American pianist and composer Stan Kenton , who died in 1979, led various big bands with great success for almost 40 years but stirred up controversy in 1950 when he formed his Innovations in Modern Music
Orchestra, employing up to 40 musicians. In this four-part series,
Max Harrison looks at this ambitious, experimental project and puts it in its historical context. Numbers featured in the first programme include
Incident in Jazz, Thermopylae and House of Strings by Graettinger. Repeated from Saturday 6pm