Glenn Miller's reign as the most popular bandleader in the U.S. came relatively late in his career and was relatively brief, lasting only about three and a half years, from the spring of 1939 to the fall of 1942. But during that period he utterly dominated popular music, and over time he has proven the most enduring figure of the swing era, with reissues of his recordings achieving gold record status 40 years after his death. Miller developed a distinctive sound in which a high-pitched clarinet carried the melody, doubled by a saxophone section playing an octave lower, and he used that sound to produce a series of hits that remain definitive examples of swing music.
Glenn Miller's reign as the most popular bandleader in the U.S. came relatively late in his career and was relatively brief, lasting only about three and a half years, from the spring of 1939 to the fall of 1942. But during that period he utterly dominated popular music, and over time he has proven the most enduring figure of the swing era, with reissues of his recordings achieving gold record status 40 years after his death. Miller developed a distinctive sound in which a high-pitched clarinet carried the melody, doubled by a saxophone section playing an octave lower, and he used that sound to produce a series of hits that remain definitive examples of swing music.
Frankie Miller’s eighth solo album “Standing On The Edge” was his first away from the Chrysalis label and was also at that point his rockiest and most polished effort. The bar room backing or stripped back blues and soul of the earlier albums being replaced with a polished, sleek and far more rocky production. Musically and arrangement wise this was more akin to Bad Company, Foreigner or even Whitesnake than the old blues and soul feel of its predecessors…
Assistant Professor of Musicianship for Duquesne University, Dr. Paul Miller, presents an album of music for the viola d’amore, an unusual stringed instrument that is played on the shoulder and has six or seven playing strings and an equal number of resonating strings.
British blue-eyed soul man Frankie Miller had a great voice, a strong knack as a songwriter, and some pretty unfortunate luck with producers and arrangers. While he cut some solid sides with Brinsley Schwarz as his backing band and did even better work in the company of the legendary Allen Toussaint, the sad truth is there are as many duds as gems in his catalog, usually due to mismatched assistance in the studio. 1985's Dancing in the Rain paired Miller with producer and engineer John Jansen, who tricked him up with a morass of hard rock guitars, high-mixed drums, and periodic sax honks that suggest Jansen was hoping to turn Miller into the next Robert Palmer, since on the surface this album resembles Palmer's "Addicted to Love" era and Power Station hits more than anything else…