Glen Gray

Bandleader Glen Gray started out as a sax player in the 1920s in a band called "The Orange Blossoms". It soon changed its name to the Casa Loma Orchestra in 1927, generally considered to be the first swing band of the era. In 1929 the band members picked Gray as their leader, and it was among the most successful of the big-band orchestras until it disbanded in 1950. Six years later Gray, who had retired, oversaw a series of recordings featuring his own band and others from the 1930s and 1940s. He died of cancer in Plymouth, MA, in 1963.