Where Benny Goodman’s band came through Denver once, played a rough house, and moved on, Les Brown’s outfit came back again and again. Over parts of two decades, the Trocadero Ballroom at Elitch Gardens became one of the Band of Renown’s favorite summer stops — a place Brown himself remembered fondly enough to record a live album there.
Brown’s band first became a fixture at the Troc in the mid-1940s, during the run that made the band famous: vocalist Doris Day was still out front, not long after “Sentimental Journey” turned her into a star. From there, the band kept coming back through the late 1940s and into the late 1950s, part of a rotation of touring orchestras — the Dorseys, Guy Lombardo, Harry James, Stan Kenton — that used Elitch’s as a regular stop between the coasts.
Recorded for Posterity
Of all the bands that passed through the Troc, Brown’s is one of the few whose Elitch’s shows survive on record. Engineers captured the band across the two nights of June 3 and 4, 1959, and the results were eventually issued as “Live at Elitch Gardens 1959.” The lineup that night included longtime drummer Jack Sperling, pianist Donn Trenner, guitarist Tony Rizzi, and vocalist Jo Ann Greer, playing a set that mixed the band’s hits with pop standards of the day.
Seasons at the Trocadero
- June 26, 1945 with vocalist Doris Day (she left the band in 1946)
- June 22, 1947 – Les Brown Orchestra
- August 27–September 10, 1958 – a multi-week late-summer engagement
- June 3–4, 1959 – the two nights that became the Live at Elitch Gardens 1959 album
- July 2–5, 1959 – another Elitch’s stop the same summer, sharing a bill with Ralph Marterie’s orchestra
Notable History:
- Musical Achievements
- Turned a college dance band — the Duke Blue Devils, which he took over as a Duke University junior — into the touring outfit that became the Les Brown Orchestra in 1938, and “Les Brown and His Band of Renown” from 1942 onward.
- Scored a string of number-one hits, including “Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio” (1941), “Sentimental Journey” (1945, with Doris Day), “My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time” (1945), and “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm” (1949) — ten chart-toppers in all.
- Co-wrote “Sentimental Journey” himself with arranger Ben Homer; the record’s release coincided with the end of the war in Europe and became an unofficial homecoming anthem for returning troops.
- Recorded across five decades and several labels — Decca, Bluebird/Victor, Columbia, Coral, and Capitol — with later live and studio albums into the 1990s, including Anything Goes (1994) and America Swings (1995).
- Cut one of the era’s rarer “location” live albums, Live at Elitch Gardens 1959, preserving two nights at the Trocadero on record — a document few touring big bands left behind of their actual road dates.
- Made “Leap Frog,” arranged by longtime collaborator Frank Comstock, the band’s enduring theme song.
- Awards and Honors
- Multiple Grammy Awards, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (1986)
- Kennedy Center Honors (1982), recognizing lifetime contributions to American culture through the performing arts
- Inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for several recordings
- Recipient of honorary doctorates from several universities (including Columbia and Yale)
- Downbeat magazine polls repeatedly named him top clarinetist for years
- Musical Versatility
- Excelled in both jazz/swing and classical music, commissioning and performing classical clarinet works from composers like Aaron Copland (Clarinet Concerto) and Béla Bartók (Contrasts)
- Recorded extensively with major classical orchestras alongside his jazz career
- Legacy
- Considered one of the most influential clarinetists in American music history
- His band served as a training ground for many musicians who went on to become jazz legends in their own right (Gene Krupa, Harry James, Lionel Hampton, and others passed through his ranks)
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