Swing music, or simply swing, is a form of American music that developed in the early 1930s and became a distinctive style by 1935. Swing uses a strong rhythm section of double bass and drums as the anchor for a lead section of brass instruments such as trumpets and trombones, woodwinds including saxophones and clarinets, and sometimes stringed instruments such as violin and guitar, medium to fast tempos, and a "lilting" swing time rhythm.The name swing came from the phrase ‘swing feel’ where the emphasis is on the off–beat or weaker pulse in the music ( unlike classic music). Swing bands usually featured soloists who would improvise on the melody over the arrangement. The danceable swing style of big bands and bandleaders such as Benny Goodman and Count Basie was the dominant form of American popular music from 1935 to 1945, a period known as the Swing Era.

The verb "to swing" is also used as a term of praise for playing that has a strong rhythmic "groove" or drive.

History[link]

1920s: Origins[link]

The styles of jazz that were popular from the late teens through the late 1920s were usually played with rhythms with a two beat feel, and often attempted to reproduce the style of contrapuntal improvisation developed by the first generation of jazz musicians in New Orleans. In the late 1920s, however, larger ensembles using written arrangements became the norm, and a subtle stylistic shift took place in the rhythm, which developed a four beat feel with a smoothly syncopated style of playing the melody, while the rhythm section supported it with a steady four to the bar.

Like jazz, swing was created by African Americans, and its impact on the overall American culture was such that it marked and named an entire era of the USA, the swing era – as the 1920s had been termed "The Jazz Age".^[1] Such an influence from the black community was unprecedented in any western country.^[1] Swing music abandoned the string orchestra and used simpler, "edgier" arrangements that emphasized horns and wind instruments and improvised melodies.

Louis Armstrong shared a different version of the history of swing during a nationwide broadcast of the Bing Crosby (radio) Show.^[2] Crosby said, "We have as our guest the master of swing and I'm going to get him to tell you what swing music is." Armstrong said, "Ah, swing, well, we used to call it syncopation—then they called it ragtime, then blues—then jazz. Now, it's swing. White folks yo'all sho is a mess."^[3][4]

1930: Birth of swing[link]

Compared to the styles of the 1920s, the overall effect was a more sophisticated sound, but with an exciting feel of its own.^{[citation needed]} Most jazz bands adopted this style by the early 1930s, but "sweet" bands remained the most popular for white dancers until Benny Goodman's appearance at the Palomar Ballroom in August 1935. Swing's birth has been traced by some jazz historians to Chick Webb's stand in Harlem in 1931, but they noted the music failed to take off because the onset of the Depression in earnest that year killed the nightclub business, particularly in poor black areas like Harlem. Fletcher Henderson, another bandleader from this period who needed work, lent his arrangement talent to Goodman. Goodman had auditioned and won a spot on a radio show, "Let's Dance," but only had a few songs; he needed more. Henderson's arrangements are what gave him his bigger repertoire and distinctive sound. The show was on after midnight in the East and few people heard it, but unknown to them, it was on earlier on the West Coast and developed the audience that later led to his Palomar Ballroom triumph. The audience of young white dancers favored Goodman's "hot" rhythms and daring swing arrangements. "Hot Swing" and Boogie Woogie remained the dominant form of American popular music for the next ten years.

Benny Goodman, one of the first swing bandleaders to achieve widespread fame.

With the wider acceptance of swing music around 1935, larger mainstream bands began to embrace this style of music.^{[citation needed]} Up until the swing era, Jazz had been taken in high regard by the most serious musicians around the world, including classical composers like Stravinsky; swing on the contrary, with its "dance craze", ended being regarded as a degeneration towards light entertainment, more of an industry to sell records to the masses than a form of art. Some musicians, after failing at serious music, switched to swing.^[1]

In his autobiography W.C. Handy wrote, "This brings to mind the fact that prominent white orchestra leaders, concert singers and others are making commercial use of Negro music in its various phases. That's why they introduced "swing" which is not a musical form."^[5]

Large orchestras had to reorganize themselves in order to achieve the new sound. These bands dropped their string instruments, which were now felt to hamper the improvised style necessary for swing music. This necessitated a slightly more detailed and organized type of composition and notation than was then the norm. Band leaders put more energy into developing arrangements, perhaps reducing the chaos that might result from as many as 12 or 16 musicians spontaneously improvising. But the best swing bands at the height of the era explored the full gamut of possibilities from spontaneous ensemble playing to highly orchestrated music in the vein of European art music.

A typical song played in swing style would feature a strong, anchoring rhythm section in support of more loosely tied wind, brass, and later, in the 1940s, string and/or vocals sections. The level of improvisation that the audience might expect at any one time varied depending on the arrangement, the band, the song, and the band-leader.

The most common style consisted of having a soloist take center stage, and improvise a solo within the framework of her or his bandmates playing support. As a song progressed, multiple soloists would be expected to take over and individually improvise their own part; however, it was not unusual to have two or three band members improvising at any one time.

Peak and decline[link]

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Frank Sinatra

Swing jazz began to be embraced by the public around 1935. Prior to that, it had had limited acceptance, mostly among black audiences. Radio remotes increased interest in the music, and it grew in popularity throughout the States. As with many new popular musical styles, it met with some resistance from the public because of its improvisation, fast erratic tempos, lack of strings, occasionally risqué lyrics and other cultural associations, such as the sometimes frenetic swing dancing that accompanied performances. Audiences who had become used to the romantic arrangements (and what was perceived as classier and more refined music), were taken aback by the often erratic and edginess of swing music.

