The Glenn Miller Orchestra

The Glenn Miller Orchestra

The Glenn Miller Orchestra is a United States big band and jazz orchestra that has operated in its present form since 1956. It continues to tour internationally and plays around 300 live dates a year. The current touring band is led by singer Nick Hilscher, who becomes director in 2012 after Gary Tole.

History

The orchestra’s lineage traces back to Glenn Miller’s original band, but the current ensemble begins in 1956 as an authorised “ghost band” created after the success of The Glenn Miller Story and the revival of interest in Miller’s style. Earlier post-war versions of the orchestra include the Tex Beneke-led band, which the Miller estate authorises in 1946 and which performs with a large string section before later dropping it for economic reasons.

The 1956 orchestra becomes the basis of the touring band that continues into the present. In different markets, separate officially sanctioned Glenn Miller orchestras also operate under Larry O’Brien in the United States, Ray McVay in the United Kingdom, and Wil Salden in Europe from 1990.

Style and sound

The orchestra’s repertoire is rooted in big band swing and jazz. Its identity follows the Glenn Miller sound built around a lead clarinet line over four saxophones, a combination that becomes central to Miller’s work and one of the defining features associated with the band’s arrangements.

Glenn Miller and the original band

Glenn Miller is born in Clarinda, Iowa, and grows up in Nebraska, Missouri and Colorado before pursuing a professional music career. He plays trombone, works as a freelance musician and arranger, and performs with Ben Pollack, Red Nichols, the Dorsey Brothers and Ray Noble before forming his own first band in 1937. That band finds major success from 1938 to 1942 after he refines his distinctive sound.

With the civilian orchestra, Miller records for RCA Victor’s Bluebird label, becomes a major radio presence, and scores hits including “Tuxedo Junction”, “Moonlight Serenade” and “Chattanooga Choo Choo”. The band appears in the films Sun Valley Serenade and Orchestra Wives. Miller later joins the Army Air Force and leads a military band during the Second World War before disappearing in 1944 while flying from the United Kingdom to Paris.

Legacy

Miller’s name remains closely associated with the most recognisable repertory of the big band era, and the orchestra continues that legacy on stage. In 2003, Glenn Miller receives the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously. Recordings from the 1939 to 1942 civilian broadcast era remain in circulation on releases issued through successor labels to RCA Victor, Bluebird, Columbia and Decca.

Current personnel

Members include Harold Cork, Fred Fallensby, Stanley Harris, Arend Huisman, Bobby Nichols and Ian O'Beirne.