Leonard Feather Blindfold Tests

[Plays "The Song Is You" by Cannonball Adderley, from Great Love Themes, Capitol Records (1966). Personnel: Nat Adderley: cornet; Cannonball Adderley: alto saxophone; Ray Ellis: arranger.]

Stan Kenton: Talk?

Leonard Feather: Yeah. Go ahead.

Stan Kenton: Well, I'd say it was a very expensive try at a sophisticated jazz record. This guy had everything covered. He had a chorus going, he had a big string section. He had the Latin rhythms and the two jazz soloists. I think the record is kind of cluttered up. I think that it's too, shall we say, effected.

Leonard Feather: Yeah. Did you get enough of the soloist's personality to assess anything?

Stan Kenton: No. I don't know who played either instrument.

Leonard Feather: I don't mean to guess who they were, but I mean you do feel they were too cluttered up to so that you could even tell the style.

Stan Kenton: No, I didn't identify any of it.

Leonard Feather: No further comment?

Stan Kenton: Uh-uh. Who was it?

Leonard Feather: Well, how would you rate it? Fair, poor, two?

Stan Kenton: What do we got? Five stars?

Leonard Feather: One is poor, two is fair, three is good, four is very good, and five is sensational.

Stan Kenton: I'd say a two.

Leonard Feather: Yeah. Yeah. That was a rather-

[Plays "Hex" by Orchestra U.S.A, from Sonorities, Columbia Records (1965). Personnel: Jimmy Giuffre: composer.]

Stan Kenton: I didn't enjoy what I just heard. It sounded to me like it could be considered an exercise in orchestration, and I felt that the orchestrator squandered too much orchestral color too fast. It's just a panorama of effects. And the theme, if what I heard near the end of the record was the main theme, it was not clear at all. This is the kind of music I think could be used in advanced cases of music therapy possibly to watch the expression on someone's face to see if you have reached them at all.

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Stan Kenton: I don't see any validity as far as the music is concerned at all.

Leonard Feather: Did you hear any form in it?

Stan Kenton: No. No.

Leonard Feather: Neither did I.

Stan Kenton: I think that it's ... Maybe 20 years ago I would've said "That's very interesting. I'd like to hear it again." But I have no desire to hear it again.

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Stan Kenton: Nothing held it together. Who was it?

Leonard Feather: How many stars?

Stan Kenton: Who?

Leonard Feather: First, how many stars? One star?

Stan Kenton: One.

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

[Plays "Moon and Sand" by Kenny Burrell, from Guitar Forms, Verve Records (1965). Personnel: Kenny Burrell: guitar; Gil Evans: arranger; Alec Wilder: composer.]

Stan Kenton: Put the money in the ... Ashes in the money. How can I explain this record the way I feel about it? This could have been a great record because it has all the ingredients that go to make a great record. It had the color, it had the setting, but the thing it missed was subject matter. The theme was not at all strong. I felt the melody was very weak and I thought maybe when the guitar player got into some improvisation, maybe it would strengthen itself a little bit, but it didn't. It's like having a lovely romantic atmosphere for a party and yet the people are boring because there's really no purpose for the party.

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Stan Kenton: It's pretty hard for the arranger, whoever he was, to do much with it because the tune didn't ... The melody didn't have much content. It was too ... Very flimsy. I don't think this deserves more than two stars.

[Plays "Artistry in Rhythm" by Duke Ellington, from Will Big Bands Ever Come Back?, Reprise Records (1965). Personnel: Stan Kenton: composer.]

Stan Kenton: It seems like before when I heard this, it wasn't this long.

Leonard Feather: You have heard it before.

Stan Kenton: Yeah. Well, let's see. What can I say about it? I think that I'd have to say this affects me in a very personal way. It's as though the master of us all said, "Stan, don't take yourself too seriously. After all, you do have a sense of humor and the world will turn whether you push it or not." I think it kind of in essence says, "Regardless of all your screaming and hollering, we still like you anyway." I think it's beautiful.

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Stan Kenton: Yeah. And he is the master too. I'd have to give it four stars.

Leonard Feather: How about comments about the individuals? Because there are several others as well, all the sections.

Stan Kenton: Well, and you can eliminate part of this if you want Leonard, but we had a TV show in Kansas City plugging my festival, and they had a guy there, Richard Smith, who was president of one of the unions there. It's done but what's great about Ellington's band? And they talked about everybody but the guy that is Ellington right next to Ellington and that's Harry Carney. So I said, "How come you guys talk about everybody? You mention all these guys, you don't mention the guy that is Ellington, he's the capital E of Ellington if Ellington himself is Ellington." And it's Carney. And I think that with him, Carney's sound has never been duplicated. He has identity. And to me he's Duke. I say not "He's Duke," but if there's a right arm that Duke has, he is Duke.

Leonard Feather: Did you say this was Duke's arrangement or Strayhorn?

Stan Kenton: I don't know. I don't.

