Glenn Miller’s music still gets air time
Shelley Mika
Staff writer
Editor s note: In this weekly series,
we explore the lives and works of
notable^ Nebraska artists of the 20th
century.
Imagine hearing “Smells Like
Teen Spirit” while looking for milk in
the grocery store. It probably sounds
like a strange scenario.
But think about how popular
Nirvana was. Who knows, in decades
to come you could hear Nirvana on
space-age Muzak while choosing your
favorite dehydrated lunch pill.
But let’s talk about the here and
now.
There’s a little tune by a big band
called “In the Mood,” and yes, you’ve
probably heard it while choosing
between skim and 2 percent milk.
If that doesn’t ring a bell, then
maybe you’ll recall another ditty by
the name of “Chattanooga Choo
choo.”
If not, let it be said that Glenn
Miller, the man responsible for both,
continues to get airplay more
than 50 years after his
Alton Glenn Miller
was born in Clarinda,
Iowa, on March 1,1904.
Five years later, Miller’s
family moved to Tryon,
Neb., where
it lived in a
sod hut.
Later,
the family
moved to North
Platte, where
Miller’s father
worked at the
time.
It was here in
Nebraska, where Glenn got
his first instrument, the
mandolin. But that didn’t
last long. Glenn had
his sights set on the
trombone. Much to
the chagrin of his
parents, Miller traded
his mandolin for an old, beat
up horn. ■
" Miller’s older brother, J
Dean, could very well be Jl
I
responsible for getting Miller started
in his career. Dean played the trumpet
in a local band. Often, Miller would
follow his brother to rehearsals.
Seeing Miller’s drive and promise as a
trombonist, the band leader gave him a
shiny, new trombone. Miller was
enthusiastic enough to pay the band
leader back by shining shoes in his
store.
Miller’s enthusiasm for playing
remained, although it did not carry
over into his college career. At the
University of Colorado, Miller played
trombone in a band led by student
Holly Moyer while failing a first-year
harmony course.
Apparently, Miller’s focus was to
play music instead of simply studying
it. That same year, Miller began to try
his hand at arranging.
Over the next decade, Miller per
formed as both an instrumentalist and
an arranger in several groups, most of
which were theater and recording
bands and radio orches
tras. But the
security
of contract and studio work wasn’t
enough for Miller to stay in this posi
tion. He wanted to lead his own band.
In 1937, he got his wish. But
despite Miller’s hard work, talent and
patience, the group was going
nowhere commercially. In 1938,
Miller gave it another try. That
September, the new version of his
band was signed to Victor RCA, and
by the next spring, the band had risen
to fame. In addition to a group of tal
ented musicians and
Miller’s perfectionism,
Miller’s arranging
technique earned the
attention of critics
and listeners.
Conrad
Good,
host of “Dance Bands: When Melody
Was King” on KZUM-FM (89.3), said
Miller’s arranging style “was original
ly a mistake. He was trying for an
arrangement, and the saxophone
couldn’t hit the high note.”
Instead, Miller used the clarinet
section to carry the melody, and the
saxophones harmonized underneath.
Don Gill, host of “Big Band
Spotlight” on Nebraska Public Radio,
said, “The Miller sound was bigger
and more enhanced” than the other
bands of the time.
Tom Larson, a jazz history
professor, said, “They were really
1 a commercial band that had a
really good swing concept.”
Jp By 1940, the “Miller
r sound” was a huge success. In
that same year, the band’s biggest
hit, “In the Mood,” was released.
After a few short years of fame,
Miller’s patriotic spirit led him to
join the World War II effort.
Although originally Miller had
K n’t joined the
W service to
take his band across the seas, that’s
exactly what happened.
In 1942, Miller hand-picked
enlisted swing musicians and formed
a service band. This new group played
800 performances a year. For the
majority of the war, Miller’s band was
stationed in England. But after the lib
eration of France, Miller and his band
were scheduled to transfer to Paris.
But Miller never made it. On Dec.
15, 1944, the small plane that was to
take him to Paris disappeared. There
are several theories regarding Miller’s
disappearance.
One conspiracy theory asserts that
there was no plane and that Miller
actually died in a Paris brothel of a
heart condition.
But Gill said the theory “has been
pretty well ruled out by everybody.”
Until recently, the most accepted
theory was simply that the plane’s
wings iced over, and it was lost over
the English Channel.
But in the last year, a member of
the Royal Air Force of Britain admit
ted he had been flying a bomber on the
same day at the same time and place
where Miller’s plane went down. The
officer’s bombing mission had been
aborted, and he was ordered to
release his bombs over the English
Channel in order to land.
As he did so, he said, he noticed a
small plane underneath, which is
assumed to have been Miller’s
plane.
