Stanley Newcomb Kenton December 15, — August 25, was an American popular music and jazz artist. As a pianist , composer , arranger and band leader, he led an innovative and influential jazz orchestra for almost four decades. Though Kenton had several pop hits from the early s into the s, his music was always forward-looking. Kenton was also a pioneer in the field of jazz education, creating the Stan Kenton Jazz Camp in at Indiana University. Stan Kenton was born on December 15, , in Wichita, Kansas ; he had two sisters Beulah and Erma Mae born three and eight years after him, respectively.
Kenton started learning piano as a teen from a local pianist and organist. When he was around 15 and in high school, pianist and arranger Ralph Yaw introduced him to the music of Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines. He graduated from high school in By the age of 16, Kenton was already playing a regular solo piano gig at a local hamburger eatery for 50 cents a night plus tips; during that time he had his own performing group named "The Bell-Tones".
His first arrangement was written during this time for a local eight-piece band that played in nearby Long Beach. In April , Arnheim was reorganizing his band into the style of Benny Goodman 's groups and Kenton was to take the piano chair. This is where Kenton would make his first recordings when Arnheim made 14 sides for the Brunswick label in summer of Once he departed from Gus Arnheim 's group, Kenton went back to study with private teachers on both the piano and in composition.
In Kenton would join Vido Musso in a short-lived band, but a very educational experience for him. From the core of this group came the lineup of the first Stan Kenton groups of the s. Kenton started to get the idea of running his own band from this experience; he created a rehearsal band of his own, which eventually become his group in the s. In , Kenton formed his first orchestra.
Kenton worked in the early days with his own groups as much more of an arranger than a featured pianist. Although there were no "name" musicians in his first band with the possible exception of bassist Howard Rumsey and trumpeter Chico Alvarez , Kenton spent the summer of playing regularly before an audience at the Rendezvous Ballroom on the Balboa Peninsula at Newport Beach, CA.
