Jersey Bounce Medley - Ray McKinley & The New Glenn Miller Orchestra Orchestra

[@dougdanzeisen9608]

I keep coming back to these "Live as live can be" music videos because they capture the band at its live essence imho. Their albums, at least the ones I've heard and acquired, while good, seem more formulaic and "Safe." This has the life and urgency of the live performance it was.

[@CCJazzmen]

Great comment.. Happy to hear you enjoy these clips of the McKinley/Miller Orchestra.

[@Trombonology]

Those medleys were always so slickly done. We'll never again see musical programming of this calibre, even with the fine musicians that are still out there. Excellent Jersey Bounce -- every orchestra needs a bari sax in the reeds! Very swinging vocal from Johnny on YBANKOLTM -- even if he did muff the reprise and sing "If _you_ could hurry ... " You could tell he realised his mistake. I always love these Miller Time uploads!

[@CCJazzmen]

Glad you enjoy them, and some fine solos on Jersey Bounce. This ghost Miller band under Mr McKinley always sounds so fresh.

[@callmeBe]

I am just watching this performance again (it is just sooo brilliant--I just love that brassy sound!), and I noticed the how the music stands are incorporated incredibly low below the trpts and bones. (If you look carefully at 1:44 you can see the trbn music positioned, and it is substantially low to the players). And then the elevated positions of the instrumental sections so they rise above each other (saxes lowest, then bones, then trpts). All of this maximizes the overall brassy punching sound. To follow that up, the section leaders are obviously rehearsing everyone to keep their bells up, though their eyes must be quite low to make a read. As a player, maybe you can comment, CCJ, but I never felt that standing increased my support. Obviously , McKinley must have felt the same, or the sectional stands would have been designed in such a way for everyone not to sit.

[@CCJazzmen]

Myself, I do not like the music stands too low, especially when the lighting in venues can be not too good, But here, being in a studio and good lighting I do not think a problem of course this big band is excellent. Thanks for another great comment.

[@callmeBe]

@@CCJazzmen I am not a great brass player like you are. So, I just don't have your kind of expert experience. So tell me this: if you had good quality lights attached to your stands, would that help? My concern would be this, the difference between the drop in the stand and eye level would be great enough that you would find players pointing their bells down as their head/eyesight would drop, as well as changing their embrasure; beginning to defeat the whole purpose of having such a low stand as pictured here. What are your thoughts on that?? Thanks!

[@CCJazzmen]

@@callmeBe Good quality stand lights would help, I have played with bands where some brass players have trouble reading the music so the bell of the trumpet or trombone does then point into the stand and of course blocks the sound a little like having a bucket mute attached. So good stand lights would help with the horns pointing out towards the room. I have seen some of the original Miller arrangements and the parts were on a bigger stave to the normal stave you get when you buy to write on, and now a lot is done on the computer..

[@callmeBe]

@@CCJazzmen Thanks! Yea, we do that at Universal Edition. They have requirements on minimum font size depending upon if the instrument is a string or ww. But for some instruments, I use a bigger print size (bari sax or harp for instance) due to the player's distance to the stand. Do you have use for original big band arrangements? I do have a few original copies of Miller scores on file. Years ago (when I was a student) I use to consolidate them and put them into piano scores for study.

[@CCJazzmen]

@@callmeBe That larger print size is perfect,, Yes, always looking out for big band arrangements..The big band I do is jus for fun, so we blow through as much as possible and always gather a good audience, we just play 6 times a year, The small band makes the bread..Haha

[@callmeBe]

Geeze, what a blaring brassy sound! Eeegads do I love it! (I do wish I could hear more of the lower voices, especially on the Jersey, but as brass gets louder, the trpts become exceptionally dominating. Listen to the brass cup mute balance on "Got a Date." It is perfectly balanced here. Same tune when the mutes are off the trpts are a bit dominating, but you can get a pretty good idea of what is going on in the saxes--not so much in the bones. I give awesome credit to the saxes, they are always well balanced in this band's work ). Fantastic stuff China man!

[@CCJazzmen]

Thanks again for your very informative comment. Always interesting to read your breakdown of the arrangements.

[@BlaydonAces]

Lovely selection of songs here. All top musicians but I'm particularly drawn to the alto sax solos. He's a fine bop player.

[@CCJazzmen]

Lenny Hambro was a great alto player and had quite a fair bit of recognition in those days with his own small units.

[@rallful]

@@CCJazzmen Hambro was a featured member of this band when I saw it in London in February 1958. Ed Zandy was the trumpet soloist but it was the last show of a long tour and his lip was evidently in poor shape because I still cringe when I remember the 'cracks' on String of Pearls.