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Critic's Review
Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
From the Dynaflow label -- the one and the same that has brought us two glorious volumes of the Kenton for Collectors series -- comes this little ace compilation of Stan Kenton's TV soundtracks, Big Sounds from the Small Screen. Not meant to be exhaustive in any sense, this volume compiles TV rarities from 1947-1973 with the '50s and '60s being represented best. Of course one will find here the usual slew of arrangers from Pete Rugolo, Shorty Rogers, Lennie Niehaus, Bill Holman, Gene Roland and others, but that's not the most important element here. It's the performers in some of these bands, who include Art Pepper, Charlie Mariano, Maynard Ferguson, Buddy Childers, Bill Perkins, and more. June Christy is present here, of course, on cuts such as "My Kind of Love," and "Ain't No Misery in Me." But the real wealth of the material is in the unusual charts and performances of tracks like "Love for Sale," done Afro-Cuban style, the modal arrangement of "Lush Life," the out of control mania of "I Feel Pretty," with the brass just driving the tune home and bongos double timing an already in-the-red tempo. As is the norm for Dynaflow, there is variable sound quality on all of these cuts, but that shouldn't make a difference to those who are true Kenton collectors. This is one of those items one just has to have.
