The Glenn Miller Story 1954 complete full movie

Battle of Swing - Benny Goodman Vs Glenn Miller - John Packer Events

Published on Jan 13, 2015
Take a look at the next concert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyXcz...

For future events see: http://www.johnpacker.co.uk/Catalogue...

Contact Pete Long: http://www.plong.co.uk

On Friday 7 November 2014, Pete Long and his Goodmen gave Taunton a night to remember. Recreating an iconic Carnegie Hall swing concert from 1938, first Benny Goodman and then Glenn Miller were bought to life. Some of the UK's finest session musicians were on hand to deliver an unforgettable evening. For further details about the band see http://www.plong.co.uk/. 

Line up:
Clarinet & band leader: Pete Long
Saxophones: Nigel Hailwood, Pete Ripper, Robert Fowler, John Shenoy
Trumpet: Nathan Bray, James Copus, Tom Dennis
Cornet: Alan Berlyn
Trombone: Andy Flaxman, Ross Anderson, Ian Bateman
Piano: Bunny Thompson
Bass: Calum Gourlay
Drums: Ed Richardson
Guitar: Ian Lewis
Vocals: Iain Mackenzie

Set list:
Benny Goodman
1. Don't Be That Way (1:04)
2. Bach Goes to Town (5:15)
3. One O Clock Jump (10:02)
4. When Buddha Smiles (19:28)
5. Big John Special (25:03)
6. Sheik Of Araby (27:45)
7. T'aint What you Do (32:39)
8. King Porter Stomp (36:08)
9. Dear Old Southland (40:05)
10. Down South Camp Meeting (43:36)
11. Sing Sing Sing (48:04)

INTERVAL

Glenn Miller
Moonlight Serenade (58:48)
Sunrise Serenade (1:04:00)
Little Brown Jug (1:08:00)
Stairway To The Stars (1:12:15)
It Must Be Jelly (Cause Jam don't shake like that) (1:15:54)
Danny Boy (1:18:55)
Boulder Buff (1:23:00)
My Prayer (1:28:55)
In The Mood (1:37:05)

Battle of the Bugle Calls (1:42:20)
Take The A Train (1:50:00)

This event was sponsored by: D'Addario, Denis Wick, Yanagisawa, Yamaha with special thanks to Queen's College, Taunton.
Filming & editing: by Dave Adams davemcadams@hotmail.co.uk

Glenn Miller: Army Air Force Band

Reprinted from http://jazzwax.com

Yesterday was the anniversary of D-Day, which always makes me think of Glenn Miller's Army Air Force Band (1943-44). The band—though short-lived with Miller at the helm—was one of the finest of the period and, strangely, among the least-recognized today.

Perhaps the appeal for me rests in the homesick sweetness of the band's strings and the cool, modern voicings of the brass. Or the fact that this band is so often heard on soundtracks of World War II documentaries. If your dad was in the service during this period, the band probably will remind you of him as well.

Miller's Army Air Force Band was more than a swing band. It featured brass and strings, and carried superb musicians who later would become prominent. The list includes John Carisi, Peanuts Hucko, Mel Powell, Carmen Mastren, Ray McKinley and Trigger Alpert. Most of the band's musicians had played in other major swing bands before winding-up in the service. But the Army Air Force Band's real strength rested with its arrangers, including Powell, Jerry Gray and others. [Pictured above, from left: Glenn Miller, Ray McKinley and Mel Powell]

The story of the band begins in 1942, just months after America entered the war. At age 38, Miller was too old to be drafted but still wanted to enlist. So he wrote a letter to Army Brigadier General Charles Young asking to be put in charge of an Army band. His request was granted, and Miller's civilian band performed its last concert in late September.

After his induction, Miller was transferred from the Army to the Army Air Force, evidently to motivate enlistment where it was needed most. Miller began his service by playing trombone in a 15-piece dance band at a training center in Alabama.

In 1943, Miller was transferred to Atlantic City, N.J., where many soldier-musicians received basic training. The musicians Miller cherry-picked for his next band were sent to Yale University in New Haven, where Miller rehearsed them between March and May.

In New Haven, Miller at first formed a marching band, but swing versions of military songs were frowned upon by the brass. According to George Simon writing in The Big Bands, when the New Haven camp commander said to Miller, "We played those Sousa marches pretty straight in the last war and we did all right," Miller reportedly replied, "Tell me Major, are you still flying the same planes you flew in the last war, too?" [Photo above: ROTC artillery instruction at Yale during World War II]

A short time later, Miller was assigned to host and perform on a recruitment radio show called I Sustain the Wings, which was broadcast from New Haven. After the show was moved to New York, Miller was granted permission to form a 50-piece band that included a string section. Arrangements were written by Powell, Gray, Norman Leyden, Ralph Wilkinson and Perry Burgett. [Photo above: Glenn Miller at Yale in 1943]

The radio show lasted a year, and in the spring of 1944 Miller's expanded band was sent to England. According to Simon, the orchestra that shipped out included 20 string players, five trumpets, four trombones (not including Miller), a French horn, six reeds, two drummers, two pianists, two bassists, a guitarist, three arrangers, a copyist, five singers, two producers, an announcer, two administrators and two musical instrument repairmen.

