Sounds of the Big Band add up at MCA concert

Trombonist Rex Allen, who led The Big Band Alumni Orchestra in a Glenn Miller roundup last night at the Maine Center for the Arts, summed up the mood of the concert when he announced that there were 750 cumulative years of experience shared by the musicians in the band. Each member of the 13-piece band, he said, had at some time worked with at least one of the big band era’s greats — Miller, Hal Kemp, Lawrence Welk, Les Brown, Count Basie and Lionel Hampton, to name a few.

Actually, from the look of these guys, it seemed as if they might have more than 750 years of playing those old standards such as “String of Pearls,” “American Patrol,” “Pennsylvania 6500” and “Moonlight Serenade.” For the most part, these able musicians have been around a long time and are heavy with stories about the free-wheeling days of band hopping and music making. It’s true that this show, billed as the Battle of the Big Bands Round 2, is an annual favorite locally, and it played to an enthusiastic and nostalgic crowd of die-hard swing fans.

But for those who aren’t hep cats when it comes to this music, it seems that the “battle” has been going on for more than just two rounds. You really gotta love this stuff to want to keep sitting through the cornball jokes and longing for the days of yore.

Still, there’s no denying that these old tunes, even when played by a touring troupe that left Hollywood a month ago on a bus and was showing signs of fast-food fatigue, are worth hearing time and time again.

As appropriate as it was to appreciate the history of the swing era as told by Frank DeVol (who wrote music for more than 50 TV shows such as “My Three Sons” and “The Brady Bunch”), and as sung by Beryl Davis (who traveled with Glenn Miller) and Bob Grabeau, there’s a real sense that these folks have seen better performance days.

Drummer Irv Kluger, who is in his late 70s and has played with all the greats, showed them all up with his swift humor and limber performance. During the second hour of music, he livened up the show with a pizazz and smoothness that few people carry past middle age. He has a poise and finesse that is ageless, and that’s the key to keeping this music vital — and worthy of putting back in the ring each year.