in the bay area to jump on it when the charts were first published. Also Pacific HS in San Leandro and Mt. Diablo HS in Concord were a couple of others I recall.
Hey, I think I saw your jazz band back in 1975(?) at the Pleasanton Jazz Festival. You had least three girls in the sax section. My school was there and I still have some 35mm slides of it (somewhere in my collection). I think one of the schools played "A Little Minor Booze" at the festival. I recognized it as soon as the trombones came in. We played Woody Herman's "Corazon" and "The First Thing I Do."
Watching this video takes me back 36 years.A bus-load of Kenton fans from Northampton went to a theatre in North London to see this band and I was with them. WOW.
I'm pretty sure its a flugel because the lead pipe goes directly into the valves. In a mello, the lead pipe connects with the valves like a trumpet. I do agree that it sometimes sounds more like a mello than a flugel, but that could be the player's choice in mouthpiece or simply how he chose to play.
Wow. I've been listening to Von Ohlen for over 20 years since discovering 'Live in London' when I was 14. This is the first time I've ever seen him play, though. He's 100 times cooler than I even thought he'd be. Wow, what a monster. I can see why Jeff Hamilton's always talking about him.
Hey, if you're ever in Cincinnati, Von Ohlen leads a big band on Wednesday nights at the Blue Wisp in downtown Cincy. 7-8 dollar cover charge. Best 8 bucks you'll spend. He's still kicking it.
the orignal bbc concert tape was wiped soon after it was shown and never put vhs tape, or dvd . some one from bbc must of taken acopy soon after it was broardcast, ialso have this concert on tape .this 1972 band was one of best bands stan had , listen to s k live in london its fantastic its on decca records and also on cd more kenton please
You're right. This may be one of Kenton's best bands. John Von Ohlen's style was perfect for the Kenton Orchestra. Still one of the finest big band drummers living today.
Dickus! 2:37
apjames 2 months ago
I saw Kenton's band at one of his Drury College clinics later this same year. They played this tune and I was knocked completely out. One of the other songs they played was an extremely tasty version of "A Foggy Day", which included an extraordinary solo by Willie Maiden (who wrote this tune). Von Ohlen's performance that evening propelled me to take up the drum kit. His drive, power and the way the band responded to his rhythmic kicks just fascinated me. I was twelve years old at the time !!
RIMSHOTSON2AND4 3 months ago
Just a note: Ray Brown stopped playing due to surge in his recording studio headphones rupturing his inner ear, not because of a lip injury. In addition to teaching, he continues to be a brilliant arranger for big band and studio orchestra.
pacothetrumpeter 4 months ago
Great tune by Willy Maiden. The band is in top shape here.
janwillemtromp1 5 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
Big Bands are dead. I'm glad I took up a profession (Network Administrator) that puts food on the table, a big house, 401K , Pension and Retirement. A few of my friends have been scratching at jazz for the past 35 years and they still live in apartments. Are closed-minded to any other music than jazz. It's pathetic that they haven't listened to any new music for the past 35 years because they think they're Prima Donna's and that no one understands their suffering for The Art.
patrickwinslow 9 months ago
Comment removed
patrickwinslow 9 months ago
the best 5 minutes of big band jazz, ever.
catfishsteve 10 months ago
This 'era' of the Kenton band doesn't get enough credit in my view. I believe, due largely to their later work with odd time signatures and instrumentation, that people often forget that they could flat out SWING with the best of them. This particular chart is a great example and remains one of my favorite Kenton band tunes.
s216674 10 months ago
Ray Brown
ste59tag 11 months ago
Who is the Flugelhorn player?
CluckJoe13 11 months ago
@CluckJoe13, the Flugelhorn player is named Ray Brown. He was one of the best, until he brook a nerve is his lip, which he never recovered from.
Now the upper left side of his lip is basically paralyzed, hence he has lost his career as a player.
His has since put his time into teaching, (and criticizing his students for playing wrong notes) .
He will listen for 30 minuets and then list EVERY SINGLE wrong note!
I've recorded his teaching, and he's literally ALWAYS right!
CREEPY good teacher!
plimbuff 8 months ago
@plimbuff Thanks!