Instead of headlines in
the Enquirer about
1V1 1 1 1 c 1
death, he is remembered today for his
music.
Recently, the highway between
Tryon and North Platte was dedicated
to him. Clarinda, Iowa has an annual
festival celebrating Miller’s music
with bands from all over the world.
And of course, the Glenn Miller
Orchestra still plays today.
“He was really the
biggest name of the
dance bands,” Gill
said.
World-renowned orchestra
to perform at Lied Center
By Danell McCoy
Staff writer
Recognized as one of the finest orches
tras in the world, the National Symphony
Orchestra performs almost 175 concerts a
year.
On Monday, the symphony will make a
stop in Lincoln to perform at the Lied Center
for Performing Arts at 301 N. 12th St.
The National Symphony Orchestra, now
in its69th season, has regularly performed for
presidential inaugurations and has traveled to
four continents, developing an acclaimed
international reputation.
Although it wasn’t until 1986 that the
symphony became officially affiliated with
the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing
Arts in Washington, D.C., the symphony had
been associated with it since the center
opened in 1971. The orchestra performs its
regular concert season there.
The 100-member National Symphony
Orchestra dedicates itself to promoting the
works of American composers, both old and
new. The symphony also uses its influence to
expand musical appreciation within the
United States with an educational program
that serves almost 40,000 students each year.
The music director, Leonard Slatkin, has
worked to bring the National Symphony
Orchestra to new heights.
Though he is only the fifth director the
orchestra has had, the pairing of Slatkin with
Lied Center j
Ho facts
What: National Symphony Orchestra
Where: Lied Center for Performing Arts
When: Monday 8 p.m.
Cost: $44, $40, $36, half-price for students
The Skinny: Symphony celebrates
American composers, both old and new.
the symphony has garnered a Grammy for
Best Classical Album for their first recording
and a nomination for their second.
Slatkin previously appeared at the Lied
Center in 1991, 1993 and 1995 when he
directed the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.
He also serves as guest conductor of
London’s Philharmonia Orchestra.
Slatkin studied at the Julliard School of
Music and has more than 100 recordings
with various orchestras. Five of these record
ings resulted in Grammy Awards, while 50
others have received nominations for the
award.
Pre-performance talks will be held in the
Lied Center’s Steinhart Room as a part of its
ongoing educational program. The talks will
be held 55 and 30 minutes prior to perfor
mance and are free to the public.
Tickets to the 8 p.m. performance are
$44, $40 and $36, and student tickets are half
price.
Program helps students
meet working writers
By Jason Hardy
Senior staff writer
Depending on their majors, some students at
the University of Nebraska-Lincoln can easily
find examples of people working in their future
career.
Medical students can go to a hospital and talk
to a doctor, architecture students can stop in at
one of Lincoln’s firms and see a working archi
tect and for business majors, well, that’s about the
easiest one of all. Business is booming.
But for student artists, a tangible representa
tive of their future goals is much more elusive.
Sure, examples of their work may be readily
available, but because of art’s personal nature,
interacting with successful and working artists is
somewhat of a rarity.
Luckily for students of creative writing, the
Department of English and the Creative Writing
Program are aware of that fact. To dispel some of
the mystery behind being a working writer, the
departments have continuously invited writers to
visit UNL students.
Tonight at 7:30, in 228 Andrews Hall, the
Department of English and the Creative Writing
Program are presenting a free reading by Thisbe
Nissen, a recent graduate of the Iowa Writers’
Workshop and author of “Out of the Girls’ Room
and Into the Night,” a collection of short stories
that won the 1999 John Simmons Short Fiction
Award from the University of Iowa Press.
Nissen, who has also been featured in Story
magazine, Seventeen, The New Orleans Review
and other journals, will read from her collection
66
Generally; the students who
do come to the readings
find it very helpful
Grace Bauer
associate professor of English
of short stories, answer questions from the audi
ence and sign books.
Grace Bauer, an associate professor of
English at UNL, said meeting people such as
Nissen in person can be very helpful for prospec
tive writers.
“I think it’s always important for students
who are seriously considering pursuing writing
as a career certainly to read other writers but to
meet them as well,” she said. “Generally, the stu
dents who do come to the readings find it very
helpful.”
Bauer said Nissen, who graduated in 1997,
was a good example for students to see because
she is a talented and successful writer, and she is
still very young, further enabling her to identify
with students.
Also, because writers must be both artists and
marketers, Bauer said, it was good for students to
see how professionals sell their art.
“I think it’s very important to sort of ask writ
ers about their creative process,” Bauer said, “but
also about publishing to understand both the cre
ative and practical -aspects of a career in writing.”