German swing bands, virtually unknown to British and American swing band followers, thrived in the early 1940s in spite of an official Nazi campaign against "decadent Western music".^[6] German authorities in fact created a Swing band called "Charlie and His Orchestra" to record hot Swing and dance music. Some songs included lyrics ridiculing and abusing the leaders and people of Allied nations. Records were dropped over "enemy" lines by parachute.^[7]

In the US, by the late 1930s and early 1940s, swing had become the most popular musical style and remained so for several years, until it was supplanted in the late 1940s by the pop standards sung by the crooners who grew out of the Big Band tradition that swing began. Bandleaders such as the Dorsey Brothers often helped launch the careers of vocalists who went on to popularity as solo artists, such as Frank Sinatra.

Swing music began to decline in popularity during World War II because of several factors. Most importantly it became difficult to staff a "big band" because many musicians were overseas fighting in the war. Also, the cost of touring with a large ensemble became cumbersome because of wartime economics. These two factors made smaller three- to five-piece combos more profitable and manageable. A third reason is the recording bans of 1942 and 1948 because of musicians' union strikes. In 1948, there were no records legally made at all, although independent labels continued to bootleg records in small numbers. When the ban was over in January 1949, swing had evolved into new styles such as jump blues and bebop.

Cross-genre swing[link]

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Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli

Many of the crooners who came to the fore after the swing era had their origins in swing bands. Frank Sinatra used the swing-band approach to great effect in almost all of his recordings and kept this style of music popular well into the rock 'n' roll era.

In country music, artists such as Jimmie Rodgers, Moon Mullican and Bob Wills introduced many elements of swing along with blues to create a genre called western swing. Like Sinatra did, Mullican went solo from the Cliff Bruner band and had a successful solo career that included many songs that maintained a swing structure. Artists like Willie Nelson have kept the swing elements of country music present into the rock 'n' roll era. Nat King Cole followed Sinatra into the pop music world bringing with him a similar combination of swing bands and ballads. Like Mullican, he was important in bringing piano to the fore of popular music.

Gypsy swing is an outgrowth of Venuti and Lang's jazz violin swing, the style emerging in its own right in Europe with Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli. The repertoire overlaps that of 1930s swing, including French popular music, gypsy songs, and compositions by Reinhardt, but gypsy swing bands are formulated differently. There is no brass or percussion; guitars and bass form the backbone, with violin, accordion, clarinet or guitar taking the lead. Gypsy swing groups generally have no more than five players. Although they originated in different continents, similarities have often been noted between gypsy swing and western swing, leading to various fusions.

Rock 'n' roll era hitmakers like Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Gene Vincent and Elvis Presley also found time to include many swing-era standards into their repertoire. Presley's hit "Are You Lonesome Tonight" is an old swing standard and Lewis' "To Make Love Sweeter For You" is a new song but in the old style. Domino made the swing standard "My Blue Heaven" a rock 'n' roll hit. Among the critically acclaimed band leaders of the 1930s and 1940s whose performances included elements of both "Sweet Band" music and traditional swing music was Shep Fields.

Late 1990s: Swing revival[link]

Caro Emerald

Although ensembles like the Count Basie Orchestra and the Stan Kenton Orchestra survived into the 1950s by incorporating new musical styles into their repertoire, they were no longer the hallmark of American popular music. In the late 1990s (1998 until about 2000) there was a short-lived "Swing revival" movement, led by bands such as Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Cherry Poppin' Daddies, Royal Crown Revue, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers, the Lucky Strikes, Hipster Daddy-O and the Handgrenades, and Brian Setzer. Many of the new bands of this period played a style of music — oftentimes referred to as neo-swing — that combined swing jazz with contemporary styles of music such as Rockabilly, Ska, and Rock music. The style also accelerated the revival of swing dancing, both in a traditional style, and in hybrid approaches which blended 1930s dancing with 2000-era dance styles. A similarly hybrid approach to musical genre can be seen with superswing music, a style that can be seen to have its origin in The Fabrics' 2002 classic 12" single on Switch Music, Cassawanka.

In 2001 Robbie Williams released his fifth studio album consisting mainly of popular swing covers titled "Swing When You're Winning" which proved to be popular in many countries selling more than 7 million copies worldwide.

In 2006, the singer Christina Aguilera released her studio album "Back to Basics" when she mixed several different styles including swing, jazz and blues. The album was another commercial success for Aguilera's career.

In recent years Swing music has become fairly popular in Germany. Singers Roger Cicero, Tom Gaebel, and Thomas Anders have attained large followings both in their native country and world wide. Cicero’s style is predominantly that of 1940s and 1950s swing music, combined with German lyrics; he became Germany's participant for the Eurovision Song Contest in 2007.

Early 1990s to early 2010s: Swing House and Electroswing[link]

Another modern development consists of fusing swing (original, or remixes of classics) with hip hop and house techniques.

"Swing house" was particularly popular during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Influences incorporated into it include Louis Jordan and Louis Prima.

Electroswing is mainly popular in Europe, and electro swing artists incorporate influences such as Tango and Django Reinhardt's Gypsy Swing. Leading artists include Caravan Palace and Parov Stelar

Both genres are connected with a revival of swing dances, such as the Lindy hop.

