Standards in Silhouette
| Standards In Silhouette | ||||
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| Studio album by Stan Kenton | ||||
| Released | LP 1959 CD 1998 |
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| Recorded | September 21–22, 1959 in New York City |
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| Genre | Jazz, big band, instrumental, popular standards | |||
| Length | 45:18 | |||
| Label | Capitol | |||
| Producer | Lee Gillette | |||
| Stan Kenton chronology | ||||
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| LP Capitol ST-1394 CD re-issue Capitol Jazz CDP 94503 2 |
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
|
Down Beat Magazine August 4, 1960 |
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The Jazz Review November, 1960 |
very positive |
| Penguin Jazz Guide |
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| All About Jazz | very positive |
Standards In Silhouette is an album recorded in September 1959 by Stan Kenton and his orchestra. The entire set of arrangements for the LP were written by Bill Mathieu. This recording stands alone in approach and style; Kenton himself only plays on Django (no piano called for by Mathieu on all others) and every standard is done at a slow, ballad tempo with very sparse, effusive writing.
Only a year before the Kenton recording dates for Standards In Silhoutte, the Ballad Style of Stan Kenton had been released with all charts being penned by Kenton himself. Though Standards In Silhoutte and Ballad Style of Stan Kenton both feature standards at slow tempos, the comparisons abruptly stop there. The earlier record is known as "Kenton Plays Pretty" giving Kenton another commercial success while Standards In Silhoutte is dark, moody and experimental; moving 180 degrees away from the tried and tested ballads from the dance book.
Merely 22 years old at the time, Bill Mathieu had submitted his first score to Kenton just six years before. He was then used as a trumpet player in the section for a short period and then moved into an arranging slot of the band. In sharp contrast to earlier arrangers for the group such as Bill Holman, Lennie Niehaus, and Gene Roland, Mathieu's music was not of the rhythmic, swinging variety. Kenton made a bold move and allowed the young arranger the full responsibility to produce an artistically and commercially viable set of arrangements for the band; for an entire ballad album. This was a savvy move and Kenton recognized Mathieu had full command "of an art aspired to by many writers, but rarely accomplished with the flair and ingenuity Mathieu achieves."
Actually, before The Thrill Is Gone score was seen by Kenton while the band was in San Francisco, none of Mathieu's charts had yet caught the imagination of the band leader. "That is a beautiful thing" Kenton said, "What's next?" Kenton approached Mathieu about more music and meanwhile Mathieu had come up with the album title of Standards In Silhouette. After trying to augment the first chart with contrasting music (more up tempo and rhythmic) Kenton said, "Bill, let's not worry about that, let's make it entirely a mood album." Kenton's intuition as a band leader and artist was spot on and Mathieu was to come up with nine ballads on standards that have become legendary for composers and arrangers to study.
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