After Glenn Miller's untimely death in 1944, the Glenn Miller Orchestra -- with their sharp, precise arrangements, brilliant brass, and swinging rhythm display -- was the most consistently booked band in the country. This original Epic recording features the unmistakable sound of Bobby Hackett on trumpet and blends Miller classics like "Chattanooga Choo Choo" and "Pennsylvania 6-5000" with 1960's hits like "People" and "Downtown."

2 LPs on 1 CD: GLENN MILLER TIME-1965/GREAT SONGS OF THE 60'S.

Personnel includes: Ray McKinley (leader); Bobby Hacket (trumpet).

Originally released on Epic.

Liner Note Authors: John Lissner; Richard Maltby, Jr.

Recording information: 01/04/1965-03/22/1965.

From four decades or more on, Glenn Miller Time 1965 may seem an unlikely recording project. The year 1965, after all, marked a continuation of the British Invasion in rock & roll music, with the volume and the attitude stepped up several notches amid the success of the Rolling Stones et al., and it was also the year of the folk-rock explosion and dozens of other pop culture phenomena that seem a long way from anything to do with Glenn Miller -- who had been gone just a couple of weeks past 20 years at the time of these recording sessions. But the mid-'60s also saw a less widely publicized but incontestable '40s nostalgia boom among audience members over 40 (remember how popular blockbuster war movies were then, not to mention World War II series such as Combat?). What's more, at the time, the officially sanctioned Glenn Miller Orchestra under Ray McKinley was one of the most heavily booked performing outfits in the world, and as luck had it, trumpet legend Bobby Hackett -- who had played with the Miller band before World War II -- was signed to Epic just as the Miller Orchestra got a contract with the label. Hackett is the featured soloist here, his trumpet replacing the vocals on numbers from Miller's repertory, all arranged -- as were the contemporary 1960s numbers such as "Hello Dolly," "More," and "Blue Velvet" -- in the authentic Miller style by band alumnus George Williams. The sound is excellent and the band revels in the stereo profile and high-fidelity recording. Williams and company successfully picture where and how Miller might well have handled numbers such as "The Girl from Ipanema," as well as how standards from their repertory like "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" and "Pennsylvania 6-5000" could have sounded under Miller's leadership some 20 years later. Glenn Miller Time 1965 was reissued in 2001 on CD paired with the Miller Orchestra's follow-up LP, Great Songs of the 60's. ~ Bruce Eder

Genre:

• Big Band & Swing

Labels:

• Collectables Records

Music Categories:

• Jazz Instrument: Big Band

Product Groupings:

• Clearance CDs
• Collectables Records - Audio CDs