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''Kenton's West Side Story'' is the Grammy Award winning album for the Best Jazz Performance - Large Group (Instrumental) category in 1962. The LP was recorded by Stan Kenton and his orchestra in early 1961 and released quickly so to take advantage of the popularity of the 1957 Broadway show and subsequent 1961 movie release. This would be Kenton's first Grammy honor and be part of two years of Kenton Grammy wins in this category, the second being Kenton's ''Adventures In Jazz'' winning the Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album in 1963. The ''Kenton's West Side Story'' LP also charted for 26 weeks starting in October 1961, peaking at #16 in November on the Billboard Magazine Hot 100 albums.〔 == Background == The Kenton orchestra had been on a slow decline in sales and popularity in the late 1950s with having to compete with newer, popular music artists such as Elvis Presley, Bobby Darin or The Platters. The nadir of this decline was around 1958 and coincided with a recession that was effecting the entire country.〔Sparke, Michael (2010). "Stan Kenton: This Is An Orchestra". University of North Texas Press. p. 138 ISBN 1-57441-284-1.〕 There were far less big bands on the road and live music venues were hard to book for the Kenton orchestra. The band would end 1959 beaten up by poor attendance at concerts and having to rely far more on dance halls than real jazz concerts.〔 The band would reform in 1960 with a new look and new sound, ''West Side Story'' would be one of the first 'mellophonium' albums to be part of an upsurge in Kenton's popularity.〔〔Sparke, Michael; Venudor, Peter (1998). "Stan Kenton, The Studio Sessons". Balboa Books. ISBN 0-936653-82-5.〕 Lee Gillette and the other Capitol executives were pushing Kenton towards more commercially viable recording projects in the early 1960s. Kenton made concessions to this though these were not his favorites records to make; one very happy outcome of these practical commercial choices was the ''West Side Story'' LP. Johnny Richards was chosen as the arranger for the project and was a logical choice seeing his success with ''Cuban Fire!'' and having helped design the mellophonium.〔Easton, Carol. ''Straight Ahead: The Story of Stan Kenton''〕 Johnny Richards' music was ''substantial''---"steel and concrete," Kenton called it. "Johnny was probably the best schooled, musically, of all of us put together."〔 The handling of Bernstein's crowning achievement as a Broadway composer by the Kenton band was going to take a very experienced and adept arranger. This would be the only time an entire Kenton LP was devoted to a single show; it was the closest thing that could be easily adapted to fit the large scale, progressive jazz style of the Kenton group. The Mirisch Company's film adaptation of West Side Story starring Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer was scheduled for release in September 1961.〔 Both Kenton and Capitol producer Lee Gillette took advantage of the film coming out and jumped on the opportunity to use Bernstein's award winning music to be a fitting vehicle for the large scale sound of the new "Mellophonium Band." When the Kenton album was released, it started charting just before the film had been released in most major American cities.〔Bundy, June. ''Disk industry Stands to Profit From High Musical Film Activity" Billboard Magazine, October 23, 1961, page 3〕 The Capitol LP was perfectly timed by producer Lee Gillette.〔 There were a great many successes attributed to the ''Kenton's West Side Story'' none of which is more interesting then the visit by Mirisch representatives to the Capitol Tower in Hollywood, California.〔 With the movie nearly complete Lee Gillette had invited the Mirisch people to hear what the Kenton/Richards collaboration had produced (listen to the mix and mastering). The movie producers were very impressed, "We had no idea! If we only knew!".〔 The implication being the Capitol produced ''West Side Story'' could or would have been part of the soundtrack. In the end, full endorsement was given by Mirisch to allow a still photo from the movie to be used as the cover of ''Kenton's West Side Story.'' As it happened both the Kenton LP and Columbia Records produced sound track co-existed beautifully on the commercial market with both winning Grammys in 1962 for Best sound track LP and Best large ensemble jazz LP. Ironically, the very first public performance of the Kenton Mellophonium Band was sandwiched between the two ''Kenton West Wide Story'' recording sessions. The Mellophonium Band did not make its public debut until March 29, 1961 at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas, almost 8 months after the mellophonium was introduced as part of the regular instrumentation.〔 After numerous aborted recording sessions and a long road of finding appropriate repertoire, Kenton now was on the cusp of what would be his most commercially successful album release. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Kenton's West Side Story」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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