Yale Bands 1940s Holiday Concert Re-enactment

Yale Bands Presents

A 1940S HOLIDAY CONCERT RE- ENACTMENT Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director

N N N N E E L GG L

S ' S ' R R E E L L L L M MII YALE ARMY AIR

1944 RADIO SHOW

FORCE BAND

ROSIE'S

RIVETERS

ALL - WOMEN BIG BAND FRIDAY DECEMBER 6, 2019 7:30 PM, WOOLSEY HALL

“Rosie’s Riveters Big Band” Sounds of the Season - 1940s Sleigh Ride LEROY ANDERSON arr. John LaBarbera Let It Snow! Let it Snow! Let It Snow!

JULE STYNE arr. Alan Baylock Good Swing Wenceslas arr. Sammy Nestico I’ll Be Home for Christmas WALTER KENT arr. Gregory Yasinitsky Jingle Bells JAMES PIERPONT arr. Sammy Nestico Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas HUGH MARTIN and RALPH BLANE arr. Victor López - Intermission -

“I Sustain the Wings”

Re-enactment: Captain Glenn Miller & the 418th Army Air Forces Technical Training Command Band Radio Broadcast from Yale University’s Woolsey Hall, May/June 1943 St. Louis Blues March, American Patrol, At Last, Volga Boatman, Perfidia, Radio Play: “Uncle Sam’s Armorers,” Moonlight Becomes You, Anvil Chorus Finale BBC Propaganda Broadcast from EMI Studios, Abbey Road, London, England, with Ilse Weinberger and Major Glenn Miller Stardust, In The Mood, Moonlight Serenade

Glenn Miller at Yale University

by Robert A. Ronzello (1994) Musicians and fans to this day still marvel at the unique assemblage of talent which invaded the Yale campus in the Spring of 1943. Officially, they were the 418th Army Air Forces Band from the Technical School of the AAF Technical Training Command stationed at Yale University. In non-military jargon, and to the delight of area residents, it meant that Glenn Miller was in town.

A man possessed of deep and genuine patriotic sentiment, Miller broke up his enormously successful civilian band the previous year to join the armed forces.

Now, as Captain Glenn Miller in the Army Air Corps, he was placed in charge of organizing bands for the AAFTTC. At a time when so many of the country’s finest musicians were entering the service – some voluntarily, some not so – scored of nationally known instrumentalists found themselves in Atlantic City for basic training.

From here, Miller was in a position to assign them to various AAF bands throughout the Unites States. As one might expect, he reserved the cream of the crop for the band he, personally, would lead at Yale.

On March 30, 1943, the 418th AAF Band settled into their quarters at 58 Lake Place, the former dormitories of Yale art students. (Three months later, they moved to Durfee Hall in the Old Yale Quadrangle.)

A twenty-four piece marching band, which later grew

to forty pieces, accompanied the cadets to the New Haven Green for morning review and evening retreat ceremonies.

Jim Harwood was a nineteen-yearold trombonist with the Miller band at Yale. He recently reflected on the Captain’s modernized approach to martial music. “We would march past the buildings where the guys were taking classes. The windows looked right out into the street and they could see our band parading by. I remember talking to one of those cadets and he said, ‘One day, this wall of sound clapped out like a thunderbolt. There was absolute pandemonium in that classroom. Everything broke up. All the guys – even the instructors – ran to the windows and watched the band go down the street!’

“Well, we were playing St. Louis Blues March for the first time and that’s the kind of impression that made when it was first sprung on them.” To the young admirers of the day’s popular bands, many of these musicians were already household names. There was Ray McKinley, the celebrated drummer/vocalist who played with Jimmy Dorsey and co-led a band with Will Bradley. McKinley had just disbanded his own short­lived dance band and came to Yale with four of his sidemen.

“Peanuts” Hucko, formerly with the Bradley/McKinley band, came into the outfit on clarinet and tenor. Piano star Mel Powell, baritone saxophonist Chuck Gentry and trumpeter Steve Steck all had played with Benny

Goodman. From Artie Shaw came lead alto player and New Haven native Hank Freeman and eventually jazz trumpet soloist Bernie Privin. Guitarist Carmen Mastren had spent three years with Tommy Dorsey. From Miller’s own civilian crew were trombonist Jimmy Priddy, lead trumpeter “Zeke” Zarchy, arranger Jerry Gray, and bassist “Trigger” Alpert, for whose services Captain Miller had to surrender ten other musicians!