Notable musicians[link]

• Band leaders: Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, Cab Calloway, Count Basie, Chick Webb, The Dorsey Brothers, Duke Ellington, Glenn Gray, Erskine Hawkins, Fletcher Henderson, Tiny Hill, Earl Hines, Gene Krupa, Glenn Miller, Gloria Parker, Harry James, Louis Prima, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Jordan, Hal Kemp, Kay Kyser, Buddy Rich, Fred Rich, Jack Teagarden, Les Brown, Charlie Barnet, Fats Waller, Art Tatum, Gordon Goodwin.
• Clarinet: Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Peanuts Hucko,
• Saxophone: Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Lester Young, Johnny Hodges, Charlie Parker, Sam Butera, Charlie Barnet, Jimmy Dorsey, Glen Gray.
• Trumpet: Louis Armstrong, Harry James, Cootie Williams, Roy Eldridge, Harry Edison, Louis Prima, Hot Lips Page
• Trombone: Tommy Dorsey, Jack Teagarden, Glenn Miller, Fred Rich
• Bass: Jimmy Blanton, Milt Hinton, John Kirby, Walter Page, Slam Stewart
• Vibraphone: Lionel Hampton, Red Norvo
• Marimba: Gloria Parker
• Piano: Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Earl Hines, Art Tatum, Teddy Wilson, Jelly Roll Morton, Fats Waller, Jess Stacy, Nat Jaffe, Nat King Cole
• Drums: Sonny Greer, Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich, Chick Webb
• Guitar: Charlie Christian, Freddie Green, Oscar Aleman, Django Reinhardt
• Violin: Joe Venuti, Eddie South, Ray Nance, Stephane Grapelli, Svend Asmussen
• Accordion: Art Van Damme, John Serry Sr.
• DJ/Producer: Parov Stelar, St Germain.

See also[link]

• Big band
• British dance band
• Category:Retro-swing musicians
• Category:Swing musicians
• Continental Jazz, swing of continental Europe
• Gypsy Jazz
• List of musical genres
• Swing (dance)
• Swing (jazz performance style), a term of praise for playing that has a strong rhythmic "groove" or drive
• Swing Revival

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Scaruffi, Piero. [2003] A History of Jazz Music, 1900–2000, chapter on Bebop (2007) ISBN 978-0-9765531-3-7

Further reading[link]

• Erenberg, Lewis A. Swingin' the Dream: Big Band Jazz and the Rebirth of American Culture (1998), a history of big-band jazz and its fans.
• Gitler, Ira. Swing to Bop: An Oral History of the Transition in Jazz in the 1940s (1987), on the emergence of bop from big-band swing.
• Hennessey, Thomas J. From Jazz to Swing: African-Americans and Their Music, 1890–1935 (1994).
• Schuller, Gunther. The Swing Era: The Development of Jazz, 1930–1945 (1991), a musicological study.
• Spring, Howard. "Swing and the Lindy Hop: Dance, Venue, Media, and Tradition ". American Music, Vol. 15, No. 2 (Summer, 1997), pp. 183–207.
• Stowe, David. Swing Changes: Big-Band Jazz in New Deal America (1996), a musicological study.
• Tucker, Sherrie. Swing Shift: 'All-Girl' Bands of the 1940s (2000)
• Yanow, Scott (2000). Swing. San Francisco, California: Miller Freeman Books. ISBN 0-87930-600-9. 
• Milkowski, Bill (2001). Swing It: An Annotated History of Jive. Bob Nikard, ed., and Alison Hagge, ed.. New York, New York: Billboard Books. ISBN 0-8230-7671-7. 

External links[link]

• Swing era entry at the University of Virginia's Jazz history site.
• SwingMusic.net forum with big band and mainstream jazz discussions.
• Swing & Big Band Internet Broadcast Schedules
• Swing: Last.FM Group
• The Retro Lounge

Glenn Miller
Background information
Birth name	Alton Glenn Miller
Born	(1904-03-01)March 1, 1904 Clarinda, Iowa, United States
Died	Missing in action over the English Channel, December 15, 1944(1944-12-15) (aged 40)
Genres	Swing music, Big band
Occupations	Bandleader, Musician, Arranger, Composer
Instruments	Trombone
Years active	1923–1944
Associated acts	Glenn Miller Orchestra

Alton Glenn Miller (March 1, 1904 – missing in action^[1] December 15, 1944) was an American jazz musician (trombone), arranger, composer, and bandleader in the swing era. He was one of the best-selling recording artists from 1939 to 1943, leading one of the best known Big Bands. Miller's notable recordings include "In the Mood", "Moonlight Serenade", "Pennsylvania 6-5000", "Chattanooga Choo Choo", "A String of Pearls", "At Last", "(I've Got a Gal In) Kalamazoo", "American Patrol", "Tuxedo Junction", and "Little Brown Jug".^[2] While he was traveling to entertain U.S. troops in France during World War II, Glenn Miller disappeared in bad weather over the English Channel. The Glenn Miller Orchestra was re-formed after the war and continues to record and perform to this day.

