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Glen Gray
Glen Knobloch
Glen Knoblauch
"Spike"
Bandleader, Saxophonist
(1906 - 1963)
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In 1929 saxophonist Glen Gray became the leader of the Casa Loma Orchestra, the first cooperative band in which the players owned stock. Formed in Detroit in the early ‘20s, the band was first known as the Orange Blossoms. It took its new name from a Toronto club which never opened but into which it was booked. Their first recordings caught the ears of college kids who liked to dance to the music, and by 1930 their popularity was set. The band was the first to be featured as a “swing” band on radio, and the “Camel Caravan” further spread its fame. In 1935 Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra, as they came to be known, had a big hit with “Blue Moon.” By the late ‘30s the band had earned recognition from jazz magazines and polls and had appeared in two films.
As other swing bands were forming at this time, Gray’s unit became more noted for its sweet music and ballads, sung by trombonist Pee Wee Hunt and vocalists Kenny Sargent and Lee Wiley. It had paved the way for the swing bands led by Benny Goodman and the Dorsey Brothers, but its sound was now old-fashioned even though the band featured top musicians. By 1945 the group disbanded and Gray turned to commercially successful studio work in the ‘50s.
- Sandra Burlingame |
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