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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZGRAETTINGER, BobFrom the entry for Stan Kenton: ...[T]he 1995 reissue Stan Kenton Plays Bob Graettinger/ City Of Glass on Capitol comes as a revelation. Graettinger (b 31 October 1923, Ontario CA; d 12 March 1957, L.A.) played sax and wrote for Benny Carter and others, then arranged or composed 16 tracks for Kenton '47-53 included two suites, 'This Modern World' (six parts) and 'City Of Glass' (four): it is astonishingly original and challenging music, dense yet beautiful, as uniquely American as Charles Ives. Graettinger travelled with the band and wrote for the individuals in it, as Duke Ellington did for his band; he wrote 'City Of Glass' '48 but expanded it for recording, one of the few arrangers of the era who did anything original with strings. He lived deliberately as an outsider, and grew more and more solitary; as Max Harrison wrote for the reissue, 'As the ferocious detail of Graettinger's music crowds in on us -- harsh, stark, subtly alien like an unleashed natural force -- we tamed consumers glimpse a set of values that severely questions our own.' |