Honoring a musical kinship

The musical relationship between Stan Kenton and Pete Rugolo paralleled, to some extent, the linkage of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. In both cases, an older, more established bandleader found, and formed an important partnership with, a younger composer who shared a similar musical view.

Obviously, the musical results of the Kenton-Rugolo connection were considerably different from the music that flowed from Ellington-Strayhorn. But the parallel remains -- two unique relationships, each of which had a significant effect on the jazz world.

The depth of the Kenton-Rugolo rapport was on full display Friday at the Crystal Ballroom of the Beverly Hills Hotel in “Rugolomania,” a celebration of the 84-year-old composer-arranger’s life and music. The first of two evening concerts centered on Rugolo’s music for his own ensembles and recording sessions. The second focused on his work for the Kenton aggregation.

Most fascinating about the sequence of material -- written for many different settings, and performed by an all-star ensemble including several veterans of Rugolo’s Kenton years -- was the constancy of style. It was particularly interesting to note how that connection was manifest in Rugolo’s activities beyond the Kenton orbit -- for films, television and his own bands.

In the opening concert of material from that area, an orchestration of the standard “Poinciana,” for example, was assembled in the style of “Bolero.” Or, at least, as one imagines Kenton might have done Ravel -- with swooping trombones and screaming brass and percussion climaxes.

“Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,” arranged to feature the woodwinds, was reminiscent of Kenton’s saxophones-only work, “Opus in Pastels.” And a Rugolo rendering of “Nancy With the Laughing Face” similarly embraced thick, harmonically dense combinations of saxophones and trombones.

When Rugolo, who conducted both concerts, got around to the works written for the Kenton orchestra, the almost symbiotic musical connection between the two -- as with Ellington-Strayhorn -- was immediately apparent. Most showcased the brass-heavy, chromatically shifting harmonies characteristic of the style Kenton referred to as “progressive” jazz.

Two vocal numbers, sung with appropriate similarities to the best-known Kenton vocalist, June Christy, were offered by singer Stephanie Nakasian.

And many fine soloists -- especially trumpeters Steve Huffsteter and Pete Candoli, trombonist Andy Martin and saxophonist Tom Peterson -- were blended into the arrangements, adding the first-rate improvisational coloration that also played an integral part of the Kenton-Rugolo experience.