Yesterday, Jim Eigo sent along a link to a YouTube audio clip he received from Jeffrey Sultanof, who posted on the subject at his blog The Eclectic's Corner: About the Arts. [Photo above of Marty Paich]
The clip from 1972 or '73 features the voice of arranger-pianist Marty Paich, who was asked to write an arrangement of Body and Soul by bandleader Stan Kenton. The tape served as audio notes and direction for the musical score illustrated by Paich on the piano. Such a tape would have been made only if Kenton was on the road and Paich couldn't meet with him personally. The tape let Paich provide a clear sense of the tempo, feel and intent. As you'll soon hear, the tape is a fascinating audio document. [Photo above of Marty Paich]
By 1973, the standard Body and Soul had been part of Stan Kenton's book of arrangements for 28 years. The first version was arranged by alto saxophonist Boots Mussulli and featured a tenor saxophone solo by Vido Musso [publicity photo above of Stan Kenton]. Kenton first recorded the arrangement for Capitol in November 1945. Go here...
The song was updated by Johnny Richards and recorded live during one of Kenton's Concert in Miniature performances at the Hollywood Palladium in January 1953. I wasn't able to find it to embed here.
Kenton recorded the song on Duet with June Christy in May 1955. Go here...
In 1961, tenor saxophonist Sam Donahue took a shot at arranging the song for Kenton, who had the band record it on Adventures in Jazz in December 1961. Go here...
Then in 1972 or '73, Kenton commissioned Paich to arrange an updated version. The band recorded Paich's arrangement in August 1973 for Kenton's album 7.5 on the Richter Scale. According to notes at Tom Lord's Jazz Discography, Kenton's piano solo intro was spliced on from another take. Go here...
Which brings us to Paich's audio notes. What we have here is a rare recording of Paich's voice and his thinking behind his arrangement of Body and Soul and guidance on how it should be played. It's interesting that Paich arranged the song with the atmosphere of Artistry in Rhythm, Kenton's theme. It's a shame we don't have similar recordings by all great arrangers to gauge what they had in mind for key songs and what their vision was for execution. Go here...
