Chummy MacGregor

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

John Chalmers MacGregor (March 28, 1903, in Saginaw, Michigan – March 9, 1973, in Los Angeles, California

It Must Be Jelly ('Cause Jam Don't Shake Like That)", "I Sustain the Wings", "Doin' the Jive", "Sold American", "Cutesie Pie" in 1932 with Bing Crosby
and Red Standex, and "Slumber Song".

Career

As a young student, Chummy MacGregor attended the

20th Century Fox films. Considered by writers and critics as the most popular and commercially successful big band of the swing music era, MacGregor was a major contributor to its legacy.[2] Between 1939 and 1943 the band would achieve twenty-three no.1 hit records on the Billboard, Variety and Hit Parade Magazine music charts, second only to vocalist Bing Crosby in that period. Original 78 rpm Miller records such as In the Mood, Tuxedo Junction and A String of Pearls are mainstays of 1940s popular music and cultural collectors items representing "the greatest generation." From the early 1950s into the 21st century hundreds of long play albums, extended play singles and compact disc reissue releases internationally continue the preservation of the original Miller recordings for future generations. The spirit of "the Miller sound" is also kept alive by countless World War II
era dance bands and nostalgia radio and internet programming.

Actor Harry Morgan, a well known veteran of dozens of later television roles including December Bride, Dragnet and M*A*S*H, portrayed MacGregor in the 1953 Universal Pictures biography, The Glenn Miller Story. James Stewart and June Allyson were cast as Miller and his wife, Helen. MacGregor, seen as a close friend to Miller and his family, was a consultant and technical advisor to the film.

Movie appearances

He was in the

Twentieth Century Fox box office hit motion picture Sun Valley Serenade (1941) starring John Payne and Sonja Henie and its equally successful follow-up, Orchestra Wives (1942), starring George Montgomery and Ann Rutherford as part of the Glenn Miller Orchestra. Both films featured Miller and his band as themselves. He appeared, uncredited, in "Sun Valley Serenade" as part of the orchestra. He is on the piano as the Miller band is seen practicing Chattanooga Choo Choo. Leading man John Payne plays Ted Scott, band pianist in the film. For Orchestra Wives MacGregor played all keyboard parts and solos for actor Cesar Romero
's role as the pianist in that film.

Compositions by Chummy MacGregor

A noted songwriter and arranger, he wrote the songs "

NBC radio series, which ran from 1943 to 1944.[3] Chummy MacGregor also composed a series of songs with Charles Ives
: "The Cage", "Berceuse", "Evidence", "Disclosure", "Down East", "Allegro", "The Camp Meeting", and "The Circus Band".

His composition "Moon Dreams" was recorded by

Meredith D'Ambrosio, Gil Goldstein, Flavio Ambrosetti, Franz Koglmann, and Charlie Shoemake
have also recorded the song.

His composition "Moon Dreams" was also featured in the 1988 motion picture 36 Fillette.

"Moon Dreams" was also featured on the soundtrack collection Ken Burns Jazz: The Story of America's Music (2000), in a performance by Miles Davis, arranged by Gil Evans. Miles Davis first performed the song in 1948 in concert in New York, a performance which appears on The Complete Birth of the Cool sessions collection.

In 2008, his composition "Moon Dreams" was featured in the Fox series The Simpsons in the episode "Mypods and Boomsticks" in a performance by Miles Davis.

Honors

He played piano on three landmark Glenn Miller recordings that were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame: "Moonlight Serenade" (1939), "In the Mood" (1939), and "Chattanooga Choo Choo" (1941).[3]

References

  1. ^ "J. C. MacGregor".
  2. ^ Simon, George Thomas. Glenn Miller and His Orchestra. New York, NY: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1974
  3. ^ a b Flower, John. Moonlight Serenade: A Bio-discography of the Glenn Miller Civilian Band. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House, 1972.

Sources

  • Flower, John. Moonlight Serenade: A Bio-discography of the Glenn Miller Civilian Band. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House, 1972.
  • Simon, George Thomas. Glenn Miller and His Orchestra. New York, NY: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1974.
  • Simon, George T. Simon Says: The Sights and Sounds of the Swing Era, 1935-1955. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House, 1971.
  • Simon, George T. The Big Bands. New York, NY: Macmillan, 1967.
  • "Chummy MacGregor (1903–1973)" IMDb
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