7.5 on the Richter Scale

7.5 on the Richter Scale is an album by American jazz musician Stan Kenton and his Orchestra that was released in 1973. Recording sessions for the album took place during August 1973 in Hollywood, California.^[1]

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Background

Until 7.5 on the Richter Scale the band had primarily made swing recordings with progressive leanings. The 1969 Capitol release of Stan Kenton: The Music of Hair^[1] was the only other time since 1943 that Kenton moved away from his style. He had no involvement in the Hair album except for his name appearing on the jacket cover. Ralph Carmichael and Lennie Niehaus were in charge. Producer Lee Gillette at Capitol was trying to take advantage of the popularity of the musical.^[1] Due to lack of promotion, the album was a commercial failure, and this was Kenton's last album for Capitol.^[1]

In 1970 Kenton moved to his label, Creative World Records, when the music industry was changing. He turned to arrangers Hank Levy and Bob Curnow to write material that appealed to a younger audience.^[1] The first albums released by Creative World were concerts by Kenton. He controlled the content, but he lacked the resources to engineer and produce what Capitol had paid for in the past. He gambled that he could rely on direct mail to jazz fans to sell albums.^[2] During 1973 Kenton wanted to change the band drastically.^[3] He told Gene Roland to come up with a rock-oriented album that would retain the Kenton sound. By June 1973 Curnow had become artists and repertoire manager overseeing Creative World, and he produced the album.^[1]^[4] Much of the music Roland produced fell short of his previous work.^[3] Other writers were called for help.

"We (did) 7.5 On the Richter Scale with some pretty wild things on there, including my chart of Paul McCartney's "Live and Let Die".^[5]

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Live and Let Die"	Paul McCartney	3:45
2.	"Body and Soul"	Johnny Green	4:45
3.	"Down and Dirty"	Hank Levy	5:35
4.	"Country Cousin"	Gene Roland	3:06
5.	"2002-Zarathustrevisited"	Richard Strauss	6:06
6.	"It's Not Easy Bein' Green"	Joe Raposo	3:41
7.	"Love Theme from The Godfather"	Nino Rota	3:13
8.	"Blue Gene"	Gene Roland	3:47

Personnel

Stan Kenton – piano
Paul Adamson – trumpet
Mike Barrowman – trumpet
Dennis Noday – trumpet
Gary Pack – trumpet
Jay Saunders – trumpet
Mike Snustead – trumpet
Dale Devoe – trombone
Bill Hartman – trombone
Dick Shearer – trombone
Lloyd Spoon – trombone
Mike Wallace – trombone, tuba
Mary Fettig – saxophone
John Park – saxophone
Kim Park – saxophone
Roy Reynolds – saxophone
Richard Torres – saxophone
Kerby Stewart – double bass, bass guitar
Peter Erskine – drums
Ramon Lopez – percussion

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Sparke, Michael (1998). Stan Kenton: The Studio Sessions. Lake Geneva, WI: Balboa Books. pp. 212, 374. ISBN 0-936653-82-5.
^ Lee, William F. (1994). Stan Kenton: Artistry in Rhythm. Los Angeles, California: Creative Press. p. 365. ISBN 0897459938.
^ ^a ^b Sparke, Michael (2010). Stan Kenton: This Is an Orchestra!. Denton, Texas: University of North Texas Press. pp. 258–259. ISBN 9781574412840.
^ Easton, Carol (1973). Straight Ahead: The Story of Stan Kenton. New York: William Morrow. p. 247. ISBN 0-688-00196-3.
^ Harris, Steven D. (2000). The Kenton Kronicles. Pasadena, California: Dynaflow. p. 268. ISBN 9780967627311.

External links

Review at AllMusic

This page was last edited on 5 April 2022, at 15:21