Featuring The Uptown Hall Gang, Moonlight Serenaders and Glenn Miller Strings
Lighthouse Poole
1 March 2014
Review by Janine Pulford
Music evokes some of our strongest memories. Whether it’s a love song or an orchestral piece, that sudden stirring of emotion takes you back to a happy place. For me, the music of Glenn Miller does just that.
A visit to Lighthouse Poole on 1 March was an opportunity not to be missed.
Under the direction of bandleader Ray McVay, the Glenn Miller Orchestra made an up-tempo entrance with ‘Running Wild,’ which showcased the Uptown Hall Gang’s individual strengths. Other music of the era came into the mix and the pace kept going with ‘Over There’ before slowing with Cole Porter’s ‘I’ve Got You Under My Skin,’ well sung in the classic Sinatra style by Colin Anthony one of the Moonlight Serenaders.
Swinging back to Glenn Miller, ‘Little Brown Jug’ got feet tapping and bodies swaying as did ‘Chattanooga Choo Choo’ and ‘String of Pearls’. Other tunes in the first half included a rousing ‘When the Saints Go Marching In’, ‘Cherokee’ by Ray Noble and Benny Goodman’s ‘Let’s Dance’. There were terrific solos with standouts from Simon Meredith on alto sax and clarinet, Alan Berlyn on trumpet and Bunny Thompson on piano. Catharine Sykes, another of the Serenaders, looked and sounded beautiful as she sang ‘You’ll Never Know How Much I Love You’.
A treat was in store during the second half when the orchestra came back on stage in uniform, representing those wartime performances by Glenn Miller before his untimely death in 1944.
A couple of snappy tunes led to ‘Pennsylvania 65-000’, which the audience loved even though their initial contribution created a walk out by the band – a touch of humour, naturally. There were duets, solos, Gershwin numbers, a most wonderful ‘Danny Boy’ with a trombone solo by Dale Gibson Jnr and the ‘Red Cavalry March’ which built to a loud and boisterous performance, brought back into line by the Glenn Miller Strings. It was splendid. During ‘Tuxedo Junction’ the trombonists spread added pleasure by walking among the audience and ‘In the Mood’ got people dancing. But for me, the star of the show was a faultless ‘Moonlight Serenade’. The emotion simply welled up and Simon Meredith’s solo clarinet was magnificent.
It’s a concert I shall remember for a long time and my mother, who came with me, said it took her back to the dance halls of her day.
It was particularly poignant as 1 March was Glenn Miller’s birthday and Ray McVay not only mentioned this, but he and his orchestra performed a truly fitting tribute.
About Glenn Miller and Ray McVay
A legendary American musician, composer and bandleader, Glenn Miller revolutionised jazz music and topped the charts in the 1940s. When war broke out, he enlisted and as a captain he modernised the army band, performing morale boosting concerts to the troops.
Ironically he was lost in action in 1944 when the plane he was travelling in went down in bad weather over the English Channel. He was on the way to Paris to entertain US troops after the liberation of France. Aged only 40, his tragic death cut short a successful musical career, which produced some of the most inspired and unique music of the swing era.
Veteran bandleader Ray McVay has dedicated more than 25 years to keeping that music alive. He obtained permission to set up the Glenn Miiler Orchestra in England in 1988, and it has been a huge success ever since.