CluckJoe13 8 months ago
Who's the Alto saxophone soloist?
kingkoeller 1 year ago
@kingkoeller
Quinn Davis
nealbfinn 1 year ago
Rineesam is very much a moron. Tone deaf and insensitive. This is a driving, dynamic piece of great jazz.
JAZZOLOGIST1 1 year ago
To answer Hepcat's question as to no jazz bone in 72 video..
I can say partially that I guess that I was one of the few musicians EVER to turn down an offer to play jazz bone in his band.This was a face to face confrontation on the band bus ride from N. Jersey back to Manhattan in 67.Dick Shearer never spoke to me again.It turned out to be a smart move on my part because a year later I began a very successful period as a busy studio trombonist/composer-arranger in Holland!
247hdjazz 1 year ago
The trombones are AWESOME!
Boscom0m 1 year ago
We need more bands like this!
Boscom0m 1 year ago
This song is the best(:
knockanoodle 1 year ago
That's got to be my favorite Stan Kenton tune. Willie Maiden wrote it and it COOKS. Have played it several times and I love playing it as much as I love listening to it.
jazzbob7 1 year ago
thanks for the opportunity to relive the 70's Kenton bands. What an ensemble
VideoKitchen 1 year ago
i'm playing this song for my school on 1st Trombone! it's badass and it's a killer!!!
jarredgamarra28 1 year ago
Agreed on J.L. McKenzie (who told me he prefers not to be called Lestock)... the '61 series of 3 "Adventures" LPs were superb. Besides "...jazz" and "blues" there was "Adventures in Standards" finally issued c 1972. However, when for Adventures in Time the drummer was Barton. RE: why there were no "jazz bone" in this '72 band (which to me was the most dynamic of the bunch) there actually were: Shearer (lead) & Jamieson. Wallace also soloed on occasion.
hepcat2009 2 years ago
Everybody taking about John Von Ohlen and Peter Erskine. No One said a word about Jerry Lestock McKenzie. I think Jerry really kick the band just list to Adventure in jazz, Adventure in blues and Adventure in time
jwjeffrey 2 years ago
rlneesam, are you kidding me, no dynamics? I hear them all over the place. I love how it just flows. The tbones are awesome. They're all so in connection with each other and the music.
LLJtbone 2 years ago
HOT, HOT, HOT... wow...
LLJtbone 2 years ago
This sounds like bad sound track to a B movie of the fifties. Dreary, directionless, loud, lacking in dynamics. A poor imitation of a great band.
rlneesam 2 years ago
Dude, there are dynamics galore here. The szforzandos are almost oversttated, actually. I get that the overall attitude of this arrangement is "big", but that's the point. And I personally love it, and I personally understand why one might not like it (I guess), but please - this arrangement builds as masterfully as any other in terms of shape and dynamics.
longfade 2 years ago
i ask again why no jazz bone in this band
jazzmusic1937 2 years ago
Wow I found Ray Brown teaches at cabrillo a great teacher
schazam04 2 years ago
So loud and tight
kdkn92 2 years ago
:U!!
adeleisasian 2 years ago
Von Ohlen !!!!!
Jhd0358 2 years ago
mel lewis was the model for drummers in stan's band. john learned how to play the drums by playing along with mel on stan's classic middle 50's sides - john told me this himself. he also led a terrific band in indianapolis in the 70's before going to cincinatti. peter erskine is a fantastic drummer - but he never fit the mel lewis example.
geoffreysmythe 2 years ago
hey drumonk if yoy still see johnny tell him mack from the 113th army band said hello
jazzmusic1937 2 years ago
Hey youngster.I am a former member of the Air Force bands(several) We have an group called AFMA(Air Force Musicians Association) Do you guys have one too?
kaunasprince 2 years ago
And Jez from 3 Inf Div Post Coiteliers
Herb 8th Armoured Ateliers
The Durham Light Infantry
10th/11th Hussars (Cherry Pickers)
Kev 3rd Carboniers (Princess Diana's Own)
615 SMPS (Queen's Bodyguard Royal Military Police)
And innumerable British army regiments formed before the U.S.A was even discovered also say hello.
rlneesam 2 years ago
after kenton vonohlen playedwith the blue wisp band in cincinnati where did he go after where did he finally wind up i was in the army band with john i always liked the guy a fine musician where did he wind up
jazzmusic1937 2 years ago
dude, besides studying music and playing big band charts, did you also study grammer, punctuation and syntax?????
