This is one of the newest of the Vitaphone shorts--known as a "Melody Master". These later musical shorts generally had been more straight forward and had simpler sets and no real story to tie it all together--just a famous band of the day doing their stuff.
Here's an anthology of some of Kenton's well-known songs in the era. Pitched as a history of his professional career, it takes him about forty seconds of screne time to go from a piano player scrounging jobs to leading his own band.
This is so different from the musical shorts from a decade earlier. There's a narrator talking about Kenton's career.
Stan Kenton and His Orchestra (1948) *** (out of 4)Warner produced all sorts of "(Fill in Artist Name) and His Orchestra" shorts in their day but this one here is somewhat different as we not only get music but the history behind the music. This short takes a look at the career of Stan Kenton, who started playing at minor dances before building his music up into one of the biggest bands of his day.
