''Viva Kenton!'' (subtitled ''Exciting Latin Rhythms with the Kenton Touch'') is an album by

Stan Kenton Stanley Newcomb Kenton (December 15, 1911 – August 25, 1979) 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 ...

, released in 1959 by

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007), and simply known as Capitol, is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-base ...

, and later on Kenton's own Creative World label.Vosbein, P
Stan Kenton Discography
accessed April 21, 2016
accessed April 18, 2016 The album features compositions by

Gene Roland Gene Roland (1921–1982) was a talented jazz musician, composer, and arranger who contributed richly to American jazz, especially through his work with the Stan Kenton Orchestra. Born in Dallas, Texas, he played multiple instruments, including the ...

, and was Kenton's second all-

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

album. It was the follow-up to Kenton's successful ''

Cuban Fire! ''Cuban Fire!'' is an album by Stan Kenton and his orchestra released in 1956 by Capitol Records. This was Stan Kenton's big band's first full-length recording of Afro-Cuban-styled music. The LP charted for four weeks in ''Billboard (magazine), B ...

'' LP of 1956. ''Viva Kenton!'' features Kenton's 18-piece orchestra, with an additional percussion quartet. Featured soloists are

alto saxophonist The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in the key of E, smaller tha ...

Charlie Mariano Carmine Ugo Mariano (November 12, 1923 – June 16, 2009) was an American jazz saxophone, saxophonist who focused on the alto saxophone, alto and soprano saxophone. He occasionally performed and recorded on flute and nadaswaram as well. Biogra ...

trombonist The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the air column inside the instrument to ...

Don Sebesky Donald John Sebesky (December 10, 1937 – April 29, 2023) was an American composer, arranger, conductor, and jazz trombonist. He was a multi-instrumentalist and could play a number of other instruments: keyboards, electric piano, organ, accord ...

, and

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

Rolf Ericson Rolf Ericson (August 29, 1922 – June 16, 1997) was a Swedish jazz trumpeter. He also played the flugelhorn. Yanow, Scott. Biography ''AllMusic'' Early career Ericson was born in Stockholm, Sweden. He moved to New York City in 1947 and, in 19 ...

. In 2005,

Blue Note Blue Note Records is an American jazz record label now owned by Universal Music Group and operated under Capitol Music Group. Established in 1939 by German-Jewish emigrants Alfred Lion and Max Margulis, it derived its name from the blue no ...

released the album on CD (under the Capitol Jazz imprint) with 6 bonus tracks, all taken from the 1963 album ''

Artistry in Bossa Nova ''Artistry in Bossa Nova'' is an album by the Stan Kenton Orchestra performing old and new compositions arranged in a bossa nova style recorded and released by Capitol Records in 1963.Vosbein, PStan Kenton Discographyaccessed June 9, 2016 Recep ...

''.

Reception

The

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

review by Scott Yanow called the album "potentially gimmicky but surprisingly successful".

Track listing

All compositions by Gene Roland except where noted. #"Mexican Jumping Bean" – 4:30 #"Siesta" – 3:37 #"Cha Cha Sombrero" – 4:48 #"Chocolate Caliente" – 3:26 #"Aqua Marine" – 2:41 #"Opus in Chartreuse Cha-Cha-Cha" – 2:48 #"Cha Cha Chee Boom" – 3:50 #"Adios" (

Enric Madriguera Enric R. Madriguera (17 February 1902 – 7 September 1973) was a violinist of Catalan people, Catalan origin who was playing concerts as a child before he studied at the Barcelona Conservatory (the Castilian Spanish, Castilian form of his name is ...

) – 3:09 #"Mission Trail" – 3:23 #"Artistry in Rhythm" (Stan Kenton) – 3:01 *Recorded at the Riverside Plaza Hotel, NYC on September 22, 1959 (track 10) and September 23, 1959 (tracks 1–9)

Personnel

–

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

conductor Conductor or conduction may refer to: Biology and medicine * Bone conduction, the conduction of sound to the inner ear * Conduction aphasia, a language disorder Mathematics * Conductor (ring theory) * Conductor of an abelian variety * Cond ...

Bud Brisbois Austin Dean "Bud" Brisbois (April 11, 1937 – June 1, 1978) was a jazz and studio trumpeter. He played jazz, pop, rock, Country music, country, Motown, and classical music. Career Brisbois was born in Edina, Minnesota and began studying the tr ...

Bill Chase Bill Chase (October 20, 1934 – August 9, 1974) was an American trumpeter and leader of the jazz-rock band Chase. Biography Bill Chase was born William Edward Chiaiese on October 20, 1934, to an Italian-American family in Squantum, Massa ...

, Roger Middleton, Dalton Smith –

*Kent Larsen, Archie Le Coque,

–

trombone The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...

*Jim Amlotte, Bob Knight –

bass trombone The bass trombone (, ) is the bass instrument in the trombone family of brass instruments. Modern instruments are pitched in the same B♭ as the tenor trombone but with a larger bore, bell and mouthpiece to facilitate low register playing, and u ...

–

alto saxophone The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgians, Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in the key of E♭ ( ...

*John Bonnie, Bill Trujillo –

tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (whi ...

*Marvin Holladay,

Jack Nimitz Jack Nimitz (January 11, 1930 – June 10, 2009) was an American jazz baritone saxophonist, nicknamed "The Admiral" - a reference to Chester Nimitz. Career A native of Washington, D.C., Nimitz started on clarinet in his early teens before pl ...

–

baritone saxophone The baritone saxophone (sometimes abbreviated to "bari sax") is a member of the saxophone family of instruments, larger (and lower-pitched) than the tenor saxophone, but smaller (and higher-pitched) than the bass saxophone, bass. It is the lowe ...

*Pete Chivily –

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

*Jimmy Campbell –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

*Mike Pacheco –

bongos Bongos (Spanish language, Spanish: ''bongó'') are an Afro-Cubans, Afro-Cuban percussion instrument consisting of a pair of small open bottomed hand drums of different sizes. The pair consists of the larger ''hembra'' () and the smaller ''macho'' ...

timbales Timbales () or pailas are shallow single-headed drums with metal casing. They are shallower than single-headed tom-toms and usually tuned much higher, especially for their size.Orovio, Helio 1981. ''Diccionario de la música cubana: biográfic ...

*Willie Rodriguez –

congas The conga, also known as tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed drum from Cuba. Congas are stave (wood), staved like barrels and classified into three types: quinto (drum), quinto (lead drum, highest), tres dos or tres golpes (middle), an ...

, bongos *Tommy Lopez – congas (tracks 1–9)

References

{{Authority control Stan Kenton albums 1960 albums Capitol Records albums Blue Note Records albums Albums conducted by Stan Kenton Albums produced by Lee Gillette