Tex Beneke

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Tex Beneke
Big band, swing, jazz, blues
Occupation(s)musician
Instrument(s)Saxophone, vocals

Gordon Lee "Tex" Beneke (

In The Mood" and sings on another popular Glenn Miller recording, "Chattanooga Choo Choo". Jazz critic Will Friedwald considers Beneke to be one of the major blues singers who sang with the big bands of the early 1940s.[2][3]

Early life

Beneke was born in

Fort Worth, Texas. He started playing saxophone when he was nine, going from soprano to alto to tenor saxophones and staying with the latter. His first professional work was with bandleader Ben Young in 1935, but it was when he joined the Glenn Miller Orchestra three years later that his career hit its stride.[4] Beneke said: "It seems that Gene Krupa had left the Goodman band and was forming his own first band. He was flying all over the country looking for new talent and he stopped at our ballroom one night [to listen to the Ben Young band]. [...] Gene wound up taking two or three of our boys with him back to New York. [Krupa] wanted to take [Beneke] but his sax section was already filled." Krupa knew that Glenn Miller was forming a band and recommended Beneke to Miller.[5]

Whatever concerns Miller might have had about Beneke's playing were quickly dismissed; Miller immediately made Beneke his primary tenor sax soloist and Beneke played all but a few of the tenor solos on all of the records and personal appearances made by the Miller band until it disbanded in 1942. On the August 1, 1939, recording made of the

I've Got a Gal in Kalamazoo" for the "Orchestra Wives" score. That arrangement also featured Beneke, the Modernaires and band vocalist Marion Hutton
in a not-too-dissimilar fashion. Not surprisingly, "Kalamazoo" became another hit record for Miller, Beneke and the band though not to the extent that "Chattanooga" had been the year before. By then, the U.S. was involved in World War II and "Kalamazoo's" success was also short-lived partially because Miller disbanded his group only three months after the record was made and four months following the filming of "Orchestra Wives".

When Miller broke up the band in August 1942 to join the Army Air Force, Beneke played very briefly with Horace Heidt before joining the Navy himself, leading a Navy band in Oklahoma. While employed with Miller, Beneke was offered his own band, as Miller had done with colleagues and employees like Hal McIntyre, Claude Thornhill and Charlie Spivak. Beneke wanted to come back to Miller after the war and learn more about leading a band before being given his own band. Beneke led two bands in the navy and kept in touch with Glenn Miller while they were both serving in the military. By 1945, Beneke felt ready to lead his own orchestra.[12]

Working with the Miller estate

Glenn Miller went missing on December 15, 1944, while flying to France from England. After World War II, the United States Army Air Force decommissioned the Glenn Miller-led Army Air Force band. The Miller estate authorized an official Glenn Miller "ghost band" in 1946. This band was led by Tex Beneke who as time went on had more prominence in the band's identity. It had a make up similar to Glenn Miller's Army Air Force Band, having a large string section.

Time magazine from June 2, 1947,[19][20] the magazine notes that the Beneke-led Miller orchestra was playing at the same venue the original Miller band played in 1939, the Glen Island Casino.[20] Beneke's quote about the big band business at the time closes the article, "I don't know whether Glenn figured that times would be as tough".[20] By 1949, economics dictated that the string section be dropped.[21]

This band recorded for

RCA Victor, just as the original Miller band did.[21] Beneke believed that Miller had promised him his own band in the early 1940s, and this was his chance to have that promise fulfilled. Beneke wanted a band with Beneke's musical identity. Larry Bruff, an announcer for the earlier Glenn Miller radio shows says, "Beneke would even set wrong tempos so as not to sound too much like Glenn."[22] The Miller estate wanted a band that was primarily associated with Glenn Miller, playing the Glenn Miller songs in the Glenn Miller style. By 1950, Beneke and the Miller estate parted ways.[23][24]

After Miller

Beneke continued to perform under his own name with no official connection to Miller. He enjoyed less success in the early 1950s, partly because he was limited to smaller recording labels such as Coral Records and partly because of competition from other Miller alumni and imitators such as Jerry Gray, Ray Anthony and Ralph Flanagan. Eydie Gormé sang with the Beneke band in 1950.[25] Beneke appeared on Cavalcade of Bands, a television show in 1950 on the DuMont Television Network.[26]

In the latter part of that decade there was some revived interest in music of the

LP Reunion in Hi-Fi, a 1958 Coral Records album which contained recreations of original Miller material.[27] This was followed by others featuring newer songs, some performed in the Miller style and others done in a more contemporary mode. Among the best-known is Christmas Serenade in the Glenn Miller Style (1965) on Columbia Records
, which has been excerpted on a number of holiday compilations.

