[78-L] Carnegie Hall 10-6-1939

[David Lewis]

On this date in 1944 Glenn Miller's plane sank beneath the waves of the English Channel, likely hit
by "friendly" bombs jettisoned from above. On 10-6-1939, his civvy orchestra made its only appearance
at Carnegie Hall, on a three band bill kicked off by Benny Goodman to celebrate the 25th anniversary of
the founding of ASCAP. Does anyone know who the second band was?

I must say that the 1958 RCA Victor LP derived from the Miller portion of the show is a miserable 
transfer job. All high-mid, not a whiff of bass response, inconsistent signal from the drums, etc. The
sound of the hall, and the way Carnegie Hall Recorders picked it up from the pipes, is distinctive and
should be familiar to most transfer engineers. You aim for a certain combination of frequencies and then
you have something good; it's easy. The 1950 CBS transfer from Benny's set of 1938 Carnegie Hall records -- 
which CBS then threw away -- sounds quite good I think, at least before they started reprocessing it 
into stereo and turning it into chemical mud.

Does anyone know if the whole concert survives, and do we have the original records still? And was the
1993 BMG CD of Miller's portion made from the 1958 tape or from the originals? I'm guessing it came from
the tape.


Uncle Dave Lewis
uncledavelewis at hotmail.com