Section from chapter 1944: All-American All Stars   [ return to introduction ]

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By Mervyn Cooke • 325 illustrations,
82 in full color • 256 pages • 8-1/2 x 8-1/2"
Cloth • ISBN 0-7892-0399-5 • U.S. $45.00
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Captain Glenn Miller consults with Marjorie Ochs in June 1943 about the radio show "I Sustain the Wings," mounted at Yale by the US Army Air Force's Technical Command. [ view larger image ] (Corbis-Bettmann/UPI)
Glenn Miller: Wartime Serenade

Trombonist Glenn Miller, the name most inextricably associated with the swing music of the war years, has remained one of the hardest jazz talents to assess. The popular image of the uniformed bandleader taking his music across the Atlantic to entertain his nation's servicemen must be seen in the wider context of a popularity that propelled his band into an enviable and longstanding position at the top of the US record charts. This success was maintained throughout the war, but sometimes at the expense of musical quality. Several commentators have argued, with reason, that Miller's brand of big-band jazz could be stilted, often failed to swing, and marked the parting of the ways between true jazz and the broader appeal of nascent pop music. Others have admired his cultivation of an immediately recognizable "sound world," based on a distinctive consistency of orchestration. The latter included his trademark techniques of doubling a clarinet melody with massed saxophones an octave lower, and employing four trombones for sonorous chordal backgrounds.

After working as a sideman for the Dorsey brothers in the mid-1930s, it took Miller several years to establish himself as a leader. In 1939 his second band appeared at New York's Glen Island Casino, where regular broadcasts secured him many young and enthusiastic fans. The same year brought two hit recordings, "In the Mood" and "Moonlight Serenade," the latter stylishly demonstrating the lengths to which the parallel harmonies of the swing style could be taken. Movie appearances by the band in 1941—42 significantly augmented their popular following.

Miller's career in the US Army Air Force began in 1942, when he formed a new band to entertain troops both at home and (in 1944) abroad. The band's visit to Britain, where they broadcast for the BBC, was rapturously received and did much to boost Allied morale. It was in December 1944, while flying ahead of his band to Paris, where they were scheduled to play, that his aircraft was lost without trace in bad weather.