Big Band Magazine - Magazine - Page 4
THE REAL GLENN
MILLER STORY
By Dennis M. Spragg
Part Eleven (Photos Courtesy of Glenn Miller Collections, University of Colorado, Boulder)
Although Capt. Glenn Miller had assembled a top-notch organization consisting of
leading musical, broadcasting, and acting talent; they were, in reality, a military unit.
As airmen of the Army Air Forces, the men were required to perform duties at the
AAF Yale Technical Training School as well as broadcast and record in New York City.
Furthermore, because Army band regulations limited formal units to twenty-eight
people, Miller had to pigeon-hole up to one hundred primary and standby
personnel associated with his radio production unit and reserve musicians into
several base units, including headquarters, mess, and recreation.
Among the required activities were morning and afternoon retreat ceremonies and
aviation cadet marching exercises. It was with these duties that the Glenn Miller
Army Air Forces Band first received widespread national publicity and awareness,
even more so than with their early broadcasts over CBS. As it happened, Capt. Miller,
Cpl. Ray McKinley and their arrangers took a requirement and turned the AAF and
military music on their collective heads, with various musical figures in and out of
uniform aghast. Glenn and Ray decided to modernize military music startlingly and
effectively, which enraged traditionalists but pleased the AAF brass, motivated
aviation cadets, and inspired public awareness.
The arrangers assembled a series of musical scores for jazz adapted to marches. The
radio production unit recorded several of the scores for the Army "V-Disc" series and
a special package titled "Music for Marching Men." The best-known of these is
"Saint Louis Blues March," prepared by Jerry Gray with the guidance of Ray McKinley
and Perry Burgett. Among the other prominent jazz adaptations were
"Blues in the Night March," "Deep In The Heart Of Texas," "Bugle Call Rag,"
"Jersey Bounce," and "Buckle Down, Winsocki." However, Miller also dutifully scored
and recorded more traditional "Sousa marches," including "El Capitan" and
"The Stars and Stripes Forever."
There was a logistical challenge performing the innovative scores in public, which
was how to move drums around with the sizeable marching band, which included
members of the radio production unit and the reserve base band.
