CHEF CHAI AND THE GLENN MILLER ORCHESTRA

Chef Chai Chaowasaree has had a remarkable career.  He appears all the time on television:  Dining Out with Chef Chai and Passport Hawaii.  He is executive chef for Hawaiian Airlines and designed meals with Master Sommelier Chuck Furuya pairing the wines.  In the 1990's he was one step away from being deported back to Thailand, but got a last-minute reprieve.  How's this for a bio?  He has worked for Hawaii's governor, prime ministers of Thailand and Indonesia and the King and Queen of Malaysia.  

Ed with Chef Chai:

I ordered the group special with a gin martini on rocks, followed by a glass of cold sake, ending with a glass of Sterling Meritage.  The first course was abalone:

The abalone was soft enough, a bit salty and lacked that distinctive taste that can only be coaxed if reduced properly.  An excellent salad was the second course. Below, my steak and Ed's gigantic scallop soup of some sorts:

The desserts of a chocolate crunch and a flight of creme brules might have been the hit of the night:

If this looks sparse, we had just about finished the chocolate and two of the three brules.  Jacob did a wonderful job of tolerating and handling us:

Chai, give him a raise!  We then walked to the Concert Hall.

In 1920 Glenn Miller was the best high school end (football) in Colorado.  That year he started his first band while in high school.    He then flunked out the University of Colorado, played gigs, joined several groups, one, Red Nichols' orchestra, where bandmates were Benny Goodman and Gene Krupa, and also served with the Dorsey Brothers.  Finally, in 1937, he formed his own band, which failed.  A year later, he developed a unique sound, where a clarinet played the melodic line with a tenor saxophone, while three other saxophones harmonized within a single octave.  Tuxedo Junction sold 115,000 copies in one week and Chattanooga Choo-Choo was his first gold record.  However, his theme song was one he composed in 1939, Moonlight Serenade.  There were two films.  Then at the peak of his career in 1942 he left to join the military (Captain Miller below).  Two years later, he disappeared on a flight over the English Channel.

There are numerous conspiracy theories on his death.  Ed mentioned that he heard an Australian pilot indicating that he might have mistakenly dropped a bomb on Miller's plane over the English Channel.  One documented file is that he was on a mission for General Eisenhower to discuss with German generals a peace plan, but was captured and killed.  For the public, he is still officially listed as missing in action.  General Jimmy Doolittle said, "next to a letter from home, (Miller) was the greatest moral building in the European Theater of Operations."  Of course there was "The Glenn Miller Story, starring James Stewart.

Ed had a lot of war stories and mentioned that when he was leader of a squadron on Guadalcanal around the time Glenn Miller was in London, Joe E. Brown (Some Like It Hot  and Showboat) came by for a show, and indicated to Ed that his (Brown's) son was killed on an aircraft carrier before he was able to fly his first mission.  So Ed invited him to join his flight that night.  To make a long story short, higher authorities dinged the plan.

Speaking of Ed, I had his December 7 date all wrong.  He did keep it, but ended up marrying someone else he had known since the second grade.   However, after she passed away a few years ago, he re-entered a close relationship with that first lady, until she too recently passed away.

So, anyway, the Miller Estate authorized various Glenn Miller "ghost bands" since 1946, the first led by Tex Beneke, who, apparently, had no association with Beneke toilet seats, but reached a disagreement with the Estate and went his own way.  There are now various  orchestral versions around the world, the group playing tonight from California.

The 26 performers we saw were excellent and played more than two hours of pure nostalgia, taking Ed back 70 years:

I thought these non-professional three college students playing the Andrews Sisters were the hit of the show.  The hall was just about sold out.  Outstanding meal and concert.  A great night.

Oh, yeah, the Dow Jones Industrial Average again broke its all-time high, up 106 to 15,409.  For the year the Dow has increased 2,305, or 17.6%.

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