Stan Kenton Fest Opens in Newport : Jazz: ‘Back to Balboa,’ a reputed celebration of the modern maestro, contained very little of his music.

“Back to Balboa,” a celebration dedicated to the memory and music of Stan Kenton, got under way in Newport Beach on Thursday as about 700 Kenton fans descended on the Hyatt Newporter Hotel, just minutes away from where the Kenton orchestra made its debut at the Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa, 50 years ago this weekend.

The demographics of the audience that attended a series of panel discussions and concerts, most of them held outdoors on the hotel grounds, were easy to spot: overwhelmingly white and middle-aged, and fanatically loyal to the maestro who, during his 38-year career, attracted the respect of the musicians who worked for him, along with the devotion of his followers.

Kenton, who died in 1979, was a much revered composer, pianist and bandleader whose impact in the 1940s and 1950s inspired worldwide admiration and, for a while, tremendous commercial success. His band served as a launching pad for numerous notable jazz musicians and arrangers--including Maynard Ferguson, Neal Hefti and Bill Russo.

Among former Kenton associates on the panels were Howard Rumsey, who played bass in the original band, and Pete Rugolo, the arranger who gave the ensemble its identity during the late 1940s.

Anita O’Day, the first singer to help the band achieve hit records, kept the crowd laughing with anecdotes during one panel session, reminiscing about the time a 17-year-old saxophonist was frustrated by Kenton’s failure to give him any solos.

O’Day persuaded the leader to allot the musician eight bars, which he managed to stumble through. After giving a playful impression of that solo, O’Day delivered the punch line: “And that kid . . . was Stan Getz.”

The surprising thing about the opening day events was the conspicuous absence of Kentonesque music.

Of the three bands heard, trumpeter Buddy Childers, who was with Kenton for 11 years, used originals and standards written in later years by him or by his brilliant young saxophonist, Matt Catingub.

The other bands, led by composer Tom Talbert and Shorty Rogers, both played tunes by Duke Ellington--in fact, in announcing Duke’s “I’m Gonna Go Fishing,” Rogers pointedly referred to Ellington as “The Genius of Jazz”--but neither offered a single Kenton piece.

Talbert’s appearance was at odds with the concept that this would be a tribute to Kenton and the great talents his band generated. A lesser-known figure who worked minimally for Kenton, he played mainly recent, self-composed music that was closer to Gil Evans than to any of the styles associated with the larger-than-life figure he was supposed to be honoring.

Rogers (who played indoors Thursday evening at the Balboa Pavilion) offered several simplistic tunes inspired by the Count Basie band. They were of interest mainly as a starting point for such spirited soloists as Mike Fahn on valve trombone, Bob Cooper and Harold Land on tenor saxes and, in Dizzy Gillespie’s “Manteca,” Paul Humphrey on drums. The only work that came close to suggesting Kenton’s bravura was an intriguing alto sax concerto featuring Lanny Morgan.

The rest of “Back to Balboa”--a celebration sponsored by radio station KLON and running through Sunday--promises to hew closer to the subject, with Kenton composers reviving various works.