About Gene Roland
Gene Roland (September 15, 1921 – August 11, 1982) was an American jazz musician, composer, and arranger who contributed richly to American jazz, especially through his work with the Stan Kenton Orchestra. Born in Dallas, Texas, he played multiple instruments, including the trumpet, trombone, and saxophone, and collaborated with musicians including Count Basie and Dizzy Gillespie. Roland was pivotal in defining the unique 'Four Brothers' sound that influenced big band jazz. Throughout his career, he contributed groundbreaking arrangements and compositions for many major bands, performing globally and working with Denmark's Radiohus Orchestra. == Life and work == Roland, who gained a degree in music from the University of North Texas College of Music, first met Kenton in 1944, playing fifth trumpet and contributing arrangements. He worked briefly with Lionel Hampton and Lucky Millinder and then rejoined Kenton in 1945, this time as a trombonist and writer (he arranged the hit "Tampico"). Roland played piano and wrote for a group in 1946 that included Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, Jimmy Giuffre and Herbie Steward and would lead to Woody Herman's Four Brothers Second Herd. In the late 1940s, Roland played trombone with Georgie Auld, trumpet with Count Basie, Charlie Barnet and Lucky Millinder and contributed charts for the big bands of Claude Thornhill and Artie Shaw. After leading a giant rehearsal band in 1950 that included Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, Roland wrote for Kenton in 1951, Dan Terry in 1954, and Woody Herman from 1956 to 1958, for whom he contributed 65 arrangements. Roland was a major force in Kenton's mellophonium band of the early 1960s, not only writing for the ensemble but performing as one of the mellophoniums; he also occasionally doubled on soprano sax with the orchestra.
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