I knew who it was in seconds after I was awakened by Wally’s 2:00 AM phone call. Wally had heard that I had a rara avis series of recordings of the Stan Kenton orchestra, and wanted to come to Rhode Island with his equipment to make copies. He told me that he wanted to record them and make LPs of the material. I resisted. He persisted. We went back and forth. I told him that I did not want to run afoul of both the Kenton family and the copyright laws. He said that he did it all the time. Besides, it would be himself who would have to deal with the Estate and the law, not me. I told him that I did not think that it would be ethical to have him access what I had, given to me in the belief that I would not produce recordings of what I had. I don’t believe we parted friends—only once more after that, had I heard from another friend of Wally’s, that he spoke of the incident and thought that I was being naive, since so many others did not mind assailing the copyright laws. We never had a chance to talk about our differences again…he passed away. Some one, some day, should do more than these sort of recollections…a full blown biography. He forever changed that ways in which “live” and studio recordings were made.

Tony Agostinelli