I have a pretty extensive library of Stan Kenton recordings. For the 1940s stuff I have the Mosaic 10 LP boxed set. I also have about 30 or so Kenton 78s from that period, including two of my favorite sides: Intermission Riff and Minor Riff.
Kenton's band was all about the arrangements and the overall sound of the music, not on instrumental soloists. So few musicians distinguished themselves during their tenure with Kenton, though a lot of them went on to very distinguished careers as solo artists or leading a small group. Stan Getz, Kai Winding, Shelly Manne, Art Pepper, Anita O'Day, and June Christy are just a few alumni of Kenton's orchestra that are pretty well known by most jazz aficionados.
Many, myself included, consider Stan Kenton the father of progressive jazz. Woody Herman's Second Herd of the 1950s, recorded on Capitol, would be nearly as adventurous and daring as Kenton, and is also very much worth checking out.
As trailblazing as Kenton was, especially during the 1950s, not all of his experiments worked, however, and some of it can come off as pretentious and aimless jazz noodling with no real musical statement being made. The stuff that does work, to be sure, is really top shelf and it's easy to see that Kenton was a little before his time.
What has been missing in my Kenton library were his 1950s recordings for Capitol. I have most of them on CD but found a number of them on original minty Capitol vinyl so I snapped them up.
--Jerome