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EDITOR’s RECOMMENDATION July 2000
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Collection: Swing Legends:
Glenn Miller
NIMBUS NI 2001
[65:11]
Crotchet
Amazon
USA
Here we go again. Boulder Buff. My melancholy Baby. Star Dust. Rug Cutters
Swing. Pennsylvania 6-5000. Slow Freight. Slip Horn Jive. The Boogie Woogie
Piggy. Pavanne. Pagan Love Song. When Johnny comes marching home. Runnin'
Wild. Tuxedo Junction. Glen Island Special. Johnson Rag. A String of Pearls.
I dreamt I dwelt in Harlem. Moonlight Serenade. Farewell Blues.
Robert Parker, the Australian sound engineer responsible for refurbishing
the music for the albums in this Nimbus series, has excelled himself here.
Working from pristine Australian 78rpm pressings, he has created spectacular
stereo sound that makes these Glenn Miller favourites sound as if they were
recorded only yesterday. Listen to the fidelity of the instrumental harmonics
in A String of Pearls for instance. Now we really do have the chance
to fully savour the genius that was Glen Miller.
As the liner notes relate, "Glenn Miller's Orchestra in the 1940s was one
of the finest big bands of the Swing Era. The popularity and reverence with
which it is still regarded is unmatched - even in comparison with such
outstanding contemporary bands as those of Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman,
Fletcher Henderson and Count Basie.
"Apart from Miller's superb musicianship, his was a high multi-media profile:
raised by appearances in Hollywood films, radio broadcasts and on gramophone
records. His untimely death on 15th December 1944 during military
service, at the age of 40, undoubtedly fuelled the legend; culminating in
the glossy but factually inaccurate bio-pic of 1953 starring James Stewart
as an idealised Glenn Miller."
This album of 20 numbers includes many of the great hits including: Star
Dust; Moonlight Serenade; Pennsylvannia 6-5000; A String of Pearls
and Tuxedo Junction (but why omit Little Brown Jug?) The liner
notes include a picture of the band with many of the artists inset. And the
fully credited numbers include a number of distinguished names including:
Billy May, and Tex Beneke who makes his tenor sax all but talk.
An album not to miss.
Reviewer
Ian Lace
