Though the title
Formative Years may conjure images of a band just beginning to find its way in the competitive world of swing music, the
Stan Kenton Orchestra heard on these recordings -- its very first two sessions, from September 1941 and February 1942 -- is already assured and distinctive. With charts by
Kenton or Joe Rizzo, the band reflects a heavy Latin influence, opening with Angel Villoldo's "El Choclo" featuring an excellent, brassy chart by Rizzo and progressing through Margarita Lecuona's "Tabu" to
Enric Madriguera's closing "Adios." Though few of these musicians survived the transition to the orchestra's popular success by the mid-'40s,
Kenton is in full command of the extroverted style that expanded on the influence of
Jimmie Lunceford's band and made his band one of the best of the postwar era. ~ John Bush