THE GLENN MILLER ORCHESTRA
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- Honouring the Centenary of Anzac
- May 31:
- WIN Entertainment Centre
- Tickets: ticketmaster.com.au
The original Glenn Miller Orchestra was a big band formed 78 years ago, and I think many people would have heard the upbeat arrangements of saxophones, trumpets, trombones and drums on their parents' or grandparents' record player as a child.
A love of jazz and swing music of the 1930s and 1940s is still alive today, due to "the Miller Mystique" as the orchestra's current musical director, Rick Gerber, puts it.
"Nobody seems to be able to explain it. Other bands of that era have faded away - there's still a little interest in some of the other big names like Tommy Dorsey and Benny Goodman . . . but nothing like the popularity of Glenn Miller," he says.
Gerber formed the current Glenn Miller Orchestra in 2001 to play the music "as it was intended" to be played, in its "identical and authentic original arrangements".
The modern-day orchestra is about to tour Australia for the third time, bringing the melodic delights of five saxophones, four trumpets, four trombones, a piano, bass, drums and harmonised vocals to Wollongong at the end of the month.
This time around they'll be honouring the Centenary of Anzac, recreating nostalgic classics from World War I and World War II.
"I was a history major in college, and I found this very interesting," Gerber says.
"On our first tour of Australia three years ago, we noticed everywhere we went . . . it seemed like every city, every town had a memorial honouring the veterans.
"Sad to say, that spirit seems to have faded away in the United States. It isn't the same deep, real, rooted remembrance and honouring of the veterans who really kept the world free."
The late Glenn Miller perhaps captured the sentiments of freedom when he once said "there's no expression of freedom quite so sincere as music".
During World War II, Glenn Miller's music featured in a weekly radio show for the Office of War Information, The German Wehrmacht Hour, beamed from England to Germany, while his band toured extensively to bring music to GIs a long way from home.
Gerber has delved into the original Glenn Miller archives to uncover several wartime "toe-tapping, rousing arrangements" to bring to audiences today.
He also believes you can't have big band music without dancing, so swing dancers will accompany the 25 musicians with old favourites like the lindy hop and jitterbug.
"Originally all the music of the big bands . . . the primary market was for dancers, and of course that started fading by the early '50s as television started capturing [people's] attention."
Not only will Wollongong audiences be treated to original Glenn Miller arrangements, but also the music of the Andrews Sisters, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and the romantic wartime melodies made famous by Vera Lynn.