Early life and career[link]

Miller was born on a farm in Clarinda, Iowa, to Lewis Elmer Miller and Mattie Lou (née Cavender).^[3] He went to grade school in North Platte in western Nebraska. In 1915, Miller's family moved to Grant City, Missouri. Around this time, Miller had finally made enough money from milking cows to buy his first trombone and played in the town orchestra. In 1918, the Miller family moved again, this time to Fort Morgan, Colorado, where Miller went to high school. During his senior year, Miller became very interested in a new style of music called "dance band music." He was so taken with it that he formed his own band with some classmates. By the time Miller graduated from high school in 1921, he had decided he wanted to become a professional musician.^[3]

In 1923, Miller entered the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he joined Sigma Nu Fraternity,^[4] but spent most of his time away from school, attending auditions and playing any gigs he could get, most notably with Boyd Senter's band in Denver. He dropped out of school after failing three out of five classes one semester, and decided to concentrate on making a career as a professional musician. He later studied the Schillinger technique with Joseph Schillinger, under whose tutelage he composed what became his signature theme, "Moonlight Serenade".^[5] In 1926, Miller toured with several groups, eventually landing a good spot in Ben Pollack's group in Los Angeles. During his stint with Pollack, Miller wrote several musical arrangements of his own. He also co-wrote his first composition, "Room 1411", written with Benny Goodman and released as a Brunswick 78, 4013, credited to Bennie Goodman's Boys.^[6] In 1928, when the band arrived in New York City, he sent for and married his college sweetheart, Helen Burger. He was a member of Red Nichols's orchestra in 1930, and because of Nichols, Miller played in the pit bands of two Broadway shows, Strike Up the Band and Girl Crazy (where his bandmates included big band leaders Benny Goodman and Gene Krupa).

During the late 1920s and early 1930s, Miller managed to earn a living working as a freelance trombonist in several bands. On a March 21, 1928 Victor session Miller played alongside Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, and Joe Venuti in the All-Star Orchestra, directed by Nat Shilkret.^[7][8][9] On November 14, 1929,^[10] an original vocalist named Red McKenzie hired Glenn to play on two records that are now considered to be jazz classics:^[11][12] "Hello, Lola" and "If I Could Be With You One Hour Tonight". Beside Glenn were clarinetist Pee Wee Russell, guitarist Eddie Condon, drummer Gene Krupa and Coleman Hawkins on tenor saxophone.^[13]

In the early-to-mid-1930s, Miller also worked as a trombonist and arranger in The Dorsey Brothers, first when they were a Brunswick studio group (under their own name and providing accompaniment for many of The Boswell Sisters sessions), and finally when they formed an ill-fated co-led touring and recording orchestra.^[14] Miller composed the song "Annie's Cousin Fanny"^[15][16] and "Dese Dem Dose"^[14][17] for the Dorsey Brothers Band in 1934 and 1935. In 1935, he assembled an American orchestra for British bandleader Ray Noble,^[14] developing the arrangement of lead clarinet over four saxophones that eventually became the sonic keynote of his own big band. Members of the Noble band included future bandleaders Claude Thornhill, Bud Freeman and Charlie Spivak.

Glenn Miller made his first movie appearance in the 1935 Paramount Pictures release The Big Broadcast of 1936 as a member of the Ray Noble Orchestra performing "Why Stars Come Out at Night".^[18] The Big Broadcast of 1936 starred Bing Crosby, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Ethel Merman, Jack Oakie, and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and also featured other performances by Dorothy Dandridge and the Nicholas Brothers, who would appear with Miller again in two movies for Twentieth Century Fox in 1941 and 1942.

Glenn Miller compiled several musical arrangements and formed his first band in 1937. The band failed to distinguish itself from the many others of the era, and broke up after playing its last show at the Ritz Ballroom in Bridgeport, Connecticut on January 2, 1938.^[19] Benny Goodman said in 1976, "In late 1937, before his band became popular, we were both playing in Dallas. Glenn was pretty dejected and came to see me. He asked, 'What do you do? How do you make it?' I said, 'I don't know, Glenn. You just stay with it.'"^[20]

Success from 1938 to 1942[link]

Discouraged, Miller returned to New York. He realized that he needed to develop a unique sound, and decided to make the clarinet play a melodic line with a tenor saxophone holding the same note, while three other saxophones harmonized within a single octave. George T. Simon discovered a saxophonist named Wilbur Schwartz for Glenn Miller. Miller hired Schwartz, but instead had him play the lead clarinet. According to Simon, "Willie's tone and way of playing provided a fullness and richness so distinctive that none of the later Miller imitators could ever accurately reproduce the Miller sound."^[21] With this new sound combination, Glenn Miller found a way to differentiate his band's style from the many bands that existed in the late thirties. Miller talked about his style in the May, 1939 issue of Metronome magazine. "You'll notice today some bands use the same trick on every introduction; others repeat the same musical phrase as a modulation into a vocal ... We're fortunate in that our style doesn't limit us to stereotyped intros, modulations, first choruses, endings or even trick rhythms. The fifth sax, playing clarinet most of the time, lets you know whose band you're listening to. And that's about all there is to it."^[22]

Bluebird Records and Glen Island Casino[link]

In September 1938, the Miller band began making recordings for the RCA Victor, Bluebird Records subsidiary.^[23] Cy Shribman, a prominent East Coast businessman, began financing the band, providing a much needed infusion of cash.^[24] In the spring of 1939, the band's fortunes improved with a date at the Meadowbrook Ballroom in Cedar Grove, New Jersey, and more dramatically at the Glen Island Casino in New Rochelle, New York. The Glen Island date according to author Gunther Schuller attracted "a record breaking opening night crowd of 1800..."^[25] With the Glen Island date, the band began a huge rise in popularity.^[26] In 1939, TIME magazine noted: "Of the twelve to 24 discs in each of today's 300,000 U.S. jukeboxes, from two to six are usually Glenn Miller's."^[27] There were record-breaking recordings such as "Tuxedo Junction" which sold 115,000 copies in the first week.^[28] Miller's huge success in 1939 culminated with his band appearing at Carnegie Hall on October 6, with Paul Whiteman, Benny Goodman, and Fred Waring also the main attractions.^[29]

