How many here listen to the music of Warbirds?

Warbird Kid · **Posted:** Tue Jul 31, 2007 2:28 pm

The title may be a little confusing but what I mean is that since we all seem to have a passion for Warbirds, especially World War II aviation, then I ask you:

Who here finds themselves ever listening to Glenn Miller, Jimmy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, etc....? The era in which these aircraft came from.

Greg87 · **Posted:** Tue Jul 31, 2007 11:14 pm

Glenn Miller is a regular on my playlists. Such perfect sound, I don't find anyone comes close to having a neater, more organized sound than his band. Artie Shaw has some great songs too, Harry James is fun occasionaly. There's a Swing Dance at CWH every year, it's allways fun to go to, people dress up in period costumes and fun is had by all.

Elroy13 · **Posted:** Wed Aug 01, 2007 12:09 am

I listen to that stuff all the time. I just grew up with it. My Daughter plays the clarinet and plays some big band stuff too! :wink:

LSFM use to have Hangar dances...We are thinking about them again. Its cool to have the Thunderbird as a backdrop!

Warbird Kid · **Posted:** Wed Aug 01, 2007 8:43 am

I bet its cool to have a B-17 as a backdrop! Aside from the heat in Texas, you could think you were on some 8th Airforce base in England at a real USO dance!

Years ago, we had Sentimental Journey and the (Casa) He-111 visit the airport. One of the nights, involved a hanger dance with the shiny B-17 as the backdrop, behind the band. I think inside the hanger there was a halftrack, and a jeep too. Man was that cool to see!

For the Corsairs over CT show we had a hanger dance across the airport, in a different hanger. That one was also cool on the count that both hanger doors were open with two corsairs facing in! I believe it was Skyboss and Gerry Beck's -4.

Jerry will tell you more, since he kinda put the whole thing together.. :wink:

BLR · **Joined:** Mon May 03, 2004 2:47 pm **Posts:** 425

I seen the Glenn Miller Orchestra a few years ago and really enjoyed the show. It was the first concert I've been too where the average age of the crowd was 70+, we were one of the few in our 30's. One old guy looked surprised to see me and my wife at the show and referred to the music as belonging to "his generation". True enough, looking at the faces in the crowd, you could see that the music brought back memories for many, and for me it was easy to close my eyes and go back in time and experience the early 1940's.

Unfortunately we seen them in a performing arts centre, it would have been a much better atmosphere to see them with a B-17 and other WWII vehicles as the backdrop.

If you ever get the chance to see the Glenn Miller Orchestra, its worth going! It made me a fan.

http://www.glennmillerorchestra.com/

Brian....

Django · **Posted:** Wed Aug 01, 2007 11:07 am

I've got about 27 hours of swing music on my iPod. Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Gene Krupa, Andrews Sisters, Ella, Billie, and even Betty Grable. I have alot of the modern swing bands as well. My wife and I met swing dancing in 2001. We went to swing camp on Catalina Island too. Dancing non stop all day every day. Pretty cool.

Chicago used to have a HUGE scene. Every dressed vintage. About 10 orchestras around town. Dancing every single night of the week if you wanted. (I did it 7 days in a row once. Whew!) It was awesome. Now it's way more low key and laid back. No one dresses up. We don't go out swing dancing really anymore, but we do dance at the rockabilly shows we go to.

Jerry O'Neill · **Posted:** Wed Aug 01, 2007 10:00 pm

Not only do I have all that music, and listen to it often, but I also have the "music" of the warbird's themselves. I've got several of those Airplane audio CD's and they are great!

Chris, We also had "Panchito" in front of the hangar at COC. Back in 1996, we had "Fuddy Duddy" as the band's backdrop at Sikorsky Airport during that years air show. Beside my computer is a pic of my wife and Cliff Robertson talking in front of the B-17 and the band.
It really makes for a unique atmosphere when you are able to do that type of setup for the band.
My wife would love to have another dance like that. I'm assuming there are others who would like to do it again also. I didn't really do much planning for the dance. I just had the planes taxi there after their evening photo flight. I was the emcee, but that was about all I did. I even had to buy tickets for my entire crew! Two full tables, but boy, was it fun.
Jerry

chico · **Posted:** Wed Aug 01, 2007 10:34 pm

I've found that hanging around warbirds has made me a little sick of some swing music. I can only hear so many crappy remakes of "In the Mood" and "Sing, Sing, Sing" before the voices in my head start telling me to break things.... :evil:

On the plus side, it's made me go looking through the catalogs of other performers from the era. I found a great recording of Artie Shaw doing an NBC show from the Lincoln hotel ballroom. I still like original records of swing, but the re-recorded, re-mastered, crystal clear stuff just doesn't sound right.

Of the new era swing, there was a band called "Indigo Swing" out of San Francisco that did some really great stuff.

b29flteng · **Posted:** Fri Aug 03, 2007 10:57 am

I've been to several hanagr dances where a local big band was hired and had WWII aircraft in the background. We also held a costume contest etc. We used the occasion to raise money for the aircraft. It was great fun to see a lot of younger women dressing the part in their grandmothers clothes from that era, and doing their hair up too.

Warbird Kid · **Posted:** Tue Aug 14, 2007 9:32 am

b29flteng wrote:

It was great fun to see a lot of younger women dressing the part in their grandmothers clothes from that era, and doing their hair up too.

Nothing wrong with that. :wink:

Yeah, I hope there will be another hanger dance soon. Even if its not
affilated with an actual show.'

Jerry, isn't the Collings group supposed to show up at Startford in September? If so, it would be nice to see another hanger dance! In addition, I havent ever seen any shots of a hanger dance with a 24 behind the band. Has Witchcraft or 927 ever been used for a dance, or is that a B-17 thing?

Jerry O'Neill · **Posted:** Wed Aug 15, 2007 12:22 pm

Chris;
Colling's three birds will be there on Sept. 4-6th. Unfortunately, those are weekdays, so the likelyhood of putting a dance together is pretty small.
If you know someone who might want to help sponsor their stop, drop me a PM, I'm helping with the whole thing along with Tim at Three Wing!
Jerry

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