More about Glenn Miller and Charlie Spivak:
It didn't hurt that one of Charlie's close friends was Glenn Miller, whom he could turn to for advice on being a bandleader, when Spivak organized his own group in late 1939.
"Well, he was backed by Miller. Miller financed the band," Stevens noted. "And they hired a lot of top-flight musicians like Davey Tough and Willie Smith and Nelson Riddle . . . and they were good arrangements with a pretty sound. He played pretty music."
A sweet trumpet didn't necessarily need a mute in it.
"No," Stevens (a singer with Spivak) agreed. "In fact, he tried at the beginning... he even invented a mute called the 'whispa' . . . mute. I think they thought it was going to create a new sound that people would... But it was a mistake because Charlie got a great sound with the open horn, and eventually ended up playing open-horn trumpet."
Dave Dexter, a music critic, convinced Spivak to discard the mute. Actually, Charlie was quite a versatile musician. He often blew 'hot' in the '20s and early '30s, and later pointed out that he enjoyed the blues.
"He was a good lead trumpet player. He didn't play like Harry James (he didn't play jazz), but he played great lead trumpet and that's what he really specialized ," Stevens said.
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