From 1939 to 1942, Miller's band was featured three times a week during a quarter-hour broadcast for Chesterfield cigarettes on CBS,^[30] first with the Andrews Sisters and then on its own.^[31] On February 10, 1942, RCA Victor presented Miller with the first gold record for "Chattanooga Choo-Choo".^[32] "Chattanooga Choo Choo" was performed by the Miller orchestra with his singers Gordon "Tex" Beneke, Paula Kelly and the vocal group, the Modernaires.^[33] Other singers with this orchestra included Marion Hutton,^[34] Skip Nelson,^[35] Ray Eberle^[36] and to a smaller extent, Kay Starr,^[37] Ernie Caceres,^[38] Dorothy Claire^[39] and Jack Lathrop.^[40] Pat Friday ghost sang with the Miller band in their two films, Sun Valley Serenade and Orchestra Wives with Lynn Bari lip synching.^[41]

Motion pictures[link]

Miller and his band appear in two Twentieth Century Fox films. In 1941's Sun Valley Serenade they are major members of the cast, which also features comedian Milton Berle.^[42] The Miller band returned to Hollywood to film 1942's Orchestra Wives,^[43] featuring Jackie Gleason playing a part as the group's bassist, Ben Beck. Miller had an ailment that made laughter extremely painful. Since Jackie Gleason was a comedian, Miller had a difficult time watching Gleason more than once, because Miller would start laughing.^[44] Harry Morgan appears as Cully Anderson, the unrequited love interest of Ann Rutherford's character, Connie Ward.^[45][46][47] Miller was contracted to do a third movie for Fox, Blind Date, but as he entered the U.S. Army, this never panned out.^[48]

Critical reaction[link]

In 2004, Miller orchestra bassist Herman "Trigger" Alpert explained the band's success: "Miller had America's music pulse ... He knew what would please the listeners."^[49] Although Miller had massive popularity, many jazz critics of the time had misgivings. They believed that the band's endless rehearsals and according to critic Amy Lee in Metronome magazine, "letter-perfect playing", diminished any feeling from performances.^[50] They also felt that Miller's brand of swing shifted popular music away from the "hot jazz" bands of Benny Goodman and Count Basie toward commercial novelty instrumentals and vocal numbers.^[51] For years, even after Miller died, the Miller estate maintained an unfriendly stance toward critics that derided the band during Miller's lifetime.^[52] Miller was often criticized for being too commercial. His answer to the criticism was, "I don't want a jazz band".^[53][54] Many modern jazz critics still harbor similar antipathy toward Miller.^[55][56] Jazz critics Gunther Schuller^[57] (1991) and Gary Giddins^[58] (2004) have separately defended the Miller orchestra for whatever deficiencies earlier critics have found. In an article written for The New Yorker in 2004, Gary Giddins says he feels that these early critics erred in denigrating Glenn Miller's music, and that the popular opinion of the time should hold greater sway. The article states: "Miller exuded little warmth on or off the bandstand, but once the band struck up its theme, audiences were done for: throats clutched, eyes softened. Can any other record match 'Moonlight Serenade' for its ability to induce a Pavlovian slaver in so many for so long?"^[58] Schuller, notes, "[The Miller sound] was nevertheless very special and able to penetrate our collective awareness that few other sounds have..."^[59] He compares it partially to "Japanese Gagaku [and] Hindu music" in its purity.^[59] Schuller and Giddins do not take completely uncritical approaches to Miller. Schuller says that Ray Eberle's "lumpy, sexless vocalizing dragged down many an otherwise passable performance."^[59] However finally Schuller notes: "How much further [Miller's] musical and financial ambitions might have carried him must forever remain conjectural. That it would have been significant, whatever form(s) it might have taken, is not unlikely."^[59]

Reaction from musical peers[link]

Louis Armstrong thought enough of Miller to carry around his recordings transferred to seven-inch tape reels when he went on tour. "[Armstrong] liked musicians who prized melody, and his selections ranged from Glenn Miller to Jelly Roll Morton to Tchaikovsky."^[60] Jazz pianist George Shearing's quintet of the 1950s and 1960s was influenced by Miller: "with Shearing's locked hands style piano (influenced by the voicing of Miller's saxophone section) in the middle [of the quintet's harmonies]."^[61][62] Frank Sinatra and Mel Tormé held the orchestra in high regard. Tormé credited Miller with giving him helpful advice when he first started his singing and song-writing career in the 1940s. Mel Tormé met Glenn Miller in 1942, the meeting facilitated by Tormé's father and Ben Pollack. Tormé and Miller discussed "That Old Black Magic" which was just emerging as a new song by Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen. Miller told Tormé to pick up every song by Mercer and study it and to become a voracious reader of anything he could find, because "all good lyric writers are great readers."^[63] In an interview with George T. Simon in 1948, Sinatra lamented the inferior quality of music he was recording in the late forties and in comparison with "those great Glenn Miller things"^[64] from eight years earlier.^[65][66] With the opposite opinion, fellow bandleader Artie Shaw frequently disparaged the band after Miller's death: "All I can say is that Glenn should have lived, and 'Chattanooga Choo Choo' should have died."^{[67] [68]} Clarinetist Buddy DeFranco surprised many people when he led the Glenn Miller Orchestra in the late sixties and early seventies. De Franco was already the veteran of bands like Gene Krupa and Tommy Dorsey in the 1940s. He was also a major exponent of modern jazz in the 1950s.^[69] He never sees Miller as leading a swinging jazz band, but DeFranco is extremely fond of certain aspects of the Glenn Miller style. "I found that when I opened with the sound of 'Moonlight Serenade,' I could look around and see men and women weeping as the music carried them back to years gone by."^[70][71] De Franco says, "the beauty of Glenn Miller's ballads [...] caused people to dance together."^[72]

The Army Air Force Band 1942–1944[link]

Bust outside the Corn Exchange in Bedford, where Miller played in World War II.

