Bandleader Stan Kenton’s Grammy-winning album Kenton’s West Side Story was recorded on this day in 1961. It would go on to win the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance – Large Ensemble the following year. The album, an interpretation of the classic Leonard Bernstein film score, featured arrangements by acclaimed jazz composer Johnny Richards. The resulting music was famously difficult, often calling for up to seven trumpets (a typical big band has four or five) and even the production of a new instrument, the Mellophonium, designed exclusively for Kenton’s big band. But the album was a critical and popular success, landing as high as No. 16 in the Billboard charts and staying there for 26 weeks.