- April 19, 2024
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Conductor Jim Miller led the Jimmy Dorsey band for 13 years.
The rich tones of saxophones, cool notes of trombones and stirring sounds of trumpets echoed in the Ormond Beach Senior Center one recent evening as Jim Miller’s Big Band America prepared for their Summer Concert at the Performing Arts Center on June 29.
The music from America’s “greatest generation” is played by all ages.
“It’s classic American music,” said trombonist Charles Tollios, a Seabreeze High School graduate now attending Daytona State College. “It’s Americana.”
Although “big bands” were popular many years before Tollios was born, he enjoys playing the songs.
“Music is my passion,” he said. “I play any genre.”
Two other young men, James Stup and Chris Barber, who attend Matanzas High School, both play saxophone in the band.
“It has all the basics of today’s music,” Barber said.
Stup added that it’s an opportunity to get together with others who enjoy music.
There are all ages in the band and some are still working while others are retired. But they have one thing in common, the love of music. There are 16 musicians in the band, just like the big bands in the 1940s.
“I wouldn’t take less than 16 members,” said Jim Miller, 78, the band leader.
Miller, of Palm Coast, spent 13 years leading the Jimmy Dorsey orchestra beginning in 1990, so he knows what a big band should sound like.
Before that, he was a musician in the U.S. Navy for 24 years, where he had the opportunity to play for five presidents, providing music at receptions.
When he got out of the Navy in 1979, he went to work as road manager for the Jimmy Dorsey orchestra, which was being directed by long-time family friend Les Castle. He took over as director in 1990 when Castle died.
“I’ve had a wonderful career,” he said.
Music has been his livelihood for his entire life and he has played all over the world.
“People say, ‘what a wonderful life, you see all these places,’” he said. “It’s wonderful until you live on a bus.”
He said touring is rough, but it was all worthwhile when he got to play.
“That night when you walk on stage, you may be hungry, and you may need a shave, but you forget all that,” he said. It’s just you, the audience and the music. It’s just in your blood. You enjoy it.”
Miller was born in Hollywood, California, to parents who were musicians in the movie studio orchestras.
He said audiences today still enjoy the music from the big band era.
“It started right here in the United States,” he said. “It’s good to listen to and good to dance to.”
While they play the music of the 1940s, he said most is rewritten to keep it fresh.
Miller had to quit the Dorsey orchestra in 2003 after a boating accident made it difficult to travel. He formed the current band about three years ago. He said they mostly do one-night stands but will occasionally travel down the coast for two or three days.
“I have no desire to take the band on the road,” he said.
Call the Performing Arts Center box office at 676-3375.