In 1942, at the peak of his civilian career, Miller decided to join the war effort. At 38, Miller was too old to be drafted, and first volunteered for the Navy but was told that they did not need his services.^[73] Miller then wrote to Army Brigadier General Charles Young. He persuaded the United States Army to accept him so he could, in his own words, "be placed in charge of a modernized Army band."^[3] After being accepted into the Army, Glenn’s civilian band played its last concert in Passaic, New Jersey, on September 27, 1942.^[3]

At first placed in the United States Army, Glenn Miller was transferred to the Army Air Force.^[74] Captain Glenn Miller served initially as assistant special services officer for the Army Air Forces Southeast Training Center at Maxwell Field, Montgomery, Alabama, in December 1942. He played trombone with the Rhythmaires, a 15-piece dance band, in both Montgomery and in service clubs and recreation halls on Maxwell. Miller also appeared on both WAPI (Birmingham, Alabama) and WSFA radio (Montgomery), promoting the activities of civil service women aircraft mechanics employed at Maxwell.^[75]

Miller initially formed a large marching band that was to be the core of a network of service orchestras. Miller's attempts at modernizing military music were met with some resistance from tradition-minded career officers. For example, Miller's arrangement of "St. Louis Blues March", combined blues and jazz with the traditional military march.^[76] Miller's weekly radio broadcast "I Sustain the Wings", for which he co-wrote the eponymous theme song, moved from New Haven to New York City and was very popular. This led to permission for Miller to form his 50-piece Army Air Force Band and take it to England in the summer of 1944, where he gave 800 performances.^[75] While in England, now Major Miller recorded a series of records at HMV- (now EMI-) owned Abbey Road Studios. HMV at this time was the British and sometime European distributor for the American record company that handled and originated Glenn Miller's recordings, RCA Victor.^[77] The recordings the AAF band made in 1944 at Abbey Road were propaganda broadcasts for the Office of War Information. Many songs are sung in German by Johnny Desmond and Glenn Miller speaks in German about the war effort.^[78] Before Miller's disappearance, his music was used by World War II AFN radio broadcasting for entertainment and morale as well as counter-propaganda to denounce fascist oppression in Europe with even Miller once stating on radio:

"America means freedom and theres no expression of freedom quite so sincere as music".^[79][80]-Glenn Miller

Also, the Miller-led AAF Orchestra recorded songs with the American singer Dinah Shore. These were done at the Abbey Road studios and were the last recorded songs made by the band while being led by Miller. They were stored with HMV/EMI for fifty years, never being released until their copyright expired in Europe in 1994.^{[81] [82]} In summarizing Miller's military career, General Jimmy Doolittle said, “next to a letter from home, that organization was the greatest morale builder in the European Theater of Operations.”^[83]

Disappearance[link]

U.S. Army Air Force UC-64

Miller's monument in Grove Street Cemetery, New Haven, Connecticut

Miller spent his last night alive at the Hall in Milton Ernest, on the outskirts of Bedford. On December 15, 1944, Miller was to fly from the United Kingdom to Paris, France, to play for the soldiers there. His plane (a single-engined UC-64 Norseman, USAAF serial 44-70285) departed from RAF Twinwood Farm in Clapham, Bedfordshire and disappeared while flying over the English Channel.^[84] No trace of the aircrew, passengers or plane has ever been found. Miller's status is missing in action.

There are three main theories about what happened to Miller's plane, including the suggestion that he might have been hit by Royal Air Force bombs after an abortive raid on Siegen, Germany. One hundred and thirty-eight Lancaster bombers, short on fuel, jettisoned approximately 100,000 incendiaries in a designated area before landing. The logbooks of Royal Air Force navigator Fred Shaw^[85] recorded that he saw a small, single-engined monoplane spiraling out of control and crashing into the water. However, a second source, while acknowledging the possibility, cites other RAF crew members flying the same mission who stated that the drop area was in the North Sea. Further research by British scholars also seems to indicate that this is the most likely probability, making Miller's death a "friendly fire" incident.^[86][87]

In his 2006 self-published book I Kept My Word: The Personal Promise Between a World War II Army Private and His Captain About What Really Happened to Glenn Miller, Clarence B. Wolfe — a gunner with Battery D, 134th AAA Battalion, in Folkestone, England — claims that his battery shot down Miller's plane.^[88] Another book by Lt. Col. Huton Downs,^[89] a former member of Dwight D. Eisenhower's personal staff, argues that the U.S. government covered up Miller's death. Downs suggested that Miller had been enlisted by Eisenhower to covertly attempt to convince some German officers to end the war early. The book goes on to suggest that Miller was captured and killed in a Paris brothel, and his death covered up to save the government embarrassment.^[90]