drummistic 2 years ago
Drummistic,
It's grammar unless you meant Grammer as in Kelsey! Did you ever study spelling? Or anything else!
rlneesam 2 years ago
Van Ohlen swung but Kenton's best drummer was Peter Erskine. And I mean hands down! Listen to Kenton's album titled "Birthday in Britain" and get back to me.
steerts13 3 years ago
scuse, me, axxhole......and I can spell "axxhole" well, can't I? that was a typo. Actually I am degreed and proficient in two languages ......studied my axe intensely and performed on it for 25+ years...and made a solid living at it too!....and you, my critical axxhole?
drummistic 2 years ago
This video is SOOOO COOL!!!! Minor Booze in one of my all time favorites. I attended Diablo Valley College and we recorded it. We slowed it down and it gave it such a different sound and it SWUNG SO HARD!!!! It was beautiful!! I get chills listening to it..
SIRDOME77 3 years ago
John Von Ohlen was the definitive Kenton drummer... he fit the band like no one before him or after.... He's a gas... still here him live in Cincy every Wed night at the Blue Wisp Jazz Club on 3rd street....
drumonk 3 years ago
in my early days of performing, I had the opportunity to open for the Kenton band at a club in Atlantic City, NJ. ...VonOhlen was the drummer. I'll never forget that date. The band was late, rolled off the bus and without even having time to change, blew the gig to kingdom come! Willie Maiden was with the band at the time. John had to use my drums because there wasn't space enough to set up his. I remember him putting those hugh 22 inch Zildjians on my cymbal stands and knocking them over !!!
drummistic 2 years ago
Oh, man!! What an exciting band! Thanks for so much for sharing.
valjazz 3 years ago
my dad got in big trouble when Dick Shear gave him all the orchestra charts for minor booze maleguena and et al and our band was rthe only one who had them. screw the copyrights we really appreciated getting to play these tunes in front of live audiences for the first time.
those were truly the good old days..
rbtmumm 3 years ago
Von Ohlen kicks ass
bearman1210 3 years ago
i have seen many kenton bands over many years i identify them with certain mysicians there ere pete and conti condoli then the jack sheldon band then one nite buddy bris bois ontrumpet who did whisteling walk by the way bob gioga wason barrytone then in mid 60s doc severenson doing solo and a kid from frankfort ky on trombone tommy simph who i had the preveiidge to play with many years later this band for some reason is not not very loose but is good
mrmusichead 3 years ago
Awesome!! I love this tune!
FarmallDoctor 3 years ago
God I loved this band. They used to come to Columbus, Ohio, twice a year to the Grandview Inn. A rather loud crowd. I got tickets in the first row (about 5 feet from the band) so as not to be distracted by all the audience chatter. I have no idea why one would go to see Kenton and then talk throughout the show.
randyww 3 years ago
Goto the Blue Wisp in Cincy on Wed nites...lots of the band is there....
Cast
IamCastIronMan 3 years ago
The only kenton band member on the Blue Wisp Big Band currently is John Von Ohlen himself. Tim Hagens who was a member of the kenton band was on the Blue Wisp Big Band in the early 80s, however he left for New York in about 1984 . Those are the only two ever that were on Stan Kentons band, and now theres only one, Von Ohlen.
macree01 3 years ago
Ignorance, most likely. It's common amongst the fashionable :-D
renaissongsman 3 years ago
One of the best big bands ever.Still sounds fresh after all these years
croonerama 3 years ago 2
there are those trombones again wow heavy shit!
bearman1210 3 years ago
Kenton was the only band that I ever knew of that carried 5 Bones - Love it!
TonyBurrell2 3 years ago
no... do not check out Chuck Mangione!
IPFWDooD 3 years ago
Seconded
Saxyman14 3 years ago
Yeah if you need another example check out Chuck Mangione.
ShoShaVirus 4 years ago
gamma632 you are wright it is a flugel horn that ray brown is playing , ihave an original conn mellophonium made in 1962 for the kenton orchestra and O WHAT A SOUND.
