Big band music sings into Middlesbrough

MARKING the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, The Nick Ross Orchestra brings the big band sound of the 1940s to Middlesbrough next month with a concert celebrating Glenn Miller and the 1940s big band era.

With a line-up of saxophones, trumpets, trombones, a rhythm section and guest vocalist Sam Merrick, the orchestra will faithfully recreate the wonderful sound of the Big Bands including those led by Glenn Miller, Count Basie, Tommy Dorsey and Syd Lawrence.

Featuring such numbers as Moonlight Serenade, In the Mood, A String of Pearls, Little Brown Jug and American Patrol memories of wartime and the Blitz will no doubt be brought flooding back. The music will span almost all the emotions of those difficult times: comradeship, doubt, fear, loss and, most significantly, the hope in love. There have been times in history when composers and musicians seemed to be born to the occasion – none more so than the inimitable Glenn Miller, who not only felt instinctively for the mood of the time but almost single-handed created the spirit with which the public faced it.

The Nick Ross Orchestra uses arrangements as recorded in the great swing era of the 1940s and 1950s, coupled with outstanding instrumental and vocal performances.

* Middlesbrough Theatre, Saturday, September 12, 7.30pm. Box Office: 01642-815181 or middlesbroughtheatre.co.uk