As additional personnel filtered into New Haven, it became evident that Miller’s motives extended far beyond simply updating the marches he played for the Training Command. Movie star Tony Martin was assigned to the unit as a vocalist. A highly professional string section was assembled. Actors, writers, announcers – in short, an entire radio production staff were soon at Miller’s disposal. It was his ambition to return to the airwaves with a program showcasing his topnotch orchestra, combined with a brief dramatic segment aimed at recruit­ing men into the Air Force.

On May 29, 1943, the first of six “test” broadcasts of “I Sustain The Wings” was aired throughout New England over WEEI, Boston. (All but one of these shows emanated from Woolsey Hall.) Broderick Crawford, now a regular member of the unit,

served as announcer and acted in the playlet. According to trumpeter Whitey Thomas, a drinking companion to the late actor, “We’d go out in New Haven and he’d teach me how to hit him Hollywood style. You know, making that slapping sound but actually missing his face. Then he’d just lie there on the floor in front of everybody like I knocked him out cold!”

In July, “I Sustain The Wings” was picked up by CBS and broadcast over the network’s 106 stations. In September, it switched to the even larger NBC hookup, where they remained until Miller took the band overseas.

Cellist Bob Ripley is a thirty-eight year veteran of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He recently shared his reaction to the Miller experience. “I knew of Glenn Miller as a kid growing up in high school. I wasn’t that interested in jazz or popular music but I did go to dances and I knew about top bands. Of all of them, the only one I really liked was the Glenn Miller Band. To find out that he was in the army and that I was going to be in his outfit was just incredible.”

“We would rehearse with the arrangers early

in the week for our weekend broadcast from New York. Glenn would come in on a Thursday. He wouldn’t touch the thing until the arrangers had worked with us the first two or three days. I’ll never forget that first Thursday morning. In walked Glenn Miller while we were playing. Oh, boy, my heart jumped a beat! I was really nervous but excited by it. Just the way he walked into the room. You could feel he was taking charge instantly. Here was the boss. No question about it. And he worked so fast.

He made corrections and changed things without hesitation. ‘Bring this up an octave. Change this part here.’

He probably couldn’t have written the arrangements himself, though from what he heard he knew exactly what he wanted.”

Throughout 1943, the unit continued to expand in size and reputation. Johnny Desmond, often referred to as the “G.I. Sinatra,” replaced Tony Martin who left for Officer Candidate School. The orchestra recorded their first V-Discs at the end of October. These twelveinch 78s were recorded exclusively for distribution to servicemen and were not sold to the public. A sixteen-piece dance band, led by Cpl. Ray McKinley, began a series of broadcasts direct from Byers Hall, entitled “Wings For Tomorrow.” The string section followed suit a month later with their fifteen minute, “Strings With Wings” program.

In addition to radio work the Miller band also appeared at numerous War Bond rallies where they helped raise countless sums of cash for Uncle Sam. With Yale as their base, they traveled to other towns in Connecticut and neighboring states where the price of admission was the purchase of a war bond.

According to Jim Harwood, “we were pretty busy during that year and a half at Yale. A lot of that stuff was after we’d done our full day’s work there in New Haven. Aside from our weekend trips to New York for the radio show, we seldom stayed out overnight. We’d get in army trucks and go as far as eighty or ninety miles away to do a bond rally, WAC recruiting drive, or hospital appearance. Then we’d come back to Yale and be up at the crack of dawn for the first parade.”

The outfit’s official designation changed from the 418th AAF Band to the 2nd AAFTTC Radio Unit

to the 2001st AAF Base Unit for Radio Production.

Regardless of its military moniker, this remained an uncanny collection of premier players under the baton of the man who, in civilian life, was America’s most beloved bandleader.

“Glenn was sort of business like,” recalls saxophonist Hank Freeman. “It was like he was the head of a big corporation. He had that kind of mind. But Glenn did an awful lot for musicians during the war. I don’t think he turned anybody down. He would find an AAF band for all the guys that contacted him.”

Freeman should know. He was in the 102nd Infantry, stationed at Camp Blanding, Florida. “It was like a nightmare. We were on maneuvers in Louisiana and found ourselves sleeping with snakes and scorpions.

I wrote home to New Haven and told my folks I was going to shoot myself if they didn’t get me out of there.”

