Crotchet midprice
|
GLENN MILLER
The best of the Army Air Force Band
 Bluebird 09026 –
63857 – 2
- In the Mood
- A String of Pearls
- Rhapsody in Blue
- Stardust
- Song of the Volga Boatman
- It must be Jelly, ‘cause Jam don’t shake like
that’.
- Medley Killarney; I’ve got a heart filled
with love; Moonlight Serenade; Wabash Blues
- Tuxedo Junction;
- Blue Rain
- Along the Santa Fe trail
- The St Louis Blues March
- Londonderry Air (Danny Boy)
- As Time goes By
- Juke Box Saturday night.
|
Glenn Miller and Ted Heath had one thing in common
once an arrangement of a tune was in the library, they liked the band
to repeat that version exactly on each performance that followed. So
much so that both leaders preferred their jazz soloists to play the
original solo, even if someone else had recorded it! The benefit commercially
was the audiences became very familiar with the arrangements and this
may account for their longevity. To give an example the Miller version
of American Patrol was played by the first Dance Band I ever heard,
which was called the Red Scar Roosters and it will be played by my Big
Band next Saturday, some 55 years later!
This selection by the Army Air Force Band therefore
is everything that you would expect from a Glenn Miller aggregation,
sometimes there is the addition of a string section, but overall the
very successful Miller formula is applied. It does have the benefit
however of some first class re-mastering and the sound quality is good.
These recordings were made in the 1943/44. Most people
are aware that Glenn met with a tragic accident, whilst flying in a
light aircraft to Paris, on the 15th of December 1944. He
went to make arrangements for an appearance by the band in that City.
Three day’s later when the band arrived; it was discovered that no arrangements
had been made and that Glenn had disappeared, lost without trace. The
band continued under the leadership of Ray McKinley or Gerry Gray. It
gave its last performance on the 17th of November 1945.
That of course was not the end of the story, as well
as the film ‘The Glenn Miller Story’, which is still on the video shelves,
Miller bands play in nearly every civilised country in the world. Glenn
Miller to many people is synonymous with tuneful music that they like
to hear.
Don Mather
CD Reviews
