 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: hans
Date: 2006-08-29 15:34
I attended the GM band's performance last night in Toronto at Roy Thomson Hall.
The GM band was fabulous and definitely worth going to see if you like big bands. The reeds section is superb. All 5 double on clarinet and the lead played Artie Shaw's solos in Traffic Jam beautifully.
Having nearly a one hour opening act by a mediocre pianist named Richard Abel diminished the evening somewhat. When I go to a big band performance, I don't expect to have to wait for something completely different like Blue Danube (played rather badly) to be over. Had I known, I would have arrived an hour later to avoid it. Other patrons were heard saying the same thing. I'm sure there is an audience for him somewhere, now that Victor Borge is dead, but last night's was not it.
Hans
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2006-08-29 15:48
We were fortunate to have the Glen Miller Orchestra here in little upstate Idaho a couple years ago --with no opening act.
The band was fabulous, and the reeds were an eclectic bunch. One guy had a rusty-looking (great sounding) Selmer VI, and there was a shiny new, black tenor (black horns just look "rignt," don't they?).
These days, it seems like the Indian casinos have the budget and "pull" to land the great acts, and we're poorer for it.
Bob Phillips
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Author: Alseg
Date: 2006-08-29 16:26
The soaring clarinet solo in Moonlight Serenade is a fav of mine. Then there are the tenor sax "challenges" in the hotter numbers (I believe Al Klink went on to a career in TV studio bands, Late Show, etc). Billy May and cornetist/guitarist Hacket also had great recording bands after GM .
Ah, but how were the "Tex Beneke vocals"???
Former creator of CUSTOM CLARINET TUNING BARRELS by DR. ALLAN SEGAL
-Where the Sound Matters Most(tm)-
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2006-08-29 17:00
TKS, you ?old? GUYS, makes me nostagically-mellow. Except for some PBS "fund raiser" shows on TV, I haven't heard any big bands for "too long". Makes me want to break out my M VI and see if One O'Clock still jumps out of it. Bob P., even our poorer tribal casinos here in OK can afford nearly everything, and give away "prizes" !! A different world ! Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: hans
Date: 2006-08-29 17:20
Alseg,
The "Tex Beneke vocals" were very good. The male singer had excellent range and a very good voice, although it was different from Tex's.
The female singer was adequate. She seemed to have a range limit and sometimes dropped down an octave instead of reaching for the expected high note, but those unfamiliar with the tunes would not have noticed.
Larry O'Brien (the leader, on trombone) played "Danny Boy", with just the rhythm section and no amplification, as a tribute to Maynard Ferguson, but obviously flubbed the last note and had to do a little extra playing to make it look "on purpose". Who hasn't done that?
The tenor sax duel in "In the Mood" was just perfect and they made it look like they were having fun.
Hans
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Author: Gandalfe
Date: 2006-08-30 00:00
I heard the GMO at the Seattle Symphony facility this year. I noticed how the soloists took liberties and made the solos their own when possible. It was a very polished show and the CDs sold briskly to patrons of all ages.
But the stack of music on the stands was unbelievable, at least to my wife and I. It was easily, when laid stacked like book pages, over a foot tall. Being a hobbyist, I find learning 200 songs daunting, let alone the over a 1000 songs the director mentioned.
Jim and Suzy
Pacifica Big Band
Seattle, Washington
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Author: ned
Date: 2006-08-30 03:50
''The GM band was fabulous and definitely worth going to see if you like big bands. The reeds section is superb. All 5 double on clarinet and the lead played Artie Shaw's solos in Traffic Jam beautifully. ''
Probably a fairly swish, professional outfit, but what's the point really of a tribute band? Glenn Miller's been dead for more than 60 years now.
Why not just have a good swing band, which ''pays tribute'' to all of those good bands of the era? The original GM band probably did not play Artie Shaw stuff - if you get my drift.
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Author: saxlite
Date: 2006-08-30 14:46
Ned's comment about just having a really good swing band that "pays tribute to all the good bands" perfectly describes my own band- The LyraTones. Unlike most of the other bands local to the SF Bay area, all our sax players double on clarinet, and most on bass clarinet and flute, as well. We have copies of many of the original charts of the famous big bands-
this allows us to truly reproduce the sounds as they were done back in the 30's thru 50's. Sometimes we copy the original solos, sometimes the players create their own. Just like the "good old days'. Sorry to say that our audience is aging and dying off-but we'll keep the great sounds going as long as we can because the music of that era can't be beaten by anything that has come along since then.
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2006-08-30 14:48
A "problem" with the casinos is that they seem to soak up all (a lot) of the touring acts --leaving fewer that can be bagged by the (poorer) local promoters.
wrt to using "name" branding for a contemporary performing group: probably doesn't matter --except to draw attention to the performance --and to give us old timers an idea of the repertoir --extensive, as noted in an earlier post.
Our local "big" band borrows arrangements from all of the old timey bands, but does not have the cachet of one decended 3 generations from a WWII group.
Bob Phillips
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