In the meantime, Miller was organizing his band and, knowing that Hank was in the service, called his family to learn of the sax player’s whereabouts. A grateful Hank Freeman adds, “Right after I wrote that letter home, I got a wire from Glenn. It said, ‘Don’t shoot yourself, sweetheart. You’re coming with me!’”

Similar circumstances prevailed with violinist Fredy Ostrovsky, a friend of Bob Ripley’s since their days at Tanglewood. “I was in the 95th Infantry Division. They eventually went to Italy with very heavy casualties. But I’ve always felt, quite seriously, that in many ways Robert saved my life because he was the one that was able to get me into the band.”

By the Spring of 1944, the string section had

swollen to an even twenty with the addition of Sgt. David Sackson on violin. (Could Glenn really tell the difference between fourteen and fifteen violins?) The former conductor of the Charleston Symphony, Sackson was quite impressed with the musicianship he found at his new assignment. “Coming from a concert world to the Glenn Miller Band, I was absolutely floored,” says Sackson. “Now, I’m a naive guy. I know exactly what it’s all about when you mention Beethoven, Brahms and so forth. In a quartet, all you do is work for precision – four people playing as one.

Well, here I see six saxes and a five-man trumpet section whose precision is just unbelievable. And the sound of four muted trombones taking half a chorus on ‘Blue Champagne’?

Why, I almost swooned!”

On June 6, 1944, Captain GlennMiller and the full orchestra left New Haven for a tour of major American cities, in connection with the Fifth War Loan Drive. Simultaneously, across many miles of open sea, a drive of much greater magnitude had begun on the beaches

of Normandy. Perhaps coincidentally, Miller’s tour was cut short after appearing in St. Louis and Chicago and the band was ordered back to New Haven.

After many months of waiting for permission to take his band overseas, Miller finally received his orders.

“Glenn was very patriotic,” says Bob Ripley. “He felt he wasn’t doing his bit unless he w:as up as close to the front as he could get playing for the guys who were getting shot.”

On the morning of June 19th, the Miller bandsmen vacated their quarters at Yale. For fifteen months, New Haven had been the home of what many consider the greatest band ever assembled. Lt. Don Haynes and sixty-one enlisted men left to board the jam-packed “Queen Elizabeth,” en route to the ETO where they would entertain hundreds of thousands of Allied soldiers.

As for Captain Mille}’, he left New York by plane to secure accommodations for his incoming orchestra. It would be a flight without incident.

[Robert Ronzello is a resident of Terryville, CT, and an authority on the life and music of Glenn Miller.]

Translation for the Propaganda Broadcast EMI Studios, St. John’s Wood, Abbey Road, London, England October 30, 1944

Segment One Ilse Weinberger: “German soldiers, this is Ilse speaking. For the next half hour I have arranged something special for you, a rendezvous with the bandleader of one of the best known orchestras.

Today he is the leader of the American Band of the Allied Expeditionary Forces, Major Glenn Miller.

Before I call Major Miller to the microphone, I want to say somethign about his personality. Glenn Miller is a magician of swing dance music. A musician who has enchanted for years all of America on the dance floor, on records, and on the radio. The rhythm of his music goes into your legs, but it also goes into your heart. When the war started Glenn Miller left all his success behind and enlisted in order to let the Allied troops enjoy his music. Soldiers, here is Glenn Miller in person.”

Glenn Miller: “Thank you, Ilse. You speak German very well. I can only speak very little German.”

Ilse Weinberger: “Go ahead, I will help you.”

Glenn Miller: “Good evening, I mean Guten Abend, Deutsche Soldaten.”

Ilse Weinberger: “May I suggest that you now play ‘Star Dust’ (‘Sternschnuppen’)?”

Glenn Miller: “‘Sternschnuppen?’ Who has a cold (Schnupfen)?”

Ilse Weinberger: “Nein, Herr Major, nobody has a cold, I mean the song ‘Star Dust.’ ‘Star Dust!’”

Glenn Miller: “Oh, ‘Sternschnuppen’ is ‘Star Dust!’”

Ilse Weinberger: “Yes, and ‘Star Dust’ is ‘Sternschnuppen,’ and played by the American Band of the Allied Expeditionary Forces of Glenn Miller.”

Glenn Miller: “Very good.”

[Stardust] Segment Two Glenn Miller: “Good evening, I mean Guten Abend, German soldiers. When speaking I always make it very short, because I always follow the saying, ‘Let flowers speak.’”

Ilse Weinberger: “I think that you mean to say, ‘Let music speak.’”

