Stompin' At The Savoy - Celebration Orchestra

This clip of Stompin' At The Savoy (Stan Kenton) is from a private party celebrating Leon Breeden's 80th Birthday (former professor of jazz studies at the University of North Texas). The band playing is the Celebration Orchestra led by the late Thane Tolle at The Sammons Center for the Arts in Dallas, Texas. We had the honor of performing for him and his guests. The performance was in October 2001. The placement of our band and the guests was very close with professors and graduates of UNT nearby: Dan Haerle, Ed Soph, Marvin Stamm, and others.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• jazz
• big
• band
• concert
• upright
• bass
• guitar
• trombone
• trumpet
• saxophone
• drums
• improvisation
• Dan
• Haerle
• Ed
• Soph
• Marvin
• Stamm

[dancebandleader]

`Maybe I'm in the minority, but this arrangement leaves me cold. This sounds like

an ill advised attempt to "modernize" something which was "classic" in it's

original form. Having been a bandleader myself, I can truthfully say that only

jazz audiences will find this exiting and many will tire of it. Kenton's things were

often too bombastic for many audiences. The poor pickup of the band in this

case does not help, the mike must have been atttached to the camera. Not

a good idea.

[sirpas]

@dancebandleader This was a great arrangement and was one of my personal favorites from our book of 400 or so tunes we would call out. I do agree about the sound, but the mic was from the camcorder. I never expected great sound quality... on top of that, the room we were in was hard all over (brick, wood floor, high metal ceiling). This group was a bunch of talented guys and gals that loved playing jazz around Dallas. We had fun and that was what brought us together each week.

[marstam]

The trumpet soloist is NOT Marvin Stamm, but is the late, great Tommy Loy - for many years a mainstay on the Dallas jazz scene.

[sirpas]

You are correct. He was a great guy to have in the band and he certainly enjoyed himself there. Thank you for the comments. That was a really fun gig for me since I had the opportunity to play bass with several UNT former/current professors. I have it on tape somewhere after Leon Breeden reminisced with his friends, we performed a handful of tunes.

[dancebandleader]

@sirpas Hi, thanks for your reply, but my thoughts on this chart still stand. A lot of the audience

won't recognize this too readily as that tune. As Count Basie once said to Tony Bennett when

he asked if he should change his act to follow fads and trends, Basie replied "Why Change An

apple?" Why bend "Savoy" out of shape? Surely there must me some jazz which

would be suitable for this treatment and allow the classics to be left alone. Do all

folks want screaming trumpets? Band

[cha5]

I always really liked Stan's rendition of this piece.