The Ultramodernist Trajectory of Bob Graettinger
Robert "Bob" Graettinger (1923-1957) While playing with Stan Kenton’s orchestra at the Hollywood Palladium one night in 1941, bassist Howard Rumsey spotted a tall, gaunt teenager hanging around the bandstand. At intermission, the kid introduced himself. He was Bob Graettinger, and he had some arrangements with him. He asked Rumsey if Kenton would have a look at them. Kenton, who eagerly sought new talent, felt they were ambitious but amateurish. He told Graettinger to keep trying. Six years later, having cut his professional teeth as saxophonist and arranger with bands led by Ken Baker, Benny Carter, and Bobby Sherwood, Graettinger approached Kenton again. His new arrangement, “Thermopylae,” presented to Kenton during a rehearsal in Hollywood, would eventually redefine big band modernism. Kenton led the band in a reading of the work. Impressed, he hired Graettinger as an arranger. All of the music the young man eventually penned for Kenton encapsulated a sound the bandleade...