Leonard Feather: It doesn't sound-

Stan Kenton: It sounds to me like it's an ear thing.

Leonard Feather: Hold on, I think it's-

Stan Kenton: You think it was written out.

Leonard Feather: I think it was written out, yeah.

Stan Kenton: Yeah?

Leonard Feather: I'm pretty sure. Most of it is Nance anyway.

Stan Kenton: Yeah, well, I mean an ear thing then it's something they sat down and figured out. They just didn't say, "Okay, we're starting to play here." No, there were ideas there.

Leonard Feather: But I suspect that probably Strayhorn did some writing for that, particularly the latter half. But it sounds-

Stan Kenton: I think it's very pleasing.

Leonard Feather: Okay.

[skips, the following dialogue is still related to the previous song]:

Leonard Feather: One thing that about the melody.

Stan Kenton: Oh. The record seemed like it was much longer to me. And I guess the thing that does hang you up is you have to remember that the theme itself is only 10 bars long and once you treat it one way in 10 bars, you have to treat it another way and another way. And it seems like a much longer record. However, it seems like, I guess as you say, it was only about three minutes.

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

[Plays "Cascades" by Oliver Nelson, from Blues and the Abstract Truth, Impulse! Records (1961). Personnel: Freddie Hubbard: trumpet; Bill Evans: piano; Paul Chambers: bass; Roy Haynes: drums; Oliver Nelson: composer.]

Stan Kenton: Do me a favor and start that record again will you please? From the beginning. Yeah. Just for about a minute.

[skips, the following dialogue relates to the previous song]:

Stan Kenton: The reason I asked to hear the first portion of that record again is I thought at first when I first heard it that there were some cross rhythms going on and so forth that would be very interesting. All I felt suddenly was a very nervous feeling about things, that I was hearing something strange. And when I asked you to play it again, I didn't really think there was anything strange I heard, I just heard time hassles going on that were awfully disturbing. I felt like they needed to start and kick off again. But it did have an interesting sound, but I think it was disturbing. I like the trumpet very, very much in the thing. I wasn't too impressed with the piano mainly because I think he's tasty, but I think the piano player suffers from the same fault of a lot of modern pianists, they get into one idiom of the piano and they keep it going and there's so many possibilities at the piano. He could have brought in a lot of interesting color from the piano by broadening out a little bit more, and getting away from just the stabbing left-hand and the single finger right hand, in spite of the fact he did play some thirds here and there. I felt that especially during the piano, the bass and the drummer were very listless and there was not much energy coming from them. I didn't feel that so much during the trumpet because I believe the trumpet had more assertion. And then as far as the little composition idea on the end, I feel that sometimes these little modal effects can be carried too far. After it's said once or twice then they should go ahead and spice it with something else. It gets to be a boring thing. You finally feel like you want to stop the record and say "What else is new?"

Leonard Feather: That's true. How would that rate?

Stan Kenton: Oh, three stars, I guess.

[According to Downbeat Magazine: Plays "23 Red" by Woody Herman, from Woody's Winners, Columbia Records (1965). Personnel: Dusko Goykovich: trumpet; Don Rader: trumpet; Bill Chase: trumpet, composer, arranger; Woody Herman: alto saxophone. However, the end of the song as heard on this interview tape sounds like the end of "Woody's Whistle" from the same record.]

Stan Kenton: Well Leonard, I don't have any idea whose band that is, but it's a wonderful record. It's truly happy music. I think the writing is excellent and they got a groove going right at the beginning and never changed. And if you could tell me the name of it, I'll go out and buy it. And I'd give it five stars.

Leonard Feather: Wow.

Stan Kenton: The first alto player sounded like Marshall Royal a little bit. But then I couldn't identify the rest of the band. Good feeling with the trumpet player.

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Stan Kenton: Who was it?

Leonard Feather: So nobody else to comment about?

Stan Kenton: That's all.

Leonard Feather: Okay.

[Plays "Viva Tirado" by Gerlad Wilson, from Moment of Truth, Pacific Jazz Records (1962). Personnel: Mel Lewis: drums; Joe Pass: guitar.]

Stan Kenton: I don't think too much can be said for the record. I think that it's nothing more than dance music and it's probably a good grade of dance music, but the title could very well be called melodic and harmonic boredom. Music like this is only good for one thing and that's for dancing because there's certainly nothing, not enough interest there to serve as any other thing other than maybe a soft background so you could maybe have a little atmosphere because I don't think there's any validity in it at all. I wouldn't give it ... Let's say I would give it four stars as dance music. As music I'll give it one star.

Leonard Feather: Okay.

[skips, the following dialogue relates to the previous song]:

Leonard Feather: Just what you said about montuno.

Stan Kenton: Well, I think one of the problems with the record is you get a montuno going after a certain length of time you feel like saying, "Okay, okay, okay. I've heard it. What else is new?"

Leonard Feather: Yeah.