The band gave 800 performances in the months after D-Day in 1944. Then in December 1944, Miller decided to fly to Paris to make arrangements for the band to play in the French capital, which had been liberated by the Allies that August. But Miller's plane never arrived, disappearing while flying over the English Channel.

Upon re-listening to many of the Army Air Force Band's recordings today, one is struck by its taut efficiency, nostalgic swing and polished orchestrations. This was no jazz band in the traditional sense, but it was mighty regal and pretty—shifting smoothly between emotionally moving passages and up-tempo swing with a military crispness. There also was a more future-forward sound to the arrangements compared with those written for Miller's civilian band.

For example, Begin the Beguine and Stompin' at the Savoy  are arranged smartly with the Miller voicings and military precision—yet still manage to pay tribute to the bands that made them famous. The ballads are particularly heart-felt, and include Speak Low, Star Eyes and Now I Know. Johnny Desmond is the male vocalist here and his intonation was quite a bit fresher than the civilian band's Ray Eberle. [Pictured: Glenn Miller with Dinah Shore in September 1944]

Of course, the band's magnum opus was was David Rose'sHoliday for Strings, arranged by Jerry Gray, and Poinciana,featuring the band's Crew Chiefs vocal group [pictured].

The sound of Glenn Miller's Army Air Force Band will instantly transport you to an era when this country was united behind a common cause, and sacrifice for the greater national good was everyone's job. As elegant a sound as the big band era would produce, with arrangements as sharp as a pleat.

JazzWax tracks: There are several excellent compilations ofGlenn Miller's Army Air Force Band. The best is the 2001 remastered four-CD box, Glenn Miller: Army Air Force Band. You find it here. There's also a "best of" CD of the same material for less here.

If you want more, I recommend The Glenn Miller Story Vol. 17-18, which is made up of touching I Sustain the Wings radio broadcasts and other live dates between 1943 and 1945, when Jerry Gray led the band. You'll find it here.

Finally, Miller made a series of propaganda radio transcriptions at London's Abbey Road Studios inOctober 1944. On these, Miller speaks in German and Johnny Desmond sings in German. They were used to broadcast to German radio audiences to undercut their resistance to Allied advances. A fascinating document and a superb recording. You'll findGlenn Miller: The Secret Broadcasts here.

Thanks to a heads up from Jari Villanueva, there's even a Facebook page for the band. Go here.

Still Miller-crazy? Here's a lovely, terrific-sounding compilation of Miller's civilian band in two films with slam-bang arrangements—Sun Valley Serenade (1941) and Orchestra Wives (1942).

JazzWax clip: Here's footage of Glenn Miller's Army Air Force Band in England in July 1944. The music is dubbed from the concert, but at least you get a sense of what the band looked like...

As for the civilian band's sound, here's a favorite clip of People Like You and Me (with some actors, including the jazz trumpeter and Jackie Gleason on bass). It's from Orchestra Wives, with Marion Hutton and the Modernaires...


Used with permission by Marc Myers

Glenn Miller....

Alton Glenn Miller was born in Clarinda, Iowa on March 1, 1904. But it was in North Platte, Nebraska, several years later that Glenn actually got his musical start when, one day, his father brought home a mandolin. Glenn promptly traded it for an old battered horn, which he practiced every chance he got. In fact his mother worried, "It got to where Pop and I used to wonder if he'd ever amount to anything."
In 1923, Miller entered the University of Colorado, although he spent more time traveling to auditions and playing where and whenever he could. After flunking three of his five courses one semester, Glenn dropped out to concentrate on his career as a professional musician.
He toured with several orchestras and ended up in Los Angeles where he landed a spot in Ben Pollack's group, a band that included a guy named Benny Goodman. Here, Miller also got the chance to write some arrangements. Arriving in New York City, he soon sent for, and married his college sweetheart, Helen Burger in 1928, and for the next three years, earned his living as a free-lance trombonist and arranger.

