Live At Lagoon, 1957! – Lagoon History Project

Only a handful of concerts at Lagoon’s Patio Gardens were recorded and made available, and of those few, most are Stan Kenton concerts. The earliest of which is this three-volume series on compact disc from the nights of the 16th & 17th of August in 1957. It was released in 1992 by the Magic label of England.

Each show was about an hour and a half long, but the set list was fairly different each night (see Info For Collectors below). A 30-minute portion of the first concert was broadcast live on KSL Radio and hosted by Rolfe Peterson, who peppered it with his infamous dry humor. This portion, with Peterson’s introductions and comments, are included on the first volume.

Clips from the radio broadcast portion.

These impressive performances are available today thanks to recording engineer Wally Heider who made hundreds of mobile recordings like these around the country. In later years, Heider started his own studio in San Francisco that was used by many well-known bands of the 1960s & ’70s such as Jefferson Airplane, Santana, The Grateful Dead and Creedence Clearwater Revival, to name a few.

Hear both full concerts in the playlists below:

FIRST NIGHT

SECOND NIGHT

INFO FOR COLLECTORS

You can buy Volume One, Volume Two and Volume Three on Discogs. I wouldn’t recommend buying from Amazon as some sellers will send you cheaply-made bootleg copies instead of originals as advertised.

Because the two concerts are split up onto three separately-sold CDs, the tracks were re-arranged to give a more cohesive experience for those who might not be able to obtain all three. Here’s the actual set lists for each night as originally performed, according to the liner notes:

	FIRST NIGHT, 16 AUG 1956
1	The Opener	CD 1, track 1
2	Walking Shoes	CD 1, track 2
3	Remember You	CD 1, track 3
4	Theme And Variations	CD 1, track 4
5	I’m Glad There Is You	CD 1, track 5
6	I Should Care	CD 1, track 6
7	The Big Chase	CD 1, track 7
8	Artistry In Rhythm	CD 1, track 8
9	Spring Is Here	CD 1, track 9
10	My Ideal	CD 1, track 10
11	Love Letters	CD 1, track 11
12	Sophisticated Lady	CD 1, track 12
13	The Way You Look Tonight	CD 1, track 13
14	When Your Lover Has Gone	CD 1, track 14
15	Intermission Riff	CD 1, track 15
16	Love For Sale	CD 2, track 17
17	Artistry In Rhythm (End)	CD 1, track 16
18	Opus In Chartreuse	CD 1, track 17
19	Tenderly	CD 2, track 2
20	I Get Along Without You Very Well	CD 2, track 1
21	Memories Of You	CD 2, track 3
22	I Married An Angel	CD 2, track 4
23	Day By Day	CD 2, track 5
24	I See Your Face Before Me	CD 2, track 6
25	So In Love	CD 2, track 7
26	Artistry In Rhythm	CD 2, track 8

	SECOND NIGHT, 17 AUG 1956
1	I’m Glad There Is You	CD 2, track 9
2	My Ideal	CD 2, track 10
3	Spring Is Here	CD 2, track 11
4	Street Of Dreams	CD 2, track 12
5	Intermission Riff	CD 2, track 13
6	Where Or When	CD 2, track 14
7	Walking By The River	CD 2, track 15
8	All Of You	CD 2, track 16
9	Tenderly	CD 3, track 2
10	Baby You’re Tough	CD 3, track 3
11	When Your Lover Has Gone	CD 3, track 4
12	The Way You Look Tonight	CD 3, track 5
13	Fearless Finlay	CD 3, track 1
14	You Turned The Tables On Me	CD 3, track 6
15	Memories Of You	CD 3, track 7
16	Intermission Riff	CD 3, track 8
17	The Nearness Of You	CD 3, track 9
18	I See Your Face Before Me	CD 3, track 10
19	Laura	CD 3, track 11
20	When Sunny Gets Blue	CD 3, track 12
21	Nightingale	CD 3, track 15
22	The End Of A Love Affair	CD 3, track 13
23	I Married An Angel	CD 3, track 14