TRAVERSE CITY -- The chance to reminisce with old pals has many of Michigan's senior citizens rummaging through attic trunks for their World War II uniforms.
While they're at it, veterans planning to attend the Michigan All-State World War II Reunion May 31 and June 1 in Traverse City should also dig out their dancing shoes.
Part of the tribute planned for members of Michigan's "Greatest Generation" includes a collection of the music of their genre, the big band sounds that played on the radio as America's military shipped out to defend their country in the 1940s.
The music of that bygone era may be unfamiliar to members of Northwestern Michigan College's new audio recording technologies class, but that didn't stop students from fine tuning the sounds of the school's Jazz Lab Band and Jazz big band when they recently sat down to record original scores of some of that era's musical favorites.
Reunion coordinator Del Corner is working with NMC's music instructor Mike Hunter and audio technology instructor Steve Quick to produce a keepsake CD for each veteran attending the reunion.
The event is a spin-off of a get-together Corner arranged for veterans last year. At that time he asked Hunter to put together a small combo.
"I thought they deserved more than a combo and put the word out to my professional musician friends and the students at NMC to see if they would donate their time to put together a 16-piece big band," Hunter said. It took him less than 12 hours to get 25 responses.
Hunter said big bands played a significant role in defining the World War II era.
"Any music that is the popular music of the day has something to do with dancing. Music was especially meaningful to the whole World War II generation," Hunter said. "People think they have stress today, but what those people were going through as individuals and as a country -- music helped glue a lot of things together and gave those people some happiness."
The NMC bands recorded an eight-tune CD that includes arrangements of "Ciribiribin," the Buddy Morrow theme song "Night Train," Glenn Miller's "Chattanooga Choo Choo" and a Benny Goodman/Lionel Hampton arrangement of "Flying Home."
Hunter says a lot of the original scores have been lost over the years, but he acquired copies of some of the original arrangements that quickly were scribbled on the backs of music folders while musicians traveled from gig to gig.
The songs may be old, but preserving the music requires state-of-the art digital technology that Quick wants his students to learn. NMC has offered the audio recording technologies class since September, with plans in the works to offer a series of classes they hope will lead to a certificate or degree program.
Quick said the college purchased some equipment, and a grant from NMC's barbecue fund was used to wire a room in the Okerstrom Fine Arts Building into a recording studio.
The class already is recording commercial jingles and Quick hopes to be able to expand the recording services to local television and filmmakers.
The recording industry may have gone high tech, but Quick says some things never change.
"The hottest thing in the recording industry right now is the use of classic-type ribbon microphones, the same ones used in the '30s because they had such a classic, warm sound. They're duplicating those microphones now because that technology was never improved upon," he said. "Everything that comes along owes a lot of itself to what came before, and this music is the precursor to the modern music as we know it," Quick said.
Hunter said rock 'n' roll came out of the boogie woogie that evolved from the big band era.
"It would have been real easy to snag those recordings and compile a CD," Hunter said. "But to me, part of what's important is that this generation sitting out there also gets exposed to music of that time and even thinks for a moment about what our predecessors in music and these brave men and women did," Hunter said. "These veterans were kind of forgotten as far as memorials go, and we're losing about 1,000 a day now. That whole generation is disappearing right before our eyes."
Hunter said it was an honor for everyone to be involved in the project.
"We put the big band together for Del and the vets, and we all had a great time," Hunter said. "It's a little thing for some great people."
"And if we can tie it in to what we're teaching, so much the better," Quick added.
For information on the Michigan All-State World War II Reunion, call Del Corner, 632-6955.
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