Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra & The Pied Pipers in NJ concert

NJ News: State Theatre in New Brunswick will present the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra & The Pied Pipers in A Christmas Gift on Sunday, December 4, 2011 at 3pm. Led by Conductor Bill Tole, and featuring vocalist Nancy Knorr, the program will include a big band selection of holiday songs both old and new as well as the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra hits “Tangerine,” “Maria Elena,” and “I Understand.” This performance is underwritten by Ralph Voorhees. Tickets range from $32-52.

 State

The Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra was formed by expert Clarinetist/Alto-Saxophonist Jimmy Dorsey along with his brother Tommy Dorsey in the spring of 1934. The band was originally named the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra. One of Dorsey’s biggest instrumental hits was entitled “So Rare.” 

Jimmy Dorsey CD

Dorsey was given a Gold Record for the song two days before his death in 1957. The orchestra continued on for the next 33 years under the leadership of the great trumpeter Lee Castle. 

Today, the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra is under the musical direction of trombonist Bill Tole. Tole has recorded with legendary artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and many others over the past four decades. He also portrayed the part of Tommy Dorsey in the movie New York New York in 1977.

The Pied Pipers joined the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra in January 1940, just before singer Frank Sinatra joined the group. Together, The Pied Pipers and the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra released their famous song, “I’ll Never Smile Again” which remained a hit on the charts for 15 weeks. This marked just the beginning of their success. Other hits included “This Love of Mine,” “There Are Such Things,” “Stardust,” and “Put Your Dreams Away for the Day.”

In June of 1992, Nancy Knorr, the lead singer of The Pied Pipers, became the featured vocalist with the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra.

For tickets or more information, call the State Theatre ticket office at 732-246-SHOW (7469), or visit us online at www.StateTheatreNJ.org. The State Theatre ticket office, located at 15 Livingston Ave, New Brunswick NJ, is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, 10am to 6pm; Wednesday 11am to 7pm; Saturday 1pm to 5pm; and at least one hour prior to curtain on performance dates. For information on group outings and discounts, call 732-247-7200, ext. 517. Some additional ticket and transaction fees may apply.

Frank Sinatra and the lonely Thanksgiving Day dinner in New York

Q. Last year you had a very sad article about Frank Sinatra and Thanksgiving Day dinner at a New York restaurant...please repeat. J.S.

A.This is one story Frank wanted to forget, except for the great kindness he received from Sal; One of Frank Sinatra's favorite eating spots in Manhattan was Patsy’s Restaurant in Midtown. "When Frank Sinatra died on May 14, 1998, friends and fans just showed up at Patsy’s — arguably Sinatra’s favorite restaurant in New York City for decades.

Salvatore Scognamillo, the chef and co-owner, remembered people saying, “I just felt I had to be here today.” It was a place that was strongly identified with Sinatra, who had a special table upstairs in the back. “After he passed away, we needed to celebrate his life,” said Mr. Scognamillo, the grandson of the founder, Pasquale Scognamillo.

On Dec. 12, Sinatra’s birthday, Patsy’s, a New York Neapolitan restaurant, now has a tradition of serving his favorite dishes like clams Posillipo, fusilli with fileto di pomodoro, and ricotta torte for dessert. Another one of Sinatra favorites was veal Milanese. “He loved it paper thin,” Mr. Scognamillo said. “We certainly wouldn’t be in the position we would be today if it wasn’t for him,” Mr. Scognamillo said.

Much of their high-profile customer base is like an exercise in six degrees of separation from Sinatra, he said. For example, he said, “Julia Roberts was brought in by George Clooney, who was brought in by Aunt Rosemary Clooney, and Rosemary Clooney was brought in by Frank Sinatra.” There was one example of Patsy’s level of customer service for Sinatra, also recounted in “Patsy’s Cookbook,” that Mr. Scognamillo said sealed the singer’s loyalty to the restaurant.

One November in the early 1950s, Mr. Sinatra was having a rough time both professionally and personally. His career was in a gradual slide that had steepened after 1948 and hit bottom in 1952. He had divorced and remarried into a tumultuous relationship with Ava Gardner, which was also in decline. It was before his Oscar-winning performance in “From Here to Eternity,” before reinvention as a cosmopolitan crooner of the 1950s from the 1940s starry-eyed boy next door. “Before his comeback, he was down and out,” Mr. Scognamillo recalled. Sinatra was alone at the restaurant the night before Thanksgiving, and many of the other customers walked right past him without acknowledging him. “They are all my fair-weather friends,” he said at the time, Mr. Scognamillo said.
He said he wanted to eat Thanksgiving dinner at Patsy’s. Mr. Scognmillo’s grandfather did not have the heart to tell him that the restaurant was normally closed for the holiday. “He felt like he would have hurt his pride if he had done that, so he didn’t say anything,” Mr. Scognamillio said.

