Glen Gray & The Casa Loma Orchestra

Still in the Big Band Swing mood so here's 20 tracks.. a tribute to some of the swinging sounds of the 40's big Swing bands in Stereo !!

Technically, this isn't the TRUE Casa Loma Orchestra. That unit formed in 1929 out of a Detroit band called the Orange Blossoms and was the first all-white professional swin band, paving the way six years later for Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, et al. They took their name from a hotel in Toronto where they played an extended gig and formed as a corporation with each member as a stockholder. Glen Gray was the bandstand leader and front man, but was never the true leader of the band and his name never appeared in front of the bands until years later on LPs. The band ceased to exist in 1942....The band heard here is a studio recording group that Glen Gray brought together for the stereo LP series. And even though they aren't the TRUE Casa Loma Orchestra, the musicians on here are topnotch and graduates from some of the great big bands of the period. They do a superior job covering the numbers presented here. The arrangements are strictly those of the famous versions: if you're familiar with the Glenn Miller version of "In the Mood," you'll recognize here pretty much note for note, only in wide spread stereo.

The tracks on this album are collected from recordings made in Capitol Studios in L..A., one of the great dynamic recording studios, between 1957 and 1964 and released under the name "Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra" on a series of popular LPs. The wide separation stereo sound and airy acoustics arouns the instruments sounds better than a lot of the more run-of-the-mill digital stereo recordings made today. Stereo was a point of pride back then!

                            (Info From A Review By Claude Avary)

 

         14. Jumping At The Woodside