Stan Kenton biography
Profile
Stan Kenton was born on December 15, 1911, in Wichita, Kansas. A gifted pianist as a child and a touring musician as a teenager, Kenton formed his first band in 1941. This ensemble's bombastic style came to be known as the "Wall of Sound." Some of Kenton's players included Art Pepper, Maynard Ferguson and June Christy. The "jazz clinic" style that Kenton used to train students is still used as a framework for jazz education. He died on August 25, 1979, in Los Angeles, California.