So the restaurant made the reservation. And his grandfather called up the staff and told them to bring their families in for Thanksgiving. “They were moaning and groaning,” Mr. Scognamillio said. But they understood it was for Sinatra.

The restaurant also called in some other guests to fill out the restaurant — though not enough that Sinatra did not notice that it was somewhat emptier than usual the next day. So they opened for Thanksgiving for Sinatra, who had a 3 p.m. reservation. Not until years later did Sinatra find out that they had opened just for him, Mr. Scognamillo said. But no one ever said anything. And the lifelong relationship between Patsy’s and Sinatra was sealed."

Sinatra's picture above is available as a poster.

New info on the disappearance of Major Glenn Miller

MAJOR GLENN MILLER

Our friend Dennis Spragg has sent this message today from the University of Colorado Boulder American Music Research Center Glenn Miller Archive:

We are pleased to announce the verification of an important discovery that correlates to the events of 15 December 1944 and the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of Major A. Glenn Miller aboard United States Army Air Forces (AAF) UC-64A-type aircraft 44-70285. 

The late Richard Anderton was employed at the Miles Aircraft Establishment atWoodley Airfield, England. Mr. Anderton kept detailed daily observations of the movements of aircraft in the skies around the airfield and in all directions. The observations were arranged in a consistent and precise manner that noted the location of passing aircraft, estimated altitude and direction of flight.

On 15 December 1944, weather conditions were overcast which restricted the number of aircraft that Mr. Anderton could log. However, during his 12:00-15:00 BST observation segment, he logged a UC-64A-type aircraft passing to his east, at the horizon and flying below the overcast in a southeasterly direction.

Mr. Anderton's family has preserved his observation notebooks. They learned about the forthcoming publication of a comprehensive report regarding the events of 15 December 1944 and contacted Dennis M. Spragg of the GMA who is the author of the study. Mr. Spragg carefully reviewed the notebooks, confirmed their authenticity and compared the information to the known facts about the flight path of UC-64A 44-70285.

Mr. Spragg is pleased to confirm that Mr. Anderton's 15 December 1944 observation is consistent with the flight path of UC-64A 44-70285, aboard which as a passenger was Major A. Glenn Miller, Director of the American Band of the Allied Expeditionary Forces ("ABAEF"), Allied Expeditionary Forces Programme (Radio) ("AEFP") of Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Forces (SHAEF).

Major Miller, the famous bandleader, was enroute RAF (Royal Air Force Station) Twinwood Field, Bedfordshire, England to AAF (U. S. Army Air Force Station) Villacoublay, Versailles, France. 

 UC-64A

UC-64A 44-70285 and its pilot were assigned to the 35th Depot Repair Squadron, Second Strategic Air Depot, VIII AAF Service Command, AAF Abbots-Ripton (Alconbury), Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, England. The air depot was located adjacent to the Alconbury airbase and aircraft transiting the air depot operated from the Alconbury airbase.

UC-64A 44-70285 departed AAF Alconbury at 13:17 BST 15 December 1944 and landed at RAF Twinwood Field at 13:45 BST to take on passengers. UC-64A 44-70285 departed RAF Twinwood Field at 13:53 BST. The pilot was required to operate the aircraft along a standard air transport route via the navigation waypoints AAF Bovingdon (England), Maidenhead (England), Beachy Head (England), overwater to Fecamp (France) and thence AAF Villacoublay. The Royal Observation Corps observation station at Beachy Head logged a UC-64A-type aircraft with United

States insignia passing overhead along the standard route and traveling underneath overcast cloud cover during the 14:32-14:47 BST observation log. The Beachy Head observation is detailed along with the RAF Twinwood Field departure in the U. S. Eighth Air Force enquiry into the circumstances of the UC-64A 44-70285 flight (January 1945). Based upon the forward cruising airspeed of the UC-64A-type aircraft and reported surface wind observations, the UC-64A-type
aircraft was observed passing overhead Beachy Head at approximately 14:37 BST.

Woodley Airfield (Miles Aircraft Establishment) was located within eight miles of the Maidenhead navigation waypoint. Maidenhead was a point at which the pilot would make a turn from a compass heading of 210 degrees to 135 degrees. An observer at Woodley Airfield could see an aircraft traveling along this route. The Anderton notebooks have similar such observations for numerous aircraft over many months, so the 15 December 1944 observation is a straightforward and consistent notation. Mr. Spragg estimates that UC-64A 44-70285 passed the Maidenhead navigation waypoint at approximately 14:10 BST.