When Glenn Miller disappeared, he left behind his wife, the former Helen Burger, originally from Boulder, Colorado, and the two children they adopted in 1943 and 1944, Steven and Jonnie.^[91] Helen Miller accepted the Bronze Star medal for Glenn Miller in February 1945.^[92]

Civilian band legacy[link]

The Miller estate authorized an official Glenn Miller "ghost band" in 1946. This band was led by Tex Beneke, former lead saxophonist and a singer for the civilian band. It had a make up similar to the Army Air Force Band: it had a large string section.^[93] The orchestra's official public début was at the Capitol Theatre on Broadway where it opened for a three week engagement on January 24, 1946.^[94] Future television and film composer Henry Mancini was the band's pianist and one of the arrangers.^[95] This ghost band played to very large audiences all across the United States, including a few dates at the Hollywood Palladium in 1947, where the original Miller band played in 1941.^[96] In a website concerning the history of the Hollywood Palladium, it is noted "[e]ven as the big band era faded, the Tex Beneke and Glenn Miller Orchestra concert at the Palladium resulted in a record-breaking crowd of 6,750 dancers."^[97] By 1949, economics dictated that the string section be dropped.^[98]

This band recorded for RCA Victor, just as the original Miller band did.^[98] Beneke was struggling with how to expand the Miller sound and also how to achieve success under his own name. What began as the "Glenn Miller Orchestra Under the Direction of Tex Beneke" finally became "The Tex Beneke Orchestra". By 1950, Beneke and the Miller estate parted ways.^[99] The break was acrimonious^[100] and Beneke is not currently listed by the Miller estate as a former leader of the Glenn Miller orchestra.^[101]

When Glenn Miller was alive, various bandleaders like Bob Chester imitated his style.^[102] By the early 1950s, various bands were again copying the Miller style of clarinet-led reeds and muted trumpets, notably Ralph Flanagan,^[103] Jerry Gray,^[104] and Ray Anthony.^[105] This, coupled with the success of The Glenn Miller Story (1953),^[106] led the Miller estate to ask Ray McKinley to lead a new ghost band.^[98] This 1956 band is the original version of the current ghost band that still tours the United States today.^[107] The official Glenn Miller orchestra for the United States is currently under the direction of Nick Hilscher.^[108] The officially sanctioned Glenn Miller Orchestra for the United Kingdom has toured and recorded with great success under the leadership of Ray McVay.^[109] The official Glenn Miller Orchestra for Europe has been led by Wil Salden since 1990.^[110]

Army Air Force band legacy[link]

In the mid-1940s, after Miller's disappearance, the Miller-led Army Air Force band was decommissioned and sent back to the United States. "The chief of the European theater asked [Warrant Officer Harold Lindsay] Lin [Arinson] to put together another band to take its place, and that's when the 314 was formed." According to singer Tony Bennett who sang with it while in the service, the 314 was the immediate successor to the Glenn Miller led AAF orchestra.^[111] The Glenn Miller Army Air Force Band's long term legacy has carried on with the Airmen of Note, a band within the United States Air Force Band. This band was created in 1950 from smaller groups within the Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, D.C. and continues to play jazz music for the Air Force community and the general public.^[83]

Posthumous events[link]

Glenn Miller's widow, Helen, died in 1966.^[112] Herb Miller, Glenn Miller's brother, led his own band in the United States and England until the late 1980s.^[113] Herb's son, John continues the tradition leading a band playing mainly Glenn Miller style music.^[114] In 1989, Glenn Miller's daughter Jonnie purchased her father's house where he was born. The Glenn Miller Foundation was created to oversee the subsequent restoration.^[115]

In 1953, Universal-International pictures released The Glenn Miller Story, starring James Stewart.^[116] In 1953, Glenn Miller was voted into the Down Beat magazine Jazz Hall of Fame in the Readers' Poll. In 1996, the U.S. Postal Service issued a Glenn Miller postage stamp.^[117] The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (Grammys), honored Glenn Miller by including three of his recordings in their Hall of Fame: In 1983, "In The Mood", Bluebird B-10416-A, was inducted. The recording of "Moonlight Serenade", Bluebird B-10214-B, was also honored by the Grammys in similar fashion in 1991. "Chattanooga Choo Choo", Bluebird B-11230-B, was inducted in 1996.^[118] In 2003, Miller received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.^[119]

In the United States and England, there are a few archives that are devoted to Glenn Miller.^[120] The University of Colorado, Boulder, has an extensive Glenn Miller Archive, which houses many of Miller's recordings, gold records and other memorabilia, which is open to scholarly research and the general public.^[121] This archive, formed by Alan Cass, includes the original manuscript to Miller's theme song, "Moonlight Serenade", among other items of interest.^[122] In 2002, the Glenn Miller Museum opened to the public at the former RAF Twinwood Farm, in Clapham, Bedfordshire, England.^[123] Miller's surname resides on the 'Wall of Missing' at the Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial. A monument stone was also placed in Grove Street Cemetery in New Haven, Connecticut next to the campus of Yale University.^[124]

Glenn Miller arranging staff and compositions[link]

Miller had a staff of arrangers who wrote originals like "String of Pearls" (written and arranged by Jerry Gray)^[125] or took originals like "In The Mood" (writing credit given to Joe Garland)^[126] and arranged by Eddie Durham^[127]) and "Tuxedo Junction" (written by bandleader Erskine Hawkins)^[128] and arranged by Jerry Gray)^[129]) and arranged them for the Miller band to either record or broadcast. Glenn Miller's staff of arrangers in his civilian band, that handled the bulk of the work were Jerry Gray (a former arranger for Artie Shaw), Bill Finegan (a former arranger for Tommy Dorsey),^[130] Billy May^[131] and to a much smaller extent, George Williams,^[132] who worked very briefly with the band as well as Andrews Sisters arranger Vic Schoen^[133][134] According to Norman Leyden, "[s]everal others [besides Leyden] arranged for Miller in the service, including Jerry Gray, Ralph Wilkinson, Mel Powell, and Steve Steck."^[135] In 1943, Glenn Miller wrote Glenn Miller's Method for Orchestral Arranging, published by the Mutual Music Society in New York,^[136] a one hundred sixteen page book with illustrations and scores that explains how he wrote his musical arrangements.

