Tex Beneke

Gordon Lee Beneke (born February 12, 1914, Fort Worth, Texas - May 30, 2000, Costa Mesa, California), professionally known as Tex Beneke was an American saxophonist, singer, and bandleader, who is probably remembered best for his association and best-selling hit records with Glenn Miller's popular big band from 1938 to 1942.

Beneke 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 Miller three years later that his career hit its stride. Beneke says: ""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 recomended Beneke to Miller.^[1] Tex Beneke became one of the Miller band's signature soloists and, in short order, one of its most popular vocalists. His amiable singing style made Beneke ideal for some of the Miller band's jazzier songs and novelties, and with the Modernaires to support him, Beneke made Miller's signature recordings of "Chattanooga Choo Choo" and "(I've Got a Gal In) Kalamazoo", two of the band's biggest hits, among numerous others. Beneke's saxophone style was also featured on such swingers as "Bugle Call Rag" and ballads like "Sunrise Serenade."

Beneke appeared with the Miller band in the films Sun Valley Serenade (1941) and Orchestra Wives (1942), both of which helped propel the singer/saxophonist to the top of the Downbeat and Metronome polls. When Miller broke up the band in late 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. He was discharged in 1945 and formed a new band in conjunction with Glenn Miller's estate a year later. 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 lead 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.^[2]

The Miller estate authorized an official Glenn Miller "ghost band" in 1946. It had a make up similar to Glenn Miller's Army Air Force Band: it had a large string section.^[3] The orchestra's official public début was at the Capitol Theatre on Broadway where it opened for a three week engagement on January 24, 1946.^[4]. Henry Mancini was the band's pianist and one of the arrangers.^[5] This ghost band played to very large audiences all across the United States, including a few dates at the Hollywood Palladium in 1947, where the original Miller band played in 1941.^[6] In a website concerning the history of the Hollywood Palladium, it is noted "[e]ven as the big band era faded, the Tex Beneke and Glenn Miller Orchestra concert at the Palladium resulted in a record-breaking crowd of 6,750 dancers."^[7] In a slightly sarcastic^[8] Time magazine article from June 2, 1947, 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.^[9] 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." By 1949, economics dictated that the string section be dropped.^[10]

This band recorded for RCA Victor, just as the original Miller band did.^[10] Beneke was struggling with how to expand the Miller sound and also how to achieve success under his own name. What began as the "Glenn Miller Orchestra Under the Direction of Tex Beneke" finally became "The Tex Beneke Orchestra". By 1950, Beneke and the Miller estate parted ways.^[11] The break was acrimonious^[12] and Beneke is not currently listed by the Miller estate as a former leader of the Glenn Miller orchestra.^[13]

Beneke and the Miller estate severed ties in 1950, and it led, among other discrepancies and liberties, to Beneke not even being mentioned, never mind seen, in The Glenn Miller Story (1954), which starred Jimmy Stewart as the late bandleader. 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. His only recording of significance during this period was Pennies from Heaven, performed with typical Beneke jubilation but not featuring any standard Miller arranging cues.

In the latter part of that decade there was some revived interest in music of the swing era. Beneke joined a number of other leaders such as Larry Clinton and Glen Gray in making new high fidelity recordings of their earlier hits, often featuring many of the original musicians. Beneke and former Miller singers Ray Eberle, Paula Kelly, and The Modernaires first recorded the LP Reunion in Hi-Fi, which contained recreations of original Miller material. This album was followed by others featuring newer songs, some performed in the Miller style and others done in a more contemporary mode. His last major album from this period was made in 1965 for Columbia Records, Christmas Serenade in the Glenn Miller Style.

The singer/saxophonist continued working in the coming decades, appearing periodically at Disneyland and special Glenn Miller reunions. He also made the rounds of various talk shows that had musical connections, including those hosted by Merv Griffin and Johnny Carson. His appearances on The Tonight Show sometimes included duos with fellow Miller veteran Al Klink who was by then a key member of the Tonight Show Band. Ray Eberle recovered from his earlier illness and resumed performing with Beneke and the Modernaires for a period in the early 1970s.

In 1972, Beneke agreed to re-record some of his Miller vocals for Time-Life Records' set of big band recreations, The Swing Era, produced and conducted by yet another Miller alumnus, Billy May. The still-unsettled dispute with the Miller estate however prevented him from performing on another Miller reunion album recorded the same year featuring many other alumni along with the official Buddy DeFranco-led Glenn Miller Orchestra.

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. At one point he also toured with former Jimmy Dorsey vocalists Helen O'Connell and Bob Eberly (Ray's brother, who changed the spelling of his name to curb mispronunciations). He suffered a stroke in the mid-1990s and was forced to give up the saxophone but continued to conduct and sing.

Beneke was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1996. He settled in 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 The Army Air Force Band. In 2000 Beneke died from respiratory failure at the age of 86.

References

External links

• http://www.bigbandbuddies.co.uk/Texbenekepage.htm