My two cents: When the Glenn Miller band played Grangeville

Driving north of Grangeville as the daylight faded under a full moon, cars and trucks flicked on their signal lights before they turned off Idhao’s Highway 95 and headed for farms and small towns on Camas Prairie. Families were headed home after hearing the Glenn Miller Ochestra perform at Pioneer Park in Grangeville.

For most of the hundreds of people who packed the park July 22 with a large semi-circle of lawn chairs and blankets, the summer concert must have been unique. They had just experienced a legendary, but still vibrant, treasure of American music.

It’s a good guess that few, if any, people in the audience ever listened to a live performance of the original Glenn Miller band, but the recognition factor for most of the classic Glenn Miller hits from the Big Band era and World War II was there.

Director Larry Obrien, who has led the band on the road since 1988, plays a solo on the trombone. Miller also played the trombone in the early years of the Big Band era before he launched his own band 71 years ago.

The original band, after a couple of tough years, hit the charts 71 years ago. After the band hit its peak of popularity, Miller shut it down to join the Army in 1942. He was 38, too old to be drafted but convinced his music could be a boost to the troops. He was right.

Two years later, Dec. 15, 1944, Miller vanished when he caught a flight aboard a single engine airplane to cross the English Channel in terrible weather conditions.

Miller, then a major in the Army Air Corps, was headed for Paris to make arrangements for his band to follow the troops six months after the Normandy invasion of German-occupied France.

Miller’s musicians continued to play during the war and for a few years after the war.

The web site for the present version of the Glenn Miller Orchestra reports they started in 1956 when the Glenn Miller estate asked Ray McKinley, one of the band’s leaders who carried on in Europe after Miller vanished, to take the orchestra on the road.

So there they were under the Soroptimist Pavilion in Grangeville’s Pioneer Park. The pavilion, a picnic shelter, is located next to Grangeville’s swim pool, which was closed during the concert.

Residents from all over the Camas Prarie attended. Grangeville has a population of 3,200 plus, and the appearance of the nationally known Miller band must have rated high on the list of summer events. Fifteen minutes before the 6 p.m. start, residents were hiking up the hill to the park with blankets and lawn chairs under their arms.

Also, the Grangeville Arts Association, the organization which booked the band, opted to fund the performance out of their treasury, and not charge admission. During the break they “passed the hat” to help replenish what must have been a big dent in the kitty which is built up by fund raisers each year.

In his “The Big Bands” the late George Simon notes the Miller band was “the one that evokes the most memories of how wonderfully romantic it all was, the one whose music most people wanted to hear over and over again.”

“We actually like playing dates like this,” trumpet player Gary Lamb explained with his North Carolina accent. “It’s a nice small place, and we can see the people are having a good time.”

Lamb said the band takes to the road 46 weeks during the year. They play all over the United States and in Canada and normally book a month in Japan. They also look forward to two extended breaks every year.

For the park concert, band members wore matching blue polo shirts and dark slacks. Director Larry O’Brien wore a white summer outfit featuring a billowing American flag print pattern.

The band started with a short intro of “Moonlight Serenade,” a song which has served as the intro to countless films and television documentaries of the World War II era.

Then the program went into a run of the Miller classics, one right after another. The band played the Big Band classics: “Pennsylvania 6-5000,” “Little Brown Jug,” “Tuxedo Junction,” “Elmer’s Tune,” “Chatanooga Choo Choo,” “String of Pearls.”

Soloist Kate Rafferty of Chicago, dressed in a blue summer dress with a classic World War II look, started with “That’s Sabotage.” She sings lyrics from an era when people actually listened to lyrics and repeated them. Example: “I’ve got to keep my FBI on you.”

Brian Hemstock of Sparta, Wis., also performs vocals and he and Rafferty teamed up with band members as the “Moonlight Seranaders” to perform other vocals.

During the program, O’Brien, who has headed the band for 22 years and makes introductions with lines smoothed out by years of performance dates, actually plays with the audience. Will they ever depart from the Miller big band song book?

After the intermission, O’Brien reports he visited with a woman named Dolly, and she requested her favorite song. O’Brien picks up his trombone, but he doesn’t play “Dolly” (1964): he plays “Laura” (Raksin-Mercer, 1945).

Toward the end of the concert he tells the audience they have been working on a new tune that they might want to record. Every time they try it out, he says, members of the audience jump to their feet and start dancing.

Are they going to jump the tracks and play “Jump, Jive and Wail”?

No. They play “In the Mood,” and many in the Grangeville audience spring out of their lawn chairs and start dancing.

Before the band played Miller’s swing version of the “St. Louis Blues,” O’Brien asked all veterans in the audience to stand up and be recognized.

Simon in his book also noted Miller could be a task master, and many musicians in the original band couldn’t deal with his regimented approach to music performance. Also, jazz music evolved into be-bop improvisation. The post-war era brought the music of the 1950s soloists, then Rock ‘n roll, then the Beatles and the British invasion, then rap, and on and on. Also, music collections for many members of the Grangeville audience probably leaned toward County Western music.

Standing behind a picnic table where younger members of the band are selling CDs and Glenn Miller golf shirts during the break, Lamb admits their road schedule can be wearing.

“It’s just like anything else. We have good days, and once in a while we can have an off day,” said Lamb. He has been with the band for two years.

The Miller organization gets audition tapes from musicians around the country. Often, during a performance stop, local musicians will audition, and if they pass muster they will be placed on “the list.” At some future date, when one of the musicians opts to leave the grind of the road, the band checks out the list and makes a call, or calls.

The 19-member band travels on a huge 38-passenger charter bus. They usually allow a day for travel before a concert date. After staying overnight at Grangeville, they departed for Trail, B.C. They had another date at Nakusp before returning to Spokane for two nights last week at Northern Quest Casino at Airway Heights. The ticket price for those concerts, $30, gives some indication of the gift the Grangeville arts group provided for their community.

Arts Association member Sue Kutner said when she made first contact with the band and learned of the performance rate, she immediately dropped the idea. But negotiations continued because the band wanted to make a stop between McCall and Trail.

Kutner said she found herself saying yes when the band dropped its original quote. She just felt the great Miller Orchestra couldn’t roll through Grangeville in their big red bus without playing in the park.

That night many of the people in those cars and pickups headed back across the Camas Prairie must have been listening to themselves hum “Moonlight Serenade” or “In the Mood” or “Pennsylvania 6-5000” as they headed home.