Salute to Glenn Miller
The Boynton Beach Veterans Council remembered the 60th anniversary of V-J Day with a free concert and dance held at the city's Civic Center, with music by the seven-piece Ted Knight Orchestra.
The evening began with a memorial presentation ceremony. City officials made brief remarks, with event chairman Tom Kaiser acting as master of ceremonies.
Piper
George Shannon played for the color guard, and later played Amazing
Grace in honor of those who died in World War II. Soprano Evelyn
Catarella sang the national anthem and the wartime favorite The
White Cliffs of Dover. Guest vocalist Johnny Christi led the
singing of God Bless America. Click images to enlarge.
To conclude the ceremony, the band played a medley of George M. Cohan tunes, the crowd singing along to Yankee Doodle Dandy, Give My Regards to Broadway, and the finale, You're a Grand Old Flag.
When
Ted cued trumpeter Dave Gibble
to hit the opening notes of String of Pearls, dancers took to
the floor. The evening was billed as a Tribute to Glenn Miller and the
band included plenty of the great bandleader's hits.
Little
Brown Jug, In the Mood, and Tuxedo Junction were
on the program, and Ted's smooth vocal on Moonlight Cocktails
made for a romantic moment.
Drummer
Sy Pryweller was featured on Sing Sing Sing and St. Louis
Blues March.
Sy is an expert big band drummer. He was head of the jazz program at Palm Beach Community College until his early retirement, when Dave Gibble took over. Both men are Knight Music mainstays.
Ted
enjoyed choosing a Miller Medley, which fans will remember were four
songs in a familiar pattern. "Something old" that was already old by the
1940s? Makin' Whoopee. Something new? And All That Jazz
from the 1970s show, Chicago. Something borrowed? Louis Jordan's
Choo Choo Ch'Boogie took off down the tracks, coming back for
something blue, Night Train, with jazz solos by everyone on
board.
Saxophonists
Paul Magersuppe and
Randy Emerick are longtime
members of Ted's band. Paul played a gorgeous alto solo on Do
Nothing Till You Hear from Me, and traded licks with Randy on
In the Mood. Randy's tenor sax shone on Embraceable You,
and his baritone sax solo on Stardust was a tremendous
hit with dancers.
Bassist
Ed DeMatteo played with the Rochester Philharmonic in New York before
making his way to Florida. He and Ted met in 1995. Dates since then
include gigs at Erny's, the now-closed jazz club in Delray Beach, and
country club dances. His big sound keeps the band right on the beat.
All night long, people came up to the band to say how much they enjoyed the music. A man from Brooklyn who requested Woody Herman's Woodchoppers Ball said he was delighted to hear it played so well.
Couples
enjoyed the ballads and medium-tempo numbers just as much as the swing
and jump tunes. Many people said they had enjoyed the band of Ted's late
father, Vic Knight, and Ted was glad to hear people tell him his father
would be proud.
Veteran local news anchor Jim Sackett made a special appearance to accept a collection from the audience for Hurricane Katrina relief, and spoke about the Japanese surrender aboard the USS Missouri sixty years earlier.
Bad weather forced postponement of the original concert date. It was to be an outdoor event on December 17, 2004, the 50th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge and the disappearance of Glenn Miller.
The re-scheduled concert and dance came off without a hitch on September 1, 2005. Ted said he was glad the event could be held in the air-conditioned comfort of the civic center, complete with stage, dance floor, and lighting.