American Patrol - Ray McKinley & The New Glenn Miller Orch

[genefufreddy]

Drummer is Jim Lackey, the 'ballad drummer" who obviously was very talented on swinging tunes as well. I cant imagine Mac hiring a drummer who did not meet his high standards!

[marcyp1]

One of my most treasured possessions is an old vinyl album called "Glenn Miller Today" as directed by Ray McKinley with the New Glenn Miller Orchestra. I've had it for close to fifty years. What a wonderful surprise to finally see them after all these years. I was especially thrilled to see Ed Zandy play.

[bruno129730]

The band is really tight. Can anyone identify the drummer? Very impressive performance.

[BrunoJazzmanLeicht]

Great trumpet solo indeed! This is still the best of all GM-ghost bands, the current one included. Ray McKinley did some new things as well then (Lullabye Of Birdland, Clair De Lune, Bernie's Tune, Bali Ha'i, or Misty -- all great charts), and featured his young soloists whenever possible.

He knew that his musicians felt more motivated when they could play some new material instead of only covering the old charts.

By the way, isn't young Jiggs Whigham sitting there in the trombone section?

[Muggleton2104]

brilliant trumpet solo I can't stop listening to it :D

[sanantoniosquare]

how many kindscopes of Glenn Miller Time are extant?

[callmeBe]

This is one of the best versions of American Patrol I have heard. Love those tutti shadow notes, and a lot of extra shortened quarters ("bots"). The tempo might be slightly too fast (ie, saxes in the beginnig), but I'm not going to quibble, this is a very strong/muscular version that takes no prisoners. Wonderful! Thanks for such a great post!! What a dynamic leader McKinley was!

[mig15fan]

just magestic sound! thxs!!!from south america

[Reinocerous25]

thats a really cool camera move at the end.

[musicom67]

@Reinocerous25 Looks like they were rotating the turret lenses in real-time. Never saw THAT effect before.... and done LIVE no less!

[ftl39boi]

Ed Zandy was my uncle. He was not only a good musician, but also a great guy.

[armandolevano]

Oh yeah...... what a band......fabulous

Ed Zandy was from my home town (Endicott, NY) but I never had the pleasure to meet him.

[TONORAD]

Outstanding!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[acfinney]

Like Miller, Ray didn't play as much in the later years. He mostly played in the combo and special numbers. I have all of the RCA records of this band, and I noticed that the bassist plays a little on the flat side, which gives the music a little edge. A good thing no doubt.

[ask3625]

This is great, thanks for posting. My dad was a huge fan of this era of the GM band. One album he passed onto me was called Glenn Miller Today with Ray leading the band and he's just tearing it up on there. It's great to see this era of the GM organization on film. Why isn't Ray playing drums on any of these? Who is the drummer sitting in for him?