Glenn Miller band at PICC on July 2

MANILA, Philippines - The music scene will reverberate with the unique and timeless sound of the big band and swing era in the ’40s when one of the greatest bands of all time, the Glenn Miller Orchestra, comes for a two-night dance-concert tour that will kick off on July 2 at the Plenary Hall of the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) at the Cultural Center of the Philippines Complex in Pasay City.

Performing with the world-famous orchestra are the Swing Kittens as the reincarnation of the celebrated Andrews Sisters, while Filipino balladeer Arthur Manuntag will be featured as special guest.

The dance-concert series ends with a show on July 3 at the Waterfront Hotel & Casino in Cebu City.

Considered as the most popular big band in the world today for both concert and swing dance engagements, the Glenn Miller Orchestra will take the audience back in time as it re-creates the distinctive sound of the big band through an array of its vintage World War II hits and other popular tunes from the Great American Songbook.

The musical event to be mounted by Ovation Productions promises a truly entertaining evening as the 17-piece orchestra faithfully depicts the Glenn Miller band’s instrumentation and style.

The audience will be enthralled by a flamboyant and spectacular performance with the band opening with Moonlight Serenade, then shifting to a fast-paced repertoire of jazz, swing, classics and traditional big-band numbers.

Other songs that the orchestra is expected to play are In The Mood, Pennsylvania 6-5000, Chattanooga Choo Choo, A String of Pearls, At Last, (I’ve Got A Gal In) Kalamazoo, American Patrol, Tuxedo Junction and Little Brown Jug, among others.

The Philippine dance-concert engagement is part of the band’s current world tour that averages 300 live dates as it celebrates 75 years of existence and achievements in popular music under the leadership and inspiration of its founder and original member, Glenn Miller, America’s big-name headliner in the big band-swing era.

The American jazz musician (trombone), arranger, composer and band leader from Clarinda, Iowa had been recognized for pursuing his musical career with great fervor and intensity until he was able to lift himself and his band to a lofty position among the finest groups of the Big Band Era.

He hit it big in 1938 with a revamped orchestra that drew attention to its unique sound arranged around a clarinet and tenor saxophone playing the melody while three other saxophones played the harmony.

The band instantly gained popularity and began breaking attendance records all up and down the East Coast and at the New York State Fair in Syracuse, where it attracted the largest dance crowd in the city’s history.

It recorded a string of chart-topping songs such as Tuxedo Junction, which sold 115,000 copies in the first week; In The Mood and Pennsylvania 6-5000, all of which appeared in the RCA Victor Bluebird label. From 1939 to 1940, the band racked up eight million-selling records and 23 chart-toppers.

Miller’s rise to fame continued when he topped all other bands in the Sweet Band Poll of Down Beat Magazine in the early 1940. He hosted the Moonlight Serenade radio series which aired three times a week over CBS.

On Dec. 15, 1944, Miller boarded a transport plane in England for a flight over the English Channel to France, where he planned to join up with his service band to perform for the soldiers who had just liberated Paris. The plane never made it and no trace of its crew and passengers, including Miller, was ever found. 

Despite the death of Miller at the age of 40, his music lives on in several reincarnations of his orchestra.

The original band was reformed a number of times and, since 1956, has continued to record and perform under the direction of various leaders and is still consistently touring major cities all over the world.

Hollywood contributed to the popularity of the band and its founder with the 1953 release of The Glenn Miller Story, a partly fictionalized film biography starring James Stewart.

(Glenn Miller Orchestra Live In Manila! is presented by Ovation Productions. Tickets to the PICC concert on July 2 are available through Ticketnet or Ticketworld. For ticket inquiries and reservations, call Ticketnet at 911-5555 or Ticketworld at 891-9999.)