The Glenn Miller Orchestra; in concert at Kingsbury Hall, University of Utah; November 5; one performance only.When I mentioned to a friend that I'd be reviewing The Glenn Miller Orchestra, he mentioned that his wife had asked him if he'd like to go. He said he'd replied that he'd rather listen to the original recordings. If he had gone, he might have found himself pleasantly surprised. I know I was.
Under veteran trombonist Larry O'brien's leadership, this group of seventeen young men and one young woman (sixteen instrumentalists and two solo vocalists, average age 23) has made tremendous strides over the group as it was constituted in its last Salt Lake appearance about nine years ago. The current members act as if they're having more fun and as if they care more about what they're doing than the previous group - and they play tremendously better.As O'brien pointed out early in the concert, the band is an acoustic one. The only microphones were up front for the soloists, and they were turned off when not in use. What we saw really was what we got.
The smartly dressed aggregation started showing its stuff almost immediately, opening with a highly creditable uptempo rendition of Jerry Gray's instrumental arrangement of the "Anvil Chorus" from Verdi's opera "Il Trovatore." Tenor saxist Walt Kross did some fine, almost bop-tinged solo work at midpoint and pianist Jeff Hughes had a nice break before the ensemble rideout a la the Army Air Force Band variation of the arrangement. Strange stuff for a big band to be performing, maybe, but fun.
One of the hallmarks of the Miller music is the distinctive "clarinet lead" reed sound, where the clarinet "doubles" an octave above the lead tenor sax. Bo McGlothan, whose clarinet was critical to that sound, didn't fail there. Except for some brief moments when he was seemingly overpowered by the rest of the saxes, he and they acquitted themselves very well in such things as Hoagy Carmichael's "Skylark" and the Harry Warren-Mack Gordon "Serenade in Blue." Both featured vocals by an agreeably lighter-voiced Jeff Collins.
The other solo vocalist, Julia Rich, has a pleasant, slightly nasal singing voice that she used to good effect in an uptempo "Just in Time" and particularly in a slow, moody "Someone to Watch Over Me," unusual in that she sang the seldom-heard verse.
O'brien even managed to get some audience participation going in the instrumental "PEnnsylvania 6-5000," named after the phone number of one of the original band's New York performing bases. He said at the beginning: "Let's see if you remember the rules!," meaning the audience was supposed to call out "PEnnsylvania 6-5000" at the end of each appropriate musical phrase. The response was such on the first try that O'brien cracked: "I gotta tell ya, they did it better in St. George!," triggering some laughter and a better response for the rest of the appropriate spots in the piece.
While the younger people in the audience may have come to hear firsthand what a big band sounds like, the "more mature" audience members were probably there more for the original Miller arrangements than for anything else. O'brien and crew didn't disappointment either group. Whether the fare was some of the newer things or the original Miller items like "Little Brown Jug," "Tuxedo Junction," "A String of Pearls" or "In the Mood," the audience got its money's worth with the bonus of some surprisingly good playing.