Discography[link]

Glenn Miller composed individually or in collaboration with others at least fourteen songs that are available on recordings. He added lyrics to an additional tune. These and many other songs were recorded by Miller with his pre-war civilian bands and his Army Air Force band.

Band alumni[link]

Many of the Miller musicians went on to studio and touring careers in Hollywood and New York after World War II. Musicians who went from the Miller bands to important reputations afterwards include:

• George Siravo, 1916–2000^[137] was an arranger with Glenn Miller's first band in the late 1930s. Siravo went on to become a staff arranger with Columbia Records in the 1940s, working with Frank Sinatra^[138] and Doris Day.^[139]

• Billy May, 1916–2004^[140] a trumpeter and an arranger for the civilian band,^[141][142] became a much-coveted arranger and studio orchestra leader after that band broke up, going on to work with Frank Sinatra,^[143] Rosemary Clooney,^[144] Anita O'Day,^[145] and Bing Crosby,^[144] among other singers of the post-war era.

• Cornetist Bobby Hackett,1915–1976^[146] solos on "A String of Pearls", with Miller in 1941, for Bluebird records.^[147] "^[148][149] Hackett went on to work with Jackie Gleason and Dizzy Gillespie.^[150]

• Johnny Desmond, 1919–1985^[151] a lead vocalist from the Army Air Force Band, became a popular singer in the 1950s, and appeared on Broadway in the 1960s in Funny Girl with Barbra Streisand.^[152]

• Kay Starr, b. 1922^[153] became a pop, jazz and country singer in the post-war period. In 1939, Marion Hutton, the regular "girl singer", became sick and sixteen year old Kay Starr was flown in to replace her.^[154] Kay Starr's two recordings with Glenn Miller were two 1939 sides, "Baby Me" and "Love With a Capital You".^[155]

• Artie Malvin, 1922–2006^[156] Glenn Miller's AAF Band had a vocal group called "The Crew Chiefs". Artie Malvin was the baritone of the four men. After World War II and Miller's death, Malvin became heavily immersed in the popular music of the forties and fifties, being involved in everything from children's music to the nascent beginnings of rock to jingles for commercials.^[156] By the 1970s Artie Malvin was involved with "The Carol Burnett Show"^[157] doing special musical material.^[158]

• Paul Tanner, b. 1917^[159] trombonist for the civilian band, went on to create the electrotheremin and perform on songs such as Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys^[160]

Some of the Army Air Force members went on to notable careers in classical music and modern jazz. Three such are:

• Norman Leyden b. 1917^[161] an arranger from the Army Air Force Band^[162] later became a noted arranger in New York, composing arrangements for Sarah Vaughan,^[163][164] among other artists. His long career culminated with his highly regarded work for the Oregon Symphony, now as Laureate Associate Conductor.^[165][166]

• Mel Powell, 1923–1998,^[167] was the pianist and one of the arrangers in the Glenn Miller Army Air Force Band. Gary Giddins comments on "[Miller's] splendid forty-two-piece Army Air Force Band’s startling performance of 'Mission to Moscow.'”^[168] "Mission to Moscow" was arranged by Mel Powell, the former pianist for the Benny Goodman orchestra before he was drafted into the service and subsequently joined the Miller orchestra. "Pearls on Velvet" with the Air Force Band is also one of his compositions.^[169] "In 1949, he decided on a radical change of direction, setting aside jazz and enrolling as a pupil of the composer and teacher Paul Hindemith at Yale University."^[167] Powell started teaching at the California Institute for the Arts in Los Angeles in 1969.^[170]

• Addison Collins, Jr. played French Horn in the service band. He is featured as "Junior" Collins on the Miles Davis Birth of the Cool recordings of 1949–50.^[171]

Drummer and biographer:

• George T. Simon 1912–2001. George Simon knew and worked with Glenn Miller from his early sideman days to the days of leading his civilian band and finally, worked with him when he was stateside with the Army Air Force band. Simon was a drummer for some of the Miller bands. He helped his friend Glenn Miller with personnel using the connections that Simon had as editor with the now defunct Metronome magazine.^[172] George Simon wrote the liner notes for eleven Miller reissues, among them: Glenn Miller Army Air Force Band, 1955, Glenn Miller On The Air, 1963, and Glenn Miller: A Legendary Performer, 1974.^[173] During a long career, he also wrote articles with topics ranging from Miller and Frank Sinatra to Thelonious Monk. In 1974, Simon won a Grammy award for his liner notes for the RCA record: Bing Crosby: A Legendary Performer.^[174]

See also[link]

Music portal

• Death in absentia
• Kalamazoo,Michigan
• List of people who have mysteriously disappeared
• List of swing/big band musicians
• Role of music in World War II

Notes[link]