Killer diller, or thinking about big band music and my father’s WWII musical reveries

As introduction, during my 1990s salad days at the Public House, I maintained a collection of swing, big band and jazz CDs behind the bar, and played these tunes quite often. I’ve continued to advocate for themed musical nights featuring these genres, realizing that doing so tends to fall on deaf ears, but persevering nonetheless. Consequently, it is delightful to see my ideas implemented, even when occurring in absentia.  The last surviving member of Glenn Miller’s famous stateside orchestra died in 2013 at the age of 95, and although I’ll concede that living memories of Paul Tanner’s period playing trombone with one of the swing era’s most fondly remembered bands have likely passed into history, this native Kentuckian’s musical career kept right on going into present times. Tanner enjoyed a long career as a jazz educator at UCLA, and also invented the electro-theremin, which he can be heard playing on “Good V ......Read more