Jazz Scene USA: Frank Rosolino Quartet/ Stan Kenton And His Orchestra

From the golden age of televised jazz, rare performances by jazz greats transferred from archival film masters.

Jazz Scene USA's broadcast over nationally syndicated television in 1962 was cause for joy among jazz fans, and acclaimed at the same time by most critics as the finest program of its kind. The brainchild of life-long jazz devotee Steve Allen, the series showcases many of the very best California-based jazz performers, not to mention rare TV appearances by outstanding national acts as well. All are featured without commercial restraints in a relaxed, casual atmosphere created by hipster host, singer Oscar Brown, Jr. Uncompromising in its use of imaginative camera angles, the visual style is on a par with the creativity of the music. These shows are time capsules to treasure from America's golden age of televised Jazz.

Frank Rosolino (1926-1978) was quite simply one of the most brilliant trombone stylists in jazz history. His exceptional technique and exuberant personality sent bolts of intensity through his every solo. After extensive experience in the big bands of Bob Chester, Glen Gray, Gene Krupa, with whom he recorded and filmed the delightful Lemon Drop, Tony Pastor, Herbie Fields, and Stan Kenton, plus the wonderful 1951 George Auld Quintet, he settled in Los Angeles in 1954. It wasn't long before Rosolino was trombonist numero uno on the West Coast, working regularly with the Lighthouse All Stars, and frequently getting calls for record, film and TV Studio work. His rhythm section on this broadcast included a young Mike Melvoin on piano, bassist Bob Bertaux, and drummer Nick Martinis. The set consists mostly of standards: Yesterdays (at an unusually fast tempo), Mean to Me, Lover Man, in addition to Thelonious Monk's Well, You Needn't and Frank's own Please Don't Bug Me.

The stature of Stan Kenton (1912-1979) in the pantheon of big band jazz remains unchallenged to this day, more than fifty years after he made his first waves in the early 1940's. Committed to music education and to the nurturing of young talent, though his band's ranks passed many of modern jazz's most compelling performers, including Art Pepper, Stan Getz, Shelly Manne, Maynard Ferguson, Anita O'Day, June Christy, Lee Konitz, Frank Rosolino, Conte Condolii, and Mel Lewis, to name just a few! Kenton's controversial emphasis on composition in the jazz idiom encouraged the work of such writers as Pete Rugolo, Bill Russo, Gerry Mulligan, and Shorty Rogers, Limehouse Blues and Malaguena represent Bill Holman's arranging skills; Maria's chart is by Johnny Richards; Waltz of The Prophets was composed and arranged by drummer Dee Barton. All the Things You Are was sketched by the leader, another prolific contributor to the band book. Those scores provide the lion's share of listening enjoyment by this brass-heavy 22 piece powerhouse, although solos by Marvin Stamm on trumpet, Don Menza on tenor, and Bob Fitzpatrick on trombone do crop up.