Band keeps Glenn Miller memories alive

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By David Burke | Saturday, May 31, 2008 12:16 PM CDT | () comments

Come this fall, Larry O’Brien will have led the Glenn Miller Orchestra for 22 years — from 1981 to ’83 and straight through since 1988.

Miller, by contrast, only led the group bearing his name for “four years and change as a civilian band,” O’Brien said in a telephone interview from Maine.

He has been leading the orchestra that’s kept Miller’s music alive thanks to the likes of “Chattanooga Choo Choo,” “Tuxedo Junction” and “Moonlight Serenade.”

A trombone player, like Miller, O’Brien will lead the orchestra in a performance Monday night at the i wireless Center in Moline.

“We play the hits that the people come to hear,” he said. “We play them with a lot of respect and a lot of enthusiasm.”

After its leader’s death in 1944 while flying from England to France to entertain troops, the Glenn Miller Orchestra was revived in 1956, and the band carries 350 arrangements on the road, just a fraction of the 2,000 songs in its Florida library.

“The library is huge. We may not play it, but it’s there for us,” O’Brien said.

Some of those songs, both on stage and in the archives, include newer music made in the big band style.

“There’s quite a lot of variety in the show, even though it’s basically ‘40s music,” O’Brien said.

The concert Monday night will include singer Julia Rich, who has been on the road with band as its concert manager and performer for decades, and singer Ryan Garfi, who’s about to turn 21.

“He’s out here learning his craft, like Frank Sinatra and so many members of the big band era did,” O’Brien said.

With a schedule of almost 300 dates a year, O’Brien claims the Miller orchestra is “the busiest band in the world.”

While the lead players in each section have longevity with the group, there’s a lot of turnover in the other spots, he said.

“If we can keep a guy for a year, we’re doing good,” he added. “When we get new people aboard, (the first-chair players) get them in line pretty quick. When we do add a new player or lose somebody, the program is pretty seamlessly performed.”

O’Brien said he looks for more than musicianship when auditioning new players.

“You have to have people you get along with. We can’t have any sour apples out here,” he said. “Once we have one, we get rid of it right away. You don’t want to carry around any extra baggage.”

O’Brien said he’s amused whenever Harry Connick Jr. releases a new album or a revival group such as Big Bad Voodoo Daddy hits the charts and someone declares that big bands have come back.

“They’re not coming back. They never will come back, I’m sorry to say,” he said.

The Miller band will find new, younger fans, he said, but only because they buy tickets for their parents or grandparents.

“It’s been lurking in the background, but you need to go and find it,” he said.

“Young people don’t know about this music because they’re not exposed to it. We’re not on the radio anymore, we’re not on television to speak of, except for ‘Lawrence Welk’ reruns. They don’t come into contact with it at all.”

O’Brien, who turns 75 next month, travels on tour with his wife. He has no plans for hanging up the baton.

“I’m going to keep doing this as long as I can and as long as it’s fun,” he said. “So far, the answer to both questions has been yes.”

David Burke can be contacted at (563) 383-2400 or dburke@qctimes.com.

IF YOU GO

What: Glenn Miller Orchestra

When: 7 p.m. Monday, June 2

Where: i wireless Center, Moline

How much: $42.50 for table seats, including dinner; $17.50 for the lower bowl, show-only. There is a discount for Quad-City Times Plus 60 Club members.

Information: (309) 764-2001 or iwirelesscenter.com on the Web

Also on the Web: GlennMillerOrchestra.com