Review: Glenn Miller Orchestra

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BY JOHN CUTLER / For the Lincoln Journal Star

It was a concert that will be remembered for months to come as the Glenn Miller Orchestra played big band music Tuesday evening in the Lied Center for Performing Arts.

And it was easy to tell who the crowd was. Here’s an example:

Larry O’Brien, the band’s leader for the past 18 years, closed the first half with Glenn Miller’s arrangement of “Anchors Aweigh” and asked all the veterans in the house to stand and be recognized.

At least a third of the patrons came to their feet, and the audience offered cheers and loud applause. These were service personnel from World War II and Korea.  A few in the house served in Vietnam.

Try that one at a U2 concert and see how many stand up.

While the swing music of the 1940s was the order of the night, there were some good newer songs, too.

Vocalist Julia Rich wowed the house with “The Irises,” her own composition. If it sounded somewhat country, it would be no accident. Rich spent much of her professional vocalist time performing with Nashville soloists, and her music degree is from Middle Tennessee State.

Singer Ryan Garfi has that Sinatra croon in his voice and showed it well on “Fly With Me.” His talents also sparkled on “Steppin’ Out (With My Baby)” and the big band standard “I Hear a Rhapsody.”

There was a Nebraska face among the band members. Ron Mills of Grand Island has been pianist with the orchestra on tour.

The Lied Center gig was Mills’ last show, and he played his heart out. At concert’s end, all band members came and knelt around the piano, playing a tribute for Mills’ service.

In closing the show, O’Brien saluted longtime area bandleader Bobby Layne, who was in the audience. O’Brien dedicated the band’s final set tune “In the Mood” to him.

Heavy applause, cheers and whistles kept the Glenn Miller Orchestra on stage for an encore, and it was another vet tribute. The “Bugle Call Rag” was used extensively by the original Glenn Miller Band in the last months of World War II, and the band worked hard on it to satisfy the Lied vets.

So it was both a sentimental night and a rockin’ one Tuesday at the Lied Center. Young faces were caught up with the great musicianship and the orchestra’s interpretations of big band jazz.

And among the older patrons, memories flowed across the faces, especially with Miller favorites such as “Little Brown Jug” and the one in which the audience helped, “Pennsylvania 6-5000.”

Band members’ faces indicated it was a final road concert to be appreciated. O’Brien appeared satisfied, commenting on the excellent acoustics of the Lied Center and praising the work of the hall’s staff in accommodating the musicians.