Therefore, Mr. Anderton appears to have been the next-to-last known observer of UC-64A 44-70285 and Major A. Glenn Miller, although from a distance. His observation is another detail which confirms that pilot F/O (Flight Officer) John R. S. Morgan was operating his aircraft on schedule and on course from RAF Twinwood Field to the Beachy Head observation station at 14:37 BST Friday, 15 December 1944. The aircraft did not arrive at AAF Villacoublay. The aircraft
should have passed overhead Fecamp between 15:03 and 15:07 BST and should have arrived at AAF Villacoublay between 15:47 and 15:51 BST. F/O Morgan, Major Miller and passenger Lt. Col. Norman Baessell, VIII AAF Service Command, Milton Ernest, England were never seen again and aircraft wreckage was never located."

The GMA and Mr. Spragg wish to thank the Anderton family for their courtesy and confidence in turning over this new evidence to us for verification. We are pleased to announce our positive finding and confirmation.
The forthcoming comprehensive manuscript "Major A. Glenn Miller, 15 December 1944, The Facts" is being completed and the publication date is pending.
(Note: the airfield and waypoint terminologies cited in this statement reflect the United States Army Air Forces characterizations used as of 15 December 1944).

NJ Jazz Ensemble to perform music from the Great American Songbook

Jazz News: The Raritan Valley Community College’s Student Jazz Ensemble will perform in concert Thursday, December 8, at 8 p.m., in the Welpe Theatre at the College’s Branchburg Campus.


The group is directed by John Loehrke of New York City.

The ensemble will perform pieces by a variety of jazz artists, including Duke Pearson, Sam Jones, John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, Clifford Brown, Horace Silver and Thelonious Monk.  

The group also will perform music from the great American songbook, featuring work by composers Jerome Kern and Sammy Cahn. As a special feature, an original composition by a student member of the ensemble will be premiered.

The group includes the following members: Keith Bernstein, Branchburg; John Fiorilla, Watchung; Kyle Kassick, Somerset; Travis Thierren, Matt Ward, Jeffery Boyer, Phillipsburg; Jack Williams, High Bridge; Mike Hufnagel, Mike Hernandez, Flemington; Peter Brown, Whitehouse Station; Nick Callands, Somerville; Dan Curry, Ringoes; Matt Gordeuk, Baptistown; Kevin Guevara, N. Plainfield; Matt Hollenbach, Piscataway; and Charles Mcginnis, Hillsborough.

General admission tickets cost $10 in advance ($12 at the door). Tickets for students and seniors cost $5 in advance ($7.50 at the door). For tickets, call the Box Office, 908-725-3420. For more information, call 908-218-8876.

RVCC’s main campus is located at 118 Lamington Road in Branchburg, NJ. Serving Somerset and Hunterdon County residents for over 40 years, the College offers more than 90 associate degrees and certificates. RVCC @ Bridgewater, located at 14 Vogt Drive, offers technical, trade, credit and non-credit courses.

How Frank Sinatra got the role of Maggio

Q. What is the true story of how Frank Sinatra got the role of Maggio in the movie From Here To Eternity?

A. Nancy Sinatra gave this interview to a British paper several years ago;
Interviewer: "It is often assumed that the way in which Frank Sinatra was cast in the 1953 film From Here To Eternity was as depicted in The Godfather film. The Mob used their influence - for which he won an Oscar - made him the model for Johnny Fontaine in The Godfather, the crooner whose gangster friends make the director an offer he can't refuse. Did we assume likewise?"

Nancy: "You know, it is so funny, that is asked in the UK a lot, but in America hardly at all. I guess that in Hollywood everybody knew it was a joke, although Dad didn't find it funny. He didn't like it. It stirred up some unpleasant stuff from the 1940s and 1950s, and in any case, he was not one to ask for favors. But later in life, he found a sense of humor about it."

"He got the role of Pvt. Maggio in From Here to Eternity (1953) after Eli Wallach passed on it to do a Tennessee Williams play on stage, according to Wallach on a broadcast of "Morning Sedition" on "Air America Radio."

However, Tina Sinatra has stated that also providing assistance was Frank's wife Ava Gardner. Gardner's power in Hollywood (friendship with Columbia's studio chief Harry Cohn), helped Sinatra get to audition for From Here to Eternity (1953).
The salary has been reported as either $4000 or $8000.....far below his MGM level. As we all know, his subsequent Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor helped revitalize Frank Sinatra's professional career.
Frank and Ava separated in October 1953, and finally divorced in 1957.

Vist The Memory Lane Shop to buy Frank's music and more