40s | Musicosity

40s

Glenn Miller Orchestra

Alton Glenn Miller (March 1, 1904–presumably December 15, 1944), was an American jazz musician, arranger, composer, and band leader in the swing era. He was one of the best-selling recording artists from 1939 to 1942, leading one of the best known "Big Bands". Miller's signature recordings include, "In the Mood", "Tuxedo Junction", "Chattanooga Choo Choo", "Moonlight Serenade", "Little Brown Jug", and "Pennsylvania 6-5000".[1] While travelling to entertain U.S. troops in France during World War II, Miller's plane disappeared in bad weather. His body was never found.

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Alfred Newman

Alfred Newman (March 17, 1900 – February 17, 1970), was a major American composer of music for films. In 1939, Newman began a twenty-one year career as music director for 20th Century-Fox Studios. He composed the familiar fanfare which accompanies the studio logo at the beginning of Fox's productions. At Fox, he also developed what came to be known as the Newman System, a means of synchronising the performance and recording of a musical score with the film. The system is still in use today.

Read more about Alfred Newman on Last.fm.

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Louise Parker

Growing up in a house filled with music, from the folk, calypso and opera enjoyed by her Jamaican born mother to the trad, swing and be-bop from her jazz-obsessed father, Louise Parker, aptly named after Louis Armstrong, was born to create the sort of soulful jazz she is rapidly gaining a reputation for. A big hit on the festival circuit and a regular on Radio 2’s Best of Jazz, British vocalist, Louise Parker is a powerful live performer and a skilful interpreter of swing, blues and gospel classics. She commits to each song with the warmth, spirit and passion of the great jazz divas.

Read more about Louise Parker on Last.fm.

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Max Steiner

Max Steiner was an Austrian composer who achieved legendary status as the creator of hundreds of classic American film scores. As a child he was astonishingly musically gifted, composing complex works as a teenager and completing the course of study at Vienna's Hochschule fuer Musik und Darstellende Kunst in only one year, at the age of sixteen. He studied under Gustav Mahler and, before the age of twenty, made his living as a conductor and as composer of works for the theater, the concert hall, and vaudeville.

Read more about Max Steiner on Last.fm.

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Glenn Miller

Alton Glenn Miller was born in Clarinda, Iowa on March 1, 1904. He started his musical career when his father brought home a mandolin. As soon as possible, he traded the instrument for an old horn, which he practiced diligently. During the late 1920s and early 1930s, Miller managed to earn a living working as a freelance trombonist in several bands. His first band was formed in 1937 but failed to distinguish itself and eventually broke up.

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New York Philharmonic Orchestra

The New York Philharmonic is the oldest active symphony orchestra in the United States, organized during 1842. Based in New York City, the Philharmonic performs most of its concerts at Avery Fisher Hall. The orchestra is older than any other American symphonic institution in existence by nearly four decades; its record-setting 14,000th concert was given in December 2004.[1] Since 2002, the Philharmonic's music director has been Lorin Maazel, whose tenure is scheduled to conclude at the end of the 2008-2009 season.

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Benny Goodman

Benny Goodman, born Benjamin David Goodman, (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American musician, known as King of Swing, Patriarch of the Clarinet, The Professor, and Swing's Senior Statesman. Goodman was regarded by some as a demanding taskmaster, by others an arrogant and eccentric martinet. Many musicians spoke of The Ray, Goodman's trademark glare that he bestowed on a musician who failed to perform to his demanding standards.

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