(editor’s note – no ex post facto proof for Paula Kelly Jr.)
SPAC resurrects ‘Summer of ’42’
by Matthew Maguire, The Knickerbocker News, August 18, 1981
The music of Glenn Miller and some of his best-loved coevals was resurrected before 3,400 fans at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center Monday night in a concert of more nostalgic than musical interest.
Tenor saxophonist Tex Beneke, a sideman in the original Miller orchestra, led a 15-piece big band through a two-set salute to the “Sounds of the Summer of ’42.” Besides playing faithful renditions of many Miller standards, the ensemble backed up the Modernaires, Helen Forrest and Johnny Desmond.
Beneke and the orchestra performed first, offering versions of “String of Pearls,” “Tuxedo Junction,” “Sunrise Serenade,” and “Pennsylvania 6-500” faithful, if not identical, to the originals. Most people in the audience were old enough to have danced to this material when it was new, and they appreciated these familiar arrangements.
None of the Modernaires who performed is an original member of the vocal quartet which lent its silky harmonic blend to many of the standards of the big band era. Unfortunately, this version of the quartet was unable to meet the original unit’s standards Monday night.
In their ensemble work, the singers’ blend was neither smooth nor tight enough to create the one-voice illusion such close-harmony singing should have. In the solo work, only tenor Rich Maxwell seemed able to sing his lines well enough to justify solo work at all.
Nothing fell flatter than a strange medley beginning with “Jukebox Saturday Night.” It included an unsuccessful imitation of the Four Freshmen, a thoroughly flat “New York, New York” in tribute to Frank Sinatra, and silly imitations of the singing of Barbra Streisand, Anthony Newley and Archie and Edith Bunker.
After this mild disappointment, however, the concert improved dramatically with the singing of Ms. Forrest and Desmond.
Ms. Forrest sang a brief set nearly identical to the program she offered last March at Proctor’s Theater in Schenectady. She sang well last March, but easily surpassed that performance Monday night.
Her rich, sultry voice coasts facilely through swinging upbeat tunes such as “I Cried For You,” “It’s Almost Like Being In Love,” “I’m Beginning to See the Light” and “I Had the Craziest Dream.” Likewise, she is comfortable singing slow ballads such as “You’ll Never Know” and “You Made Me Love You.”
Desmond attaches to his performance some annoying Las Vegas-style posturing — swaggering, strutting and thrusting — but his smooth baritone yielded fine versions of assorted Glenn Miller standards.
The Post-Star, August 17, 1981
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