Glenn Miller would be impressed

The world’s most famous big band lived up to its reputation at Kelowna Community Theatre on Tuesday.

Kelowna seniors also proved they not only have great memories from the 1940s, but have a lot of spunk as they oohed and aahed with the opening notes of their favourites from the Glenn Miller Orchestra.

The sold-out theatre was a sea of grey and dye-hards who didn’t have to turn up any hearing aids for “the wall of sound,” popular before modern rock bands invented the term.

The 19-member band is heavily focused on brass with five members on saxophones, four on trumpets and four on trombones, accompanied by a pianist, upright bass player and percussionist. Two members of the band also step up and perform with two other members as the Moonlight Serenaders.

The real star is multi-talented Nick Hilscher, who became the featured male vocalist in 1998 for a year, completed his music degree and returned in 2000 for three years and rejoined the orchestra in 2012.

He not only sings the lead, but whistles, dances, conducts the band and even acts as a microphone stand, holding the mike close to a highlighted performer’s horn.

This just isn’t about producing a tight band — with 300 performances a year how could they be anything else — but it was full of theatrics: from the horn players’ choreographed movements to simultaneous golf swings at the end of a number.

It was not only the best music from the big band era, but a history lesson as well with Hilscher (in slick-back hair) providing colour commentary about almost every composition.

In one respect, it was like a jazz concert in which each player had his featured performance at centre stage. And the highlighted performer(s) was named (along with his home city and state) after each number.

The aging audience ate it up with cheers, whistles, clapping in unison, shouting the phone number in Pennsylvania 6-5000 and bobbing their heads to the beat, producing as much noise as a much younger crowd.

“I teared up a couple of times because it so reminded me of my mother,” commented theatre volunteer Gerri.

They had good reason with the seemingly-endless series of Glenn Miller hits: Moonlight Serenade (the band’s theme song, a perfect bookend to begin and end the twohour show), Chattanooga Choo Choo, Sun Valley Serenade (more than 1.2 million copies sold for the band’s first gold record), A String of Pearls, Tuxedo Junction, In the Mood, Body and Soul, and The Song of the Volga.

What was truly amazing was the two stacks of sheet music — each 7.5 centimetres thick — on each musician’s heavy-duty music stand. As each four-page score was turned over, the immensity of the band’s library became obvious.

An unusual aspect was the house lights at half power so the band could see the audience and those listeners who had to leave momentarily could see the stairs to the lobby.

Perhaps the most incredible aspect: the orchestra tours 48 weeks a year, travels more than 160,000 kilometres, and performs four to five shows a week to more than a half-million fans in venues like the Hollywood Bowl and New York City’s Birdland.

Touring has taken members to all 50 U.S. states, Canada, Mexico, Europe, South America and Japan.

It remains the most popular and sought-after big band in the world today.

Hopefully, its first performance in Kelowna won’t be its last.