Glen Gray


Glenn Gray Knoblauch, known professionally as Glen Gray, was an American jazz saxophonist and leader of the Casa Loma Orchestra.

Early years

Gray was born to Lurdie P. and Agnes Knoblauch in Roanoke, Illinois, United States. His father was a saloon keeper and railroad worker who died when Glen was two years of age. He had an older sister. His widowed mother married George H. DeWilde, a coal miner, and moved her family to Roanoke. Gray graduated from Roanoke High School, in 1917 where he played basketball and acquired his nickname, "Spike".

Career

Gray attended the American Conservatory of Music in 1921 but left during his first year to go to Peoria, Illinois, to play with George Haschert's orchestra. From 1924 to 1929, he played with several orchestras in Detroit, Michigan.
Gray served as leader of the Casa Loma Orchestra although the orchestra itself had been formed as a collective group, with no designated leader. Their mid-1930s appearances on the long-run radio comedy-variety program, the Camel Caravan, increased their popularity. Gray chose not to conduct the band in the early years, playing in the saxophone section while violinist Mel Jenssen acted as conductor. In 1937, the band overwhelmingly voted in favor of Glen leading the orchestra, and Gray finally accepted the job. By the mid-1940s, Gray would come to own the band and the Casa Loma name. For a time, during this period, the band featured guitarist Herb Ellis, trumpeter Bobby Hackett, pianist Nick Denucci and cornetist Red Nichols.
By 1950, the Casa Loma band had ceased touring, and Gray retired to Massachusetts. The later recordings on Capitol Records were done with Gray leading a group of studio musicians in Hollywood. In all, some 14 high-fidelity and stereo recordings were made for Capitol under the name of Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra before Gray's death in 1963.

Major recordings

Notable successes since Gray became leader in 1937 included:
Never in a Million Years
You [Go to My Head]
I Cried for You
This Night
Heaven Can Wait
Sunrise Serenade
Tears from My Inkwell
A Lover's Lullaby
No Name Jive
One Dozen Roses
Don't Get Around Much Anymore
My Heart Tells Me 1943
My Shining Hour 1943
Gotta Be This or That

Personal life and death

Gray and his wife had one son.
In 1963, Gray died in Plymouth, Massachusetts of lymphoma, aged 63.