Kenton State : Jazz: Musicians will get a chance to relive the way it was with the legendary bandleader when they take part in the ninth annual tribute in Irvine.

Whether it was via his music or his strong personality, jazz giant Stan Kenton made lasting impressions on the men who worked for him.

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The bandleader-pianist-composer “was one of the best leaders, the genuine article,” says saxophonist Kim Richmond, a member of the Kenton ensemble in 1967. “He was so congenial to his sidemen. There was a real warmth--he thought of everyone as his boys. And he knew exactly what he wanted from the band, musically. That’s a big plus.”

Buddy Childers, who joined Kenton at age 16 in 1942 and played lead and other trumpet chairs until 1954, was excited to be there but took awhile to warm to the sound.

“Early on, Stan’s music was very challenging, but it didn’t fulfill me, because while we were doing so many interesting things, we forgot to swing. Then later, in the ‘50s, when Bill Holman was doing a lot of writing, I loved the band because it was so musical.”

For most of the ‘40s and ‘50s, Kenton, known as the “Restless Searcher” for his continual musical explorations, led the most popular big band in jazz, which was characterized by its accent on brass instruments and the grandness of the compositions. He died of a stroke, due to alcohol abuse, in 1979 at the age of 67.

His orchestras provided the steppingstone for many musicians to establish careers in jazz, and his Kenton band camps--which employed jazz professionals to teach high school and college students--ushered in the era of jazz education at the university level. Kenton societies in many countries, and more than 50 albums still in print, are evidence that the late artist’s popularity has hardly waned.

Richmond, Childers and many others will get a chance to relive some of their days with the bandleader when they take part in the ninth annual “Tribute to Stan Kenton,” set for Sunday at the Irvine Marriott hotel.

Produced by Ken Allan, a hairdresser who used to cut Kenton’s hair, the event will feature a Kenton Alumni Orchestra led by saxophonist Alan Yankee, who toured with Kenton from 1975 to 1978. The band will offer such classics as “Artistry in Rhythm,” “Eager Beaver,” “Intermission Riff” and “Opus in Pastels” (a gorgeous work written for unaccompanied saxophone section).

Among the other musicians on hand will be trumpeters Conte Candoli and Clay Jenkins, trombonist Roy Wiegand, saxophonists Steve Wilkerson and Greg Smith and bassist Pat Senatore.

Also on hand will be an all-star quartet featuring former “Tonight Show” orchestra members Candoli and pianist Ross Tompkins, along with bassist John Heard and drummer Jake Hanna.

Yankee, who will also conduct the Kenton big band, has assembled the concert’s arrangements from various sources over the years. He says leading is always a pleasure, though it’s both a bit humbling and slightly melancholic.

“I’m standing in front of Buddy, Conte, Kim--a band of stars, more or less--and I’m the one that gets to talk to the crowd and pick the tunes,” said Yankee, a Moreno Valley resident who currently leads various bands in the Palm Springs area. “It’s a responsibility that’s still a lot of fun. But musically, I always wish we were a road band. There’s nothing can beat that, where people are living their lives to play this music two hours a night. But this is the best we have.”

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Richmond and Senatore, though loving the music, are quick to point out the endless one-nighters were not to their liking.

“Sleeping on the bus, maybe a hotel now and then, little pay--that was terrible,” said Richmond, who leads an L.A. jazz orchestra that displays some of the “walls of sound” that were part of Kenton’s work. “But the band was great, and I’m thrilled to be carrying on that tradition in some ways.”

Senatore, who was with the band in 1961 and whose bass was spotlighted on the “Blues Story” Capitol Records album, didn’t even last a year.

“I was a fan of the band before I joined,” said Senatore, former owner of Pasquale’s jazz club in Malibu and current player in Los Angeles. “But after nine months on that bus, that was enough. My first son was 6 days old before I saw him, but I named him Kenton, after Stan.”

It seems that everyone who played with Kenton came away with an anecdote or two.

“Stan and I were friends, and we used to argue on the bus about various musical issues,” Richmond said. “We did it for the sake of people who thought it was terrible to argue with Stan. It was like sport.”

Childers, who currently works with Frank Sinatra Jr. and leads his own big band, has found, like many others, that Kenton remains part of his life.

“The first really good ballad arrangement I wrote sounded like Stan, and it was a good chart,” he says. “Now, if I write an arrangement like that, it’s OK. I know it’s my way of doing things.”

* The ninth annual “Tribute to Stan Kenton” takes place Sunday from 6 to 10 p.m. in the Rendezvous Ballroom of the Irvine Marriott hotel, 18000 Von Karman Ave., Irvine. $25. Information: (714) 553-9449.