After Stan Kenton wrote and arranged Opus in Pastels in 1940, his band regularly performed the reed-centered song on the road. A studio version was released by Capitol in 1946, and Opus in Pastels became a hit. Arrangers Pete Rugolo and Bob Graettinger tried to get into the opus act for Kenton in the 1940s and early '50s, but without much success. When …
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to JazzWax to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.