[Dixielandjazz] Centennials

[Fred Spencer]

Anyone with access to the May 21 "New Yorker" may wish to read a "Jazz" article by Gary Giddins entitled "STRIDE AND SWING", in which he points out that Fats Waller and Glenn Miller "were born in the same year, 1904, and died on the same date, December 15th". (respectively in 1943 and 1944). Based on these facts, Giddins strings out the tenuous thread of their similar contributions to jazz, couched in purplish journalese. He writes that Miller "is now believed to have been the victim of Allied bombers dropping payload from a higher altitude". This theory and many others  were demolished in three books by the UK Wright family, which I used in my book, "Jazz and Death. Medical Profiles of Jazz Greats", to form my belief "That what happened to Glenn Miller will remain a mystery unless significant parts of his plane, and skeleton, are recovered from the English Channel or  mainland." 
Giddins does note Miller's "splendid forty-two-piece Army Air Forcr Band" naming, as usual only Mel Powell. As an erstwhile drummer, I think it was Ray Mckinley's backing of the band that made it swing, as opposed to Moe Purtill's correct but pedestrian abilities displayed in the civilian band..
Giddisn also reviews "anniversary collections" celebrating the two musicians.