Boots Mussulli

Stan Kenton and His Orchestra: Roots

by Jack Bowers
March 15, 2024

Roots is a most appropriate title for this series of concerts by the Stan Kenton Orchestra recorded in 1944-45 on behalf of the Armed Forces Radio Service. While the sessions do include a handful of staples from the Kenton book ("Eager Beaver," “Reed Rapture," “Tampico," the well-known “Artistry in Rhythm" theme), it's clear that Kenton and the orchestra hadn't yet developed the singular persona that enabled it to safeguard its place among the front ranks of contemporary big bands until ...

Album Review

Stan Kenton: Salute!

by Jack Bowers
February 16, 2023

Stan Kenton, one of the most renowned and influential bandleaders of the twentieth century, died on August 25, 1979. Fortunately—for the sake of history in general and creative music in particular—Kenton's remarkable legacy lives on, and in a perceptive and open-minded world would endure forever. Even to this day, small but devoted groups of enthusiasts share a wish that some previously hidden array of his material might come to light, satisfiying for the moment their craving for more memorable music ...

Recording

Boots Mussulli: Mable's Fable

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
January 2, 2012

Boston-based alto and baritone saxophonist Boots Mussulli never quite achieved the kind of poll-winner fame in the 1940s and '50s that Lee Konitz and Art Pepper did. Mussulli had the misfortune of coming up at a time when the alto and baritone saxophone scene was jammed with extraordinary playing-arranging band talent itching to break out in leadership roles. Mussulli instead was most comfortable as a section player, returning to the Boston area in the mid-1950s as an educator for much of ...
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