In the 1970s I was living in Washington D.C. A friend and I found out that the Kenton Band was appearing at a High School in Northern Virginia. We decided to go and we would take our cameras grab a seat up front and shoot some pictures. We got to the school early.When we entered the school we saw a hand drawn sign directing us to the gym.It seems the drama club had the auditorium for their musical. We bought our tickets and went in. We were the first ones there. Stan was pretty busy but we did get a couple of seconds to say hello. We then wandered over to where the risers for the band were. Jerry L. McKenzie was setting up his drums and John Wortser was getting his electric bass set up. I mentioned to Jerry that I remembered his name from the 1950s. He seemed to be thrilled to be back on the band.( It was many years later that I found out there were two Jerry McKenzies who had played with Kenton in the 1950s) We asked Jerry and John if they thought anyone would mind if we took some pictures. John's main concern was that we wouldn't trip over his bass. We assured him we wouldn't get anywhere near it.
By this time the audience was filling up the bleachers and we went about loading our cameras.
The band came out and took there places and a local DJ introduced Stan. He walked out to the center of the floor and greeted everyone then looked around the gym and said something
like
" I'm not too sure how good the acoustics are in here" he then but his hand to his mouth and gave out with a mighty "HEY". It kind of bounced around the place and got everyone chuckling.
Suddenly out of the trumpet section Dennis Noday yelled at the top of his lungs "WHAT??"
This cracked up Stan,the band and everyone in the place. The band played a fine concert as they always did but it was distracting with all that sound bouncing around the gym.
A large thank you goes to Mike Vax for helping to ID many of the players at this concert. They are identified left to right in the pictures.
Personel Trumpets: Ray Brown,Mike Vax,Jay Saunders,Dennis Noday,Mike Snustead. Trombones:Mike Wallace,Mike Jamison,Dick Shearer,Fred Carter,Phil Herring. Saxophones:Chuck Carter,Chris Galumen,Quinn Davis,Richard Torres,Roy Reynolds. Drums:Jerry L.McKenzie.Bass: John Worster.Latin Percussion:Ramon Lopez.Piano & leader: Stan Kenton.
A large thank you goes to Mike Vax for helping to ID many of the players at this concert. They are identified left to right in the pictures.