Miller played and recorded with the likes of Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey (who on several of their records, featured an up-and-coming singer by the name of Bing Crosby), Gene Krupa, Eddie Condon and Coleman Hawkins. In addition, during that time, Glenn cut 18 sides for Goodman, and also worked
for radio studio conductors like Victor Young, Carl Fenton and Jacques Renard. In 1934, Miller became the musical director of the Dorsey Band, and later went on to organize The Ray Noble Orchestra, which included such players as Charlie Spivak, Peewee Erwin, Bud Freeman, Johnny Mince,
George Van Eps and Delmar Kaplan, among others.

In April 1935, Glenn Miller recorded, for the first time, under his own name. Using six horns, a rhythm section and a string quartet, he recorded "Moonlight on the Ganges" and "A Blues Serenade" for Columbia. But selling only a few hundred records, he continued his position with the Noble Orchestra.
In 1937, Glenn Miller stepped out to form his own band. There were a few recordings -- one for Decca and one for Brunswick -- a couple of week-long stints in New Orleans and Dallas, and many one-nighters, but it was not to be. Though the group would play one more date several days later in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Glenn gave his men their final notice on New Year's Eve at the Valencia Ballroom in York, Pennsylvania. Broke, depressed and having no idea what he was going to do, he returned to New York City.

It is said that Miller could never remember precisely the moment he decided to emphasize his new reed section sound. But it was during this disheartening interim, that he realized the unique sound -- produced by the clarinet holding the melodic line while the tenor sax plays the same note, and supported harmonically by three other saxophones -- just might be the individual and easily recognizable style that would set his band apart from all the rest.
Formed in March 1938, the second Glenn Miller Orchestra -- which would later include the likes of Tex Beneke, Marion Hutton, Ray Eberle, Paul Tanner, Johnny Best, Hal McIntyre, and Al Klinck -- soon began breaking attendance records all up and down the East Coast. At the New York State Fair in Syracuse it attracted the largest dancing crowd in the city's history. The next night it topped Guy Lombardo's all-time record at the Hershey Park Ballroom in Pennsylvania. The Orchestra was invited by ASCAP to perform at Carnegie Hall with three of the greatest bands ever -- Paul Whiteman, Fred Waring and Benny Goodman -- and created more of a stir than any of them.

There were record-breaking recordings, as well, such as "Tuxedo Junction", which sold 115,000 copies in the first week. "In the Mood", and "Pennsylvania 6-5000", all appearing on the RCA Victor Bluebird label. In early 1940, Down Beat Magazine announced that Miller had topped all other bands in its Sweet Band Poll, and capping off this seemingly sudden rise to the top, there was, of course, Glenn Miller's "Moonlight Serenade" radio series for Chesterfield cigarettes which aired three times a week over CBS. In 1941, it was off to Hollywood where the band worked on its first movie, "Sun Valley Serenade", which introduced the song -- and soon-to-be million selling record --"Chattanooga Choo Choo", and featured the Modernaires and the Nicholas Brothers. Then came "Orchestra Wives". But the war was starting to take its toll on many of the big bands as musicians, and the rest of
country's young men, began receiving draft notices.

On October 7, 1942, Alton Glenn Miller reported for induction into the Army and was immediately assigned to the Army Specialist Corps. His appointment as a Captain came after many months of convincing the military higher-ups that he could modernize the army band and ultimately improve the morale of the men. His training complete, he was transferred into the Army Air Corps, where he ultimately organized the Glenn Miller Army Air Force Band. Miller's goal of entertaining the fighting troops took another year to be realized, but in late 1943 he and the band were shipped out to England.

There, in less than one year, the Glenn Miller Army Air Force Band engaged in over 800 performances. Of these, 500 were broadcasts heard by millions. There were more than 300 personal appearances including concerts and dances, with a gross attendance of over 600,000. But Glenn was not to participate in the final six months of these activities.
In the Fall of 1944, the band was scheduled to be sent on a six-week tour of Europe and would be stationed in Paris during that time. Miller decided to go ahead, in order to make the proper arrangements for the group's arrival. And so, on December 15th, Glenn Miller boarded a transport plane to Paris, never to be seen again.

In his book "Glenn Miller & His Orchestra", George Simon wrote this about the man. "His favorite author was Damon Runyon. His favorite book was the Bible. Spencer Tracy and Olivia de Havilland were his favorite movie actor and actress. His big loves were trout fishing, playing baseball, listening to
good music, sleep and money. His pet hates were bad swing, early-morning telephone calls (he liked to sleep from 4 a.m. to noon), and the phrase 'goodbye now'. His favorite quotation, one he stated, was not from the Bible, nor from Runyon, but from Duke Ellington: 'It Don't Mean a Thing If it Ain't Got that Swing!'
http://www.glennmillerorchestra.com/history.html

Glenn Miller - In The Mood

Tex Beneke and the Glenn Miller Orchestra perform the jazz classic: "In The Mood" (1946). This video is really good, and apparently on DVD now: http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo...