Toledo Jazz Orchestra readies to honor Stan Kenton

TOLEDO – A concert featuring the music of the late, legendary big band leader Stan Kenton has been an annual fan favorite for many years for the Toledo Jazz Orchestra.

This year, the jazz band will honor Kenton on Nov. 2 with a concert at the Valentine Theatre titled, Fascinating Rhythm – the Music of Stan Kenton.

“He was a very progressive jazz artist for his time,” said Scott Potter, who plays trumpet with the TJO. “His stuff stands alone; it’s very unique with a lot of high and loud trumpet parts.”

Kenton was born in Wichita, Kansas in 1911 and learned to play the piano as a child. He formed his own big band in 1941 and went on to lead jazz groups with as many as two dozen members.

At times, his music was so powerful and pumped with soaring high notes that it overwhelmed some audiences. Kenton had an affinity for Afro-Cuban music and many of his songs were built on propulsive rhythms that utilized the combined power of drums, tympani, bongos, maracas, claves and timbales.

Kenton led his group until he passed away in 1979, but his music continues to inspire jazz musicians and audiences around the world.

Potter said the trumpet parts that Kenton and others wrote for the band “are always interesting and fun to play.”

He said he and other members of the TJO don’t mind taking on a challenge.

“It can take some extra time to learn, but we get the music about three weeks in advance of a concert, so by the time we meet for our first group rehearsal, we are expected to know the music. We’ve definitely played difficult music before. We brought in [trumpeter] Randy Brecker a few years ago and some of the tunes he brought were really, really difficult.”

The TJO is scheduled to present “A Very Jazzy Christmas” on Dec. 21 featuring vocalist April Varner, a Toledo native now living in New York City. Her recently released debut album, April, received high praise from Downbeat magazine, which said “the 27-year-old delivers with plenty of flare, showing off her impressive range.”

Potter said the TJO is planning to go into the studio and record a Christmas album with Varner on vocals.

The group’s 2024-25 season will continue with a tribute to the late Toledo jazz icon Jon Hendricks with “American Songbook 3: The Artistry of Jon Hendricks” on Feb. 1, a concert featuring Miles Davis’s album Porgy and Bess on March 15, and conclude with “An Evening with John Pizzarelli” featuring the nationally known guitarist on April 12.

All the concerts are on Saturdays at either the Valentine Theatre or the Toledo Museum of Art-Peristyle, scheduling that is conducive to drawing big crowds.

Potter, who has been with the TJO for decades, is a lifelong jazz devotee who still practices every day, sometimes spending “hours and hours in the practice room.”

He even brings his trumpet on vacation.

“I remember taking my horn to St. Martin with me because it was two or three weeks before a concert, and while everybody else was laying around the pool, I was in the house practicing my music.”

He also continues to study music theory with local jazz icon and teacher Gene Parker.

The TJO formed in 1979, but after three decades went through a difficult time in regard to administration, organization and funding. The group disbanded around 2010, but Potter said he called saxophonist Mark Lemle – the only original musician still with the TJO – two years later and said, “Why don’t we resurrect the band?”

They brought in Ron Kischuk, a Detroit trombonist and a businessman, as director to help run both the music and administrative duties, and with a small but devoted board of directors, got the group up and running again.

There has always been a strong sense of camaraderie and commitment among the local jazz artists. Potter estimates that about half of the 16-member band has been with the TJO for 25 years or more.

As of July 1, the jazz orchestra is now in the Toledo Alliance for the Performing Arts, which also oversees the Toledo Symphony and the Toledo Ballet. The arrangement frees up the TJO musicians to focus on their music while TAPA takes care of the administrative needs, marketing and promotion, ticketing and the like.

A big plus is that Alain Trudel, music director of the Toledo Symphony, is now the artistic director of the TJO.

“He’s a brilliant, brilliant musician,” Potter said. “The guys in the band just love working under him because he knows his stuff so well. He’s a marvelous player and he’s got ears you wouldn’t believe. So it’s been a good move all around.”

He said he feels good not only about the current state of the Toledo Jazz Orchestra, but that its future looks bright.

“We’ve had our ups and downs but we’ve come out strong. And the TJO has got legs now,” Potter said.

For more information on TAPA and the TJO go to artstoledo.com.