Glenn Miller: “Oh yes. I always prefer to let music do the talking for me. Ilse, you’d better announce our second number in German, it’s ‘In The Mood.’”

Ilse Weinberger: “Glenn Miller and his orchestra will play the American hit ‘In The Mood.’”

[In The Mood] Segment Three Glenn Miller: “Oh well, I know by this time, German language, difficult language!”

Ilse Weinberger: “Don’t worry. Our listeners will surely understand you well. But to my regret, I see our time is up. Unfortunately your musical rendezvous must now come to an end. But next week we will see each other again at the same time. Isn’t that true, Major?”

Glenn Miller: “Yes indeed.”

Ilse Weinberger: “And what do you say to us in parting, Major? In German, I mean.”

Glenn Miller: “I know, I know. See you again.”

Ilse Weinberger: “Excellent and I say, hear you again.”

[Moonlight Serenade]

Captain Glenn Miller and the 418th Army Air Forces Technical Training Command Band – 1943-44 performed by the Yale Jazz Ensemble, Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director Clarinet: Corporal Peanuts Hucko (Christian Fernandez BF ’20) – formerly with Bob Chester, Charlie Spivak, Bradley McKinley Alto Saxophones: Sergeant Hank Freeman (Hersh Gupta GH ’20) – formerly with Artie Shaw; Private Jack Ferrier (Jose Key TC ’22) – formerly with Woody Herman, Bob Crosby Tenor Saxophone: Private Vince Carbone (Ethan Dodd JE ’22) – formerly with Teddy Powell; Corporal Peanuts Hucko (Graham Stodolski PC ’23) Baritone: Private First Class Chuck Gentry (Nick Szabo BK ’20) – formerly with Jimmy Dorsey, Harry James, Benny Goodman Trumpets: Sergeant Whitey Thomas (Connor Jenkinson YSM ’21) – formerly with Isham Jones, Tommy Reynolds; Private First Class Steve Steck (Connor Holland YSM ’21) – formerly with Benny Goodman; Staff Sergeant Rubin “Zeke” Zarchy (Melissa Muñoz YSM ’20); Private First Class Thomas Steele (Thomas Blum DC ’22) Trombones: Max Seffer-Meng BR ’23, Andy Pantoja BK ’22, Lyman McBride YSM ’20, Leo von Mutius TD ’23 Rhythm: Piano: Corporal Mel Powell (Ben Grobman SY ’21) – formerly with Benny Goodman Guitar: Private Carmen Mastren (JJ Borja GH ’20) Bass: Corporal Trigger Alpert (Calvin Kaleel TD ’22, Adin Ring SY ’22) Drums: Corporal Ray McKinley (Neal Ma SM ’23) “The Crew Chiefs”: Lauren Bond MY ’21, Avery Brown MC ’23, Eleanor Latham MC ’22, John Paciga MC ’22, Ross Parish BF ’21 Private Bob Houston: Brian S. Robinson Radio Script: Seb Seager SM ’23 (announcer), Andrew Zheng TD ’22 (announcer), David Zuckerman DC ’20 (announcer), Marcos Barrios ES ’23, Ben Kramer BF ’23, Adam Wolnikowski TC ’2 Ilse Weinberger: Miriam Huerta BF ’22 WAC Announcers: Heather McClure MY ’20, Sarah Monahan MY ’21 Sound Effects: Stephanie Hubbard

About the Music Director Thomas C. Duffy (b. 1955), composer and conductor, is Professor (adjunct) of Music and Director of Bands at Yale University. He served as Acting Dean of the School of Music in 2005-2006, having served as Associate Dean since 1996 and Deputy ­­Dean since 1999. He has served as a member of the Fulbright National Selection Committee and was a member of the historic Tanglewood II Symposium (2007). He attended the Harvard University Institute for Management and Leadership in Education in 2005.

He has served as president of the New England College Band Association, editor of the CBDNA Journal, publicity chair for the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, and chair of the Connecticut Music Educators Association’s Professional Affairs and Government Relations committees, and has represented music education in Yale’s Teacher Preparation Program. He is president of the College Band Directors National Association and a member of American Bandmasters Association, American Composers Alliance, Connecticut Composers Inc., the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, and BMI. An active composer with a D.M.A. in composition from Cornell University, where he was a student of Karel Husa and Steven Stucky, he has accepted commissions from the American Composers Forum, the United States Military Academy at West Point, the U.S. Army Field Band, and numerous bands, choruses and orchestras. He joined the Yale faculty in 1982.

