Musicians - Glenn Miller

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	Musicians - Glenn Miller

Glenn Miller (b. March 1, 1904, d. probably December 15, 1944.) started life as Alton Glenn Miller in Clarinda, Iowa. Miller was an American jazz musician and band leader in the swing era who was probably the genre's best-selling performer from 1939-1942. After a very successful career, including many famous recordings, he disappeared under mysterious circumstances during World War II, while on a flight to entertain U.S. troops in France.

Whether or not the crash abetted it, Miller's signature recordings -- including, among others, "In the Mood", "Tuxedo Junction", "Chattanooga Choo Choo", "Moonlight Serenade", "Sun Valley Jump", and "Pennsylvania 6-5000" (named for the exchange of his New York hotel residence) -- have remained familiar, even to generations born decades after their creator was killed.

Life and career

Miller's family moved to North Platte, Nebraska during his boyhood, and he started his musical career when his father brought home a mandolin. As soon as possible, he traded the instrument for an old horn, which he practiced diligently.

In 1923, Miller entered the University of Colorado where he joined Sigma Nu Fraternity, but spent most of his time there away from school, attending auditions and playing any gigs he could get. 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, who is credited with helping Miller create the "Miller sound" and under whose tutelage he himself composed what became his longtime theme, "Moonlight Serenade."

Miller toured with several groups, small and large, playing trombone and contributing arrangements (perhaps his first passion), landing a good spot in Ben Pollack's group in Los Angeles. Among the members of that band was Benny Goodman, who played the clarinet. During his stint with Pollack, Miller had the opportunity to write several musical arrangements of his own. In 1928, when the band arrived in New York City, he sent for and married his college sweetheart, Helen Burger.

During the 1930s, Miller earned a living working as a freelance trombonist in several bands, and compiling several musical arrangements before forming his first band in 1936. Jerry Jerome, Hal McIntyre, Charlie Spivak, Sterling Bose, and Irving Fazola were some of the musicians in the band. Kathleen Lane was the singer. The band failed to distinguish itself from the many others of the era, and broke up. “Peg O’ My Heart,” “Anytime, Any Day, Anywhere,” “Moonlight, Bay,” “I’m Sitting on Top The World,” “I Got Rhythm,” “Sleepy Time Gal,” “Community Swing,” “Time On My Hands” and “Silhouetted In The Moonlight” were some of their best recordings. He also played "Take the 'A' Train."

Discouraged, he returned to New York. Realizing that he needed a unique sound, he dedicated himself to finding it. After a lot of work, he decided to make the clarinet play a melodic line with a tenor saxophone on the same note, while three saxophones harmonized. With this sound, the Miller band was born in 1937. He wasn't the first to try that style, but he was the most successful at refining it and making it key to just about his entire repertoire, and it made his new band a hit and, in short enough order, the top selling big band in the country.

Many jazz critics of that time felt that Miller's rise shifted popular music away from the "hot" bands of Benny Goodman and Count Basie. Miller himself emphasized orchestrated arrangements over improvisation, but he did leave a little room for his best musicians to improvise. Tex Beneke, Al Klink, Chummy MacGregor, Billy May, Johnny Best, Maurice Purtill, Wilbur Schwartz and Ernie Cacares were some of the musicians in the band. Ray Eberle, Marion Hutton and The Modernaires were the singers. Many of the Miller musicians went on to studio careers in Hollywood after World War II---particularly May, who became a much-coveted arranger and studio orchestra leader---and backed up singers like Frank Sinatra and Sarah Vaughan.

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Musicians - Glenn Miller

Life and career

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