Glenn Miller

Happy Birthday, Glen Miller 1904-1944...Glen Miller's reign as the most popular bandleader in the U.S. came somewhat late in his career and lasted a very brief 3 1/2 years, but during that time he dominated popular music and was still selling gold records with reissues of his music 40 years after his death. Miller developed a distinctive sound using a high pitched clarinet playing the melody, doubled by a saxophone section playing an octave lower which produced a series of hits that stand today as definitive examples of swing music. Jazz fans weren't always enthusiastic about his overly rehearsed, highly disciplined band which left no room for spontaneity or improvisation, but Miller himself would say he lead a dance band, not a jazz band.

He got his start in high school with the Boyd Senter band then joined Ben Pollack's band in Los Angeles 1924 after dropping out of collage to become a professional musician. In 1928 he moved to New York, working as a session musician and arranger, joining the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra for a year in 1934 as an arranger and on trombone, moving on to Ray Nobles' band as a player and arranger at the Rainbow Room in Rockefeller Center, at the same time studying theory and composition with Joseph Shillinger.

Miller began recording on his own with pick up bands in 1935, forming his own, not very successful, bands in 1937 and 1938 until he got his big break with an engagement the summer of 1939 at the Glen Island Casino in New Rochelle, New York. Glen Island was a major swing venue with a live radio broadcast giving his band extensive exposure. From that point on the band's popularity soared scoring them 17 Top Ten hits in 1939, 31 Top Ten hits in 1940, 11 in 1941 and 11 in 1942. He also made two films during this period, "Sun Valley Serenade" and "Orchestra Wives".

in 1942, although he was too old for military service, Miller talked his way into a commission with the Army Air Force during WW2. He would go on to create a service band, playing at war-bond rallies and military camps while continuing to do a weekly radio show. He took his band to Great Britain, playing for the troops and doing radio shows then planned to continue on to Paris when his single engine UC-64 Norseman disappeared over the English Channel on December 15, 1944.