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Springfield big band adapts its tune

The Bob Gray Orchestra's eclectic repertoire includes swing, rock and funk classics

With a repertoire that includes everything from "Sing, Sing, Sing" to "Brown-Eyed Girl," Springfield's Bob Gray Orchestra will be in concert Saturday at Casey's Restaurant.

ENLARGE PHOTO

With a repertoire that includes everything from "Sing, Sing, Sing" to "Brown-Eyed Girl," Springfield's Bob Gray Orchestra will be in concert Saturday at Casey's Restaurant.

ENLARGE PHOTO

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By Andrew McGinn, Staff Writer Updated 11:11 AM Friday, August 26, 2011

SPRINGFIELD — It used to be that the Bob Gray Orchestra didn’t dare end the night without playing Glenn Miller’s “In the Mood.”

Now it’s “Mustang Sally.”

Next it’ll be — well, that’s just it. It’s almost impossible for the band to play what today’s kids like.

“They’re more into the rap stuff,” said longtime arranger and trombone player Tom Billing, the retired city schools band teacher who started North High’s jazz band in 1972.

So when the locally based Gray orchestra takes center stage Saturday night during a dinner show at Casey’s Restaurant, it’s a chance to bear witness to the twilight of an iconic American tradition.

It’s hard to believe, but when Gray, the retired Kenton Ridge High School band director, first assembled his orchestra in 1973, the band played more than its share of local proms.

Every year, the band played North High’s homecoming dance.

Kids even then were more than happy to dance to standards and big-band arrangements of whatever was popular — and it was just as easy for Billing to whip up an arrangement of Barbra Streisand’s “Evergreen.”

“Now today it would be elevator music,” he joked. “Back then, it was the theme to the prom.”

“The Carpenters,” he said, “used to be popular with kids, let’s face it.”

Then the calls to play proms just stopped.

But the orchestra — one of Springfield’s last-remaining dance-bands — has pressed on with an eclectic repertoire that includes first-generation swing classics like “Woodchopper’s Ball” next to arrangements of baby boomer hits like “Proud Mary.”

And then there's “Brick House,” the Commodores’ funk classic.

The orchestra is unique for another reason — after all these years, they’ve made due with 10 players.

And most of them play brass. Gray himself is the lone sax player.

“If I had to categorize it,” Billing said, “I’d call us a small big band, but we have music to sound like a big band. Just fewer players and fewer problems.”

Contact this reporter at amcginn@coxohio.com.

How to go

What: Dinner show featuring the Bob Gray Orchestra

When: 7 p.m.  Saturday

Where: Casey’s Restaurant, 2205 Park Road

Cost: $35; call (937) 322-0397 for reservations.

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