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Thanks to the legacy of Glenn Miller, a University of Colorado alum, Ed Burke—the man behind the independent music labels Fanfare, Jazz Hour, and Soundcraft—has handed over a private collection including 1,400 reel-to-reel tapes to the school’s Glenn Miller Archive (via CU press release). The “extraordinary” broadcasts contain hundreds of hours of live radio performances recorded between 1930 and 1960 featuring Miller, Louis Armstrong, Tommy Dorsey, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, and others. The broadcasts have never been distributed to a commercial audience and are in remarkable condition, says professor Tom Riis, director of the American Music Research Center in CU’s College of Music.
Miller attended high school in Fort Morgan, notes the Loveland Reporter-Herald, and Gary Tole, who performed with the orchestras of Goodman and Dorsey, now carries Miller’s torch in the Glenn Miller Orchestra. The 19-member group will play Greeley’s Union Colony Civic Center on Friday.