{"id":2193,"date":"2015-08-21T06:30:12","date_gmt":"2015-08-21T12:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lagoonhistory.com\/project\/?p=2193"},"modified":"2026-02-23T20:11:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T03:11:14","slug":"live-at-lagoon-1962","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lagoonhistory.com\/project\/live-at-lagoon-1962\/","title":{"rendered":"Live At Lagoon, 1962!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Painting
Painting of Lagoon’s Patio Gardens by V. Douglas Snow, from Ford Times, August 1961.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Lagoon has hosted hundreds of performances by popular musicians and entertainers over the decades, peaking with the shows held at the Patio Gardens in the 1950s and ’60s. Those who experienced them in person often have great memories to share and many of those who never got to the chance wish they could go back in time to see it for themselves. If only there were some recordings that could help us feel like we were there. Fortunately, there are a few concert recordings from the Patio Gardens that have been floating around for some time now and they’re fairly easy to add to your collection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"From
From the newspaper ad announcing the concerts on 24-25 August 1962.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On a couple of warm August nights in 1962, Stan Kenton and his 22-piece orchestra filled the open-air ballroom at Lagoon with smooth, polished jazz music. On both nights, the shows were recorded, but weren’t made available to the public until the ’90s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Released by Status Records\u00b9, which specializes in recordings of jazz concerts of the mid-20th century, this recording from the Patio Gardens is one of the many previously unreleased titles that the record label has issued on compact disc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there are two CDs released by Status Records that claim to be recordings of Stan Kenton at Lagoon in 1962 – Mellophonium Moods<\/em> and More Mellophonium Moods<\/em>. The liner notes in the former state that it was recorded in March 1962 while the latter lists the dates as 24-25 August 1962, and specifies which tracks were from which night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem is that Lagoon very rarely, if ever, held concerts in March. There’s a possibility that it was at The Terrace, which was leased to Lagoon’s management at the time, but there are no newspaper ads for a Stan Kenton concert anywhere in the area in March. Another possibility, if it was in March, is that the concert was given on short notice. There have been known to be fairly impromptu concerts at both Lagoon and The Terrace when a band happened to be going through (usually between California and Chicago or Denver or somewhere in the midwest).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One source says Mellophonium Moods<\/em> was recorded on 24 August 1962, but doesn’t go into any more detail. This would be possible since some of the songs on this album also appear on More Mellophonium Moods<\/em> with a recording date of 25 August 1962. The list of performers are nearly identical, but have a few differences, most notably there are different vocalists featured on each CD. We know they performed on the 24th and 25th and that both CDs feel incomplete, but since the tracks on the CDs have been shuffled around, we have no way of knowing how they would have fit with each other, chronologically. Still, the recordings are of a good quality so at least we can enjoy them for what they are. Here’s a couple of tracks from Mellophonium Moods<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Night At The Old Nugget<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n