As a band leader, Kenton's remarkable survival into the 1970s hinged on two factors. First, he constantly pushed to expand the definition of what a big band was into wider, more challenging parameters. He moved from dance music to jazz, then from jazz to concert music, and finally from concert music to a long series of experimental ensembles with an aggressive curiosity. When it didn't stimulate approval, it could always be depended upon to generate controversy, especially in the changing post-war jazz scene.

The second reason was in the early 1960s, when even Kenton seemed to have played out his musical alternatives, he spotted and nurtured an entire new market for the big band, the academic world, with jazz education and jazz clinics.

Kenton was born Dec. 15, 1911, in Los Angeles, where he grew up and found his first work in the '30s. He first recorded for Brunswick with Gus Arnheim's hotel orchestra in 1937 and made some transcriptions sides with Vido Musso the following year.

Kenton would have many orchestras over his career, each with its own purpose and personality. He unveiled the first of them in May 1941 at Balboa—the Artistry in Rhythm band taken from his radio theme. It was something of a territory band—born, bred and based in the L.A. area and largely recorded by Capitol Records, which was born in L.A. about the same time as first Kenton band came along.

From the beginning Kenton favored big, dense voicings, played with often ear splitting punch and power. It was an approach that attracted quick attention and success. Almost immediately Kenton's first commercial session for Decca ("Taboo" and "Adios") got him noticed. During the war "Eager Beaver" became a breakthrough hit in 1943.

But the band was still skirting the margins of jazz until Pete Rugolo took over as chief arranger to become Kenton's Strayhorn, and Stan Getz and Anita O'Day joined in 1944. "And Her Tears Flowed Like Wine" and "Tampico" became the signature Kenton hits of the '40s.

Then came the parade of young West Coast players who would become the core of Howard Rumsey's Contemporary repertory company a decade later: Art Pepper, Shorty Rogers, Lee Konitz, Shelly Mann and many more. As the '40s went on and big band faded, Kenton fought the tide with increasingly complex and ambitious orchestras, which taken together came to represent a whole new class of jazz: Progressive Jazz. At this point, 1947-'48, Kenton became center of controversial gravity in jazz onto himself. He announced his retirement, then came back with the "Innovations Orchestra," a 40-man concert orchestra that went against all economic logic and was promptly disbanded after a national tour. In the early '50s arrangers Bill Holman and Bill Russo helped Kenton find his place in jazz once again along with one of the richest concentrations of talent Kenton ever enjoyed: Zoot Sims, Frank Rosolino, Stan Levy, Konitz, the Candoli brothers and others.

In the '60s and '70s Kenton led the march of veteran jazz players into the academy and was the central figure in developing the an on going teaching relationship between musicians and students. Kenton became the model of how a working band could take up residency within a music education program and provide an intense program of clinics covering all aspects of arranging and performance. In 1977 he struck his head in a fall and was hospitalized. He never fully returned to full activity and died of a stroke in Aug. 25, 1979.

In 1955, Kenton was elected by the Readers into the Down Beat Hall of Fame.