MILLER, (ALTON) GLENN

born March 1, 1904, Clarinda, Iowa, U.S. died Dec. 16, 1944, at sea en route from London to Paris U.S. composer and trombonist, one of the most remarkable of all popular music figures because of the intensity of his posthumous reputation. Miller was educated at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and in 1926 became a professional trombonist with Ben Pollack's band. By 1930 he was a much sought-after New York City free-lance musician. Later he became an organizer of other men's bands, particularly those of the Dorsey brothers (1934) and Ray Noble (1935). After an abortive attempt to form his own orchestra (1937), he tried again a year later and by 1939 had achieved world fame as a big-band leader. He became captain and then major as leader of the U.S. Air Force band in Europe. While flying to Paris from England, he disappeared; neither bodies nor wreckage were ever sighted or recovered. Miller's triumphs in the ballrooms were based on sweet orchestrations meticulously executed. The Miller saxophone sound, instantly recognizable and much copied, was based on quite simple musical precepts, as were all his big successes, including his own composition, Moonlight Serenade, which grew out of an exercise he had written while studying with Joseph Schillinger. His two Hollywood films, Sun Valley Serenade (1941) and Orchestra Wives (1942), contributed to his reputation; but by far the biggest factor in the persistence of his memory was the release in 1953 of the somewhat sweetened movie biography, The Glenn Miller Story. Some critics hold that the jazz content of his orchestra was negligible, but others regard its sound as the definitive popular music of its time. Because of its great popularity, the orchestra was held together for a time under saxophonist Tex Beneke, and an organization known as the Glenn Miller Orchestra, which purveyed its original leader's sound, performed into the 1980s.