The singer/saxophonist continued working in the coming decades, appearing periodically at

Time-Life Records' set of big band recreations, The Swing Era, produced and conducted by yet another Miller alumnus, Billy May
.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Beneke had a new band playing a style that resembled the classic Miller sound but with as much newer material as older. In the late 1970s, he played at Knott's Berry Farms Cloud 9 Ballroom.

Costa Mesa, California and remained active toward the end of that decade, mostly touring the U.S. West Coast and still playing in something resembling the Miller style. In 1998 he launched yet another tour paying tribute to The Army Air Force Band
.

Death

In 2000 Beneke died from respiratory failure at a nursing home in

Costa Mesa, California, aged 86 and was buried in Greenwood Memorial Park in Fort Worth, Texas. He was survived by his wife, Sandra, of Santa Ana, California. His saxophone is currently used by the Arizona Opry
.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Tex Beneke, 86, A Leader of Glenn Miller's Band". The New York Times. May 31, 2000. Retrieved May 25, 2010.
  2. .
  3. ^ Will Friedwald singles out the cover of "What's Your Story, Morning Glory?" by Mary Lou Williams that Beneke did with the Miller band, as one of Beneke's major artistic achievements. Friedwald, p. 613
  4. OCLC 31611854
    . Tape 2, side A.
  5. . dialogues in swing.
  6. .
  7. .
  8. ^ The songs Beneke and the ensemble played were "Bugle Call Rag" and "One O'Clock Jump". Beneke has a small solo on "Bugle Call Rag". Both songs from recording session at RCA Studio 2, New York City, January 16, 1941. All information taken from annotation to the 1988 Bluebird/RCA compact disc, The Metronome All-Star Bands, 7636-2-RB, liner notes by Peter Keepnews.
  9. ^ Simon. – p.289.
  10. ^ "And The Grammy Goes To...CU Boulder's Glenn Miller". Colorado University. 2003. Archived from the original on June 17, 2006.
  11. ^ Moonlight Serenade. p.303.
  12. ^ Hall. – p.191.
  13. ^ Simon. – pp.437–439.
  14. .
  15. ^ "All About Jazz". All About Jazz. Archived from the original on March 31, 2008.
  16. .
  17. ^ Simon. – p.258.
  18. Internet Movie Database
    . Retrieved October 21, 2019.
  19. ^ "Old Miller fans remembered Tex Beneke best as the whiny-voiced singer of 'Chattanooga Choo Choo' and 'My Melancholy Baby' [...]" and "[The band's theatrics are] corny, but Glenn was one for commercial corn. If you don't have it you flop."
  20. ^ a b c "Music: Sweet Corn at Glen Island". TIME. June 2, 1947. Archived from the original on May 4, 2008.
  21. ^ a b Butcher. p.263.
  22. ^ Simon. – p.438.
  23. ^ Simon. – p.439.
  24. ^ George Simon in Glenn Miller and His Orchestra says it happened in Connecticut in December 1950. Simon. – p.439.
    —Beneke says it happened after an engagement at the Hollywood Palladium. – Hall. – p.191.
  25. .
  26. Internet Movie Database
    . Retrieved October 21, 2019.
  27. ^ "The Former Glenn Miller Singers - Reunion In Hi-Fi". Discogs.com. Retrieved October 21, 2019.
  28. ^ Beneke appeared with singers associated with Glenn Miller, Paula Kelly, Ray Eberle and the Modernaires, at Disneyland in Anaheim, California in 1963 and 1965. Popa, Chris. "Big Bands At Disneyland".
  29. ^ Williams, Jean, "Knott's Farm Aims For Topflight Talent." Billboard Magazine, Vol. 89, No. 40, Oct 8, 1977, p 52

External links