Friday, December 30, 2016

The Glenn Miller Orchestra will be in JAX for one show



"The Glenn Miller Orchestra" is the most popular and sought-after big band in the world today for both concert and swing dance engagements.  They will be coming to the FSCJ Nathan H. Wilson Center for the Arts on Florida State College at Jacksonville’s South Campus, for only one performance on Friday, January 12, 2017.  With its unique jazz sound, The Glenn Miller Orchestra is considered to be one of the greatest bands of all time.

The present “Glenn Miller Orchestra” was formed in 1956 and has been touring consistently since, playing an average of 300 live dates a year all around the world.  Nick Hilscher, the orchestra’s music director and vocalist, creates an atmosphere of richness as the band remains devoted to the Miller sound, interpreting such standards as “String of Pearls,” “Tuxedo Junction,” “Little Brown Jug,” and “Pennsylvania 6-5000.”


“A band ought to have a sound all of its own.  It ought to have a personality” - Glenn Miller.  Miller played and recorded with the likes of Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey (who on several of their records, featured an up-and-coming singer by the name of Bing Crosby), Gene Krupa, Eddie Condon and Coleman Hawkins.  In addition, during that time, Glenn cut 18 sides for Goodman, and also worked for radio studio conductors like Victor Young, Carl Fenton and Jacques Renard.  In 1934, Miller became the musical director of the Dorsey Band, and later went on to organize The Ray Noble Orchestra.  In April 1935, Glenn Miller recorded, for the first time, under his own name. Using six horns, a rhythm section and a string quartet, he recorded "Moonlight on the Ganges" and "A Blues Serenade" for Columbia.  But selling only a few hundred records, he continued his position with the Noble Orchestra.  A few years later, Glenn Miller stepped out to form his own band.  There were a few recordings, but it was not to be.  Broke, depressed and having no idea what he was going to do, he returned to New York City.

It is said that Miller could never remember precisely the moment he decided to emphasize his new reed section sound. But it was during this disheartening interim that he realized the unique sound — produced by the clarinet holding the melodic line while the tenor sax plays the same note, and supported harmonically by three other saxophones — just might be the individual and easily recognizable style that would set his band apart from all the rest.  For Glenn Miller’s full biography and for the current cast of The Glenn Miller Orchestra, visit their website.


The Glenn Miller Orchestra
DATE: Fri., January 12, 2017
TIME: 7:30 p.m.


LOCATION: Wilson Center for the Arts:
        Florida State College at JAX So. Campus
        11901 Beach Blvd.
        Jacksonville, FL 32099

TICKETS: $42.50 plus applicable fees, and are available for purchase online or by calling (904) 442-2929 or at our box office from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.  Discounts for groups of 10+ are available by contacting groupsales@fscjartistseries.org or (904) 442-2947

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