In 2009 Duffy received an award from the United States Attorney’s Office for his innovative program with the Yale Concert Band (Yale 4Peace Rap for Justice) which, through the integration of clasical and rap music, addressed gangs, crime and violence in Connecticut’s cities. In 2010 he received the Citation of Excellence from the National Band Association.

We wish to thank Joseph Dzeda, Nicholas Thompson-Allen, Rob Ronzello, Kate Krier, Daisy Abreu, Bill Whitaker YSM ’86, Joe Amarante, Matthew Woodward, Kito Covington, Brian S. Robinson, and Melissa Leone.

We also wish to thank Forrest Doten, official USAAF photographer, for donating the historic Army Air Force Technical Training Command photographs contained in this program.

Our eternal thanks to Mr. Norman Leyden ’38, Yale School of Music ’39 – arranger for Glenn Miller, composer, clarinetist, conductor – for his advice, counsel, and the original arrangements of American Patrol, Anvil Chorus, Volga Boatman and Moonlight Serenade.

The Newberry Memorial Organ’s historic flag is provided through the courtesy of the Yale University Office of the Secretary.

Upcoming Yale Bands Performances • Friday, February 14, 2020: Yale Concert Band Winter Concert. Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director. Guignol: Concerto for Bassoon and Small Wind Orchestra (Stephen Gryc) feat. Frank Morelli, bassoon; Audible Images (Nancy Galbraith); Lincolnshire Posy (Percy Grainger); Of Our New Day Begun (Omar Thomas), Ryan Lindveit YSM ’20, guest conductor. 7:30 pm. Woolsey Hall. Free.

• Monday February 17, 2020: Yale Jazz Ensemble Spring Concert. Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director. Program TBA. 7:30 pm. Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall. Free.

• Saturday, February 29, 2020: Yale Jazz Ensemble at Scullers Jazz Club, Boston. Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director.

Details/ticket info TBA. • Friday, April 4, 2020: Yale Concert Band Spring Concert. Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director. Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber (Paul Hindemith/arr. Keith Wilson); Profanation, Symphony No. 2 (Leonard Bernstein); High Water Rising (Sally Lamb McCune); 5523 Luminet 1991 PH8 (Therese Brenet); Vientos y Tangos (Michael Gandolfi). 7:30 pm.

Woolsey Hall. Free • Tuesday, April 21, 2020: Yale Jazz Ensemble at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, New York. Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director.

Details/ticket info TBA • Sunday, May 17, 2020: Yale Concert Band Annual Twilight Concert. Ceremonial music on the eve of Yale’s Commencement.7:00 pm, outside on the Old Campus main stage. Free.

“Rosie’s Riveters Big Band” Alto Saxophones Sarah Hanahan Alina Martel TC ’23

Trumpets Jami Dauber Olivia Malin Allison Philips Nellie Conover-Crockett TC ’22 Ellie Norman SY ’23

Tenor Saxophones Laura J. Dreyer Amy Griffiths

Bass Aurora Asadorian SM ’21 Piano Eva Quittman MC ’23

Trombones AlevTina Polyakova Mariel Bildstein Ella Lubin SM ’23 Leslie Havens

Baritone Saxophone Lisa La Done

Drums Molly Sales

Yale Jazz Ensemble 2019-2020 Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director Stephanie Hubbard, Business Manager Lyman McBride, Assistant to the Director

Alto Saxophones Hersh Gupta GH ’20 Jose Key TC ’22 Tenor Saxophones Ethan Dodd JE ’22 Graham Stodolski PC ’23 Baritone Saxophone Nick Szabo BK’20

Trumpets Connor Jenkinson YSM ’21 Connor Holland YSM ’21 Melissa Muñoz YSM ’20 Thomas Blum DC’22 Trombones Max Saffer-Meng BR’23 Andy Pantoja BK ’22 Lyman McBride YSM ’20 Leo von Mutius TD’23

Guitar JJ Borja GH 2020 Bass Calvin Kaleel TD ’22 Adin Ring SY ’22 Piano Ben Grobman SY ’21 Drums Neal Ma SM ’23

AAFTCC troops march up Hillhouse Avenue in to Yale’s Payne Whitney Gymnasium in 1943.

Yale University Bands P.O. Box 209048 New Haven, CT 06520–9048 ph: (203) 432–4113 fax: (203) 432–7213 stephanie.hubbard@yale.edu www.yale.edu/yaleband