Editing Glenn Miller (section)

==Critical reaction==

In 2004, Miller orchestra bassist [[Trigger Alpert]] explained the band's success: "Miller had America's music pulse... He knew what would please the listeners."<ref name=bigbandlibrary>[http://www.bigbandlibrary.com/glennmiller.html "Glenn Miller: 'A Memorial, 1944–2004'"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180212021838/http://www.bigbandlibrary.com/glennmiller.html |date=February 12, 2018 }}, ''Big Band Library''. Retrieved on July 29, 2011.</ref> Although Miller was popular, many jazz critics had misgivings. They believed that the band's endless rehearsals—and, according to critic Amy Lee in ''Metronome'' magazine, "letter-perfect playing"—removed feeling from their performances.<ref>Simon (1980), p. 241.</ref> They also felt that Miller's brand of swing shifted popular music from the hot jazz of [[Benny Goodman]] and [[Count Basie]] to commercial novelty instrumentals and vocal numbers.<ref>For an example, see ''Time'' magazine from November 23, 1942. "U.S. jive epicures consider the jazz played by such famous name bands as Tommy Dorsey's or Glenn Miller's a low, commercial product", ''Time'', Music: "Jive for Epicures".
{{cite web|title=Original article | url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,773950,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101014141417/https://time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,773950,00.html |archive-date=October 14, 2010}}
</ref> After Miller died, the Miller estate maintained an unfriendly stance toward critics who derided the band during his lifetime.<ref name="Zammarchi">{{Cite book|title=A Life in The Golden Age of Jazz: A Biography of Buddy De Franco |last=Zammarchi |first=Fabrice |year=2005 |publisher=Parkside |location=Seattle |isbn=0-9617266-6-0 |pages=232–234|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TFlmAAAACAAJ }}</ref>

Miller was often criticized for being too commercial. His answer was, "I don't want a jazz band."<ref name=albertsonc>Albertson, Chris, ''Major Glenn Miller and the Army Air Forces Band, 1943–1944'', Bluebird/RCA, 1987. Liner notes.</ref><ref>Another reference by Miller's friend George T. Simon, states "[Miller] resented critics who focused almost entirely on his band's jazz or lack of it. ([[Leonard Feather]] was a pet peeve)[...]." see Simon, ''The Sights and Sounds of the Big Band Era'' (1971), p. 275.</ref> Many modern jazz critics harbor similar antipathy. In 1997, on a website administered by ''[[JazzTimes]]'' magazine, Doug Ramsey considers him overrated. "Miller discovered a popular formula from which he allowed little departure. A disproportionate ratio of nostalgia to substance keeps his music alive."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://jazztimes.com/articles/24803-who-s-overrated-who-s-underrated
|title=Who's overrated? Who's Underrated? – The critics sound off
|author=Mike Joyce
|website=JazzTimes
|date=July 1, 1997
|access-date=July 30, 2023
|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110320125738/http://jazztimes.com/articles/24803-who-s-overrated-who-s-underrated |archive-date=March 20, 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://jazztimes.com/contributors/27-doug-ramsey|title=Doug Ramsey–Doug's Contributions|website=JazzTimes|date=September 1, 2008|access-date=July 30, 2023 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120421142347/http://jazztimes.com/contributors/27-doug-ramsey |archive-date=April 21, 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/05/31/040531crmu_music|title=Stride and Swing: The Enduring Appeal of Fats Waller and Glenn Miller|magazine=The New Yorker|year=2004|access-date=March 19, 2020|archive-date=December 2, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202225040/http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/05/31/040531crmu_music|url-status=live}}</ref>

Jazz critics Gunther Schuller<ref>{{cite web|url=https://arts.wisc.edu/|title=Home|website=Arts on Campus|access-date=April 12, 2019|archive-date=April 12, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412135704/https://arts.wisc.edu/|url-status=live}}</ref> (1991) and [[Gary Giddins]]<ref name=giddinsg>Gary Giddins is a New York based jazz and film critic who has written for the ''Village Voice'' and the ''New York Sun''. He won the National Book Critics Circle Award for ''Visions of Jazz: The First Century''</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.garygiddins.com/biography/ |title=Biography – The Official Gary Giddins Website |website=Garygiddins.com |date=November 27, 2012 |access-date=July 27, 2017 |archive-date=August 5, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170805143153/http://garygiddins.com/biography/ |url-status=live }}</ref> (2004) have defended Miller from criticism. In an article written for ''The New Yorker'' magazine in 2004, Giddins said these critics erred in denigrating Miller's music, and that the popular opinion of the time should hold greater sway. "Miller exuded little warmth on or off the bandstand, but once the band struck up its theme, audiences were done for: throats clutched, eyes softened. Can any other record match 'Moonlight Serenade' for its ability to induce a [[Ivan Pavlov|Pavlovian]] slaver in so many for so long?"<ref name=giddinsg /> Schuller notes, "[The Miller sound] was nevertheless very special and able to penetrate our collective awareness that few other sounds have..."<ref name="Sch6">Schuller, pp. 662, 670, 677.</ref> He compares it to "Japanese [[Gagaku]] [and] Hindu music" in its purity.<ref name=Sch6/> Schuller and Giddins do not take completely uncritical approaches to Miller. Schuller says that Ray Eberle's "lumpy, sexless vocalizing dragged down many an otherwise passable performance."<ref name=Sch6/> But Schuller notes, "How much further [Miller's] musical and financial ambitions might have carried him must forever remain conjectural. That it would have been significant, whatever form(s) it might have taken, is not unlikely."<ref name=Sch6/>