Last night my brother, Roy and I attended a concert at the National Art Centre in Ottawa. We listened to two hours of superb playing by the Glenn Miller Orchestra, led by Larry O'Brien, whose trombone playing certainly added to the evening's enjoyment.
We couldn't help but compare this performance with the one last year in Owen Sound
and decided that, in future, we will be more careful where we listen to music we like.
The Owen Sound arena's acoustics hardly did justice to this group of talented musicians, several of whom played multiple instruments. This time, as well as our favourite oldies, reminiscent of the time when we heard THE Glenn Miller lead the original orchestra in the forties, there were some pleasing new tunes and arrangements during an all too brief two hour concert.
Both of us had been fortunate enough to see Glenn before the tragedy of his disappearance when he left England bound for Europe.
Our evening was especially pleasant as the tickets, purchased for Roy by his children, were for seats in second row centre. A taxi driving friend ferried us there and back. The only drawback was no program at all which means I will have to check with my newsletters to discover the name of an extremely gifted clarinetist who was not with last year's lineup, I believe.
What a wonderful evening.
Eat your heart out jazz friends.