LimbSozzled 4 years ago
niiice. How different is it from other mello's?
gamma632 3 years ago
You have one of the mellophoniums? I read in a Kenton bio that they were all sent back to Conn (after they were done with the Mellophonuim Orchestra) and the warehouse destroyed them or they were lost after the factory relocated.
metalman1900 3 years ago
Many of the marching bands use them. They are called "marching baritones" or "marching horns". In the early 70's we used to borrow mellophoniums from the UC Berkeley Cal Band and play Kenton charts with them. We wern't the only area band doing it either. UC was doing a tidy little business renting them out
nealbfinn 3 years ago
Did you by any chance go to El Camino High in South San Francisco? I knew that their jazz band at one time used the mellophoniums for their Kenton charts, and I always wondered where they got them. I went to Jefferson High School a couple of miles up from you.
luisamarte2000 3 years ago
I did not go to El Camino, but I remember that band and their director, Warren C. Heckman. He was a SF State Grad and really got hooked on SK in the late 60's. He was among the first in the bay area to jump on it when the charts were first published. Also Pacific HS in San Leandro and Mt. Diablo HS in Concord were a couple of others I recall.
I went to Ygnacio Valley in Concord.
nealbfinn 3 years ago
Hey, I think I saw your jazz band back in 1975(?) at the Pleasanton Jazz Festival. You had least three girls in the sax section. My school was there and I still have some 35mm slides of it (somewhere in my collection). I think one of the schools played "A Little Minor Booze" at the festival. I recognized it as soon as the trombones came in. We played Woody Herman's "Corazon" and "The First Thing I Do."
tunnelrat1900 3 years ago
I was long gone by '75. Very possible you saw YVHS and one of the girls was probably Nancy Fettig, Kenton saxohonist Mary Fettig's younger sister.
nealbfinn 3 years ago
... was für ein starker Posaunensatz.
Da knazt's aber gewaltig im Gebälk,
dass es einem vom Stuhl zieht.
Kenton 72 ist super-moderner den je.
War er aber auch schon ende der 40er.
Egbert1957 4 years ago
Not really hitting too hard sorry to say...
josephnigelfrye 4 years ago
Monster Chart!!!
bearman1210 4 years ago
Watching this video takes me back 36 years.A bus-load of Kenton fans from Northampton went to a theatre in North London to see this band and I was with them. WOW.
trickweazel 4 years ago
Lucky bastard. That must've been a great time....
longfade 4 years ago
oh man those shakes are kick-ass. thats a monstrous flugel- looks like a euphonium minus 8 feet of tubing
gamma632 4 years ago
Unless I'm mistaken...that looks and sounds like a mellophonium. I didn't know he was still using those in '72.
thothyva 4 years ago
I'm pretty sure its a flugel because the lead pipe goes directly into the valves. In a mello, the lead pipe connects with the valves like a trumpet. I do agree that it sometimes sounds more like a mello than a flugel, but that could be the player's choice in mouthpiece or simply how he chose to play.
gamma632 4 years ago
Wow. I've been listening to Von Ohlen for over 20 years since discovering 'Live in London' when I was 14. This is the first time I've ever seen him play, though. He's 100 times cooler than I even thought he'd be. Wow, what a monster. I can see why Jeff Hamilton's always talking about him.
longfade 4 years ago
Hey, if you're ever in Cincinnati, Von Ohlen leads a big band on Wednesday nights at the Blue Wisp in downtown Cincy. 7-8 dollar cover charge. Best 8 bucks you'll spend. He's still kicking it.
ajsutts 4 years ago
I know. It's almost worth making a trip over there! I'm in Seattle but if I ever find an excuse to swing out there I'll definitely be there.
longfade 4 years ago
hey man kenton is kick ass i grew up listening to this! My father was a jazz trombonist in Dayton and he dreamed of playing 1st chair for Kenton!!
Wow
bearman1210 4 years ago
the orignal bbc concert tape was wiped soon after it was shown and never put vhs tape, or dvd . some one from bbc must of taken acopy soon after it was broardcast, ialso have this concert on tape .this 1972 band was one of best bands stan had , listen to s k live in london its fantastic its on decca records and also on cd more kenton please
LimbSozzled 4 years ago
You're right. This may be one of Kenton's best bands. John Von Ohlen's style was perfect for the Kenton Orchestra. Still one of the finest big band drummers living today.
ajsutts 4 years ago